Robert Ritterbusch's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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Robert Ritterbusch has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2014 Political Courage Test.
Missouri State Legislative Election 2014 Political Courage Test
| a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | |||
| No | b) Should abortions be illegal after the first trimester of pregnancy? | ||
| Yes | c) Should abortion be legal when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| Yes | d) Should abortion be legal when the life of the woman is endangered? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring parental notification before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support requiring parental consent before an abortion is performed on a minor? | ||
| No | g) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for abortion procedures? | ||
| No | h) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| I am personally opposed to abortion, save for a broad exception for the health of the mother (which would include a pregnancy resulting from an unlawful act). But as a state legislator, it would be a misuse of that office to use it to impose my personal beliefs on others. Not all people of faith share the same definition of the beginning of life. The best means to reduce abortions are to encourage birth control, provide moral and financial support for those women with unplanned pregnancies, and promote adoption where a mother is unable to keep her child. | |||
1) State Spending:Using the key, indicate what state funding levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.2) State Taxes:Using the key, indicate what state tax levels (#1-6) you support for the following general categories. Select one level per category; you may use a number more than once.3) Budget Stabilization:Indicate which proposals you support (if any) for balancing Missouri's budget.
| Slightly Increase | a) Education (higher) | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Education (K-12) | ||
| Slightly Increase | c) Environment | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Health care | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Law enforcement/corrections | ||
| Greatly Increase | f) Transportation/infrastructure | ||
| Maintain Status | g) Welfare | ||
| Slightly Increase | a) Alcohol taxes | ||
| Greatly Increase | b) Cigarette taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | c) Corporate taxes | ||
| Slightly Increase | d) Gas/Oil taxes | ||
| Maintain Status | e) Property taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | f) Sales taxes | ||
| Slightly Decrease | g) Income taxes (low-income families) | ||
| Slightly Decrease | h) Income taxes (mid-income families) | ||
| Maintain Status | i) Income taxes (high-income families) | ||
| No | a) Tapping into Missouri's "rainy day" fund | ||
| No | b) Increasing tuition rates at public universities | ||
| No | c) Reducing or eliminating public worker collective bargaining | ||
| No | d) Reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions | ||
| No | e) Instituting mandatory furloughs AND/OR layoffs for state employees | ||
| No | f) Reducing benefits for Medicaid recipients | ||
| I would substantally increase spending in the areas of K-12 education and infrastructure because Missouri has greatly neglected these areas over the past 20 years, and investment in these two areas would increase and sustain economic growth. In regard to higher education and health care, more efficient use of existing funding with smaller spending increases could likewise promote increased economic growth and development. | |||
| Taxes should be broad based, as free from loopholes as possible, and cover all types of earnings and other income, property and spending. Taxes should be based in part on the ability to pay. And tax rates should be as low as possible. By expanding its tax base using these principles, Missouri can encourage economic development, yet also create a more equitable and efficient tax system with revenues adequate to support needed state services. In this way, we can slightly decrease the sales and income tax burdens of low and mid-income families while increasing no tax save that on cigarettes. | |||
| Use of Missouri's "rainy day" fund should be restricted to truely unexpected events, not used for annual budget balancing. The kind of tax reform I have outlined above should obviate the need for any of the other suggested measures to balance the state budget. The creation of a reserve fund to deal with revenue shortfalls caused by ordinary fluctuations in the business cycle would be good public policy. | |||
a) Do you support limits on the following types of contributions for state candidates?
| Yes | 1) Individual | ||
| Yes | 2) Political Action Committee | ||
| Yes | 3) Corporate | ||
| No | 4) Political Party | ||
| Yes | b) Should candidates for state office be encouraged to meet voluntary spending limits? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| No | e) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| As Pete Peterson recommended in his book Running On Empty, the gerrymandering of house and legislative districts should be ended by adopting the "Iowa Plan" (where neutral mapmaking rules generate new districts automatically); the campaign funding problem should be neutralized by having broadcasters donate airtime to bonafide candidates (after all, they control billions of dollars of air rights provided free by the public), and young people should be better educated about fiscal realities and about civic rights and duties (at pp. 220-223). | |||
| a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | |||
| Yes | b) Do you support alternatives to incarceration for certain non-violent offenders, such as mandatory counseling or substance abuse treatment? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana? | ||
| d) Should a minor accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | |||
| Yes | e) Do you support allowing relevant evidence of past criminal acts in prosecutions of crimes of a sexual nature involving minors? | ||
| No | f) Should a minor who sends sexually-explicit or nude photos by cell phone face criminal charges? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| With regard to the unanswered questions, I have opposed capital punishment on religious grounds since I was a lad of 10 or 11, and continue to do so having seen the randomness of the punishment as a law student and its costs as a fiscal conservative. Nevertheless, I do support it for grave crimes against humanity (eg, Nuremburg and Tim McVeigh). As for prosecuting as an adult a minor charged with a violent crime, the decision should be made on a case by case basis. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support increased state funding for job-training programs that re-train displaced workers? | ||
| No | c) Do you support expanding access to unemployment benefits? | ||
| d) Do you support providing financial incentives to the private sector for the purpose of job creation? | |||
| e) Do you support government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | |||
| No | f) Do you support providing direct financial assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support an increase to the minimum wage? | ||
| With regard to government spending to promote economic growth, I support such measures to deal with economic downturns to replace lost spending by business and individuals -- a sound economic policy which has repeatedly worked. But likely no otherwise. With regard to financial incentives to the private sector for job creation, I am wary of such programs because of the record of few successes and too often of misuse, but based on the particular situation I would look at the proposal with these reservations in mind. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the national Common Core State Standards initiative? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a merit pay system for teachers? | ||
| Yes | c) Is the tenure process for public school teachers producing effective teachers? | ||
| No | d) Should parents be allowed to use vouchers to send their children to any school? | ||
| e) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | |||
| Yes | f) Do you support the state government providing college students with financial aid? | ||
| Yes | g) Should illegal immigrants who graduate from Missouri high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| Two things work to improve student performance: (1) treating teaching as a profession, and teachers as professionals, which means that they become as well paid as other professionals, that they have a career ladder, and that they go to good schools where they learn their craft; (2) "year round school" where the summer hiatus is replaced by shorter breaks during the school year. There is no evidence that teacher accountability schemes based on the results of standardized tests given their students contributes anything to improve student performance. State funding for a charter school would depend on the particular circumstance. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of alternative energy? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support state funding for the development of traditional domestic energy sources (e.g. coal, natural gas, oil)? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support state funding for improvements to Missouri's energy infrastructure? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support state funding for open space preservation? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| These are all meritorious ideas but should be subject to cost/benefit analysis. | |||
| No | a) Do you support restrictions on the purchase and possession of guns? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should citizens be allowed to carry concealed guns? | ||
| No | d) Should a license be required for gun possession? | ||
| So-called gun control laws seem to have been largely ineffective and devisive, and I am therefore skeptical of the utility of such laws. Nevertheless, the decision on such measures should be left to the local community to make, consisent with the recent Supreme Court decisions on such local powers. What would be an appropriate regulation in the intercity of Chicago is likely different than in Northwest Missouri, where I see no need for any change in our local laws. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support a universally-accessible, publicly-administered health insurance option? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support expanding access to health care through commercial health insurance reform? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support interstate health insurance compacts? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support monetary limits on damages that can be collected in malpractice lawsuits? | ||
| Yes | g) Do you support allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes? | ||
| I support all measures reasonably calculated to expand health insurance coverage, and reduce the costs of health care. | |||
| a) Do you support same-sex marriage? | |||
| Yes | b) Should same-sex couples be allowed to form civil unions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Missouri's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Missouri's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| I supprort civil unions for same gender couples, with all the rights and responsibilities of the traditional marriage contract. Whether such unions should also be deemed marriages is a decision for each religious faith to make. | |||
| (1) Expand medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have the state assume responsibility for its health insurance exchange, and work with Republicans to improve the ACA; (2) Fund a feasibility study of "year round" school programs, and establish demonstration projects as part of a cost/benefit analysis of that concept; (3) Build support for the MoDOT plan to improve Missouri's transportation infrastructure, and find a means of financing acceptable to voters; (4) Reform Missouri's tax code to enlarge its base and reduce rates, while providing revenues adequate to fund these initiatives and other necessary and appropriate state services and programs. |
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