William Redpath's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
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William Redpath has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2022 Political Courage Test.
Illinois Congressional Election 2022 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| I am probably part of the "mushy middle," as I think most Americans are on this issue. I think Bill Clinton was correct when he stated that "Abortion should be safe, legal and rare." I think there should be a grand compromise on this issue, allowing abortions to occur up to a certain point in a pregnancy (say, 15 weeks), after which an abortion is not allowed. Abortion should always be allowed to protect the life of the mother, and always in the case of rape or incest. Government funding should not be allowed, except when (see previous sentence). | |||
| No | Do you support expanding federal funding to support social safety net programs such as Social Security and Medicare? | ||
| The commitments already made to these programs have this nation on a path to a Federal debt crisis at some time in the future. It is inevitable as long as the Federal debt is growing at a faster pace than the economy. I support reforms, such as the Cato Institute's "6.2% Solution" for Social Security, which would allow younger people to divert their employee FICA taxes to private, inheritable investment accounts. Medicare should stop paying medical providers and instead provide cash payments to enrollees, adjusting payments for income and sickness, to get enrollees to become better purchasers of medical services. | |||
| No | Do you support the regulation of indirect campaign contributions from corporations,unions, and individuals? | ||
| I support campaign finance deregulation. Campaign finance regulation can restrict free speech and inevitably favors incumbent legislators by making it more difficult for political insurgents to compete. I knew the late Curtis Gans, who managed Eugene McCarthy's campaign for the 1968 Democratic Party presidential nomination, which led President Johnson to not seek reelection that year. Gans said that the McCarthy campaign never would have gotten off the ground under today's campaign finance laws. It was the contributions from a few wealthy individuals, including Stewart Mott, that fueled the McCarthy campaign and possibly led to the US exiting the Vietnam War. | |||
| No | Do you support the protection of government officials, including law enforcement officers, from personal liability in civil lawsuits concerning alleged misconduct? | ||
| I do not support Qualified Immunity. Policing is a very difficult job, and law enforcement officers largely deserve our support. We could help them by repealing all consensual crime laws. That would make their jobs a lot easier. However, there are many instances of police misconduct, and too often egregiously bad conduct has gone unpunished due to Qualified Immunity. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing defense spending? | ||
| No. Our defense budget is too large, and our constantly interventionist foreign policy makes Americans less safe. I agree with Barry Posen, an MIT political science professor, who argues in his book "Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy," that 2% of US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would be sufficient to fund a defense of this nation, with a more restrained grand strategy. With current US GDP at about $23 trillion, that would mean a defense budget of $460 billion. With current defense spending in excess of $700 billion, that would be a large cut, not an increase. | |||
| No | Do you support federal spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| No | Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal government taking action, beyond those of the Federal Reserve, to alleviate inflation? | ||
| Congress and the President have fueled our current bout of inflation through their fiscal profligacy. Federal debt held by the public has been increasing at a faster rate than the economy. They need to stop giving stuff away for free. Student loan debt should not be forgiven. Federal government spending should be reduced by eliminating the Departments of Education and Housing & Urban Development, and ending or devolving to the states many other Federal programs. The Federal Reserve will not be able to bring inflation down without restraining Federal spending or, better yet, significantly downsizing it. | |||
| No | Do you support the forgiveness of federal student loan debt? | ||
| There are many things wrong with forgiveness of student loan debt. It is inflationary and will increase the Federal debt. It makes chumps of people who paid their own way through post-secondary school, or paid back their loans, or who chose not to go to college. The worst of it is that it is a perverse redistribution of wealth--taking from society, as a whole, and giving benefits to those who are relatively well off. | |||
| Yes | Do you support requiring a government-issued identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| I think it is an appropriate check for the integrity of our elections. That said, states must make it easy for someone to obtain a government ID who cannot easily make it to a government facility to obtain an officially issued ID. | |||
| No | Do you support government funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | Do you support the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| The environment is a commons in which government regulation is appropriate. That said, I think rigorous cost/benefit analyses must be done on environmental matters. Global warming is occurring, but it is not an existential crisis that requires something like the Green New Deal, which would be very expensive and not very effective at reducing greenhouse gases. The best course of action is to help poorer nations around the world economically advance, and to adapt to global warming, which is easier for affluent nations to do. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| I support some restrictions on firearms purchases and ownership. I don't think those who have been convicted of violent crimes should have legal access to firearms, and I support universal background checks. I would support legislation that I thought would enhance negative rights (the right to life, the right to your own property--rights that do not require the action of others), but that might include loosening gun restrictions if I thought the evidence supported that. I also support government research into violent crime, including gun crimes, to lessen its impact in the US. | |||
| No | Do you support a government-run (single-payer) healthcare program, such as Medicare-for-All? | ||
| No | Do you support expanding paid family AND/OR medical leave opportunities? | ||
| No | Do you support lowering the cost of prescription drugs? | ||
| I take the question to imply that the government should take certain actions to reduce prescription drug prices. I certainly want people to have affordable medicines, but if lowering what is paid for prescription drugs curtails future development of lifesaving drugs, then it is a bad deal in the long run for the American people. Analyses of US drug prices usually use retail prices, and few people actually pay full retail prices for their medicines. The pharmaceutical industry has performed amazingly well (e.g., fast COVID-19 vaccine development), but it is unfairly maligned, in my view. | |||
| No | Do you support increasing security along the southern US border? | ||
| No | Do you support requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship? | ||
| No. That would be a total waste of resources, both human and other. If someone does not have a serious communicable disease, does not have a criminal background and cannot be reasonably deemed a security threat, he or she should be able to immigrate to the United States, with a reasonably short path to citizenship. Immigrants should not be eligible for welfare benefits until some point in time after they become US citizens and have a record of lengthy employment or running a business. | |||
| Yes | Do you support economic intervention as a means of resolving international conflicts? | ||
| No | Do you support the U.S. providing increased offensive military aid to Ukraine? | ||
| The most important thing for the US to do is to avoid nuclear war with Russia. I am not opposed to providing some military aid to Ukraine, but it must be measured and not provoke Russia to widening the conflict with other European nations or with the US. | |||
| No | Do you support raising taxes, on any income or on any entity, to promote economic growth? | ||
| Raising taxes to "promote economic growth?" No. I think the effect would be the opposite. | |||
| Yes | Do you generally support removing barriers to international trade (for example: tariffs, quotas, etc.)? | ||
| I support the US unilaterally ending tariffs, quotas and other trade restrictions. It is important for international peace. It would also set an example for the rest of the world and increase prosperity for American consumers (which we all are). | |||
| My top legislative priority would be to restore some fiscal sanity to the Federal government. According to the General Accountability Office, the US is on track to have a Debt to GDP ratio of 400% in 75 years. I support the Cato Institute's "6.2% Solution" for Social Security to allow younger workers to have private accounts. Medicare should target cash assistance to poorer and sicker enrollees. Ditch the entire Internal Revenue Code and adopt the Hall-Rabushka Flat Tax. End the Federal War on Drugs; allow the states to address this issue. Adopt a far less interventionist foreign policy. |
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