Ted Brown

While I am personally opposed to abortion, I also believe that women have the right to control their reproductive functions. I always hesitate to get between the private decisions of doctors and their patients. Most abortions are in the first and second trimesters, before the fetus can live outside the womb, and I believe those abortions should be legal. I also believe that taxpayers should not pay for these private medical decisions, so I oppose taxpayer-funded abortions.

Strongly Agree

I don't believe in taxpayer-funded abortions. However, Planned Parenthood does provide other services. Whether the other services should receive funding or not depends on what services they are.

Strongly Agree

I think people should be allowed to make such a decision, especially if they have a terminal disease, are in incurable pain, etc. There needs to be safeguards, however, to make sure greedy relatives aren't forcing their aged relatives to do this against their will.

Since I am running for state office in Texas, I am very much opposed to the current property tax system. The tax should be cut severely on the way to ending it completely. An immediate change would be to only assess the property when it is purchased and never again, so homeowners are not penalized when their home value rises. Currently there is a $25 billion budget surplus. This should be returned to taxpayers as tax relief. As for other taxes, I oppose those also, like the sales tax, but for now, Texas should legalize marijuana and charge sales tax on it like other products, and legalize casino gambling and parimutuel betting (like horse racing and dog racing) and assess similar taxes on that.

I would implement zero-based budgeting, meaning every department would start at Zero each year and have to justify its entire budget, line by line, before getting funded for another year. I would implement an immediate hiring freeze, since there are too many government employees to begin with. There are some agencies that should be abolished outright, like the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Control (TABC) agency, and alcoholic beverage sales be deregulated completely.

Disagree

I am a strong supporter of school choice. Educational funding should follow the student, so he or she can enroll in any school in the state (with openings), public, charter, or private, and not be forced to attend the school in the neighborhood, which may be substandard. I also think that homeschooling or small education pods run by parents are better alternatives to organized schooling these days. After all, with government schools, every decision is a political decision.

Disagree

If they work for the government and are paid by taxpayers, they must provide the service they were hired to provide. For private businesses, they should have a posted list of what services they will or will not provide, so no customer is blindsided or embarrassed. This is also why all products should be available through the mail so that this sort of situation can be avoided. For services, a customer should be directed to someone who actually provide the service.

Possibly if the building is about to collapse after a disaster. Otherwise, none. Americans have the right to assemble and the right to practice the religion of their choice.

I would like to say (D), since government shouldn't be involved in health care. But at present, I would say (C), since sometimes taxpayers will have to pay for treatment and prevention of communicable diseases that could affect everyone. What we really need is a free market in healthcare services. There should be more doctors trained, but spaces in medical schools are currently limited. Also, foreign doctors and nurses should be more welcome, if they show themselves to be capable. Scarcity leads to higher prices. It should be easy to open clinics, testing centers, etc.

While I am very pro-vaccine, I also very pro-choice and don't want to force anyone to take any substances into their bodies that they don't want. In the private sector, I think businesses can set their own policies to what they believe would make their employees and customers safe. As for government, that holds true for their employees. Any government employee who disagrees can resign and find more useful and gainful employment in the private sector instead. But for those who don't work for the government, they should not be forced by law to follow a government edict in order to participate in society at large. So, no to any government mandates to the general public.

We should end U. S. military involvement in those areas, withdraw our troops, close our military bases, and stop drone bombing people in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. The U. S. military creates terrorists every time they bomb a bunch of non-combatants, children, etc. Those people consider us the terrorists and will act accordingly.

Disagree

In general, I don't favor sanctions against governments, since they harm the citizens of those countries, not the government leaders who are targeted. I do believe that Israel has some heavy-handed policies against the Palestinians that seem to violate human rights. I think that most governments violate people's rights on a daily basis. I would repeal the Texas law that forbids people doing business with the state from participating in BDS. This violates the 1st Amendment.

Disagree

I am opposed to building the border wall. If you build a 10 foot fence, motivated immigrants will bring a 12 foot ladder. This is a federal issue. In Texas, I am opposed to Operation Lone Star. Texas should not be trying to enforce federal immigration laws.

Most people who want to come here should have the opportunity to do so. Both of my grandfathers were immigrants (from Greece and Lithuania). Limits should be placed on known criminals, and those who are mentally or physically ill (contagious diseases). Immigrants contribute so much to this country. They have a lower crime rate than native born Americans. They usually are very motivated to succeed and make a better life for their children. At the very least, there should be a guest worker program to make it easier for seasonal workers to go back and forth across the border as needed. For most laborers, there is no current legal way under any circumstances to come to the U. S. This is why they try to sneak in. We also need to expand the H1B occupational visas to be sure we have enough high tech and engineering employees available. This is especially true for tech companies here in Austin. We must be accepting of refugees, who are often fleeing situations that were contributed to by U. S. military interventions abroad.

Agree

This is historically true. The Judeo-Christian notion of an individual soul who has free will has been key to the development of modern western society (versus the collectivist ideas of other cultures and religions). However, this doesn't mean that our laws should reflect a particular religion. Our country welcomes people of all beliefs, with the hope that our "melting pot" of cultures will bring everyone together. The only firm idea is that individual rights must be protected.

Neutral

I'm not sure how to answer this. I don't believe in discriminating against anyone due to their self-identified gender or any other personal trait. This is a country where people can be who they want to be, and re-invent themselves if they want to, as long as they don't intend to defraud anyone. But no one should have a specially protected class. Each American should be treated as an individual, not as a member of any group. There are no group rights.

Neutral

I have not read the book on the subject. But I do believe that race has played a major part in U. S. history, and that there have been numerous racist government policies over the years. Segregation was a government policy. Jim Crow laws were present in many states. I don't believe in general that our institutions are inherently racist, but plenty of people who have run those institutions have been well-documented racists. History should not be sugar-coated to protect peoples' feelings.

I am not a religious person, but I believe that people should have religious freedom, as long as they don't violate the rights of other people. In other words, live your life according to your values, but don't force others to conform to those ideas if they don't want to.

Agree

I think that there has been a lot of hysteria about voter fraud, yet it is really a very minor problem. It's hard enough to get people to vote as it is. Let's make it as easy as possible. ID is required for far too many things.

Any Texas voter should be able to request an absentee ballot, not just the aged or disabled, but of course have to follow the same rules as the aged and disabled. More voter information should be available, like voter information pamphlets mailed to each voter before the election explaining what is being voted on, with statements from candidates. Too few voters participate in Texas elections because it often difficult to do so. It should be easier for candidates of all parties (or independents) to get on the ballot, so voters will have more choices. Democrats and Republicans work to keep alternative parties and candidates off the ballot. The Secretary of State, the top election official, should be an elected official, not an appointee of the governor. The current arrangement is ripe for corruption.

No. But people should be treated as individuals, not as members of any racial or ethnic group. The main threat to domestic security is that Americans seem to be forming sides and getting further apart on basic issues, and not even communicating with people who have other ideas. We need to get together and talk to each other.

Strongly Disagree

There is no way something like that could be done fairly or competently.

(A). I am a strong supporter of economic growth and development. Of course, we don't want to purposely pollute the environment, but any proposed regulation needs to (a) actually end up with the result intended; and (b) overall costs must be examined. There are a lot of laws and regulations that have good intentions but terrible or non-existent results, at high cost to taxpayers and consumers.

Agree

I will defer to the professionals in the field that this is the most efficient and economical way to extract the resources in question. If something else is found to work better, I presume they will switch to that.

The main purpose of government is to protect individual rights to life, liberty, and property from those who would violate those rights. The average citizen needs to be protected from criminals and from foreign attacks by other governments. Unfortunately, government at all levels has grown to a monster that can't really be controlled, damaging our rights on a daily basis in so many ways. That is why I will always vote to reduce the size and scope of government.

Moderate

You need another category: Libertarian. This is a distinct philosophy from Conservative and Liberal, and it means that I support personal freedom, economic freedom (the free market), individual rights, extremely limited government, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. I will defend the individual against the government any day, any time.

I have been an active Libertarian for over 40 years. You can check my web site: tedbrown.org. You can check my Facebook posts at Ted Brown for Texas State Representative, District 50. You can Google "Ted Brown Libertarian" and find a lot of data. I am certainly the real deal in fighting for individual rights for the last 40 years.

No, I have never been arrested. I have never been penalized in civil or criminal court for anything beyond traffic violations.

As a legislator, I would be the first Libertarian elected to the Texas House. I will not be beholden to any special interest groups or any corrupt party officials. I will only be beholden to my oath to uphold the U. S. and Texas Constitutions and to protect the rights of 50th District residents and all Texans. I will work with Republican legislators if I agree with them on an issue, and I will work with Democratic legislators if I agree with them on an issue. Voters can count on me to be an independent voice for liberty in the Texas Legislature.

Disagree

Police officers often act too aggressively instead of trying to de-escalate a volatile situation. Police department policy is often the problem. Officers are trained to be warriors, which means the general public is an enemy to be conquered instead of a neighbor to be helped. Either officers need more mental health training or there should be mental health professionals that go out a number of calls instead of police officers. I am opposed to qualified immunity for police officers.

Agree

I agree to an extent. A lot of police calls could be handled by mental health professionals. It is often a mentally ill person who gets into conflicts with police and gets shot as a result. These mental health professionals could certainly work for the police department and be under their direction, but we need a real change on how a lot of police calls are handled, i.e. mental health, wellness checks, etc.

I am a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment and believe in the right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. I am opposed to most gun restrictions. I'm opposed to "red flag" laws, which will allow angry ex-wives and nasty neighbors to get revenge on people they don't like by reporting them to police.

Strongly Disagree

The person who fired the shots is the person who is responsible.