Rick Lewis

No Answer

Disagree

No Answer

Mixing faith and politics always ends poorly for religion. Religions focus on what is right while governments focus on what is needed to keep a stable society. That which is right and that what destabilizes society are not always the same. Governments should focus as much as possible on stability so that religions can focus on righteousness. As for abortion, morally and legally, there is only one option. Once life begins, the State may not sanction the ending of that life without due process. This could only be due to medical necessity to save the life of the mother. Killing someone for a crime committed by their father or for some genetic defect is unthinkable. We all agree on this. The question is when does life begin. I have my opinion, but I don't know. The uglier question is does abortion cause society to fall into a death spiral of retributive violence? Apparently not. As such, politicians must leave people's sin and salvation to God and religion. ...and that sucks.

Agree

Strongly Agree

The only way social security can be saved is through increased revenues and decreased benefits. It was never set up as a savings account, from the start it was a wealth transfer from the young to retirees. A fluke of demographics is the only reason it ever had savings. The young can no longer support the retirees based upon the current tax burden. The real question is who will pay more taxes and who will get less benefits. If solid healthcare reform can be completed, savings from that can be shifted to Social Security, but dealing with Healthcare is almost as much of a 3rd rail question as dealing with Social Security. My guess is that due to the power of the AARP, only token reductions in benefits will occur while increased taxes will fill in the gap. Seniors are just more motivated, have more experience, and have more time. They will out lobby the young.

I would reduce US military spending in the middle east to zero because it is the right thing, not to balance the budget. I would also reduce health care spending, though that would be through more efficient healthcare. My goal isn't to reduce services, but to reduce the need for services and the efficiency in which they are provided. Aside from a few accounting tricks, that is the only politically feasible way to balance the budget.

States may have to pay off some student loans if the class action law suits in the works can show that the Universities made promises about a college degree being a good economic investment. Aside from that, about 50% of student loans are held by doctors and lawyers. They can pay for those. For the percentage held by non economically productive degrees, I can imagine a reset as a part of a comprehensive higher education overhaul, but I'm not holding my breath.

No Answer

Neutral

Yes

That the government doesn't interfere in religious matters and the church doesn't try to control secular matters.

Strongly Agree

Disagree

This is complex and will take far more than a thousand words. Here is a very high level overview. 1. Government funded universal healthcare - Having the employers pay for healthcare just makes labor in the US more expensive and less competitive. 2. Reduce defensive medicine 3. Increase price transparency for non-emergency care and give people an incentive to shop around. 4. When dealing with emergency care (inelastic demand) set price controls - Capitalism only works if someone can act as a rational consumer. When you are bleeding out, you can't. 5. Standardize billing across the board to reduce administrative costs. Encourage the use of AI to further reduce admin costs. 6. Stop the practice of subsidizing device & drug prices within developed countries. Require that Drugs & devices are sold for the same price regardless of where the patient lives. I'm fine with subsidized prices in the third world, just not Germany... Visit my website for the rest. 1000 words is far too litte

Agree

This is far easier than most people would think. The Islamic radicals want their inhospitable land and the oil underneath it. We produce enough oil ourselves and their land is inhospitable. Simply pull out of the region. There is nothing there which is worth spending the lives of our sons and daughters on. China, being highly dependent on gulf oil will be forced to move in. They already have a unthinkably nasty relationship with their Muslim minority. Let radical Islam redirect their passions towards the Chinese government.

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

I would recommend following the Canadian model. Emigration should be used as a tool to mitigate income disparity and drive economic growth. For high earning professions such as mine, allow more people to immigrate. If you increase the supply of labor, you decrease the price of labor. This provides skills needed by our economy at a more affordable price. This thereby increase economic growth. Yes it decreases the income for those professions, but I make plenty. I'm not going to suffer with a small hit to my pay. If I would, I wouldn't be running for Congress. Likewise, for skills which dictate low salaries, be more restrictive. A tighter labor supply increases wages. Increased wages mean less need for government subsidies. Now we want to have sufficient economic growth to be able to bring in a wide range of people and we should strive for that. Some of those people will be asylum seekers, some will be family members of citizens. There would be more in good times and less in bad.

Neutral

No Answer

Agree

God has a reason for why he does what he does. I don't begin to understand it, but I don't have to. If someone wants to have a discussion with me about my faith, I'm happy to do so, but it isn't up to me to ensure that they walk the same path as I. After all, I could be wrong. If God wants them to walk a certain path, its going to happen regardless of what I do. With the skill set which god has given me, the best way I can serve him is to serve his children. I wish I could give you something more profound, but I'm not a charismatic and I'm very much not a preacher. For whatever reason those were not among the skills I was given.

Moderate

The conservative/liberal divide is based on political calculus of winning elections. This changes over time. Trump won the presidency in large part because he supported blue collar workers while not supporting the unions. A few years back this was unthinkable. Bush was pro-immigration, but now Republicans aren't? My political beliefs don't sway with the whims of a political party. I served my country in the Military. Does that make me a conservative? A couple of my friends in the military, including the best wingman ever, were gay. Does that make me liberal? I want what we all want, a government which functions. I want the freedom to speak my mind and to worship as I wish. I want a robust stable economy which increases prosperity for all. I want a healthcare system which provides us longer, healthier lives for less and less money. This isn't conservative or liberal, this is rational. Sadly in the fight for dominance, rationality has been the biggest victim.

No

This isn't a career for me. For a season in my youth, I served our nation in the military before moving to the private sector to earn some money. For another season, as a working professional, I served the community while working at the University of Washington before moving to the private sector to earn some money. Now as a seasoned professional (old) I am once again seeking to spend a season in service. Experience has tempered the idealism of youth. There are plenty of things I would like to do which I won't even attempt as I know they won't end well. For this season, I will apply my experience and talents where they can do the most good and then move aside so another can use their talents doing the most good they can. That is all any of us can do.

Disagree

Keep guns away from crazy people who will use them to harm others. Don't try to keep them away from my sister who is a NCIS Agent and retired Naval Intelligence Officer. It would be like giving a cat a bath, but the cat is armed and has a few decades of experience... An insurance based approach will be effective in this.

No Answer

Agree

Disagree

Neutral

1. Make government represent people rather than special interests. 2. Reduce the frequency and severity of recessions 3. Dramatically reduce the debt trap which many people find themselves in - AKA Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace

No. There isn't going to be a race war. Things are getting better. While things are far from perfect, the statistics are pretty clear that it is better to be a minority now than it was fifty or even twenty years ago. Accelerating the rate at which the statistical gaps are closing is important, but unless something truly insane occurs, it will keep closing.