Jorge Besada
Libertarian | Washington
Candidate Profile
Moderate
BIOGRAPHY
Name
Jorge Besada
Party
Libertarian
Election Year
2020
Election
Primary
Race
U.S. Rep., Dist. 9
Incumbent
No
Links
EDUCATION
Florida International University, Miami, BS in Computer Science, 1998
WORK & MILITARY
(Candidate did not provide)
AFFILIATIONS
Animal Aid Inc., volunteer
POLITICAL OFFICES HELD
(Candidate did not provide)
POLITICAL OFFICES SOUGHT
(Candidate did not provide)
Race
OTHER INFORMATION
QUESTIONNAIRE
RIGHT TO LIFE
Human life begins at conception and deserves legal protection at every stage until natural death.
Strongly Disagree
Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive taxpayer funds or grants from federal, state, or local governments.
Strongly Agree
I support the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which requires health care providers to provide life-saving treatment for infants who survive an attempted abortion.
Disagree
Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?
Under the circumstances agreed upon by citizens via their local municipalities. I am personally pro-choice in the sense that I don't believe it should be considered murder to have an abortion. I personally find late-term abortions to be rather abhorrent unless performed due to medical/safety reasons relating to mother or fetus. What I am against is one national or state-wide policy which coerces everyone to go along with a monopoly decision by one group against the wishes of others.
ECONOMY
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure everyone has a livable income.
Strongly Disagree
Free enterprise and the right to private property are essential elements of a productive economic system.
Strongly Agree
How would you guarantee Social Security benefits for future generations?
I would work to phase out and end Social Security in a manner that provides adequate assistance to those who are currently very dependent on it. Nobody should be made a criminal for refusing to pay into a monopolistic socialist Ponzi scheme ran by a bunch of economically clueless paper-pushers in Washington DC that squanders most of their wealth.
What government spending would you reduce in order to balance the budget?
I would eliminate the Department of Labor,Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Education(DOE), Department of Commerce. Close overseas U.S. military bases and bring the troops home. Close half of all domestic U.S. military bases.
Under what circumstances should taxpayers help pay off existing student loans?
Under NO circumstances should a taxpayer be coerced or be made a criminal for not wanting to pay someone else's student debt. It is precisely because the government made it easy to get a loan that millions of young Americans wasted the best years of their lives earning utterly useless degrees which did not increase their productivity, allowed state universities to raise tuition, and now has frustrated and scared students clamoring for Socialism. Some kind of default would be preferable.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Governments should not discriminate against individuals, organizations or small businesses because of their belief that marriage is only a union of one man and one woman.
Strongly Agree
Religious liberty is at risk in the United States and deserves the highest level of protection in the law.
Strongly Agree
I promise to protect the freedom of Christians to share the Gospel and to practice Biblical principles.
Yes
What does "separation of church and state" mean to you?
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof". The government shall not give money to faith-based organizations or discriminate based on religion.
HEALTHCARE
It is the government’s responsibility to ensure everyone has health insurance.
Strongly Disagree
I support the elimination of private healthcare insurance.
Strongly Disagree
How would you promote healthcare coverage that is adequate, affordable and accessible for all?
Why is it that products in the IT sector get cheaper and better every year so that even the poor can afford amazing phones which the wealthiest could not imagine 30 years ago, yet the healthcare sector gets more expensive all the time and went from consuming about 5% of our income in 1960 to about 20% today? In the regulated healthcare sector what a person must learn in order to legally offer medical advice via licensing of doctors, where he must learn it via licensing of medical schools, how to test drugs, how the medical insurance industry should work and much more is dictated by monopolistic competition-less bureaucracies like the AMA, the FDA and numerous others. By comparison, the IT sector has very few regulations so competition motivates the creation and spread of superior information at breakneck speeds. I would deregulate the industry thus making it more competitive/innovative/cheaper/better instead of the usual economically ignorant/socialist solution of just taxing more.
NATIONAL SECURITY
The best way to maintain peace is through a strong military.
Strongly Disagree
What should the United States do to help eradicate the threat of radical Islamic terrorism?
To a significant degree radical Islam is a result of mankind's inability to properly solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict which has the region constantly embroiled in conflict and the inevitable radicalization that war and poverty, as opposed to peace and commerce, bring. Christian America was once a radical place where we burned "witches". Had we been embroiled in constant conflict which heightened our religious fervor, instead of the centuries of relative peace and commerce which "civilized" us, we too would have had our more relative "radical" elements, why? Because we are equally human. If we finally solve the conflict in a manner that soothes the Islamic world's understandable frustrations and can then focus on peace, trade, and commerce, the more radical elements will be likewise "civilized" away just like happened with us, why? Because we are equally human. I am thoroughly convinced we can have peace and prosperity and blame no one for our troubles, why? You guessed it.
IMMIGRATION
I am in favor of construction of a wall and other necessary infrastructure on our border that gives complete control over entering and exiting the United States.
Strongly Disagree
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should be abolished.
Strongly Agree
State and federal funds should be denied to any public or private entity, including but not limited to sanctuary cities, that are not in compliance with immigration laws.
Disagree
Employers should be required to use E-verify to confirm the eligibility of their employees to work in the United States.
Strongly Disagree
Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?
Everyone should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. just like when the Statue of Liberty was there to really greet immigrants with: "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" A woman in a socialist country like my native Cuba might produce wealth at a rate of $4 per day, but by just moving to the US she can easily produce at at rate of say $5/hour leading to a 10-fold increase in rate of production and can now afford a much higher standard of living and also increase the revenue/profits of US businesses which now have someone who can afford their products instead of some poor Cuban who can't. This will motivate other countries to do likewise quickly evolving a global culture of mutual respect for all human beings free of nationalistic tribalisms
EDUCATION
Taxpayer-funded public education should be guaranteed through college.
Strongly Disagree
VALUES
Judeo-Christian values established a framework of morality which is necessary for our system of limited government.
Disagree
I support adding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression as protected classes in non-discrimination laws.
Strongly Disagree
Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.
I am agnostic. I do have a deep appreciation for religion and especially the Abrahamic faiths given their monumental impact in the history and emergence of Western Civilization. I have been to Bethlehem, visited the Western Wall, and Al-Aqsa Mosque. Being born in Cuba, a Latin American country, I was baptized and grew up under Roman Catholicism. I am also very much an evolutionary thinker, who has a deep understanding of how alike we all are which further strengthens my sense of camaraderie with all human beings.
ABOUT YOU
When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and immigration, which of the following best describes you overall?
No Answer
Please provide publicly available information validating your answer to the previous question.
Libertarians like myself sometimes like to say that we are "fiscally conservative and socially liberal". So I am a bit of both, the best parts I hope! I have a good understanding of human nature and thus how alike we all are which helps me be very tolerant and aware of just how horrible/callous and also wonderful we can all be. I am the last person you will ever hear use the words "bad", and much less "evil", to describe someone or their actions. I always try to identify that key sequence of thoughts intertwined with a human nature we all share and circumstances when trying to understand why someone did wonderful or awful things. This applies to the awful "school shooters" and the "terrorists", they too had mothers who loved them and the potential to achieve great things. Whenever people use such labels they mistakenly blame the individual instead of the aforementioned factors which are what truly matter and keep us away from really making sense of and improving the world.
Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.
I have never been convicted of a felony or been penalized for sexual misconduct.
Is there anything else you would like voters to know about you?
Economist Ludwig von Mises wrote: "As conditions are today, nothing can be more important to every intelligent man than economics..This is, in our age, the primary civic duty..Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen." Our freedom to choose transforms billions of free people into a global super-computer where all companies are motivated to innovate and learn from each other thus inadvertently cooperate to discover and spread the best information with which to serve customers and reorder all of mankind. It is hard-working, courteous people who treat everyone with respect regardless of age/sex/race who thanks to competition, inadvertently motivate everyone else to be likewise thus spreading superior morals/information. Freedom, not coercive competition-immune government monopoly by 'experts', is what made America the greatest country on earth.Freedom is "The Ultimate Algorithm"
CRIMINAL JUSTICE & PUBLIC SAFETY
Mandatory minimum sentencing should be required and enforced for violent crimes.
Strongly Disagree
2ND AMENDMENT
What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?
I am for concealed and open carry of handguns and fully automatic assault weapons without permit. This 100% guarantees that the USA will never descend into tribalistic chaos or tyrannical dictatorship. Nobody should be deemed a criminal, no child should lose a parent, no woman should lose a husband, simply because he owns such weapons. Private businesses and communities should of course have the freedom to set their own rules regarding what is allowed on their property.
OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES
I support BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanction) against Israel if they refuse to allow the creation of a Palestinian state.
Strongly Disagree
I support the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Strongly Agree
Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.
Strongly Disagree
The Electoral College should be abolished.
Disagree
In priority order, what three areas of legislation do you propose to author or sponsor if elected?
1)In the last 102 years mankind, regardless of its "experts" and "great leaders", has been involved in two massive world wars and has been close to nuclear annihilation many times, if we continue to roll the dice at this rate, especially with nuclear armed China and Russia, mankind will prove to be an evolutionary dead end. My main priority will be to work to help sooth the deteriorating relationship with China and Russia and help get us all on a path to free-trade and vital nuclear reduction/disarmament. This focus on foreign policy also includes the vital Israeli/Palestinian conflict which is an important factor in the polarizations which lead to wars.2)I would work to greatly decrease taxes(end IRS/Income Tax) so that workers keep much more of their money and we create a private sector employment boom that will provide private sector jobs for all the newly laid off former government employees.3) Work to end the racist War on Drugs that is a main source of our race-related troubles.
Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?
No, racism on its own is hardly a factor. The real issue is the economic ignorance that leads to laws which exacerbate it. For example, the War on Drugs makes it easy for racist white cops to harass and ruin the lives of many African Americans and is one of the most significant causes of our racial problems. High minimum wage laws also makes it impossible to profitably hire many black teenagers leading to current unemployment rates of nearly 30% (49% in 2010) preventing them from getting the skills/experience needed to be more productive and get higher paying jobs. This unemployment further motivates many to deal drugs with its dangerous risks and eventually get caught which ruins their lives, even if they actually never stole or harmed anyone. Since the economically ignorant thinks Capitalism is bad and modern Capitalism arose in Europe and thus took white men to relative dominance, there is an increasing anti-white male sentiment that is leading to further polarization.
