Michael Reitz

All reproductive health decisions, from birth control to abortion, should be made only between a woman and healthcare provider.

Disagree

Planned Parenthood and other women's health care centers should receive public funding for contraception and sex education initiatives, which are proven to reduce unplanned pregnancy and abortion rates. Victims of rape and incest should not have to incur any costs for their resulting healthcare requirements.

Agree

The decision to continue pain and suffering for those with chronic and irreversible conditions should be left to an individual and their healthcare provider.

Loopholes should be closed and the tax code should be simplified so that tax returns can be completed on a single page of paperwork. Everyone should pay their fair share.

The government should not be picking winners and losers in existing marketplaces by bailing out big businesses such as banks, auto manufacturers, and airlines. We should not be more willing to fund war than we are to support warriors. The DoD can keep projects on schedule and within budget (B-21 program, estimated $200 billion lifetime costs) but does not always do that, especially for pork-barrel style distributed production projects (F-35, $1.7 trillion lifetime costs). That is inexcusable when we also debate whether we have the funds to treat veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.

Neutral

First and foremost, we must ensure every child can receive a quality public school education from pre-K through 12th grade. Higher education should be affordable and accessible for everyone that chooses to pursue it.

Disagree

Businesses should be able to serve their customers as they see fit considering protected classes. We should not tolerate a business refusing to serve a customer because of their religion, because they're in the military, or if they were disabled in combat. If businesses want to refuse service to people wearing masks, they should be willing to reap the results of that decision.

Governments should not be in the position of having to choose to close churches. Churches have, through history, been examples of service, choosing instead to care for those in the communities.

B) The health insurance industry reported over $40 billion in profits last year, which is directly money being paid by individuals and employers that is not going towards their healthcare. The US continues to fall in global life expectancy rankings, currently 46th, and every single nation ahead of the US has a publicly funded health system. Medical bankruptcy is nearly exclusively an American tradition among the developed world. Healthcare can be provided more affordably to all Americans if we're all insuring it. Private insurance should be in the business of competition, vying for customers on the basis of offering the most healthcare at the lowest cost to the customer, but in the current environment, they are free to focus only on maximizing profits, i.e. skimming money between their customers and their doctors. Americans pay more for worse healthcare outcomes than any other developed country in the world.

Vaccines should not have to be required. They should be an obligation of a person towards the investment in their communities. If people were to protect their neighbors from communicable diseases as effectively as is feasible, mandates would not be necessary.

The US should invest itself, and encourage its partners to invest, in regions where Islamic terrorism grows. Poverty, hunger, and lawlessness breed the next generation of violence.

Neutral

I do not think Israeli-linked businesses or individuals in the US deserve either government protection or government sanctions. I also do not believe our $150 billion investment in military aid to the Arab states, in addition to $150 billion in Israeli military aid, makes sense.

Agree

Fleeing economic despair and violence should not result in a death sentence. In addition to ensuring that we know who is entering the US, investment in our southern neighbors would help stem the crises which cause people to flee their homes for a better life.

Immigration policy should mimic those of other developed nations; skills and means to support oneself should be necessary. We can also be much more intentional with our refugee policies by following through on processing, rather than letting people languish in the system by design.

Disagree

We should absolutely focus on making the public school system we have the best it can be, rather than causing it to suffer for individual needs. It would send the school system into a death spiral to deem it insufficient and then pull funding from it to send children to other schools. Parents should always have the option to send their children to private or charter or home school(s), but public investment into school systems are at the core of a community's investment in itself and its future.

Agree

Judeo-Christian values are important to an individual's requirements of the values reflected in their government. The values of others should not be held in higher regard, or in imposition to their neighbor's. We can use our values in the establishment of laws criminalizing murder and theft, but outlawing blasphemy and idolatry should not be in the purview of the government.

Neutral

Gender identity is already a protected class in anti-discrimination laws.

Disagree

The church may choose to recognize the marriages which it wishes to recognize, but the government should recognize the marriages which the people deem appropriate.

Disagree

CRT is not educational policy in South Carolina. It educates with regards to the history of this nation, such as Black veterans of WWII not receiving GI benefits. It does not and should not assert that the US is fundamentally racist.

Matthew 22:36-39 says: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There are no ifs, ands, or buts on who we are supposed to love or how we are supposed to love them.

Agree

There are more people struck by lightning than those who commit in-person voter fraud. Harsh penalties make it not worth the risk to cast a single fraudulent ballot.

-Make Election Day a state holiday -Implement same-day voter registration -Allow early voting without excuse -Set up automatic voter registration -Simplify absentee voting requirements designed to confuse voters

Yes. An unacceptable number of mass shootings are racially driven.

Disagree

We would be better served by working towards equal opportunity like removing barriers to education and entrepreneurship.

B- When we allow businesses to pollute, they are passing along the costs of their operations to their communities and future generations, enriching CEOs at the cost of public health. Additionally, environmental protection provides additional sources of jobs and employment.

Neutral

If it can be done safely, fracking is an important tool of national energy independence. But when fracking mud comes out of kitchen faucets, hardworking families are owed effective repair solutions and more.

The government is the contract of our communities' commitment to invest in themselves and their neighbors. We have agreed and obligated ourselves to take a portion of the rewards we reap from our labor to invest in roads that transport us and our goods, in schools that educate our children and our future, in law enforcement to keep the peace, in a court system to yield justice, and in representation to protect our democracy.

Moderate

The ultimate priority of a government should be its citizens. It should empower and serve the people. The government should be obligated to protect and empower its citizens, and to ensure that the people are getting the best bang for their lowest tax-dollar-buck.

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No.

Above all, the government should be accountable to the people. The government should not be in people's business, but the people should be in the government's business. That's why we should pass legislation that is supported by a significant majority of South Carolinians, including the legalization of marijuana and protecting a woman's right to access reproductive healthcare.

Neutral

Police officers should not have to worry about doing their jobs, but it should also be clear that falling afoul of departmental policy abandons all qualified immunity protections, and that determination should not come from within police departments.

Disagree

Mental health and community programs can and should be funded without redirecting police funding.

Every firearm purchase should require the same background checks and processes that any firearm purchases require. I had to get a background check to receive a CWP, but the idea that anybody can walk into a gun show and buy a firearm without a comparable background check, or that background checks are optional if not completed within a certain period of time, defeats the purpose of any other rules. South Carolina should hold the federal government responsible for completing NICS checks within a reasonable period of time. Owners of firearms which are used in the commission of crimes should be held responsible as facilitating those crimes. There should be no excuse for firearms to be made accessible to those that would use them for evil. To be clear, I own firearms, I hunt, and the only person with access to my firearms is me.

Strongly Disagree

We don't allow victims of car crashes to sue auto manufacturers or car dealerships. This is not the best way to address issues.