John Hagelin in 2000 National Political Awareness Test

On Abortion: No govt abortion funding; no litmus test

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding abortion:
• Privatize abortion funding; reducing the number of abortions through effective education, not legislation.
• His Supreme Court nominees need not share his principles on abortion.

On Budget & Economy: More $ for environment; crime prevention; health care

Hagelin sets the following spending priorities:
• Greatly Increase Funding for:
  • Environmental programs
  • Effective crime prevention
  • Proven preventive health care
• Slightly Increase Funding for:
  • Education
  • NASA
  • Scientific research
  • Transportation and Highway Infrastructure
• Maintain Funding Status for:
  • Agricultural programs
  • Arts funding
  • International aid
  • Law enforcement
  • Medical research
  • National Parks
  • Welfare
• Slightly Decrease Funding for:
  • Defense
• Spending priorities in general:
  • Highest Priority for Federal debt reduction
  • Highest Priority for Tax cuts
  • High Priority for Medicare
  • High Priority for Social Security
  • Medium Priority for Education
  • Low Priority for Defense
• Supports enforcing the spending limits agreed to in 1997 by the President and Congress to balance the budget.

On Civil Rights: Hiring quotas foster race resentment

On Crime: More prison rehabilitation; address root causes of crime

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding crime:
• Programs to provide prison inmates with job skills
• Programs to provide prison inmates with drug & alcohol treatment
• Reduce prison sentences for those who commit non-violent crimes.
• Hagelin says he would “support systematic, scientifically proven programs to reduce stress in the individual and throughout society-thus eliminating the root cause of crime-in addition to effective prison rehabilitation.”

On Drugs: Legalize medical marijuana; educate for prevention

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding drugs:
• Expand drug education & treatment programs.
• Decriminalize the use of medicinal marijuana & industrial hemp
• Increase border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs
• Hagelins supports “education that unfolds intelligence, creativity, and self-confidence, raising life to be in harmony with natural law & thereby eliminating the tendency towards drug dependence; promote programs shown to dramatically reduce drug dependency.”

On Education: Focus education on developing consciousness of students

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding education:
• National standards and testing
• Mandatory teacher testing
• Fund computer training in public schools.
• Hagelin would “promote proven educational approaches shown to develop the consciousness or intelligence of the student, thereby increasing student creativity, moral reasoning, self-reliance, and mental & physical health & well-being, while providing mastery of technical skills necessary to compete in today’s society.”

On Education: Supports vouchers, charter schools, & block grants

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding school choice:
• Allow parents to use vouchers or tax-free savings accounts to send their children to any participating school: public, private or religious.
• Support creation of more charter schools where teachers and professionals receive authorization and funding to establish new schools.
• Give all federal education funding to states in the form of block grants and allow the states to spend it as they see fit.

On Energy & Oil: Promote sustainability; tax cost of fossil fuels

On Environment: Strengthen Clean Water & Air Acts & other enviro regs

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding the environment:
• Strengthen the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.
• Increase the fees charged to mining companies using federal lands.
• Require states to fully compensate citizens when environmental regulations limit uses of privately-owned land.
• Encourage further development and use of alternative fuels to reduce pollution.
• Strengthen emission controls on all gasoline or diesel-powered engines, including cars, trucks, and sport utility vehicles.
• Promote the selling of pollution credits between nations to encourage industries to decrease pollution levels.
• Strengthen logging restrictions on federal lands.
• Strengthen regulations governing the security, safety, transportation, and storage of spent nuclear fuel and waste.
• Supports the United Nations (Kyoto Conference) treaty regarding global climate change.

On Families & Children: Better education & development to reduce juvenile crime

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding juvenile crime:
• Funding for local Boys & Girls Clubs & programs for at-risk youth
• Job services for at-risk youth.
• Hagelin supports “more effective educational programs to keep children in school, off the streets, and out of the reach of crime; urban revitalization and community policing; and programs shown to reduce violence by decreasing anxiety, hostility, and anger and improving psychological development and moral reasoning.”

On Foreign Policy: Shift foreign aid from military basis to know-how basis

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding foreign aid:
• Aid should be granted to countries when disasters threaten civilian lives; when it is in the security interests of the US; and to close allies of the US.
• The IMF should be restructured so that it can respond to international financial crises more effectively
• He would “create an immediate shift in US foreign policy away from military aid toward a more life-supporting policy based on the exportation of US know-how.”

On Foreign Policy: Pay debt to UN; diplomacy with Cuba

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding foreign policy:
• The US should pay its debt to the United Nations.
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with Cuba
• The US should not maintain ground troops in the Kosovo province.
• Full diplomatic relations with China but not with Taiwan.
• Cooperate on threat reduction with Russia and maintain ABM Treaty

On Foreign Policy: Full diplomatic relations with China, but not with Taiwan

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding China issues:
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with China
• The US should not recognize nor extend full diplomatic relations to Taiwan
• The US should have full diplomatic relations with nations with documented human rights abuses.
• Undecided on China’s entry into the WTO
• Agrees that a nation’s human rights record should affect its trading status with the US

On Free Trade: For anti-dumping & counter-tariffs; not NAFTA & Fast Track

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding free trade issues:
• Opposes NAFTA
• Undecided on GATT & WTO
• Supports imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products
• Agrees that a nation’s human rights record should affect its trading status with the US
• Opposes Fast Track authority for trade negotiations
• Strengthen anti-dumping laws
• Supports an open trade policy

On Government Reform: Campaign finance: Public funding; ban PACs & soft money

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding campaign finance:
• Public taxpayer funding for congressional candidates who comply with campaign spending limits
• Full disclosure of campaign finance information.
• Prohibit PAC contributions
• Free or low-cost TV advertising to candidates who agree to voluntary campaign spending limits.
• Ban unregulated soft money campaign contributions
• Mandatory campaign spending limits
• Require unions to get members’ permission before using union dues for political advocacy.
• Require Congressional candidates to raise over half of their campaign money from their home state.
• Hagelin says he would “support long-overdue election and campaign reforms to ensure equal access to the ballot, the media, and the public for all qualified candidates, and a shift toward public sponsorship of campaigns in order to reduce the undue influence of special interest money on election outcomes.”

On Gun Control: More restrictions on purchase, possession, & use of guns

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding gun issues:
• Maintain federal restrictions on the purchase of guns
• Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks
• Increase penalties for the possession of any illegal guns
• Hold gun owners responsible for crimes committed with their guns by children
• Raise the minimum age for ownership to 21
• Require three days for background checks of gun buyers at gun shows
• Strengthen enforcement of current regulations on guns.

On Health Care: More prevention, more patient rights, less malpractice

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding health care:
• Support health care strategies focused on prevention, including health education, and natural medicines and remedies
• Support a Patient’s Bill of Rights to define and enforce the rights of insured patients, including greater access to specialists and emergency rooms, and wider choice of health care providers
• Support a Patient’s Bill of Rights which includes the right to sue when claims are denied
• Allow small business owners & the self-employed to have the same deductibility for health costs as large employers
• Expand eligibility for tax-free medical savings accounts
• Establish limits on the amount of damages awarded in medical malpractice lawsuits
• Provide citizens age 55-65 the option of purchasing Medicare health coverage
• Support increasing taxes on alcohol and cigarettes to help defer costs of Medicare and Medicaid.

On Health Care: Cut costs via prevention; allow more Medicare choice

On Homeland Security: Maintain nuclear non-proliferation and maintain ABM Treaty

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding nuclear weapons issues:
• Supports the cooperative threat reduction programs with Russia to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons to unfriendly nations
• Does not support modifying the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in order to deploy the National Missile Defense System.

On Immigration: More high-tech immigrants; more control at state level

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding immigration:
• Increase the immigration quota for computer scientists and other information technology workers.
• Support the separation of the INS into two bureaus: one administering naturalization and one administering border patrol.
• Increase state autonomy to deal with immigration.

On Principles & Values: Decline of moral standards follow from breaking natural law

On Principles & Values: Priorities: health prevention; criminal rehabilitation

Hagelin’s priorities as president would be:
• Implement prevention-oriented health care programs shown to prevent disease and cut costs by 50% or more, saving hundreds of billions of dollars by keeping people healthy.
• Implement effective, field-tested crime prevention and rehabilitation programs to sharply reduce crime.
• Create crucial campaign finance and democratic reforms that would reduce special-interest dominance & restore government’s accountability to the people.

On Social Security: More funds for Soc. Sec; invest in stocks; supports Lockbox

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding Social Security:
• Invest a portion of Social Security’s assets collectively in stocks and bonds
• Invest a portion of the budget surplus into the Social Security trust fund
• Require individuals to pay the Social Security tax on incomes above $68,400 (which is currently exempt).
• Support a lock box measure until Social Security and Medicare’s long-term solvency is guaranteed.

On Tax Reform: 18% flat tax, falling to 10% by 2006

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding taxes:
• Supports a flat tax or a national sales tax
• Supports a 2/3 majority vote in Congress to raise taxes
• Would cut taxes if there were an operating surplus
• Hagelin saus he would “save money through scientifically proven solutions to costly social problems, thereby reducing the tax burden; implement a low flat tax beginning in 2001 at 18% and falling to 10% by 2006, with an exemption for America’s poor and lower-income families.”

On Technology: Limit violence & sex in media, but maintain privacy

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding technology issues:
• Support government mandates to curtail violent and sexual content on television.
• Support strict penalties for Internet crimes such as hacking and Internet violence.
• Support strong Internet privacy laws.

On War & Peace: Ease off Iraq; maintain Israeli peace process

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding the Middle East:
• Take military action against Iraq only as part of an international effort.
• End the economic embargo against Iraq.
• Continue to lead the peace process between Israel and the Palestine Authority.
• Hagelin would “establish a ‘prevention wing’ within the military-a group whose primary purpose would be to prevent the outbreak of war and to preserve and strengthen national and international peace.”

On War & Peace: Ground troops out of Kosovo

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding Kosovo:
• The US should not maintain ground troops in the Kosovo province.
• Hagelin would “establish peace-creating groups in key areas of the world to help dissolve social stress and prevent the outbreak of armed hostility and war.”

On Welfare & Poverty: Supports tax credits for job creation & empowerment zones

Hagelin supports the following principles regarding employment:
• Provide tax credits for companies that move job-creating industries into areas with high unemployment.
• Increase funding for national job-training programs that re-train displaced workers or teach skills needed in today’s job market.
• Establish empowerment zones in areas with large numbers of unemployed people.
• Hagelin says he would “harness the unlimited creative potential of our 270 million citizens.”

On Welfare & Poverty: Welfare via block grants; focus on job creation

Hagelin supports the following statements regarding welfare issues:
• Provide homeless families with apartment vouchers they can use to supplement the cost of an apartment.
• Continue to give states and local governments responsibility for welfare programs through block grants.
• Maintain current welfare-to-work requirements in order for states to qualify for block grants.
• Transfer homeless housing programs to states through block grants.
• Provide continued Medicaid benefits for those welfare recipients who have moved from welfare to work.
• Require states to return any unused welfare block grant funding to the federal government.
• Hagelin would “stimulate job creation by sustaining economic growth through lower taxes and reducing the national debt; providing high-quality job training to increase job opportunities.”