James Webb in Reason magazine
On Corporations:
Reduce corporate tax rate; shift from income to consumption
Webb wants to put more people to work on infrastructure projects, and he says he'd "simplify the tax code, including reducing the corporate tax rate in exchange for eliminating numerous loopholes." He would like "to examine
shifting our tax policies away from income and more toward consumption." Like O'Malley, he talks a lot about inequality, but he hasn't offered as many specific policies that he says would reduce it.
Source: Reason magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 13, 2015
On Free Trade:
Skeptical about Trans-Pacific Partnership
Martin O'Malley has been a vocal opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). He will only back agreements that are negotiated openly, that prohibit currency manipulation, that set and enforce stronger financial, labor and environmental regulations.
Webb has also been skeptical about the TPP, as he usually (but not invariably) is about trade deals. He has not offered an O'Malley-style list of the elements a pact would require to get his support.
Source: Reason magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 13, 2015
On Gun Control:
Let military carry guns without official permission
Webb earned high marks from the NRA when he was in the Senate. His most notable comment about firearms this year came after the shootings at two Marine recruitment offices in Chattanooga, when he decried "the policies that exposed our people in
so many different places, that don't allow them to defend themselves." Specifically, he'd like members of the military to be allowed to carry guns without official permission.
Source: Reason magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 13, 2015
On War & Peace:
Opposed Libya war; focus on eastern Asia, not Middle East
In an earlier life, Webb served as Ronald Reagan's secretary of the Navy. That may make you expect him to be a hawk, but when he switched parties and campaigned for the Senate in 2006, he ran as a fierce opponent of the Iraq war. Since then, his record
has been a mixture of hawkish and dovish stances--opposing the Libya war but also reacting skeptically to Obama's Iran deal--with a frequently expressed theme that America's foreign-policy focus should be on eastern Asia, not the Middle East.
"We already have terrain to defend--the United States and our outposts overseas--and we cannot afford to expand this territory in a manner that would simply give the enemy more targets." He wraps up
with this: "If a treaty does not obligate us, if American forces are not under attack or under threat of imminent attack, if no Americans are at risk, the President should come to the congress before he or she sends troops into Harm's Way."
Source: Reason magazine on 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 13, 2015
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