Marc Allan Feldman in OnTheIssues interviews with presidential candidates

On Abortion: No government role in restricting nor funding abortion

A: Support. Government currently should have no role in the promotion, financing, or prohibition of abortions. Get government out. There is no such thing as an "unrestricted right." Every right and every freedom is limited to the point where it infringes on the rights of others. Reproductive freedom does not include the right to tax others for our decisions. Change in practices should come about not through changing the laws, but by changing the hearts and minds of people.

On Budget & Economy: Increasing government spending doesn't improves the economy

A: Oppose. There is no good evidence that increases in government spending improves the economy overall. Government does not make a profit, so any increase in spending is directly tied to current increases in taxation, future increases in taxation because of borrowing, or sales of government assets. Each of these represents a loss of property to the American citizens. Government spending is already nearly 30% of total economic productivity. A growing and healthy economy will require a smaller less intrusive government and a larger, more productive and successful middle class.

On Budget & Economy: Balance our budget by cutting spending

A: Oppose. We need to balance our budget by cutting spending. We can do it by slashing funds going to Democratic and Republican special interests. The wealthy will pay their fair share when we end corporate welfare and political cronyism.

On Civil Rights: No government role in hiring; no affirmative action

A: Oppose. Government should have no role in controlling reasonable hiring processes of private employers. Hiring practices based on prejudicial discrimination, which use superior market power to deprive others of life, liberty or property, are unacceptable.

On Civil Rights: No government role in marriage, same-sex or traditional

A: Support. Government should regulate marriages like baptisms and bar mitzvahs: not at all. Although same-sex marriage runs counter to my religious faith, I do not believe it is a proper role of government to impose my religious faith on others.

On Crime: $50,000 per year for jail? Punishes taxpayers, not criminals

A: Oppose. If it costs $50,000 per year to provide security, food, housing, healthcare, etc. to a prisoner who stole $1000, then it is the taxpayer really being punished. Our focus should be on efficient and effective ways to build respect for the law, crime prevention, and restitution, not punishment. Our judicial system is not nearly fair, effective, and error-free to justify the death penalty.

On Drugs: The Drug War must end

A: Strongly oppose. Marijuana is not a gateway drug. Oxycontin and other prescription painkillers are gateway drugs. The Drug War must end. It has condemned a generation of blacks and Latinos to incarceration and criminal records. Marijuana should not even be legalized like alcohol and tobacco. It should be normalized like caffeine and chocolate. As President I would place a high priority on pardoning thousands of non-violent offenders to rejoin and support their families and communities.

On Education: Vouchers for school choice, to increase parental control

A: Strongly support. Education of children should be seen as a primary responsibility of the family, not the government. I support any program that increases parental engagement and control of the education of children.

On Energy & Oil: Green energy will be prioritized with or without government

A: Support. Green energy will be prioritized with or without government action. Just as there was no need for government to prioritize the growth of the internet, green energy is efficient, effective, and sustainable and it will grow through private investment. Government intrusion and over-regulation only gets in the way. There is a wide consensus on the problem of global climate change. There is no consensus whatsoever on the appropriate solutions. We need research with validated predictive models to make decisions on the basis of good science, not partisan politics, fear, and crony capitalism.

On Environment: Environmental protection by private, voluntary organizations

A: Support. EPA, as a government agency, makes decisions on the basis of political factors, not what efficiently and effectively protects the environment. Environmental protection should shift to private, voluntary organizations and a concerned and engaged citizenry.

On Foreign Policy: Liberty & enterprise, not American Exceptionalism

A: Oppose The special position of power and influence of the United States should be based on our liberty, our limited government, our free speech, our innovation, and our spirit of enterprise. It should not be based on military might or control of natural resources. We should try to serve as an example, to promote liberty across the world, so that many nations can progress along the same path. We should work multilaterally with other nations to fight international crime and not to build a new American empire.

On Foreign Policy: I support Israel personally, but end government foreign aid

On Free Trade: Trade with other nations is the best way to encourage peace

A: Support. Trade with other nations is the best way to encourage peace, liberty, and progress in the human condition. Limitations on trade should be a decision made by the individual consumers and manufacturers. Individuals and private businesses should not be forced to do business with organizations that pollute, cheat, or abuse their employees.

On Government Reform: A large portion of our population feel disenfranchised

A: Strongly support. Voter fraud is statistically insignificant. The real problem is the large portion of our population that feel disenfranchised. They do not vote, because they do not feel there is anyone for them to vote for. We have a representative government. It just does not represent us. We should make it as easy to vote as possible, and make it easier for independent and new party candidates to get on the ballot.

On Gun Control: Second Amendment is supremacy of citizens over the State

A: Strongly support. The Second Amendment is not about target practice, hunting, or self-defense. It is about the supremacy of the right of the citizen over the power of the State.

On Health Care: ObamaCare supports a growing, inefficient & expensive system

A: Strongly oppose. ObamaCare is an effort to take more resources from wider areas of the economy to support a growing, inefficient and expensive system. We need to change our entire approach to health and wellness to encourage private, voluntary organizations to promote prevention of illness and maintenance of health and fitness, access to good basic health care to all regardless of ability to pay, appropriate investment in new technologies, reasonable, appropriate, and affordable long term care with dignity, and hospice and end-of-life care.

On Homeland Security: We cannot afford to be the policeman of the world

A: Strongly oppose. Adm. Mullen, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that the number one threat to our national security is our national debt. A debtor nation is not a free nation. It is wrong that our spending on the military is more that so many other nations combined. We cannot afford to be, nor should we want to be, the policeman of the world. President Eisenhower warned of the terrible danger to freedom by the influence of the military-industrial complex. We must heed his warning.

On Immigration: There are illegal activities but there are no illegal people

A: Strongly support. There are illegal activities, but there are no illegal people. People who love this country and want to work to support and protect this country belong here. An influx of immigrants would also help trigger the dismantling of the welfare state and promote the shift in responsibility back to families, communities, and voluntary, private, charitable organizations.

On Principles & Values: No government prohibition on religion, including publicly

A: Support. I see God in all creation and in all caring and just human relationships. We could not get God out of the public sphere, even if we wanted to. Our Constitution provides no government establishment of religion, nor prohibition of the free exercise thereof.

On Social Security: Social Security is now neither social nor secure

A: Support. Social Security is now neither social nor secure. It is already a fundamentally private system, with revenue generated from private income and benefits paid directly to individuals for their private use. The current system is a hybrid of an investment and retirement system and a charitable program for the disabled and chronically ill. Greater freedom should be allowed to opt for government-guaranteed private investments at higher rates of return and shift of charitable programs to voluntary private charities.

On War & Peace: Drop philanthropy on other countries instead of bombs

A: Support. I am not isolationist. I just prefer to drop free trade, education, tourism, and private philanthropy on other countries instead of bombs. Government foreign aid is expensive, inefficient, and often harmful. Government aid generally takes money from poor people in rich countries to give it to rich people in poor countries.