OnTheIssues interviews with presidential candidates: on Welfare & Poverty

Roseanne Barr: Opposes allowing churches to provide welfare services

Q: Oppose

Virgil Goode: Welfare services must be decreased

A: Welfare services must be decreased - not increased.

David Walker: Let churches provide services with religious exemptions

A: Yes, allow them to do it, but maintain separation of church and state. The latest issue is requiring church-related entities to offer contraceptives. Federal law has always recognized that church organizations are exempt from those types of mandates.

Q: You're referring to the provision in ObamaCare that as of August 2012, all employers, including churches, must provide health insurance which includes contraception?

A: Yes; if people want to work for church and get contraceptives, they won't go to work for a church-affiliated organizations. Even if they do, the economic cost is not that significant. Most churches are self-insured; their outside insurance is typically just catastrophic stop-loss insurance. Obama's so-called "compromise" of the insurer paying for contraception means it's the church paying for it, in effect. That was no compromise at all. But yes, we need to separate church and state.

Rocky Anderson: Opposes churches providing welfare service

A: Oppose

Andre Barnett: Allow churches to provide welfare services

A: Agree.

Robert Steele: 50% of all entitlements are fraud, waste, and abuse

• Poverty is a national shame and the #1 high-level threat to humanity. Poverty causes more infectious disease, environmental degradation, and death by violence than all armies and corporations put together.
• FULL EMPLOYMENT--the dignity of each person, is our highest priority going into 2012
• Welfare should be a community concern, planned and delivered at the lowest level
• 50% of all entitlements are fraud, waste, and abuse, and often favoring the very rich
• We need to create a Smart Nation in which transparency, truth, and trust rule
• We can wipe out poverty and end most welfare within a decade if we restore our INTEGRITY. Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org Jan 2, 2012

  Robert Steele: Support allowing churches to provide welfare services

  Q: Do you support or oppose the statement, "Allow churches to provide welfare services"?

  A: Strongly Support. God is what happens when communities are healthy. Someone smarter than me said that and I have always remembered it. Communities NEED the Golden Rule and faith-based compassion. Anything a church can do to help those in need is a positive contribution to their community.

  Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org Jan 2, 2012

  JL Mealer: No church-based welfare services with taxpayer funds

  Q: What is your opinion on the statement, "Allow churches to provide welfare services"?

  A: OPPOSE with tax payer funds;. churches are 501c3 tax exempt because of their charitable services and non-political ties.

  Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org Sep 27, 2011

  Scott Keller: We shouldn't NEED welfare; but let churches provide it

  Q: What is your opinion on the statement, "Allow churches to provide welfare services"?

  A: Support. But we shouldn't NEED welfare services. If we'd approach economics properly and with innovation, with a pro-human requirement then everyone would have what they need and much of what they want while having a much smaller federal government and a significantly advanced America and a significantly advanced humanity. Churches already supply welfare services. Nobody needs to allow them to do this. If we mean have the federal government PAY churches to do it, that's a very bad idea. So much more to share. So many ideas, so many solutions, so much frustration with politicians who don't seem to get it.

  Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org Aug 18, 2011

  Brian Moore: Eliminate poverty by eliminating for-profit system

  Poverty is deprivation of those things that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, but also such “intangibles” as the opportunity to learn, to engage in meaningful employment, and to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. This is the very essence of what Socialism is all about and how we wish to transform America’s society, and the world, into a more equitable and just way to live.

  We propose the elimination of poverty through the elimination of the for-profit system, and to transform it into worker control with full employment, a free national health system and full access to a free education. We also call for a guaranteed annual income which will enable all citizens to participate in a quality of life which will include food, water, shelter and mutual respect.

  Source: Email interview on presidential race with OnTheIssues.org Apr 3, 2008

  The above quotations are from Email interview series: Presidential candidates interviewed by OnTheIssues.org. Click here for definitions & background information on Welfare & Poverty. Click here for other issues (main summary page). Click here for more quotes by Harry Browne on Welfare & Poverty. Click here for more quotes by Brian Moore on Welfare & Poverty.
  2020 Presidential contenders on Welfare & Poverty:
  	Democrats running for President: Sen.Michael Bennet (D-CO) V.P.Joe Biden (D-DE) Mayor Mike Bloomberg (I-NYC) Gov.Steve Bullock (D-MT) Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D-IN) Sen.Cory Booker (D-NJ) Secy.Julian Castro (D-TX) Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI) Rep.John Delaney (D-MD) Rep.Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Sen.Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) Gov.Deval Patrick (D-MA) Sen.Bernie Sanders (I-VT) CEO Tom Steyer (D-CA) Sen.Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) Marianne Williamson (D-CA) CEO Andrew Yang (D-NY) 2020 Third Party Candidates: Rep.Justin Amash (L-MI) CEO Don Blankenship (C-WV) Gov.Lincoln Chafee (L-RI) Howie Hawkins (G-NY) Gov.Gary Johnson(L-NM) Howard Schultz(I-WA) Gov.Jesse Ventura (I-MN)	Republicans running for President: Sen.Ted Cruz(R-TX) Gov.Larry Hogan (R-MD) Gov.John Kasich(R-OH) V.P.Mike Pence(R-IN) Gov.Mark Sanford (R-SC) Pres.Donald Trump(R-NY) Rep.Joe Walsh (R-IL) Gov.Bill Weld(R-MA & L-NY) 2020 Withdrawn Democratic Candidates: Sen.Stacey Abrams (D-GA) Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NYC) Sen.Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Sen.Mike Gravel (D-AK) Sen.Kamala Harris (D-CA) Gov.John Hickenlooper (D-CO) Gov.Jay Inslee (D-WA) Mayor Wayne Messam (D-FL) Rep.Seth Moulton (D-MA) Rep.Beto O`Rourke (D-TX) Rep.Tim Ryan (D-CA) Adm.Joe Sestak (D-PA) Rep.Eric Swalwell (D-CA)
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  Page last updated: Dec 02, 2021