2012 presidential election

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a June 15, 2011 interview titled "Meet Gary Johnson, the GOP’s Invisible Candidate," published in Rolling Stone:

I support women’s rights to choose up until viability of the fetus. I’ve supported the notion of parental notification. I’ve supported counseling and I’ve supported the notion that public funds not be used for abortions. But I don’t want for a second to pretend that I have a better idea of how a woman should choose when it comes to this situation. Fundamentally this is a choice that a woman should have.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, was quoted as having said the following in a Jan. 22, 2011 article by David Jackson, "Obama Recalls Roe v. Wade, Backs Abortion Rights," published in USA TODAY

Today [Jan. 22, 2011] marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.

I am committed to protecting this constitutional right. I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Project Vote Smart "Political Courage Test," available at www.votesmart.org (accessed July 13, 2012):

Real choice must include more than the choice of whether or not to have an abortion, and must begin with an informed choice about preventing unintended pregnancy. By providing all women with reproductive health care and family planning, as part of a program of health care as a human right, we can greatly reduce the need for abortion. Giving women real choices for education opportunities and good paying jobs will also reduce unintended pregnancies. Abortion is a necessary health care option, but will decline as women’s choices expand upstream of unwanted pregnancy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed Apr. 25, 2012):

In the United States House of Representatives, I had a consistent pro-life voting record and in 2008 the National Right to Life Political Action Committee commended me ’for your 100 percent pro-life voting record throughout your twelve years of service in the U.S. House of Representatives.’  As President I would continue to oppose abortion and would submit a budget to Congress with zero funding for planned parenthood and any other similar entities.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the "Values," section of his official campaign website, avaialble at www.mittromney.com (accessed Sep. 12, 2012):

Mitt Romney is pro-life. He believes it speaks well of the country that almost all Americans recognize that abortion is a problem. And in the quiet of conscience, people of both political parties know that more than a million abortions a year cannot be squared with the good heart of America.

Mitt believes that life begins at conception and wishes that the laws of our nation reflected that view. But while the nation remains so divided, he believes that the right next step is for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade – a case of blatant judicial activism that took a decision that should be left to the people and placed it in the hands of unelected judges. With Roe overturned, states will be empowered through the democratic process to determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate.

Mitt supports the Hyde Amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions. As president, he will end federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood. He will protect the right of health care workers to follow their conscience in their work. And he will nominate judges who know the difference between personal opinion and the law...

Americans have a moral duty to uphold the sanctity of life and protect the weakest, most vulnerable and most innocent among us. As president, Mitt will ensure that American laws reflect America’s values of preserving life at home and abroad.

Editor’s Note:  Mitt Romney declined to sign the "Personhood Republican Presidential Candidate Pledge" released by Personhood USA in Dec. 2011. The pledge, stating that abortion should be made constitutionally illegal, was signed by Republican presidential candidates Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum.  Mitt Romney has previously supported a human life amendment to the constitution.  In an Aug. 6, 2007 interview on Good Morning America, he stated:  "I do support the Republican platform and I support that part of the Republican platform {a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution making it clear that the 14th Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children}, and I’m pro-life.”

Prior to Mitt Romney’s Sep. 12, 2012 con position, he held a pro position as indicated in his Oct. 26, 1994 statement below during a US Senate debate at Faneuil Hall, Boston:

I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country. I have since the time my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a US Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a June 15, 2011 article titled "Meet Gary Johnson, the GOP’s Invisible Candidate," published in Rolling Stone:

I support women’s rights to choose up until viability of the fetus. I’ve supported the notion of parental notification.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his July 26, 2005 article "Why I Vetoed Contraception Bill," published in the Boston Globe:

I pledged that I would not change our abortion laws either to restrict abortion or to facilitate it. What’s more, this particular bill does not require parental consent even for young teenagers. It disregards not only the seriousness of abortion but the importance of parental involvement and so would weaken a protection I am committed to uphold.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the Jan. 5, 2004 "IVI-IPO 2004 US Senate Questionnaire," published by the Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization:

I oppose spousal notification or consent [to obtain an abortion]. Regarding parental notification, I would oppose any legislation that does not include a bypass provision for minors who have been victims of, or have reason to fear, physical or sexual abuse.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in "Remarks by President and Vice President at Signing of the Health Insurance Reform Bill" on Mar. 23, 2010, available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Today, after almost a century of trying... health insurance reform becomes law in the United States of America...

This year, tens of thousands of uninsured Americans with preexisting conditions, the parents of children who have a preexisting condition, will finally be able to purchase the coverage they need...

This year, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick. They won’t be able to place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care they can receive...

Once this reform is implemented, health insurance exchanges will be created, a competitive marketplace where uninsured people and small businesses will finally be able to purchase affordable, quality insurance.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his June 14, 2011 video "Gary Johnson Reponds to Every Question Asked in CNN Debate He Was Excluded From," available on You Tube:

I would do everything I could to repeal President Obama’s health care plan. I think that very simply we can’t afford it…The long-term solution to health care is a free market approach to healthcare. And by the way, healthcare in this country is about as far removed from free market as it possibly could be.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated at the Aug. 11, 2011 Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, IA

We put together a plan that was right for Massachusetts. The president took the power of the people and the states away from them and put in place a one-size-fits-all plan. It‘s bad law. It‘s bad constitutional law. It‘s bad medicine. And if I‘m president of the United States, on my first day, I‘ll direct the secretary of HHS to grant a waiver from Obamacare to all 50 states.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Project Vote Smart "Political Courage Test," available at www.votesmart.org (accessed July 13, 2012)

I will replace ACA with improved Medicare for All, which provides quality care while saving money... ACA makes a profit-driven system even more expensive by adding complexity (’exchanges’) to an already massive bureaucracy. Crafted by insurers, it provides $400 billion in taxpayer subsidies for stripped-down policies that enrich insurers while forcing consumers to buy the inadequate plans through a mandate. Costs continue to skyrocket, as seen with the Massachusetts plan (on which ACA is based), impoverishing consumers, businesses and government while draining resources from safety-net hospitals and threatening care for tens of millions who’ll remain uninsured.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Sep. 9, 2009 "Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

The plan I’m announcing tonight would meet three basic goals. It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance for those who don’t. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. It’s a plan that asks everyone to take responsibility for meeting this challenge - not just government, not just insurance companies, but everybody including employers and individuals...

Now, even if we provide these affordable options, there may be those - especially the young and the healthy - who still want to take the risk and go without coverage. There may still be companies that refuse to do right by their workers by giving them coverage. The problem is, such irresponsible behavior costs all the rest of us money. If there are affordable options and people still don’t sign up for health insurance, it means we pay for these people’s expensive emergency room visits... unless everybody does their part, many of the insurance reforms we seek - especially requiring insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions - just can’t be achieved...

And that’s why under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance - just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.

Editor’s Note:  Prior to Barack Obama’s Pro statement from Sep. 9, 2009, he expressed a Con position as indicated by his statement during a Feb. 28, 2008 interview on NBC’s Ellen DeGeneres Show, available at www.cnsnews.com:

Both of us [Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton] want to provide health care to all Americans. There’s a slight difference, and her plan is a good one. But, she mandates that everybody buy health care. She’d have the government force every individual to buy insurance and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it. So, I focus more on lowering costs. This is a modest difference. But, it’s one that she’s tried to elevate, arguing that because I don’t force people to buy health care that I’m not insuring everybody. Well, if things were that easy, I could mandate everybody to buy a house, and that would solve the problem of homelessness. It doesn’t.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a June 17, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Jan. 31, 2011 post on his official Twitter page:

Fed Judge rules #Obamacare mandate unconstitutional. He’s right! Supreme Court should do the same.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Dec. 10, 2011 Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, IA, hosted by ABC News, The Des Moines Register, and the Republican Party of Iowa, available at www.abc.go.com:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: ...Governor Romney, let me begin with you because - you were clear. You’ve said you’ve always been against a federal mandate; you supported it in the State of Massachusetts...

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: ...my plan - was designed for our state, and other states should have the right to create plans that work for them. And if they come up with something better than we did, then we can learn from them. But the idea of a federal government or a federal mandate, as you see with Obamacare, flies in the face of the Constitution, violates the tenth amendment. I think the Supreme Court will strike it down. If they don’t, I will.

Editor’s Note: As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney supported a state-level health insurance mandate as is evidenced by his Apr. 11, 2006 opinion article, "Health Care for Everyone? We Found a Way," available at online.wsj.com:

[In Massachusetts] 40% of the uninsured were earning enough to buy insurance but had chosen not to do so. Why? Because it is expensive and because they know that if they become seriously ill, they will get free or subsidized treatment at the hospital. By law, emergency care cannot be withheld. Why pay for something you can get for free?

Of course, while it may be free for them, everyone else ends up paying the bill, either in higher insurance premiums or taxes...

I proposed that everyone must either purchase a product of their choice or demonstrate that they can pay for their own health care. It’s a personal responsibility principle...

Some of my libertarian friends balk at what looks like an individual mandate. But remember, someone has to pay for the health care that must, by law, be provided: Either the individual pays or the taxpayers pay. A free ride on government is not libertarian......

[B]ecause health insurance will now be affordable and subsidized, we insist that everyone purchase health insurance from one of our private insurance companies.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in the Apr. 4, 2012 article "Forget Obamacare: Steincare Would Cover All," available at www.jillstein.org

The mandate that every American buy expensive, inadequate health insurance is a scheme developed by Republicans and foisted on the nation by Democrats. The winners are the health insurance companies...

Americans spend far more money on health care than other industrial democracies but have a poorly performing health care system, ranked only 37th in the world, due to the cancerous burden of private health insurance. Obama and the Democrats turned their backs on Medicare—a proven solution. Instead they enacted a health insurance mandate whose prime goal will be to increase insurance company profits.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Sep. 23, 2012 interview with Scott Pelley on CBS’s 60 Minutes, "Campaign 2012: Obama vs. Romney," avaialble at www.cbsnews.com:

Romney: Well, I don’t want any change to Medicare for current seniors or for those that are nearing retirement...

...So what I do in my Medicare plan for younger people coming along is say this, ’We’re going to have higher benefits for low income people and lower benefits for high income people. We’re going to make it more means tested.’ I think if we do that, we’ll make sure to preserve Medicare into the indefinite future.

Pelley: The idea under your plan for future seniors would be that the federal government would write that senior a check, essentially, and say, ’Now, you can go buy a private insurance plan or you can buy Medicare from the federal government.’ Is that essentially it?

Romney: Yeah. That’s essentially it. People would have a choice of either traditional, government-run, fee-for-service Medicare; or a private plan, which has to offer the same benefits.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, US Representative (R-VA), was quoted as stating the following in a Sep. 29, 2012 article "What Makes Virgil Goode Run?," available at www.salon.com:

I’m a conservative, but with a focus on average people. For instance, I support Social Security and Medicare. And I disagree with Paul Ryan about the need to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

While vouchers might be preferable to the current system, I believe Medicare funding should be provided to the states via block grants - allowing substantial cost savings and federal outlays, while allowing the states to fashion more effective ways of providing health care for those who need assistance.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Aug. 25, 2012 "Weekly Address: Preserving and Strengthening Medicare," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

A]s part of the Affordable Care Act, we gave seniors deeper discounts on prescription drugs, and made sure preventive care like mammograms are free without a co-pay. We’ve extended the life of Medicare by almost a decade. And I’ve proposed reforms that will save Medicare money by getting rid of wasteful spending in the health care system and reining in insurance companies – reforms that won’t touch your guaranteed Medicare benefits. Not by a single dime.

Republicans in Congress have put forward a very different plan. They want to turn Medicare into a voucher program. That means that instead of being guaranteed Medicare, seniors would get a voucher to buy insurance, but it wouldn’t keep up with costs. As a result, one plan would force seniors to pay an extra $6,400 a year for the same benefits they get now. And it would effectively end Medicare as we know it.

I think our seniors deserve better. I’m willing to work with anyone to keep improving the current system, but I refuse to do anything that undermines the basic idea of Medicare as a guarantee for seniors who get sick.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted as stating the following in a June 28, 2012 article "Romneycare and Obamacare are Class Warfare and Failures, Says Stein," available at www.jillstein.org:

[It is] time for all Americans to reject the failed Obama and Romney approach to the health crisis, and demand an improved Medicare for All system that provides health care to all at an affordable price...

We must implement a publicly administered non-profit system with no premiums, no deductibles, no co-pays and no co-insurance. This kind of system is proven. It is providing affordable health care all across the developed world, and providing better health outcomes. It’s the only fiscally sound approach to health care costs because it eliminates the inefficiencies of private insurance corporations, and provides effective cost controls.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during an NBC-hosted presidential debate held on Oct. 7, 2008 in Nashville, TN, and transcribed and posted by CNN.com:

I think it [health care] should be a right for every American. In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills -- for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Oct. 24, 2011 "Presidential Campaign Announcement Speech," available at www.jillstein.org

[I]t’s time for the United States, the richest country in the world, to catch up with the rest of the developed nations and provide health care for everyone as a human right. We can do this through a Medicare for all system that will not only provide quality health care - it will save trillions by streamlining the massive health insurance bureaucracy and ending runaway medical inflation.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Sep. 17, 2011 interview "Gov. Gary Johnson’s First Google+ Hangout," available on YouTube.com:

I am proposing that the federal government cut Medicaid and Medicare by 43%. Give the programs to the States, and also do away with the strings and the mandates that go along with Medicaid and Medicare... I believe that if the Federal government would have given me complete control of Medicaid and given me 43% less money in New Mexico that I could have effectively delivered health care to the poor in New Mexico... Is Health Care a right, I don’t think so.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No, citizens first.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the Aug. 11, 2011 Fox News/Republican Party of Iowa presidential candidate debate in Ames, IA

What we did in our state was this. We said, look, we’re finding people that can afford insurance, health insurance, that are going to the hospital and getting the state to pay for them. Taxpayers are picking up hundreds of millions of dollars of costs from people who are free riders. We said, you know what? We’re going to insist that those people who can afford to pay for themselves do so. We believe in personal responsibility. And if the people aren’t willing to do that, then they’re going to help the government pay for them. That was our conclusion.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Mar. 9, 2009 speech made in Washington, DC, in conjunction with his signing of Executive Order  13505, "Removing Barriers to Responsible Scientific Research Involving Human Stem Cells," available at whitehouse.gov

Today, with the Executive Order I am about to sign... we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research. We will vigorously support scientists who pursue this research. And we will aim for America to lead the world in the discoveries it one day may yield...

Medical miracles do not happen simply by accident. They result from painstaking and costly research – from years of lonely trial and error, much of which never bears fruit – and from a government willing to support that work...

As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research – and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted by OnTheIssues in their article, "Jill Stein on Abortion," available at www.ontheissues.org (accessed July 17, 2012):

Q: Should the federal government fund stem cell research and legalize its development in the private sector?

A: [Jill Stein] Yes, allow the exploration of any stem cell regardless of the source.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following on his campaign website article "Civil Liberties," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed Feb. 13, 2012):

Stem cell research should only be completed by private laboratories that operate without federal funding.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a Feb. 11, 2007 Associated Press article titled "Romney Wraps Self in Reagan Lingo":

I don’t believe that somatic cell nuclear transfer or cloning and embryo farming are appropriate and would not pursue federal funding of those forms of stem cell research.

Editor’s Note: Mitt Romney said the following in a Mar. 19, 2009 interview with CNN’s Larry King:

I support stem cell research. I do not support creating new embryos for the purpose of taking away the life of that embryo, and taking stem cells from those embryos. There are a lot of better ways than getting stem cells from --

KING: Even though they’re probably never going to be lives?

ROMNEY: If you create them in the laboratory, you’re creating new life. And I wouldn’t do that for the purpose of research, but there are fortunately much better ways of doing it, which has now been proven by scientists across the country.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Dec. 6, 2010 article by John McCormack, "Gov. Gary Johnson: I Smoked Marijuana from 2005 to 2008," published in The Weekly Standard

Rather than using painkillers, which I have used on occasion before, I did smoke pot, as a result of having broken my back, blowing out both of my knees, breaking ribs, really taking about three years to recover.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Mar. 22, 2008 interview with Editorial Page Editor Gary Nelson, published in The Mail Tribune:

When it comes to medical marijuana, I have more of a practical view than anything else. My attitude is that if it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else. I think there are legitimate concerns in not wanting to allow people to grow their own or start setting up mom and pop shops because at that point it becomes fairly difficult to regulate.

I’m not familiar with all the details of the initiative that was passed [in Oregon] and what safeguards there were in place, but I think the basic concept that using medical marijuana in the same way, with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that’s entirely appropriate.

I would not punish doctors if it’s prescribed in a way that is appropriate. That may require some changes in federal law. I will tell you that...the likelihood of that being real high on my list is not likely. What I’m not going to be doing is using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue simply because I want folks to be investigating violent crimes and potential terrorism. We’ve got a lot of things for our law enforcement officers to deal with.

Editor’s Note: On Oct. 7, 2011, federal prosecutors in California announced their efforts to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries with "significant commercial operations." Some medical marijuana proponents believe that these and similar actions of the US Department of Justice reflect a Con position for Barack Obama. Still others say that Obama is Not Clearly Pro or Con medical marijuana given statements like the one from a Nov. 24, 2007 town hall meeting in Audbon, IA:

My attitude is, if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the best way to relieve pain and suffering is through medical marijuana then that’s something I’m open to, because there’s no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain. But I want to do it under strict guidelines. I want to make sure that it is prescribed in the same way that other painkillers or palliative drugs would be prescribed. I’m concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it’s for medicinal purposes, because that’s kind of a slippery slope

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on her 2010 gubernatorial campaign website jillstein.org, on the page titled "Other Important Issues," available at www.web.archive.org, Sep. 20, 2010:

Our current approach to the regulation of marijuana is a failure. It has resulted in a massive black market that is creating violence in our communities and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars each year into the pockets of criminal supply networks. Taxpayers are footing the bill for ineffective law enforcement efforts and unnecessary judicial expenses. And the most that can be achieved is to keep a few people from purchasing an herb that appears to be much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco.

It’s time to get rid of the black market and bring marijuana sales under a legal regulatory framework...

One option to be examined would permit limited marijuana sales through existing liquor stores. The use of marijuana for medical purposes would be expedited under separate provisions in which a doctor’s prescription would be required.

As a physician, I believe in caution and moderation with regard to any substance we take into our bodies. And I would apply that same caution to marijuana. But evidence suggests that the effects of marijuana on health are far less harmful than those of tobacco and alcohol

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in an Oct. 4, 2007 Town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire:

I believe marijuana should be illegal in our country. It is the pathway to drug usage by our society, which is a great scourge -- which is one of the great causes of crime in our cities. And I believe that we are at a state where, of course, we are very concerned about people who are suffering pain, and there are various means of providing pain management. And those that have had loved ones that have gone through an end of life with cancer know the nature of real pain. I watched my wife’s mom and dad, both in our home, both going through cancer treatment, suffering a great deal of pain. But they didn’t have marijuana, and they didn’t need marijuana because there were other sources of pain management that worked entirely effectively. I’m told there is even a synthetic marijuana as well that is available. But having legalized marijuana, in my view, is an effort by a very committed few to try and get marijuana out into the public and ultimately legalize marijuana. It’s a long way to go. We need less drugs in this society, not more drugs, and I would oppose the legalization of marijuana in the country or legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes because pain management is available from other sources.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a July 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

While individual religious and moral views vary, both Ayn Rand and Mises recognized suicide as one of the most basic rights that not even a totalitarian state could take away from the individual. They are correct, and government efforts to impede that right are doomed to fail.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 28, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Mar. 23, 2008 interview with Gary Nelson published in the Mail Tribune, "He Favors Long-Term Timber-Payments Solution," available at www.mailtribune.com:

I am in favor of palliative medicine in circumstances where someone is terminally ill... I’m mindful of the legitimate interests of states to prevent a slide from palliative treatments into euthanasia. On the other hand, I think that the people of Oregon did a service for the country in recognizing that as the population gets older we’ve got to think about issues of end-of-life care.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on May 3, 2007 during the Republican presidential candidate debate in Simi Valley, CA, hosted by MSNBC, available at www.msnbc.com:

Should Congress have acted or let the [Terri Schiavo] family make the decision [to remove life support], the husband?

Romney: I think we should generally make the family make a decision of this nature.

Moderator: The husband should have decided?

Romney: Generally, we should make that decision. In the case here, the courts decided what they thought was the right thing to do. And then I think Jeb Bush and the Florida legislature did the right thing by saying, we’ve got a concern. They looked over the shoulder of the court. But I think the decision of Congress to get involved was a mistake.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 13, 2012.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, signed into law Senate Bill 204 on Mar. 15, 2001, An Act Relating to Elections; Restoring the Right to Vote to a Person Convicted of a Felony who has Satisfied All Conditions of a Sentence; Amending, Repealing and Enacting Sections of the NMSA 1978, available at www.nmlegis.gov. Senate Bill 204 stated in part:

A person who has served the entirety of a sentence imposed for a felony conviction, including a term of probation or parole shall, upon his request to the corrections department, be issued a certificate of completion by the corrections department. Presentation of the certificate of completion to a county clerk shall entitle the person to register to vote.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Dec. 2007 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) questionnaire titled "The NAACP 2008 Presidential Candidate Civil Rights Questionnaire,” available at www.naacp.org

I support restoration of voting rights for ex-offenders. I am a cosponsor of the Count Every Vote Act, and would sign that legislation into law as president.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

Restore the vote to ex-offenders who’ve paid their debt to society.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Jan. 16, 2012 Republican presidential candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, SC, sponsored by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the South Carolina Republican Party, available at foxnewsinsider.com:

I think people who committed violent crimes should not be allowed to vote again…

As governor of Massachusetts, I had an 85 percent Democratic legislature. This is something we discussed. My view was people who committed violent crimes should not be able to vote, even upon coming out of office.

In my state, I had a state that — that said that they did not favor my position. I’m not letting felons who had committed violent crimes vote. I think it’s a — a position that’s reasonable, and that’s the position I’ve got.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his article "Drug Policy Reform," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed Oct. 13, 2011):

Abuse of hard drugs is a health problem that should be dealt with by health experts, not a problem that should be clogging up our courts, jails, and prisons with addicts. Instead of continuing to arrest and incarcerate drug users, we should seriously consider the examples of countries such as Portugal and the Netherlands, and we should ultimately choose to adopt policies which aim to reduce death, disease, violence, and crime associated with dangerous drugs… We can never totally eliminate drug addiction and drug abuse. We can, however, minimize these harms and reduce the negative effects they have on society by making sure drug abusers are able to access effective treatment options (jail is not an effective treatment option).

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provides the following statement on her campaign website page "Where We Stand on the Issues," available at www.jillstein.org (accessed Sep. 13, 2012):

End the ineffective and costly War on Drugs and begin to treat drug use as a public health problem, not a criminal problem.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Depends on the charge.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the Jan. 27, 2011 video "Your Interview with the President: State of the Union 2011," posted on youtube.com:

I am a strong believer that we have to think more about drugs as a public health problem. When you think about other damaging activities in our society: smoking, drunk driving... typically we’ve made huge strides over the last 20 or 30 years by changing people’s attitudes. On drugs I think a lot of times we have been so focused on arrest, incarceration, interdiction, that we don’t spend as much time thinking about how do we shrink demand...

[W]hen we have nonviolent, first-time drug offenders, are there ways that we can make sure that we’re steering them into the straight and narrow without automatically resorting to incareration, drug courts, mechanisms like that. These are all issues that are worth exploring, and worth a serious debate.

Mitt Romney

ProCon.org emailed the Romney campaign for his position to this question on Oct. 26, 2011, Nov. 11, 2011, and on Jan. 30, 2012. We also left a follow up telephone message on Feb. 8, 2012. We have not yet received a reply with Romney’s position as of Feb. 13, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 28, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

They should be allowed to profile, but not on the basis of race.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during an Apr. 25, 2012 interview on RT’s The Alyona Show, available at YouTube.com:

Stop and frisk policies in New York. 700,000 New Yorkers have been stopped in the last year and basically searched. And we’re not talking about getting on an airplane here. We’re talking about on the streets of New York and Mayor Bloomberg had criticism for Arizona’s law [SB 1070] said it was going to lead to racial profiling. Well I have got to tell you in New York I think racial profiling is going on right now with regard to the whole stop and frisk. Isn’t this why we fought wars when it comes to protecting our civil liberties? Well this is civil liberties out the window.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his July 22, 2009 "News Conference by the President," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

[T]there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That’s just a fact.

As you know, Lynn, when I was in the state legislature in Illinois, we worked on a racial profiling bill because there was indisputable evidence that blacks and Hispanics were being stopped disproportionately. And that is a sign, an example of how, you know, race remains a factor in this society. That doesn’t lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am standing here as testimony to the progress that’s been made.

And yet the fact of the matter is, is that this still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and oftentime for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that’s why I think the more that we’re working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we’re eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody is going to be.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in an Apr. 9, 2012 article "Stein Calls for Elimination of Racist Violence," available at www.jillstein.org:

It is terrible that some individuals now believe they can shoot Black people on our streets and get away with it, but it is not surprising given that they have seen that police forces across the country make use of racial profiling and that our prison and criminal justice systems reinforce racial disparities in every imaginable way.

Mitt Romney

No position found as of May 30, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, made the following statement in "Guns Must Never Be up for Grabs" on www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed on Oct. 13, 2011):

I’m an ardent supporter of the 2nd amendment and openly advocated conceal carry as Governor. It was a new concept at the time, but I believed it would result in less crime - a fact borne out by the statistics.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, made the following statement in "Candidates’ Gun Control Positions May Figure in Pa. Vote," Tribune Review, Apr. 2, 2008:

I am not in favor of concealed weapons. I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on his campaing website page "Gun Rights," available at www.mittromney.com (accessed July 31, 2012):

Mitt strongly supports the right of all law-abiding Americans to exercise their constitutionally protected right to own firearms and to use them for lawful purposes, including hunting, recreational shooting, self-defense, and the protection of family and property...

...Mitt will work to expand and enhance access and opportunities for Americans to hunt, shoot, and protect their families, homes and property, and he will fight the battle on all fronts to protect and promote the Second Amendment.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Dec. 21, 2011 interview, "OnTheIssues Interview with Jill Stein," available at www.ontheissues.org:

It is more dangerous to the occupants of a home to have a gun than not. It’s more likely that you’ll be injured by your own gun than that you’ll be defended against some intruder with that gun. It’s an enormous public health problem in our cities-- there are tragedies every day where young people are being shot, as victims of gun crimes. It’s tragic. We’re not arguing that nobody should have a gun--but public safety should factor into constraints.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, wrote the following in his Mar. 13, 2011 Arizona Daily Star article "President Obama: We Must Seek Agreement on Gun Reforms:"

We lose the same number of young people to guns every day and a half as we did at Columbine, and every four days as we did at Virginia Tech.

Every single day, America is robbed of more futures. It has awful consequences for our society. And as a society, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to put a stop to it.

I’m willing to bet that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few - dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example - from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.

I’m willing to bet they don’t think that using a gun and using common sense are incompatible ideas - that we should check someone’s criminal record before he can check out at a gun seller; that an unbalanced man shouldn’t be able to buy a gun so easily; that there’s room for us to have reasonable laws that uphold liberty, ensure citizen safety and are fully compatible with a robust Second Amendment.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the July 13, 2011 article, "Governor Johnson Calls Department of Justice Reporting Requirement an Outrage," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com:

Now, the DOJ’s [Department of Justice’s] plan to address gun trafficking is to require law-abiding citizens in border states to be reported and entered into a federal database for buying perfectly legal rifles from licensed dealers.

Not only will this requirement do absolutely nothing to curb violence on either side of the border, it is yet another unacceptable infringement on fundamental 2nd Amendment rights. It is an outrage that this Administration is using border violence as an excuse to add the names of more law-abiding gun owners to their database. The President and his Attorney General need to get off the backs of American gun owners, and focus on policies that will actually work to stop border violence – without eroding basic constitutional rights.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, was quoted as saying the following in the Jan. 7, 2008 article "Romney’s Issue Statements," available at www.washingtonpost.com:

I believe we need to focus on enforcing our current laws rather than creating new laws that burden lawful gun owners. I believe in safe and responsible gun ownership and that anyone who exercises the right to keep and bear arms must do so lawfully and properly. I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all federal approach to gun ownership because people keep and use firearms for different reasons. Law-abiding citizens have a right to protect their homes and their families and as President, I will vigorously defend that right.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Project Vote Smart "Political Courage Test," available at www.votesmart.org (accessed July 13, 2012):

For public safety, gun ownership should be appropriately regulated.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream:

While the evidence tells me that the death penalty does little to deter crime, I believe there are some crimes- mass murder, the rape and murder of a child- so heinous, so beyond the pale, that the community is justified in expressing the full measure of its outrage by meting out the ultimate punishment.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the "In the News," section of his official campaign website, avaialble at www.mittromney.com (accessed Nov. 28, 2007):

Governor Romney has been a consistent supporter and advocate of the death penalty for convicted killers.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in an Aug. 21, 2011 publication "Interview with Gary Johnson," available at www.scottholleran.com:

As governor of New Mexico, I was a bit naïve and I did not think the government made mistakes with regard to the death penalty. I came to realize that they do. I don’t want to put one innocent person to death to punish 99 who are guilty.

Editor’s Note: Gov. Johnson reportedly first publicly announced his opposition to the death penalty at a Jan. 16, 2002 news conference following his State of the State speech to the Legislature where he said in part:

I have to come to believe that the death penalty as a public policy is flawed… I believe that this country has put innocent people to death and that in the future this country will put innocent people to death.

Johnson expressed a pro position as indicated below on Aug. 28, 2001:

I have no plans to render a stay on his execution. Terry Clark committed the crimes that he has been convicted of. I happen to think that’s just punishment for him…I happen to support the death penalty for individuals who commit these types of crimes.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Project Vote Smart "Political Courage Test," available at www.votesmart.org (accessed July 13, 2012):

America’s experience shows that capital punishment does not effectively stop crimes from being committed. And our judicial system makes mistakes, killing people who are innocent. It’s time to move beyond capital punishment, to abolish it, and to instead use life imprisonment as the most severe form of sentencing for those who cannot be trusted to live in common society.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the Oct. 7, 2011 statement "Gary Johnson on Fed Crackdown on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries: DOJ Has Better Things to Do," available on www.garyjohnson2012.com:

With weapons being allowed to ‘walk’ to drug cartels in Mexico and Solyndra walking with $500 million of taxpayers’ money, I would think DOJ and the Administration have better things to do than mount an assault on medical marijuana dispensaries in California that are legal under state law. Regardless of one’s view of medical marijuana, Americans who believe in states’ rights should be extremely disturbed that the federal government is in the process of shutting down businesses, threatening criminal charges, and confiscating the property of small businesses operating under good faith according to state law.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, in reference to his Aug. 21, 2007 quotation shown below, made the following statement during an interview with Rolling Stone’s Jann S. Wenner published on Apr. 25, 2012, "Ready for the Fight:  Rolling Stone Interview with Barack Obama," available at www.rollingstone.com:

What I specifically said was that we were not going to prioritize prosecutions of persons who are using medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that somehow we were going to give carte blanche to large-scale producers and operators of marijuana – and the reason is, because it’s against federal law. I can’t nullify congressional law. I can’t ask the Justice Department to say, ’Ignore completely a federal law that’s on the books.’ What I can say is, ’Use your prosecutorial discretion and properly prioritize your resources to go after things that are really doing folks damage.’ As a consequence, there haven’t been prosecutions of users of marijuana for medical purposes.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in an Apr. 22, 2012 article "Stein Challenges Obama on Marijuana Policy," available at www.jillstein.org:

[I would] order the DEA and the Justice Department to cease and desist all attempts to harass or prosecute medical marijuana clinics or other legitimate marijuana-related businesses that are operating under state laws...

President Obama promised to use a science-based approach to public policy. But when it comes to marijuana, he has continued the unscientific policies of George Bush, and has even gone far beyond Bush in his attacks upon medical marijuana clinics. He supports the irrational classification of marijuana in the most dangerous drug category, and he supports the ban on commercial hemp growing. This is mania-based policy, not science-based policy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Depends on several factors.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, said the following at a town hall event in Exeter, NH on Oct. 25, 2007, available on YouTube.com:

I don’t do any arresting. In my view, marijuana should not be made legal either for medicinal purposes or recreational purposes. It’s the opening way to drug use for many, many people in our country and I’m opposed to medical marijuana.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, was quoted in an Apr. 10, 2012 article "Gary Johnson: Lower the Drinking Age!," available at www.dailycaller.com:

I’m always the guy to advocate for lower ages. I just believe that the lower the age the better you come to grips with what these substances are...If you can go to Iraq and die, or Afghanistan and die as a service man or women at 18, and you can’t drink — I’m sorry I don’t buy into that...Hypothetically no, there shouldn’t be [a drinking age]... but the lower the age the better.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 28, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Mar. 17, 2008 MTV Roundtable at Whistles Pub in Scranton, PA, when asked by Army veteran Ernest Johnson if he would lower the drinking age, available at www.usatoday.com:

I know it drives you nuts. But I’m not going to lower the drinking age.

Mitt Romney

No position found as of May 30, 2012

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, was quoted as having said the following in a Sep. 28, 2011 article titled "Romney Calls China An ’Economic Threat,’" available at www.afp.com:

[Donald Trump and I] see eye to eye on China. Not only as an economic threat, cultural threat, [but] down the road they’re building a very strong military with potentially the intent to dissuade us from sending ships to the South China Sea, military ships.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, stated the following in an Aug. 1, 2011 article by Tim Murphy titled "Gary Johnson: ’I’m Not. Dead. Yet.’," published in Mother Jones:

When people understand that the United States spends 52 cents out of the worldwide dollar on military spending and that China spends 9 cents, what arms race are we gonna engage them in? I mean really, is China a threat? No, they’re not.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Nov. 14, 2009 article by Voice of America titled "Obama Calls for New Era in Trans-Pacific Relations," available at wwww.voanews.co

I know there are many who question how the United States perceives China’s emergence. But as I have said - in an inter-connected world, power does not need to be a zero-sum game, and nations need not fear the success of another. Cultivating spheres of cooperation - not competing spheres of influence - will lead to progress in the Asia Pacific.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes mostly.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Sep. 28, 2011 roundtable titled "Open for Questions with President Obama," available at whitehouse.gov:

[W]e’re prepared to show flexibility and not be stuck in a Cold War mentality dating back to when I was born. On the other hand, we have to see a signal back from the Cuban government that it is following through on releasing political prisoners, on providing people their basic human rights, in order for us to be fully engaged with them. And so far, at least, what we haven’t seen is the kind of genuine spirit of transformation inside of Cuba that would justify us eliminating the embargo...

And as long as I’m President I will always be prepared to change our Cuba policy if and when we start seeing a serious intention on the part of the Cuban government to provide liberty for its people. But that’s always my watchword, is are we seeing freedom for the Cuban people to live lives of opportunity and prosperity. If we are, then we’ll be supportive of them.

Editor’s Note: Prior to the Sep. 28, 2011 pro position above, Obama also made the following pro comment during an Aug. 25, 2007 speech in Miami, FL, while serving as US Senator (D-IL) during the 2008 presidential election:

As President I am not going to take off the embargo, it’s an important inducement for change because we know that Castro’s death will not automatically guarantee freedom.

Obama held a Con position as indicated by his Jan. 20, 2004 speech at Southern Illinois University, posted on YouTube.com.

I think it’s time for us to end the embargo on Cuba... Our planet is shrinking. And our biggest foreign policy challenge… is how do we make sure that other countries, in developing nations, are providing sustenance for their people, human rights for their people, a basic structure of government for their people, that is stable and secure so they can be partners in a brighter future for the entire planet. And the Cuban embargo has failed to provide the sorts of rising standards of living, and has squeezed the innocents in Cuba and utterly failed to overthrow Castro, who has now been there since I was born. It is now time to acknowledge that that particular policy has failed.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Jan. 26, 2012 CNN Republican debate held in Jacksonville, FL:

The right course for Cuba is to continue to honor Helms-Burton [a 1996 law which strengthened the US embargo against Cuba]. And if I’m president of the United States, I will use every resource we have, short of invasion and military action, Congressman Paul. I’ll use every resource we can to make sure that when Fidel Castro finally leaves this planet, that we are able to help the people of Cuba enjoy freedom.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Sep. 22, 2011 Fox News Republican presidential candidate debate in Orlando, FL, available at www.foxnews.com:

Governor Johnson, here in Florida, charter flights from Ft. Lauderdale to Havana, Cuba, have resumed. Is there a problem with that? And what are your thoughts on U.S.-Cuba policy?

JOHNSON: ...With regard to flights to Cuba? You know, I’m - I’m in favor, I think, of the whole notion that trade promotes friendship, as opposed to not. So I would be inclined to looking at establishing or supporting those kinds of things.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

If Congress declares war.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his Mar. 4, 2012 speech titled "Remarks by the President at AIPAC Policy Conference," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

As President and Commander-in-Chief, I have a deeply held preference for peace over war. I have sent men and women into harm’s way. I’ve seen the consequences of those decisions in the eyes of those I meet who’ve come back gravely wounded, and the absence of those who don’t make it home. Long after I leave this office, I will remember those moments as the most searing of my presidency. And for this reason, as part of my solemn obligation to the American people, I will only use force when the time and circumstances demand it. And I know that Israeli leaders also know all too well the costs and consequences of war, even as they recognize their obligation to defend their country.

We all prefer to resolve this issue diplomatically. Having said that, Iran’s leaders should have no doubt about the resolve of the United States just as they should not doubt Israel’s sovereign right to make its own decisions about what is required to meet its security needs.

I have said that when it comes to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, I will take no options off the table, and I mean what I say. That includes all elements of American power: A political effort aimed at isolating Iran; a diplomatic effort to sustain our coalition and ensure that the Iranian program is monitored; an economic effort that imposes crippling sanctions; and, yes, a military effort to be prepared for any contingency.

Iran’s leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I have made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Nov. 12, 2011 CBS News and National Journal Republican debate held in Spartanburg, SC:

The president should have built credible threat of military action, and made it very clear that the United States of America is willing, in the final analysis, if necessary, to take military action to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon. Look, one thing you can know-- and that is if we reelect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if we elect Mitt Romney, if you’d like me as the next president, they will not have a nuclear weapon…

Well, it’s worth putting in place crippling sanctions. It’s worth working with the insurgents in the country to encourage regime change in the country. And if all else fails, if after all of the work we’ve done, there’s nothing else we can do beside mil-- take military action, then of course you take military action. It is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Mar. 5, 2012 article "Obama’s Own Iran Statements Are ’Loose Talk of War,’ Says Stein," available at www.jillstein.org:

A hallmark of a Stein administration will be respect for international law and a rejection of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war that Obama and his party have come to embrace. The interests of the American people are not served by illegal attacks on other nations based on hypothetical future transgressions. Yet President Obama is threatening Iran with attack by saying that ’all options are on the table’. It’s a terrible replay of Bush’s run-up to the invasion of Iraq over the mythical weapons of mass destruction...

A US or Israeli airstrike on Iran would have severe repercussions for the American people. It would produce a global oil supply crisis that would send our entire economy into a tailspin. And it could lead to retaliatory attacks on Israeli and American citizens. We need to take a clear stand against nuclear proliferation in the Middle East, but preemptive attacks, especially for a problem that is not even in evidence, are counterproductive and must not be on the table. The mindset that every problem requires a military response has gotten us into trouble again and again, and its disappointing to see the Obama Administration going down that road yet again.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during a Dec. 30, 2011 interview with Robert Siegel on NPRs All Things Considered, "Johnson Discusses Seeking Libertarian Nomination," available at www.npr.org:

I also happen to think that Israel, you know, we were responsible for the creation of Israel and that was through the United Nations; that they’ve been a strong military ally, that they will remain such. I do not think a military threat right now exists from Iran, but we should be vigilant to that. And I think it’s naive to think that Israel is not going to act in their best interests should there be weapons of mass destruction showing themselves.

SIEGEL: And you would say the U.S. should support an Israeli action in that case, if Israel were to act militarily?

JOHNSON: Well, I would argue that that would probably be in our best interest. And to have them do that is a better situation than U.S. men and servicewomen engaged in the same.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Jan. 30, 2012 Google+ video chat, "Obama Addresses Drone Strikes During ’Hangout,’" available at YouTube.com:

As a general proposition... I want to make sure the people understand actually drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties. For the most part they have been very precise precision strikes against al-Qaeda and their affiliates. And we are very careful in terms of how it’s been applied...

This is a targeted, focused effort, at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American facilities, American bases...

It is part and parcel of our overall authority when it comes to battling al-Qaeda...

We have to be judicious in how we use drones, but understand that probably our ability to respect the sovereignty of other countries and to limit our incursions into somebody else’s territory is enhanced by the fact that we are able to pin-point strike an al-Qaeda operative...

That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be careful about how we proceed on this... Obviously I’m looking forward to a time where al-Qaeda is no longer an operative network... I think we are on the offence now, al-Qaeda has been really weakened, but we’ve still got a little more work to do, and we’ve got to make sure that were using all our capacities in order to deal with it.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Oct. 22, 2012 presidential debate in Boca Raton, FL, available at www.abcnews.go.com:

Well I believe we should use any and all means necessary to take out people who pose a threat to us and our friends around the world. And it’s widely reported that drones are being used in drone strikes, and I support that and entirely, and feel the president was right to up the usage of that technology, and believe that we should continue to use it, to continue to go after the people that represent a threat to this nation and to our friends.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

We have to stop with the drone strikes.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Oct. 22, 2012 during Democracy Now’s expanded presidential debate, "Expanding the Presidential Debate on Foreign Policy," available at YouTube.com:

No matter who is in the oval office, if it’s not one of us, we need to be out on the street, even if there is someone with a D on his shirt who is continuing these wars, who is continuing the drone wars which we have just been told are about to expand into North Africa now as well under the auspices of the CIA that has requested a major expansion in drone capacity...

We need to be standing up and demanding the kind of foreign policy we deserve that is a foreign policy based on international law and human rights. The drone wars are dreadful, it’s said that they are actually hitting about 2% of their victims in fact are thought to be key operatives within al-Qaeda or associated groups, so the vast majority of the people being killed are not significant operatives. So when Barack Obama talks about creating coalitions with Yemen and Somalia, whatever his coalitions are doing, unfortunately they are vastly overwhelmed by what his drones are doing because we are seeing, in fact, people being driven into the camp of the avowed enemies of the United States because of the impact of these drone wars. So, they need to be put to an end.

Virgil Goode

No position found as of Oct. 29, 2012

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Jan. 16, 2012 Republican presidential candidate debate in Myrtle Beach, SC, sponsored by Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, and the South Carolina Republican Party, available at foxnewsinsider.com:

EVANS: Governor Romney, when President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law, he enacted a provision allowing him to indefinitely detain American citizens in U.S. military custody... Governor Romney, as president, would you have signed the National Defense Act as written?

ROMNEY: Yes, I would have. And I do believe that it is appropriate to have in our nation the capacity to detain people who are threats to this country, who are members of al Qaeda.

Look, you have every right in this country to protest and to express your views on a wide range of issues but you don’t have a right to join a group that has killed Americans, and has declared war against America. That’s treason. In this country we have a right to take those people and put them in jail.

And I recognize, I recognize that in a setting where they are enemy combatants and on our own soil, that could possibly be abused. There are a lot of things I think this president does wrong, lots of them, but I don’t think he is going to abuse this power and I that if I were president I would not abuse this power. And I can also tell you that in my view you have to choose people who you believe have sufficient character not to abuse the power of the presidency and to make sure that we do not violate our constitutional principles.

But let me tell you, people who join al Qaeda are not entitled to rights of due process under our normal legal code. They are entitled instead to be treated as enemy combatants.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

If I were President, I would have vetoed NDAA.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

I would have never signed the National Defense Authorization Act allowing for you and I as US citizens to be arrested and detained without being charged. That’s the reason we fought wars in this country.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

It is an outrage that 1021 NDAA was ever passed to start with. It’s an incredible betrayal of our civil liberties that the President has assumed dictatorial rights to put us in prison at his pleasure without charge or without trial.

This is unallowable and is a basic offense against the very foundation of American liberty and it should be repealed.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his Dec. 31, 2011 "Statement by the President on HR 1540," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Today I have signed into law H.R. 1540, the ’National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.’ I have signed the Act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families, and vital national security programs that must be renewed...

The fact that I support this bill as a whole does not mean I agree with everything in it. In particular, I have signed this bill despite having serious reservations with certain provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists...

Section 1021 affirms the executive branch’s authority to detain persons covered by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) (Public Law 107-40; 50 U.S.C. 1541 note). This section breaks no new ground and is unnecessary. The authority it describes was included in the 2001 AUMF, as recognized by the Supreme Court and confirmed through lower court decisions since then. Two critical limitations in section 1021 confirm that it solely codifies established authorities. First, under section 1021(d), the bill does not ’limit or expand the authority of the President or the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force.’ Second, under section 1021(e), the bill may not be construed to affect any ’existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States."...

...I want to clarify that my Administration will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens. Indeed, I believe that doing so would break with our most important traditions and values as a Nation. My Administration will interpret section 1021 in a manner that ensures that any detention it authorizes complies with the Constitution, the laws of war, and all other applicable law.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a July 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a CNN-hosted Democratic presidential debate held on July 23, 2007 in Charleston, SC, and transcribed and posted by nytimes.com:

I think that if women are registered for service -- not necessarily in combat roles, and I don’t agree with the draft -- I think it will help to send a message to my two daughters that they’ve got obligations to this great country as well as boys do.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following at a Sep. 9, 2007 town hall event in New Hampshire:

I like the idea of providing opportunities for young people to serve… I love the opportunity to see voluntary service. But I’m not ready to lay out what that will look like. I will continue to support the programs that have been effective and see if we can’t find greater opportunities for young people to serve. Wouldn’t it be great if larger and larger numbers of the kids in this country, when I say kids, young adults in this country, were able to spend a year or two in service. I didn’t have that experience in serving my country, but I had the chance to serve my church. I was in France for two and a half years. What’s interesting is it was a great maturing time for me, where I gained perspective on some of the benefits of being an American, on some of the values that are most important to me.

Editor’s Note: Mitt Romney said the following in a Sep. 14, 2005 speech at the Heritage Foundation titled "Homeland Security: Status of Federal, State and Local Efforts:"

I do not believe in the draft. That’s totally unnecessary.

His opposition to a draft and his support of voluntary (vs. mandatory) civil service led us to categorize his position as con to our question

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 16, 2012.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in an Aug. 26, 2010 speech, "President Obama Salutes the Troops, and Invites You to Join," posted on YouTube.com:

Thank you to all the men and women who have served in Iraq and who are currently serving in Iraq. Your dedication, your bravery, your courage, has made America safer and has helped to stand up democracy in Iraq

Editor’s Note: Prior to Barack Obama’s Pro statement from Aug. 26, 2010, he expressed a Con position as indicated by the statement from Sep. 12, 2007:

Perhaps the saddest irony of the Administration’s cynical use of 9/11 is that the Iraq War has left us less safe than we were before 9/11. Osama bin Ladin and his top lieutenants have rebuilt a new base in Pakistan where they freely train recruits, plot new attacks, and disseminate propaganda. The Taliban is resurgent in Afghanistan. Iran has emerged as the greatest strategic challenge to America in the Middle East in a generation. Violent extremism has increased. Terrorism has increased. All of that is a cost of this war.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Mostly no.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a May 5, 2010 article by Niall Stanage titled "The Most Interesting Republican You’ve Never Heard of," published in Slate:

Our security is not being threatened [in either Iraq or Afghanistan. America’s] actions have actually had a reverse impact on our security. We have made enemies out of tens of millions of individuals that maybe we wouldn’t have made otherwise.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Feb. 14, 2012 interview with Michael D. Shear, "Five Questions for Jill Stein of the Green Party," available at www.thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com:

As we found on issue after issue — the war, reappointing George Bush’s secretary of defense, sticking to George Bush’s timeline on Iraq, expanding the war, expanding the drone wars all over the place... We’re certainly not more secure, more equitable, more healthy or safer internationally, with what Obama has brought.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Jan. 24, 2008 Republican presidential candidate debate in Boca Raton, FL, sponsored by MSNBC, Leadership Florida, Florida Public Broadcasting, and the Florida Press Association, available at www.nytimes.com:

It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at the time; I support it now. It was not well managed in after the takedown of Saddam Hussein and his military. That was done brilliantly, an extraordinary success. But in the years that followed, we were undermanaged, underprepared, underplanned, understaffed, and then we come into the phase that we have now. The plan that Bush and General Petraeus put together is working. It’s changing lives there. Perhaps most importantly, it’s making sure that al Qaeda and no other group like them is becoming a superpower, if you will, in the communities, and having a safe haven from which they launch attacks against us.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following at the Republican presidential debate in Boca Raton, FL on Jan. 24, 2008:

It was the right decision to go into Iraq. I supported it at the time; I support it now. It was not well managed in the -- after the takedown of Saddam Hussein and his military. That was done brilliantly, an extraordinary success. But in the years that followed, it was not well -- we were undermanaged, underprepared, underplanned, understaffed, and then we come into the phase that we have now. The plan that President Bush and General Petraeus put together is working. It’s changing lives there. And perhaps most importantly, it’s making sure that al Qaeda and no other group like them is becoming a superpower, if you will, in the communities, and having a safe haven from which they launch attacks against us.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Not in hindsight unless Congress declared war.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Fox News Republican presidential debate held in Greenville, SC on May 5, 2011:

I was opposed to us going into Iraq from the beginning, I really thought that there was no threat to our national security, I really thought that if we went into Iraq we would find ourselves in a civil war to which there would be no end and I thought we had the military surveillance capability to see Iraq rollout any weapons of mass destruction and if they would have done that, we could have gone in and dealt with that… But that was 10 years ago, we’re building roads, schools, bridges and highways in Iraq and Afghanistan and we’re borrowing 43 cents out of every dollar to do that. In my opinion, this is crazy.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the speech "Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Turning the Page in Iraq," on Sep. 12, 2007, available from his 2008 election official candidate website:

I am proud that I opposed this war from the start, because I thought that it would lead to the some -- the disastrous conditions that we’ve seen on the ground in Iraq.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Dec. 21, 2011 "OnTheIssues Interview with Jill Stein," available at www.ontheissues.com:

We are not out of Iraq - we should be out of Iraq and we are not. We never should have been in Iraq. We have spent perhaps $1 trillion, lost nearly 5,000 American lives, and probably 100,000 or perhaps one million Iraqi lives. It’s an unspeakable shame that this war occurred at all. A war caused by lies and military opportunism. A war that has conveniently secured some oil supplies for the US and the West but what a horrible price that has been paid for that illegitimate bounty.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his Sep. 21, 2011 "Remarks by President Obama in Address to the United Nations General Assembly," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

One year ago, I stood at this podium and I called for an independent Palestine. I believed then, and I believe now, that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own. But what I also said is that a genuine peace can only be realized between the Israelis and the Palestinians themselves... Israelis must know that any agreement provides assurances for their security. Palestinians deserve to know the territorial basis of their state.

We seek a future where Palestinians live in a sovereign state of their own, with no limit to what they can achieve. There’s no question that the Palestinians have seen that vision delayed for too long. It is precisely because we believe so strongly in the aspirations of the Palestinian people that America has invested so much time and so much effort in the building of a Palestinian state, and the negotiations that can deliver a Palestinian state.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in an Oct. 8, 2012 speech "Transcript: Mitt Romney Remarks at Virginia Military Institute," available at www.nytimes.com:

The relationship between the president of the United States and the prime minister of Israel, for example, our closest ally in the region, has suffered great strains. The president explicitly stated that his goal was to put daylight between the United States and Israel, and he’s succeeded. This is a dangerous situation that has set back the hope of peace in the Middle East and emboldened our mutual adversaries, especially Iran...I’ll recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the president has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president will bring the chance to begin anew.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

If all agree.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during a May 20, 2011 interview on Fox Business Network, posted on www.youtube.com:

I think it’s a mistake that we [the US] know what’s in Israel’s best interest - they do and they need to be left to decide that and determine that.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a May 15, 2012 article "US Policy to Israel, Palestine Must Change, Says Stein," available at www.jillstein.org:

The United States has encouraged the worst tendencies of the Israeli government as it pursues policies of occupation, apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law. Instead of allying with the courageous proponents of peace within Israel and Palestine, our government has rewarded consistent abusers of human rights. There is no peace or justice or democracy at the end of such a path. We must reset US policy regarding Israel and Palestine, as part of a broader revision of US policy towards the Middle East......

[A] dedicated commitment to justice will further American interests in the region much better than the current policies of supporting abuses and violence by one side against the other. And I believe that this is in the best interests of all people living in Israel and Palestine.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a July 20, 2007 Associated Press article titled "Mitt Romney Supports ’Tough Interrogation Techniques," posted on the Fox news website:

I support tough interrogation techniques, enhanced interrogation techniques, in circumstances where there is a ticking time bomb, a ticking bomb... I do not support torture, but I do support enhanced interrogation techniques to learn from terrorists what we need to learn to keep the bombs from going off.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Fox News Republican presidential debate held in Greenville, SC on May 5, 2011:

Chris Wallace: So just to be clear, the three of you, under individual case-by-case basis, wouldsupport water boarding?…

Gary Johnson: I would not.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, released an Oct. 4, 2007 statement on his 2008 election campaign website in response to a report about the George W. Bush adminstration’s use of interrogation techniques:

The secret authorization of brutal interrogations is an outrageous betrayal of our core values, and a grave danger to our security. We must do whatever it takes to track down and capture or kill terrorists, but torture is not a part of the answer - it is a fundamental part of the problem with this administration’s [George W. Bush] approach. Torture is how you create enemies, not how you defeat them. Torture is how you get bad information, not good intelligence. Torture is how you set back America’s standing in the world, not how you strengthen it. It’s time to tell the world that America rejects torture without exception or equivocation. It’s time to stop telling the American people one thing in public while doing something else in the shadows. No more secret authorization of methods like simulated drowning. When I am president America will once again be the country that stands up to these deplorable tactics. When I am president we won’t work in secret to avoid honoring our laws and Constitution, we will be straight with the American people and true to our values.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provides the following statement on her campaign website page "Where We Stand on the Issues," available at www.jillstein.org(accessed Sep. 13, 2012):

Demilitarize U.S. foreign policy to emphasize human rights, international law, multinational diplomatic initiatives and support for democratic movements across the world... Make human rights and international law the basis of our policy in the Middle East.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in an Oct. 6, 2011 debate on NPR, "The NPR Third-Party Candidate Debate," available at www.npr.org:

Let’s stop the growing police state. Let’s stop our military interventions...Government has a role to protect us against foreign countries that would attack this country. But I use the notion of under attack. We are - we continually militarily intervene. And as a result of that, we have hundreds of millions of enemies to this country that but for these military interventions would otherwise not exist...Whether you vote for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama, I’m going to offer up a couple of predictions. One is we’re going to continue to have a heightened police state in this country. The other is, is that we’re going to find ourselves in a continued state of military intervention. We are at continuous war with everyone.

Editor’s Note: In an Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org from Gary Johnson’s Communications Director, Joe Hunter, Gary Johnson stated "No" in response to our question "Should the United States intervene militarily in Syria?"

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provides the following statement on her campaign website page "Where We Stand on the Issues," available at www.jillstein.org (accessed Sep. 27, 2012):

Demilitarize US foreign policy to emphasize human rights, international law, multinational diplomatic initiatives and support for democratic movements across the world.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA) stated the following in an Aug. 27, 2012 interview on Politiclt.com, "Virgil Goode: Politiclt Exclusive Interview," available at YouTube.com:

We should not become engaged in foreign wars unless Congress, as provided in the Constitution, declares war.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following druing his Aug. 20, 2012 press conference, "Remarks by the President to the White House Press Corps," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

On Syria, obviously this is a very tough issue. I have indicated repeatedly that President al-Assad has lost legitimacy, that he needs to step down. So far, he hasn’t gotten the message, and instead has double downed in violence on his own people...

What we’ve said is, number one, we want to make sure we’re providing humanitarian assistance, and we’ve done that to the tune of $82 million, I believe, so far. And we’ll probably end up doing a little more because we want to make sure that the hundreds of thousands of refugees that are fleeing the mayhem, that they don’t end up creating -- or being in a terrible situation, or also destabilizing some of Syria’s neighbors.

The second thing we’ve done is we said that we would provide, in consultation with the international community, some assistance to the opposition in thinking about how would a political transition take place, and what are the principles that should be upheld in terms of looking out for minority rights and human rights. And that consultation is taking place.

I have, at this point, not ordered military engagement in the situation. But the point that you made about chemical and biological weapons is critical. That’s an issue that doesn’t just concern Syria; it concerns our close allies in the region, including Israel. It concerns us. We cannot have a situation where chemical or biological weapons are falling into the hands of the wrong people.

We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, JD, MBA, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in an Oct. 8, 2012 speech "Transcript: Mitt Romney Remarks at Virginia Military Institute," available at www.nytimes.com:

The president has also failed to lead in Syria, where more than - more than 30,000 men, women, and children have been massacred by the Assad regime over the past 20 months. Violent extremists are flowing into the fight. Our ally Turkey has been attacked. And the conflict threatens stability in the region...

In Syria I’ll work with our partners to identify and organize those members of the opposition who share our values and then ensure they obtain the arms they need to defeat Assad’s tanks helicopters and fighter jets. Iran is sending arms to Assad because they know his downfall would be a strategic defeat for them. We should be working no less vigorously through our international partners to support the many Syrians who would deliver that defeat to Iran, rather than sitting on the sidelines. It’s essential that we develop influence with those forces in Syria that will one day lead a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

In some ways.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Free markets are good for America, and individuals making their own decisions, without government interference, are what make a free market work.  As a matter of personal finance, one hopes credit cards are used responsibly; however, they are a part of today’s marketplace and commerce, and the costs, risks and benefits of their use will be accommodated in that marketplace.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following at the May 22, 2009 signing ceremony for The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act, in the White House Rose Garden, available at www.whitehouse.gov:

You know, most Americans use credit cards all the time.  In the majority of cases, this is a convenience or a temporary, occasional crutch:  a means to make life a little easier; to make the rare, large, or unexpected purchase that’s paid off as quickly as possible.

We’ve also seen credit cards become, for a minority of customers, part of an uneasy, unstable dependence.  Some end up in trouble because of reckless spending or wishful thinking.  Some get in over their heads by not using their heads.  And I want to be clear:  We do not excuse or condone folks who’ve acted irresponsibly.  We don’t excuse irresponsibility.

But the reason this legislation is so important is because there are many others - many who have written me letters, or grabbed my arm along rope lines, or shared their stories while choking back tears - who relied on credit cards not because they were avoiding responsibilities, but precisely because they wanted to meet their responsibilities - and got trapped...

Over the past decade, credit card debt has increased by 25 percent in our country.  Nearly half of all Americans carry a balance on their cards.  Those who do, carry an average balance of more than $7,000...

I want to be clear about this:  Credit card companies provide a valuable service; we don’t begrudge them turning a profit.  We just want to make sure that they do so while upholding basic standards of fairness, transparency, and accountability.  Just as we demand credit card users to act responsibly, we demand that credit card companies act responsibly, too.  And that’s not too much to ask.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his Sep. 6, 2011 document "Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth," available at mittromney.com:

The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 produced federal restrictions on credit card companies that have already led to higher interest rates, higher annual fees, and lower credit limits, especially for middle-class borrowers.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in an Apr. 5, 2012 article "Jobs Numbers Won’t Return ’The Stolen Decades," available at www.jillstein.org:

The fundamental flaws of an economic policy dictated by Wall Street are apparent, even if they have sometimes been masked by periods of apparent growth that were actually financed by unsustainable credit card and housing debt. Wealth that should be invested in our local economy to create jobs is being put in the hands of the super rich who build factories abroad instead. Families disintegrate while the income of the richest few surges upward. This is changing America in a way that we must not accept.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following on Apr. 22, 2010 during a speech at Cooper Union, New York, NY, "Remarks by the President on Wall Street Reform," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Now, first, the bill [Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act] being considered in the Senate would create what we did not have before, and that is a way to protect the financial system and the broader economy and American taxpayers in the event that a large financial firm begins to fail.  If there’s a Lehmans or an AIG, how can we respond in a way that doesn’t force taxpayers to pick up the tab or, alternatively, could bring down the whole system...

When this crisis began, crucial decisions about what would happen to some of the world’s biggest companies -- companies employing tens of thousands of people and holding hundreds of billions of dollars in assets -- had to take place in hurried discussions in the middle of the night.  And that’s why, to save the entire economy from an even worse catastrophe, we had to deploy taxpayer dollars.  Now, much of that money has now been paid back and my administration has proposed a fee to be paid by large financial firms to recover all the money, every dime, because the American people should never have been put in that position in the first place.

But this is why we need a system to shut these firms down with the least amount of collateral damage to innocent people and innocent businesses.  And from the start, I’ve insisted that the financial industry, not taxpayers, shoulder the costs in the event that a large financial company should falter.  The goal is to make certain that taxpayers are never again on the hook because a firm is deemed ’too big to fail.’

The system as it stands is what led to a series of massive, costly taxpayer bailouts.  And it’s only with reform that we can avoid a similar outcome in the future.  In other words, a vote for reform is a vote to put a stop to taxpayer-funded bailouts.  That’s the truth.  End of story.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a Mar. 2009 interview with James Pethokoukis of Reuters, available in Pethokoukis’s Sep. 21, 2009 reuters.com article, "Did Romney Flip-Flop on TARP?":

The TARP program, while not transparent and not having been used as wisely it should have been, was nevertheless necessary to keep banks from collapsing in a cascade of failures. You cannot have a free economy and free market if there is not a financial system… The TARP program was designed to keep the financial system going, to keep money circulating in the economy, without which the entire economy stops and you would really have an economic collapse.

Editor’s Note: A Nov. 28, 2011 video released by the Democratic National Committee accused Romney of changing his views on TARP, playing a clip of Romney saying "It was the right thing to do," followed by "TARP ought to be ended." The full Dec. 2009 quote from his interview with CNN’s John King shows that Romney wanted to end TARP because it already served its purpose:

And by the way, TARP has served its purpose. TARP ought to be ended. We’ve got hundreds of billions of dollars there that is being used as a slush fund by Secretary [Timothy] Geithner and the Obama administration. Stop the TARP recklessness at this point and get ourselves back to creating jobs by encouraging businesses to grow, expand their capital expenditures and hire.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No, I voted no.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his article "The Economy and Taxes," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed Jan. 18, 2012):

We Should:  Reject auto and banking bailouts, state bailouts, corporate welfare, cap-and-trade, card check, and the mountain of regulation that protects special interests rather than benefiting consumers or the economy.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during an Oct. 9, 2011 speech at an Occupy Boston rally, available at YouTube.com:

We’ve all heard about the bailouts, the big bailouts of Wall Street, and you may have heard it was about 800 billion dollars that we paid out as part of this TARP [troubled assets relief] program. Well it’s a well kept secret - it wasn’t just 800 billion dollars, it turns out there were many many trillions more, in fact 16 trillion dollars, if you can wrap your head around it, that was basically given away as low interest and zero interest loans that was given to the biggest banks and financial institutions...

That’s who the Fed, behind closed doors, gave 16 trillion dollars to, when we could have been using that money here instead of loaning it to the big banks to get them out of the hole that they created. We could put that money into our small businesses and to our municipalities and our state governments and start creating jobs right here.

Editor’s Note: In addition to the above Con statement from Oct. 9, 2011, Jill Stein also made the following statement during her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal For America," available at www.jillstein.org:

We will end taxpayer-funded bailouts for banks, insurers, and other financial companies. We’ll use the FDIC resolution process for failed banks to reopen them as public banks where possible after failed loans and underlying assets are auctioned off.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his Jan. 24, 2012 "State of the Union Address," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of collapse. Some even said we should let it die. With a million jobs at stake, I refused to let that happen. In exchange for help, we demanded responsibility. We got workers and automakers to settle their differences. We got the industry to retool and restructure. Today, General Motors is back on top as the world’s number-one automaker. Chrysler has grown faster in the U.S. than any major car company. Ford is investing billions in U.S. plants and factories. And together, the entire industry added nearly 160,000 jobs.

We bet on American workers. We bet on American ingenuity. And tonight, the American auto industry is back.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during a July 19, 2012 interview with NECN’s Jim Braude, "Jill Stein: Obama, Romney, Harmful to US," available at www.nenc.com:

Jill Stein:  What Obama’s pointing to, General Motors, you know, as the example of the shining star of our success, is basically more of the same.  Corporate profits are off the chart, they have recovered, CEO salaries are doing great, but workers have had their wages slashed.

Jim Braude:  Was he [President Obama] wrong to bailout those companies - the auto companies?

Jill Stein:  ...[N]o he was not wrong, but we should have asked for some, you know, justice for workers... The jobs that are coming back do not sustain a family, they are not a living wage.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), on Dec. 10, 2008, voted against the "Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act" (HR 7321). The Congressional Research Service (CRS) summary of the act, available at www.thomas.loc.gov, states the following:

(Sec. 4) Requires the designee to authorize and direct the disbursement of bridge loans or to enter into commitments for lines of credit to each automobile manufacturer that submitted to Congress a plan on December 2, 2008, and request for such loan or commitment ("automaker," for purposes of this Act). Establishes as the amount of such assistance the amount intended to facilitate continued operations of the automaker and prevent its failure...

(Sec. 10) Makes appropriations to provide loan funds under this Act in an amount up to $14 billion. Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of Energy to replenish funds made available. Provides loan terms and conditions

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following on June 13, 2011, in his video "Gov. Gary Johnson Responds to Every Question Asked in CNN Debate He Was Excluded From," available at YouTube.com:

The bailout program was not a success in any way. Look, we have a mechanism for restructuring in this country, and it is bankruptcy. If Chrysler and General Motors would have entered into bankruptcy proceedings, arguably they would have re-emerged as the true car companies of the 21st century...

So government involvement, picking winners and losers, here we go again. Stop the notion of picking winners and losers. Make it a fair environment, a fair competitive environment. These companies bankrupted themselves, they should have been allowed to reap the consequences of that and have gone into bankruptcy... I would argue we have got troubles for these companies down the road.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a Feb. 14, 2012, editorial titled "US Autos Bailout ’Was Crony Capitalism on a Grand Scale’," published in the Detroit News:

Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry. The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama’s management of the American economy are evident in what he did...

This was crony capitalism on a grand scale. The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better...

Managed bankruptcy may sound like a death knell. But in fact, it is a way for a troubled company to restructure itself rapidly, entering and leaving the courtroom sometimes in weeks or months instead of years, and then returning to profitable operation.

Ultimately, that is what happened. The course I recommended was eventually followed. GM entered managed bankruptcy in June 2009 and exited it a month later in July.

The Chrysler timeline was similarly swift. But something else happened along the way that was truly egregious. Before the companies were allowed to enter and exit bankruptcy, the U.S. government swept in with an $85 billion sweetheart deal disguised as a rescue plan.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the July 25, 2011 "Address by the President to the Nation," available on the White House website:

Understand - raising the debt ceiling does not allow Congress to spend more money. It simply gives our country the ability to pay the bills that Congress has already racked up. In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine. Since the 1950s, Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it 7 times. And we have to do it by next Tuesday, August 2nd, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills...

For the first time in history, our country’s Triple A credit rating would be downgraded, leaving investors around the world to wonder whether the United States is still a good bet. Interest rates would skyrocket on credit cards, mortgages, and car loans, which amounts to a huge tax hike on the American people. We would risk sparking a deep economic crisis - one caused almost entirely by Washington.

Defaulting on our obligations is a reckless and irresponsible outcome to this debate.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the Aug. 1, 2011 article "Gary Johnson: ’Debt Kicking the Can Down the Road,’" available at www.garyjohnson2012.com:

The sound America is hearing today is the sound of the can being kicked down the road — again. The result of this agreement is that the debt ceiling will be $900 billion higher tomorrow than it is today, and the nation’s actual debt higher at the end of the year than it is now. Only in Washington is such a deal something to be celebrated as an accomplishment.

Nowhere to be found in this deal are the entitlement reforms, structural changes in government, or the immediate and real spending cuts that must be made to actually put our financial house in order. I doubt the markets will be impressed, and I know the American people won’t be impressed.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in Katrina Trinko’s Aug. 1, 2011 article "Romney Comes Out in Opposition to Debt-Ceiling-Hike Deal," available at www.nationalreview.com:

As president, my plan would have produced a budget that was cut, capped and balanced – not one that opens the door to higher taxes and puts defense cuts on the table. President Obama’s leadership failure has pushed the economy to the brink at the eleventh hour and 59th minute. While I appreciate the extraordinarily difficult situation President Obama’s lack of leadership has placed Republican Members of Congress in, I personally cannot support this deal.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his article "The Economy and Taxes," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed Jan. 18, 2012):

We Should: Eliminate government support of Fannie and Freddie.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, in a paper written by two of his cabinet agencies (Treasury and HUD), published the following description of administration goals in the Feb. 2011 report "Housing Finance Market: A Report to Congress," available at www.treasury.gov:

The Administration will work with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (’FHFA’) to develop a plan to responsibly reduce the role of the Federal National Mortgage Association (’Fannie Mae’) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (’Freddie Mac’) in the mortgage market and, ultimately, wind down both institutions. We recommend FHFA employ a number of policy levers – including increased guarantee fee pricing, increased down payment requirements, and other measures – to bring private capital back into the mortgage market and reduce taxpayer risk. As the market improves and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are wound down, it should be clear that the government is committed to ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have sufficient capital to perform under any guarantees issued now or in the future and the ability to meet any of their debt obligations. We believe that under our current Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements (PSPAs), there is sufficient funding to ensure the orderly and deliberate wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as described in our plan.

Successful reform will require more than just winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reducing other government support to the housing market.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on his campaign website page "Housing," available at www.mittromney.com (accessed Sep. 17, 2012):

Right now taxpayers are on the hook for almost 90 percent of all new mortgages. The two government-sponsored government housing corporations (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) fueled a predictable disaster...

In towns across the nation, foreclosed homes sit empty, depressing the value of entire neighborhoods. The government owns about 200,000 of these homes, or almost half of all of the foreclosed homes in the country. Mitt Romney will responsibly get the government out of the homeownership business and return these vacant homes to productive uses that will increase neighboring home values...

Any serious plan for ending the housing crisis must address its root cause. Two government-sponsored companies known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were at the center of the housing crisis. Mitt Romney will reform these government-sponsored companies to protect taxpayers from additional risk in the future by ensuring taxpayer dollars in the housing market are replaced with private dollars.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in an Aug. 1, 2012 article "Stein and Honkala Arrested in Protest of Foreclosure Giant Fannie Mae," available at www.jillstein.org:

The developers and financiers made trillions of dollars through the housing bubble and the imposition of crushing debt on homeowners. And when homeowners could no longer pay them what they demanded, they went to government and got trillions of dollars of bailouts. Every effort of the Obama Administration has been to prop this system up and keep it going at taxpayer expense. It’s time for this game to end. It’s time for the laws be written to protect the victims and not the perpetrators. It’s time for a new deal for America, and a Green New Deal is what we will deliver on taking office.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in an Oct. 4, 2012 article "Gary Johnson: My Response to the Presidential Debate," available at www.usatoday.com:

Americans deserve the truth. The truth is that our deficits are not only unsustainable, but represent a very real threat to this nation. And of the $16 trillion in debt our government in Washington has racked up, it is almost equally split between Republican and Democrat administrations.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I will submit a balanced budget in 2013. Yes, that budget will call for spending reductions of 43% - the reductions necessary to match revenues without raising taxes.

If, as I suspect will be the case, Congress cannot muster the courage for such cuts, I will veto any legislation that mandates deficit spending. As governor of New Mexico, I vetoed 750 bills and thousands of budget line-items - and left the state with a healthy surplus after my two terms, even with a Democrat legislature.

Our economic condition is too precarious for us to nibble around the edges. We must dramatically reduce not only what government costs, but what it does.

Editor’s Note: In an Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org from Gary Johnson’s Communications Director, Joe Hunter, Gary Johnson stated "Absolutely" in response to our question "Can the federal deficit be eliminated without raising taxes?"

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Oct. 3, 2012 Presidential debate at the University of Denver, available at www.npr.org:

I think it’s, frankly, not moral for my generation to keep spending massively more than we take in, knowing those burdens are going to be passed on to the next generation. And they’re going to be paying the interest and the principle all their lives. And the amount of debt we’re adding, at a trillion a year, is simply not moral.

So how do we deal with it? Well, mathematically there are — there are three ways that you can cut a deficit. One, of course, is to raise taxes. Number two is to cut spending. And number three is to grow the economy because if more people work in a growing economy they’re paying taxes and you can get the job done that way...

The problem with raising taxes is that it slows down the rate of growth and you could never quite get the job done. I want to lower spending and encourage economic growth at the same time......

[T]he revenue I get is by more people working, getting higher pay, paying more taxes. That’s how we get growth and how we balance the budget. But the idea of taxing people more, putting more people out of work — you’ll never get there. You never balance the budget by raising taxes.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during the Oct. 3, 2012 Presidential debate at the University of Denver, available at www.npr.org:

I’ve put forward a specific $4 trillion deficit reduction plan...

And the way we do it is $2.50 for every cut, we ask for a dollar of additional revenue, paid for, as I indicated earlier, by asking those of us who have done very well in this country to contribute a little bit more to reduce the deficit...

There has to be revenue in addition to cuts. Now, Governor Romney has ruled out revenue. He’s — he’s ruled out revenue...

If we’re serious, we’ve got to take a balanced, responsible approach...

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Dec. 21, 2011 questionnaire, "Jill Stein in Americans Elect Email Questionnaire," avaialble at www.ontheissues.org:

Our real solution to the deficit is to end the Bush-Obama recession. Reductions in spending provide enormous savings, which may very well overwhelm the need for adjustments in the tax code. Those adjustments do need to be made, including asking the wealthiest to contribute their share, and giving breaks to the middle class and the poor, who are paying way too much...

But the reductions in spending should be focused properly - not on cutting social programs - but instead on downsizing the military, bringing the troops home, and moving to a prevention-based health care system. Those provide enormous savings and reductions, which may very well overwhelm the need for adjustments in the tax code.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed Oct. 9, 2012):

Our debt has increased by over 4 trillion dollars under the Obama Presidency, which has also given us trillion dollar deficits. The United States can not borrow its way to prosperity. It is incumbent on our next President to propose a balanced budget upon taking office and not ten years down the road. There will be pain, but the old saying that one will not get out of the hole by digging the hole deeper is accurate. Nearly every department and agency will face significant cuts and some will face elimination. Veterans benefits is an example that will not be cut. Examples of programs eliminated include the National Endowment for the Arts, No Child Left Behind, etc. Other programs and departments, such as Foreign Aid and Education, will be slashed and trimmed.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 28, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during a Jan. 19, 2010 interview with Mitchell Langbert, "Interview with Governor Gary Earl Johnson," available at www.rlc.org:

The Federal Reserve deserves full responsibility for the housing bubble and as well deserves credit for mitigating the bust. Overriding that, the dollar is now worth a nickel. I understand the arguments for a free market in money and I support them. I shy away from the phrase ’regulate the Fed’ because I do not want Barney Frank deciding monetary policy. I wouldn’t say the Fed needs to be abolished. I understand the argument for a gold standard, though. The US government should be pursuing a strong dollar policy, which the Fed hasn’t done.

Barack Obama

No position found as of May 30, 2012

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Jan. 25, 2012 interview on CNBC’s The Kudlow Report, available at www.cnbc.com:

You know, I’m happy to look at a whole range of ideas on how to have greater stability in our currency and in our monetary policies. I know that in the past when we had a gold standard, the idea that somehow it was detached from or free from any interference by Congress was simply wrong because even with the gold standard someone has to decide what is the conversion rate between the gold and the dollar...

And Congress can inflate the dollar simply by changing the exchange rate, as was done in the past. So I don’t think there’s any, if you will, magic bullet substitute for economic restraint, for not spending more money than you take in, for having the nation that’s the most productive in the entire world. That’s how you get wealth for the middle class is making America a more productive nation with high savings rates and a government that only spends what it takes in.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 12, 2012

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, was quoted as having said the following in the Apr. 2, 2008 article "Remarks for Senator Barack Obama: AFL-CIO," available on Barack Obama’s official candidate website:

As I look out on this crowd and as I travel across this country, the one thing I know for certain is that labor unions are still mobilizing. Labor unions are still organizing. And you’re still fighting to give America’s working people a voice in Washington.

I’m tired of playing defense. I know the AFL-CIO [American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organization] is tired of playing defense. We’re ready to play some offense. We’re ready to play offense for a decent wage. We’re ready to play offense for retirement security...

We’re ready to play offense for organized labor. It’s time we had a President who didn’t choke saying the word ’union.’ A President who knows it’s the Department of Labor and not the Department of Management. And a President who strengthens our unions by letting them do what they do best - organize our workers. If a majority of workers want a union, they should get a union.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Mostly not.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his Sep. 6, 2011 document "Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth," available at www.mittromney.com:

Too often, unions drive up costs and introduce rigidities that harm competitiveness and frustrate innovation. The statistics tell an unkind story. Studies conducted by non-partisan scholars have shown that labor unions reduce investment and slow job growth. Compare the economic performance of states that have embraced Right-to- Work laws, under which workers cannot be compelled to pay union dues, with states that have retained more union-friendly policies. Over the past ten years, Right-to-Work states have added more than three million jobs, while the others have lost nearly a million... In the midst of an economic crisis, with 25 million people needing work, policies that strengthen the hand of labor unions at the expense of both businesses and workers are probably the last thing the country has needed.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the June 14, 2011 video "Gov. Gary Johnson Responds to Every Question Asked in CNN Debate He Was Excluded From," available on Gary Johnson’s YouTube Channel:

I support the notion of right-to-work [legislation that let employees decide for themselves whether or not they want to join a union or financially support it] and worked hard to see that happen in New Mexico. It didn’t while I was governor of New Mexico, but that didn’t take away from my support. The only basic problem that I have with unions is the union gives me two workers. One is the worst worker that I’ve ever seen, the other is the best worker that I’ve ever had. I can’t reward the best, I can’t get rid of the worst. Right-to-work, I think, is a decision that states should make. I think based on right-to-work legislation in states across the country, those states that have passed right-to-work have shown much greater economic prosperity as a result of that legislation.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal For America," available at www.jillstein.org:

The Green New Deal begins with an Economic Bill of Rights that recognizes our rights to an economy that serves people. This means that everyone willing and able to work has the right to a job at a living wage. All of us have the right to quality education, health care, utilities, and housing. Each of us has the right to unionize, to fair taxation, and to fair trade...

We will honor workers rights, including the right to a living wage, a safe workplace, to fair trade, and to organize a union at work without fear of firing or reprisal. The idea that the Bill of Rights does not apply to you when you enter your workplace is an idea that says that you are only free when you are not working. That’s not acceptable in America.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his Sep. 6, 2011 document "Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth," available at www.mittromney.com:

George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton both worked to negotiate and implement the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which went into effect in 1994... All told, these agreements have enabled people across the world to come together and build a better future. Economists estimate that the agreements have led to the creation of 5.4 million new American jobs and support a total of nearly 18 million jobs. Looking beyond just our FTA partners, our total exports support nearly 10 million American jobs. These are not just jobs; they’re good jobs, paying significantly above average, and more than one-third are in manufacturing.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, was quoted as stating the following in the Feb. 8, 2008 article "Remarks for Senator Barack Obama: National Gypsum in Lorain, Ohio" on his official candidate website:

We can’t keep passing unfair trade deals like NAFTA that put special interests over workers’ interests...

I don’t think NAFTA has been good for America -- and I never have. I didn’t just start criticizing unfair trade deals like NAFTA because I started running for office -- I’m doing it because I’ve seen what happens to a community when the factory closes down and the jobs move overseas.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Dec. 21, 2011 Americans Elect email questionnaire, available at www.ontheissues.org:

The wave of undocumented immigrants [in the US] resulted from the passage of NAFTA, which was as harmful to economies south of our border as it is to our own economy. People have come here who have lost their jobs, who can no longer support their families, particularly as we have destroyed the economy in South America by dumping agricultural products, as developed by NAFTA. That’s where the real solution lies - renegotiating these treaties which have been harmful to American workers as much as they’ve been harmful to workers in other countries.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in an interview with Reality Report released Mar. 25, 2011 and available on You Tube:

So much of the legislation that we pass isn’t really free market at all. It’s touted as free market when the reality ends up to be very corporate. That the reality ends up to be corporatism where one business gets advantage over another. This was something that I witnessed as governor of New Mexico. I’d like to think that I vetoed that kind of legislation. That I was always looking at legislation, business legislation, from the standpoint of having it affect everyone equally as opposed to big business being further advantaged than what they are already are. So I think that so many of these treaties, NAFTA being one, and I can’t speak specifically to it, but I think the criticism of NAFTA should be rooted in the fact that big business became even bigger business.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on Apr. 10, 2012 during a town hall meeting in Wilmington, DE, available at www.c-spanvideo.org:

I do not want to raise taxes on oil companies.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Mar. 19, 2012 online town hall with Grover Norquist, available at YouTube.com:

I really believe that we have got to get rid of all government subsidies.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Apr. 30, 2011 weekly address according to a transcript available at www.whitehouse.gov:

When oil companies are making huge profits and you’re struggling at the pump, and we’re scouring the federal budget for spending we can afford to do without, these tax giveaways aren’t right.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Mar. 12, 2012 article "After Fukushima, Stein Calls for 100% Renewable Energy Economy," available at www.jillstein.org:

A Green president would invest in wind, solar and geothermal, emphasize efficiency and conservation, phase out nuclear power plants, and move to a carbon-free economy to deal with climate change. We would immediately end Obama’s expensive subsidies for nuclear power as well as fossil fuels, and use those funds instead to kick off a job- producing energy program based on clean, safe and renewable energy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Fox News Republican presidential debate held in Greenville, SC on May 5, 2011:

We have the highest corporate income tax in the world right now, let’s abolish it, let’s make it the way that it was to begin with and that will literally create tens of millions of jobs overnight because this country will be the only place to establish, grow, build, nurture business, why won’t that happen?

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a speech titled "Address by the President to a Joint Session of Congress," posted as a transcript on the White House website on Sep. 8, 2011:

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working... It will provide -- it will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business. It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled, and give companies confidence that if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and services...

Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin. And you know that while corporate profits have come roaring back, smaller companies haven’t. So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for ’job creators,’ this plan is for you.

Pass this jobs bill -- pass this jobs bill, and starting tomorrow, small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or if they raise workers’ wages. Pass this jobs bill, and all small business owners will also see their payroll taxes cut in half next year. If you have 50 employees -- if you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut. And all businesses will be able to continue writing off the investments they make in 2012.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his Aug. 30, 2012 speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, FL, available at www.npr.org:

What America needs is jobs....

..I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs...

...[W]e will champion SMALL businesses, America’s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Jan. 29, 2012 Truthout interview with Steve Horn, "The Party of Our Discontent? An Interview with Green Party Candidate Jill Stein," available at www.truth-out.org:

The Green New Deal is an emergency jobs creation plan that really addresses the crisis in our economy, in unemployment, and likewise, in the climate...

...[T]he costs of creating these jobs would be less than what was spent in the Obama stimulus package, which essentially created two million jobs, which were good and probably blunted a worse catastrophe and did add some jobs in the area of the green economy, but ultimately wasn’t of sufficient magnitude to really fix the problem. So, this will do a whole lot more. The cost for the stimulus package worked out to be about $220,000 per job created, because the mechanisms were indirect and relied a lot on tax incentives, which don’t always get used to create jobs. This, instead, would be money used directly to create jobs and would be more like $20,000 per job created.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the "Presidential Memorandum--President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction," posted on the White House website on Sep. 19, 2011:

The plan calls for the Congress to undertake comprehensive tax reform that... observes the Buffett Rule -- that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay....

I also included specific tax loophole closers and measures to broaden the tax base. Together with the expiration of the high-income tax cuts from 2001 and 2003, these measures would be more than enough to reach this $1.5 trillion target. They include cutting tax preferences for high-income households, eliminating tax breaks for oil and gas companies, closing the carried interest loophole for investment fund managers, and eliminating benefits for those who use corporate jets...

This plan lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means while still making the investments we need to prosper. It follows a balanced approach: asking everyone to do their part, so no one has to bear all the burden. And it says that everyone -- including millionaires and billionaires -- has to pay their fair share.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during an interview with Paul Jay of The Real News Network, "Why Is the Green Party’s Jill Stein Running to Be President?," available at therealnews.com (accessed July 17, 2012):

We’re calling for a fair tax system. So we have, for example, a financial transaction tax, which would bring hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy; an offshore tax haven tax; and a progressive tax on millionaires and billionaires.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC on Feb. 11, 2011:

When I talk about any of this, raising taxes is absolutely unacceptable. Raising taxes in this country is not acceptable. We should eliminate the corporate income tax if we really want to bring about a situation where this country is going to be the place to start up and incubate and grow businesses, in this country.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Fox News/Washington Examiner Republican presidential debate held at Iowa State University in Ames, IA on Aug. 11, 2011:

I don‘t believe in raising taxes. And as governor I cut taxes 19 times and didn‘t raise taxes.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during a Dec. 6, 2011 speech, "Remarks by the President on the Economy in Oswatomie, Kansas," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

In the last few decades, the average income of the top 1% has gone up by more than 25% to $1.2m per year. I’m not talking about millionaires, people who have a million dollars. I’m saying people who make a million dollars every single year. For the top one hundredth of 1%, the average income is now $27m per year. The typical CEO who used to earn about 30 times more than his or her worker now earns 110 times more. And yet, over the last decade the incomes of most Americans have actually fallen by about 6%...

If we want a strong middle class, then our tax code must reflect our values. We have to make choices...

Today, the wealthiest Americans are paying the lowest taxes in over half a century. This isn’t like in the early 50s, when the top tax rate was over 90%. This isn’t even like the early 80s, when the top tax rate was about 70%. Under President Clinton, the top rate was only about 39%. Today, thanks to loopholes and shelters, a quarter of all millionaires now pay lower tax rates than millions of you, millions of middle-class families. Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1%. One percent...

That is the height of unfairness. It is wrong. It’s wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker, maybe earns $50,000 a year, should pay a higher tax rate than somebody raking in $50m. It’s wrong for Warren Buffett’s secretary to pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett...

This isn’t about class warfare. This is about the nation’s welfare. It’s about making choices that benefit not just the people who’ve done fantastically well over the last few decades, but that benefits the middle class, and those fighting to get into the middle class, and the economy as a whole.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

The gap between the very rich and the many poor has never been so great. The wealthiest 1% in America now own as much wealth as 90% of all Americans...

Though the corporate elite are richer than ever, they are contributing less than ever to the tax base that keeps the infrastructure going that their profits rely on – schools, transportation, clean air and water, safe food, the legal system, the police, and the military...

When they say there’s not enough money, they mean there’s not enough money for YOU. Instead of austerity, we can end the Wall Street bailouts, cut the bloated military and tax the bloated rich.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on his campaign website page "Tax: Fairer, Flatter, and Simpler," available at www.mittromney.com (accessed Jan. 20, 2012):

Mitt Romney believes in the conservative principle that Americans, to the maximum extent possible, should be able to keep the money they earn...

• Maintain current tax rates on personal income
• Maintain current tax rates on interest, dividends, and capital gains
• Eliminate taxes for taxpayers with AGI below $200,000 on interest, dividends, and capital gains
• Eliminate the death tax.

Editor’s Note:  Mitt Romney also made a remark at the Jan. 7, 2012 Republican presidential debate at Saint Anselm College, Manchester, NH, directly criticizing President Obama’s plan to tax the richest Americans more heavily:

We have a nation which is based upon opportunity and merit...  We have a president who has an entirely different view. He wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state and have government take from some to give to others. That will kill the ability of America to provide for a prosperous future."

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

We should not increase rates, but loopholes and preferences should be addressed.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during an Oct. 18, 2011 interview, "Full Transcript of Q&A with Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson," available at www.patheos.com:

Govt. should be a level playing field where all of us have the same advantages and the same threats if you will. Implementing the Fair Tax for example throws out the entire Federal tax system. No income tax, no IRS, no business tax, no corporate tax and isn’t the fact that some people pay tax and others don’t isn’t it the fact that some corporations pay tax and others don’t that has us outraged. It’s just not fair. Let’s implement something that is totally fair and in fact is a system where the more you make, the more you consume, the more Fair Tax you’ll pay. In a Fair Tax environment you’ll be incentivised to save money. So back to US treasuries. It’s okay to borrow money it’s just not okay to print money. We need to stop printing money.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

As with almost all aspects of the current tax code, the granting of exemptions, credits, etc., to specific groups is a recipe for favoritism and government manipulation. That is one of the primary reasons I advocate a simple federal consumption tax to replace all income taxes - and eliminate all tax subsidies, credits and exemptions.

Virgil Goode

No position found as of Oct. 10, 2012

Barack Obama

No position found as of Oct. 10, 2012

Mitt Romney

No position found as of Oct. 10, 2012

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in an interview with Peter J. Reilly published Oct. 9, 2012 "Jill Stein Lining Up With Freedom From Religion Foundation on Parsonage Exclusion," available at www.forbes.com:

Peter J. Reilly: ...Someone who is designated a minister of the gospel is entitled to exclude from income the amount their congregation pays them for housing [known as the parsonage exclusion] regardless of the size, there is no dollar limit on this... If you were president would you consider not defending the constitutionality of the parsonage exclusion?...

Jill Stein: ...I try not to shoot from the hip, and actually consider these things before taking a position on them, and I would have to say that I would do that. But at first blush I would agree with the principal here of separation of church and state, which would seem to say we should not give special favors to employees of religious institutions that certainly sounds true.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the Jan. 19, 2010 "Interview with Gary Earl Johnson," available at www.rlc.org:

Social Security is flawed. When it was brought into existence the life expectancy was 55. Benefits started at 65. Now, life expectancy is 75, and benefits start at about the same age. It’s a Ponzi scheme. A combination of benefit reduction and/or privatization are necessary. At least part of Social Security should include private accounts that are counted in your estate.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the Aug. 18, 2010 speech "Remarks by the President at a Discussion with Ohio Families on the Economy," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

I have been adamant in saying that Social Security should not be privatized and it will not be privatized as long as I’m President. And here’s the reason. I was opposed to it before the financial crisis. And what I said was the purpose of Social Security is to have that floor, that solid -- rock-solid security, so that no matter what else happens you’ve always got some income to support you in your retirement. And I’ve got no problem with people investing in their 401(k)s, and we want to encourage people to invest in private savings accounts. But Social Security has to be separate from that...

So here’s the thing. Social Security is not in crisis. What is happening is, is that the population is getting older, which means we’ve got more retirees per worker than we used to. We’re going to have to make some modest adjustments in order to strengthen it. There are some fairly modest changes that could be made without resorting to any newfangled schemes that would continue Social Security for another 75 years, where everybody would get the benefits that they deserve.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the NBC News/Politico Republican presidential debate held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley on Sep. 7, 2011:

Our nominee has to be someone who isn’t committed to abolishing Social Security, but who is committed to saving Social Security. We have always had, at the heart of our party, a recognition that we want to care for those in need, and our seniors have the need of Social Security. I will make sure that we keep the program and we make it financially secure. We save Social Security. And under no circumstances would I ever say by any measure it’s a failure. It is working for millions of Americans, and I’ll keep it working for millions of Americans. And we’ve got to do that as a party.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Project Vote Smart "Political Courage Test," available at www.votesmart.org (accessed July 13, 2012):

This proposal to turn our Social Security system over to private corporations would lead to huge losses for retirees who depend on Social Security. And it would create investment risks that cannot be tolerated in our Social Security program.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 14, 2012):

We must preserve and protect Social Security. Social Security is owed over two trillion dollars. Social Security should be repaid and have real money in the Social Security Trust Fund and not IOU’s.

Editor’s Note:  In a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org, Virgil Goode stated "All citizens who have or are paying deserve the benefits they have paid for" in response to our question "Should Social Security be privatized?"

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, is quoted as stating the following in an Aug. 4, 2011 article "Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson Calls for Fair Tax While Visiting New Hampshire Business Incubator," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com:

I say we do away with corporate income taxes altogether – which the FairTax would do.  That alone will foster more real job creation than all the stimulus and tax code tinkering that is currently being discussed, and would immediately move the U.S. to the head of the class in terms of global competitiveness...

Rather than exporting jobs and losing employers to more friendly tax environments overseas, America would become a magnet for job-creating investment both by businesses who are already here and those who would come here.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Jan. 24, 2012 "State of the Union Address," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.

We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas.  Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It  makes no sense, and everyone knows it. So let’s change it.

First, if you’re a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn’t get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home.

Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas.  From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here in America...

So my message is simple. It is time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I will sign them right away.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Oct. 13, 2011 press release "Green-Rainbow Party Says: Keep Hands off Protesters," available at www.independentpoliticalreport.com:

The Occupy movement is a cry for change from workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas and young people whose future is being stolen from them by politicians intent on serving Wall Street rather than the people...

The Occupy Wall Street movement is addressing the root of these problems, and the 99% must be heard. Both the Democrat and Republican parties have broken America’s social contract by refusing to remedy — in fact, deliberately aggravating - our economic inequities.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the Sep. 6, 2011 article "Fact Sheet: Mitt Romney’s Plan to Turn Around the Economy," available on mittromney.com:

[Romney will] begin the process of transitioning to a territorial corporate tax system. A territorial system must be designed to encourage multinational companies to bring their profits back into the U.S. and it must avoid the creation of incentives for outsourcing.

Editor’s Note: Prior to Mitt Romney’s Sep. 6, 2011 Not Clearly Pro or Con position above, he held a Pro position as indicated in his Nov. 16, 2005 speech at a Forrester Research executive strategy summit in Boston, MA, available in Paula Rooney’s CRN.com article "Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s Message: Globalize or Die."

I’m not happy exporting jobs but we must move ahead in technology and patents. I don’t like losing any jobs but we’ll see new opportunities created selling products there. We’ll have a net increase in economic activity, just as we did with free trade. It’s tempting to want to protect our markets and stay closed. But at some point it all comes crashing down and you’re hopelessly left behind. Then you are Russia.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes, mostly.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, Former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the May 15, 2007 Republican presidential debate in Columbia, South Carolina, hosted by Fox News:

I fought for abstinence education. In the toughest of states, I made the toughest decisions and did what was right for America. I have conservative values.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated in an Apr. 20, 2008 article titled "Encore: Democratic Candidates Compassion Forum" on CNN.com:

What I have consistently talked about is to take a comprehensive approach where we focus on abstinence, where we are teaching the sacredness of sexuality to our children.

But we also recognize the importance of good medical care for women, that we’re also recognizing the importance of age-appropriate education to reduce risks. I do believe that contraception has to be part of that education process.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

All education in schools, whether it be about sex or mathematics, should be determined at the state and local level, and if freed from federal mandates, will reflect local priorities and values. Such local control, especially if combined with true school choice, will address issues of curricula and encourage parental influence thereon.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 13, 2012.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in his Jan. 27, 2012 "Remarks by the President on College Affordability, Ann Arbor, Michigan," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

We’ve got to have an economy in which every American has access to a world-class higher education...

But the challenge is it’s getting tougher and tougher to afford it. Since most of you were born, tuition and fees have more than doubled. That forces students like you to take out more loans and rack up more debt...

Student loan debt has now surpassed credit card debt for the first time ever. Think about that. That’s inexcusable...

...[M]y administration is increasing federal student aid so more students can afford college. And one of the things I’m proudest of, with the help of all these members of Congress, we won a tough fight to stop handing out tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to banks that issue student loans and shift that money to where it should go, directly to the students and to the families who need it.

Tens of billions of dollars that were going to subsidies for banks are now going to students in the form of more grants and lower rates on loans. We’ve capped student loan payments so that nearly 1.6 million students - including a bunch of you - are only going to have to pay 10 percent of your monthly income towards your loans once you graduate - 10 percent of your monthly income.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

I think it is time to make public higher education free as it should be. We’ve done this before when our troops came home from the second world war we provided free higher education through the GI Bill and we know that it pays for itself. For every dollar that we invested as tax payers, seven dollars was returned as benefits to the economy including more than enough revenue to cover the full cost of those tuition payments...

We owe it to our younger generation to give them a secure start into their economic lives... You need a college degree in order to have economic security so it’s only right that we should now be providing that for free....

[A]nd while we’re at it, it’s time to instead of bail out wall street for the fourth time... instead lets bail out the students and do something really useful with that bailout......

We cannot afford not to educate our students. Our younger generation is the greatest resource we have... Every generation the economy needs to be re-booted by fresh imagination, and by the fresh genius of the new generation. That doesn’t happen when a generation is locked into being indentured servants, that’s what our students are now, we need to bail them out and create free public higher education.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

You might not get what you want to hear from me but you’re going to get straight talk. We can’t afford more federally subsidized student loans and we can’t afford more Pell grants. I wish I could stand here and tell you ’yes we can give you more, no one is going to have to pay for it.’ A debt of 16 trillion dollars is bearing down on us... We can’t afford more Pell grants, and we can’t afford more federally subsidized student loans... We’ve got to balance the budget.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

So what’s the Federal role though when it comes to education and what’s the primary reason in this country why college tuition is so high? Well it’s because of guaranteed government student loans. That because of guaranteed government student loans, no one has the excuse of not getting an education and so because of that, institutions of higher learning, colleges and universities, are immune from pricing. That if kids would take a harder look at it ’gee I don’t think I can afford fifteen thousand dollars a semester, I think I’ll just sit this one out’ when that happens in mass I guarantee you the cost of college tuition will drop dramatically, but today that is a situation that does not exist. I can’t afford fifteen thousand dollars, and yet friends and family will point and say look you can get a guaranteed government student loan. That is another one of government’s unintended consequences that has college tuition at such a high rate.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his May 23, 2012 education whitepaper, "A Chance for Every Child," available at www.mittromney.com:

A flood of federal dollars is driving up tuition and burdening too many young Americans with substantial debt and too few opportunities...

America is fast becoming a society where education is unaffordable, a government loan is an entitlement, default is the norm, and loan forgiveness is the expectation. America needs a new normal, where college is affordable and paying off debt is achievable...

In 2010, President Obama decided that the best way to address the growing cost of college was for the federal government to take over the student loan business...

When the Obama Administration and the Democratic Congress nationalized the student loan market, they drove away private lenders and moved a trillion-dollar obligation to the federal balance sheet. A Romney Administration will embrace a private-sector role in providing information, financing, and education itself, working with effective businesses to support the goals of students and their families...

Unlike President Obama, Mitt Romney understands that more spending is the last thing our schools need.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his 2010 book No Apology:

Former president George W. Bush was right to champion the No Child Left Behind legislation, which requires states to test student progress and to evaluate school performance – it was the only way to ensure that critical information reached the public. Only the federal government had the clout to force testing through the barricade mounted by the national teachers’ unions."

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed July 16, 2012):

Washington should not be running our local school systems. We need to leave local education decisions to the states and localities. I am opposed to national testing of public school students and voted against ’No Child Left Behind’ with its new mandates and new tests that must comply with national standards. I support ending the federal Department of Education.

Editor’s Note: In a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org, Virgil Goode stated "No" in response to our question "Has the No Child Left Behind Act been effective at improving public education?"

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Sep. 17, 2011 interview "Gov. Gary Johnson’s First Google+ Hangout," available on YouTube.com:

I think the best thing the federal government could do when it comes to education nationwide would be to abolish the Federal Department of Education… Washington top down doesn’t work. No Child Left Behind, everything it is that the federal government mandates ends up giving us this mediocre education system. And it’s not a mediocre education system. It’s terrible.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following during a Feb. 25, 2012 debate with Kent Mesplay at the Glendale Public Library, Glendale, AZ, hosted by the Maricopa County Green Party, available at YouTube.com:

We need to reject this facade of No Child Left Behind... which basically commodifies education, commodifies our children, and we need to return to a broad concept of educating for lifelong learning and teaching the whole student.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Sep, 23, 2011 speech delivered in the White House East Room, available at www.whitehouse.gov:

And I want to say the goals behind No Child Left Behind were admirable, and President Bush deserves credit for that. Higher standards are the right goal. Accountability is the right goal. Closing the achievement gap is the right goal. And we’ve got to stay focused on those goals. But experience has taught us that, in it’s implementation, No Child Left Behind had some serious flaws that are hurting our children instead of helping them. Teachers too often are being forced to teach to the test. Subjects like history and science have been squeezed out. And in order to avoid having their schools labeled as failures, some states, perversely, have actually had to lower their standards in a race to the bottom instead of a Race to the Top. They don’t want to get penalized? Let’s make sure that the standards are so low that we’re not going to be seen failing to meet them. That makes no sense.

Editor’s Note: Prior to Barack Obama’s Sep. 23, 2011 Not Clearly Pro or Con position above, he held a Con position as indicated by the Jan. 28, 2008 statement below from "Issues: Education" on his official 2008 presidential campaign website:

No Child Left Behind Left the Money Behind: The goal of the law was the right one, but unfulfilled funding promises, inadequate implementation by the Education Department and shortcomings in the design of the law itself have limited its effectiveness and undercut its support. As a result, the law has failed to provide high-quality teachers in every classroom and failed to adequately support and pay those teachers.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following in a May 16, 2012 interview "Email Interview on Presidential Race with OnTheIssues.org," available at www.ontheissues.org:

Vouchers are fine, but no funds available now.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his May 23, 2012 education whitepaper "A Chance for Every Child: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Restoring the Promise of American Education," available at www.mittromney.com:

Giving students trapped in bad schools a genuine alternative requires four things: (1) such alternatives must exist, (2) parents must receive clear information about the performance of their current school and of the alternatives, (3) students must be allowed to move to a new school, and (4) students must bring funding with them so that new schools can afford to serve them...

Make Title I and IDEA funds portable so that eligible students can choose which school to attend and bring funding with them. This plan will allow the student to choose from any district or public charter school, or a private school where permitted by state law, or to use funds toward a tutoring provider or digital course...

Require states to adopt open-enrollment policies for students receiving Title I and IDEA funds, and to eliminate caps on charter and digital schools.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Having proposed, as Governor of New Mexico, a statewide voucher program, I am a staunch advocate of education vouchers and education choices. However, I strongly oppose federal funding of such vouchers. We can’t afford it, and we need to leave education to the states - without federal funding and the strings that go along with it.

Barack Obama

Editor’s Note: On Mar. 29, 2011 the Executive Office of the President released a "Statement of Administration Policy," available at www.whitehouse.gov, on HR 471 - the "Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act." It contained the following statement:

While the Administration appreciates that H.R. 471 would provide Federal support for improving public schools in the District of Columbia (D.C.), including expanding and improving high-quality D.C. public charter schools, the Administration opposes the creation or expansion of private school voucher programs that are authorized by this bill. The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement...

While the President’s FY 2012 Budget requests funding to improve D.C. public schools and expand high-quality public charter schools, the Administration opposes targeting resources to help a small number of individuals attend private schools rather than creating access to great public schools for every child.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Sep. 20, 2010, on her 2010 gubernatorial campaign website jillstein.org, on the page titled "Issues," available at www.web.archive.org:

In Massachusetts, our public schools and colleges are the cornerstone of our democracy and provide the foundation for our citizens’ economic success. But now this vital system is under sustained attack from privatization interests who undermine public schools as part of an effort to advance charter school interests.

The funding of education is clearly at a crisis point. Years of neglect, fiscal mismanagement, and promotion of privatization have combined with a budget shortfall to seriously threaten the viability of our public education system. If we tilt toward privatization, it will produce a stratified collection of schools that will make education more expensive, separate schools from their communities, and lead inevitably to the abandonment of the concept of equal access to education. Party leaders are now actively promoting charter school encroachment.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Sep. 22, 2011 Fox News/Google Republican presidential debate held in Orlando, FL, available on FoxNews.com:

“We looked at what drives good education in our state, what we found is the best thing for education is great teachers, hire the very best and brightest to be teachers, pay them properly, make sure that you have school choice, test your kids to see if they are meeting the standards that need to be met, and make sure that you put the parents in charge.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed July 16, 2012):

Washington should not be running our local school systems. We need to leave local education decisions to the states and localities. I am opposed to national testing of public school students.

Editor’s Note: In a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org, Virgil Goode stated "No" in response to our question "Is the use of federally mandated standardized tests improving education in America?"

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

no.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Sep. 20, 2010, on her 2010 gubernatorial campaign website jillstein.org, on the page titled "Issues," available at www.web.archive.org:

Standardized tests do not measure some of the most important goals of an educational system. And careful studies have shown that passing standardized tests does not translate into later academic success, much less success in life...

The goal of education should be to educate the whole student for lifelong learning and success. Educational programs need to be highly flexible in recognition that student skills, needs, and modes of learning vary widely. Forcing all students into a standardized track is harmful to many students. Challenged learners in particular are poorly served by a system that requires extensive drilling and rote memorization.

The current obsession with high stakes testing distracts from addressing the profound barriers to learning that arise long before the child has walked through the classroom door, including poverty and unemployment, poor health, poor nutrition and community violence.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following at a Mar. 28, 2011 public forum hosted by Univision, available at www.blogcea.org:

We have piled on a lot of standardized tests on our kids. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a standardized test being given occasionally just to give a baseline of where kids are at…

Too often what we’ve been doing is using these tests to punish students or to, in some cases, punish schools. And so what we’ve said is let’s find a test that everybody agrees makes sense; let’s apply it in a less pressured-packed atmosphere; let’s figure out whether we have to do it every year or whether we can do it maybe every several years; and let’s make sure that that’s not the only way we’re judging whether a school is doing well…

So what I want to do is — one thing I never want to see happen is schools that are just teaching to the test. Because then you’re not learning about the world; you’re not learning about different cultures, you’re not learning about science, you’re not earning about math. All you’re learning about is how to fill out a little bubble on an exam and the little tricks that you need to do in order to take a test.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Mostly, no.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, wrote the following on his official Twitter page on Jan. 26, 2011:

Tenure removes accountability that might otherwise exist. Problem w unions is u can’t reward the best/get rid of worst.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Mar. 10, 2009 speech to the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, available at www.washingtonpost.com:

If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances but still does not improve, there’s no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his 2010 book No Apology:

Removing the least effective teachers from the classroom is also an important way to improve overall teacher quality… If we truly want better public schools, we will have to insist on contract provisions that allow for removing the few teachers who should not be working with children…

Teachers’ unions do their very best to secure these insulations from performance for their members, and the results are lack of accountability, rising pay as a simple function of years on the job, and near-absolute job security. These have a deadening impact on student achievement.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 13, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes, should be allowed.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during an interview with the York Sunday News on Mar. 30, 2008, "Obama Talks About York We Got Five Minutes to Ask Obama Your Questions," available at www.ydr.com:

I’m a Christian, and I believe in parents being able to provide children with religious instruction without interference from the state. But I also believe our schools are there to teach worldly knowledge and science. I believe in evolution, and I believe there’s a difference between science and faith. That doesn’t make faith any less important than science. It just means they’re two different things. And I think it’s a mistake to try to cloud the teaching of science with theories that frankly don’t hold up to scientific inquiry.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a May 2007 interview, as quoted by and available in the nytimes.com article "Romney Elaborates on Evolution:"

I believe that God designed the universe and created the universe, and I believe evolution is most likely the process he used to create the human body…

I’m not exactly sure what is meant by intelligent design. But I believe God is intelligent and I believe he designed the creation. And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body.

In my opinion, the science class is where to teach evolution, or if there are other scientific thoughts that need to be discussed. If we’re going to talk about more philosophical matters, like why it was created, and was there an intelligent designer behind it, that’s for the religion class or philosophy class or social studies class.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

All education in schools, whether it be about sex or mathematics, should be determined at the state and local level, and if freed from federal mandates, will reflect local priorities and values. Such local control, especially if combined with true school choice, will address issues of curricula and encourage parental influence thereon.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 17, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a video "Gary Johnson on Immigration, Presidential Run and Denish-Martinez Race," available on YouTube.com (accessed Feb. 14, 2012):

Reform immigration to make it easy for individuals to come over here, be documented, pay taxes - immigration reform is needed to state that it’s about work, it’s not about welfare... Set up a grace period where they can get a work permit... social security card so that they can pay income tax, social security, Medicare.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a speech delivered to the American University School of International Service in Washington, DC on July 1, 2010, as transcribed and posted by whitehouse.gov:

We have to demand responsibility from people living here illegally.  They must be required to admit that they broke the law.  They should be required to register, pay their taxes, pay a fine, and learn English...

We need to provide farms a legal way to hire the workers they rely on, and a path for those workers to earn legal status.  And we should stop punishing innocent young people for the actions of their parents by denying them the chance to stay here and earn an education and contribute their talents to build the country where they’ve grown up.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in the Sep. 12, 2011 CNN and Tea Party Express Republican debate in Tampa, FL:

The question began by saying how do we attract Latino voters. And the answer is by telling them what they know in their heart, which is they or their ancestors did not come here for a handout. If they came here for a handout, they’d be voting for Democrats. They came here for opportunity and freedom. And that’s what we represent. And that’s why we’ll win collecting support from Latinos across the country. With regards to illegal immigration, of course we build a fence and of course we do not give instate tuition credits to people who come here illegally. That only attracts people to come here and take advantage of America’s great beneficence.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provides the following statement on her campaign website page "Where We Stand on the Issues," available at www.jillstein.org (accessed Sep. 13, 2012):

Grant undocumented immigrants who are already residing and working in the United States a legal status which includes the chance to become U.S. citizens.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following position in his article "Immigration" on www.ouramericainitiative.com (accessed Nov. 28, 2011):

Enact an application and tracking procedure for guest workers, such as an e-verify system. Procedures must be quick, simple and efficient in providing documentation information, and must meet the needs of both employers and willing workers.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, had his position outlined in the May 2011 immigration reform blueprint, "Building a 21st Century Immigration System," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

In order to hold businesses accountable that break the law by undermining American workers and exploiting undocumented workers, the President supports:

Phasing in mandatory use of the E-Verify system over a multi-year period in conjunction with a program that requires the undocumented population to get right with the law. Employers with more than 1000 employees would be required to join the system first, with additional phases that add more employers in succeeding years. Some small businesses could be exempt from using E-Verify system

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Oct. 18, 2011 CNN and Western Republican Leadership Conference Republican presidential debate held in Las Vegas, NV, available on CNN.com:

Let me tell you, it is hard in this country as an individual homeowner to [know] if people who are contractors working at your home if they hired people that are illegal. If I’m president we’ll put in an e-verify system... and crack down on people who come here illegally.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes, most employers.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 16, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 8, 2012):

As President, I would immediately direct the Attorney General to support and NOT oppose the efforts of Arizona, Alabama and others to deal with the illegal problem in the states.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his article "States’ Rights Should Be Encouraged, Not Punished," available at www.tenthamendmentcenter.com (accessed May 10, 2012):

I have said that I would not have signed the Arizona immigration law, because I’m concerned it could lead to racial profiling. But, having served as governor of another border state, New Mexico, I empathize with Arizona’s frustration, and absolutely support the prerogative of that state’s officials to act...

Certainly, securing our border and managing the flow of people across that border is an appropriate federal role – consistent with the Constitution. But, where is it written in the founding documents that a state doesn’t have the right to enact its own laws and policies relating to immigrants, both legal and illegal, who choose to enter and reside in that state?

I would suggest that just the opposite is true. Every state is different, and is presented with its own challenges and opportunities related to immigration – and countless other issues. Rather than trying, as the Obama administration is doing, to stop Arizona from implementing its own approach, we should be encouraging the states to be the policy laboratories they were intended to be in our federal system.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Feb. 22, 2012 Republican presidential candidate debate in Mesa, AZ, sponsored by CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona, available at www.presidency.ucsb.edu:

I enabled our state police to enforce illegal immigration laws...

The right course for America is to drop these lawsuits against Arizona and other states that are trying to do the job Barack Obama isn’t doing. And I will drop those lawsuits on day one... You do that, and just as Arizona is finding out, you can stop illegal immigration.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, made the following statement on June 3, 2010 during an interview with Larry King on CNN’s Larry King Live, available at www.transcripts.cnn.com:

I think this (law) [Arizona’s SB 1070] puts American citizens who look Hispanic, are Hispanic, potentially in an unfair situation. And more importantly, it creates the prospect of 50 different laws, in 50 different states, when it comes to immigration. This is a federal job. What we have to do is take on that federal responsibility by working with border states in border security. And I told Governor Brewer that we’ve already put more resources into border security than we ever have. We’ve got more border guards in Arizona than we ever have. We just made the decision to put in additional National Guard. 

But without comprehensive immigration reform, which is congress’s responsibility, we are not gonna solve this problem.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, released the following statement on Dec. 19, 2011 "Statement on International Migrants Day," available at www.jillstein.org:

The human cost of this escalating war on immigrants includes families torn apart and children emotionally traumatized, the expansion of racial profiling in policing, and the reinforcement of a caste system in which undocumented workers form the most vulnerable and exploitable level in the labor force.

We must end the systemic practice of detention and deportation of immigrant women, men, and children. We must reverse the militarization of our borders and the federalization of our local police.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 14, 2012):

Illegal immigration must stop. Our borders must be secure. In Congress, I supported and cosponsored legislation to stop illegal aliens, terrorists, drug smugglers, and other criminals from coming across our Southern border. We need to utilize troops, fences, and other measures to stop the invasion from Mexico. I was the first to sponsor legislation providing for a fence along the Southern Border. We must continue to fight for funding and for adequacy of the fence.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, then US Senator (D-IL), stated the following at the Feb. 21, 2008 Democratic presidential debate hosted by CNN and held in Austin, TX, according to "The CNN Democratic Presidential Debate in Texas," available at CNN.com:

Well, this is an area where Senator Clinton and I almost entirely agree. I think that the key is to consult with local communities, whether it’s on the commercial interests or the environmental stakes of creating any kind of barrier...

As Senator Clinton indicated, there may be areas where it makes sense to have some fencing. But for the most part, having border patrolled, surveillance, deploying effective technology, that’s going to be the better approach.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Republican presidential debate held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA on Sep. 7, 2011, available at NYTimes.com:

Romney: Well, first, we ought to have a fence. Secondly...

Diaz-Balart: The whole fence, 2,600 miles?

Romney: Yes. We got to -- we got to have a fence, or the technologically approved system to make sure that we know who’s coming into the country, number one. Number two, we ought to have enough agents to secure that fence and to make sure that people are coming over are caught…

If we want to secure the border, we have to make sure we have a fence, technologically, determining where people are, enough agents to oversee it, and turn off that magnet. We can’t talk about amnesty, we cannot give amnesty to those who have come here illegally.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in the Apr. 21, 2011 speech "Former Gov. Gary Johnson (R-NM) Announcement of Candidacy Capitol Front Steps," available at www.p2012.org:

The notion of building a fence across two thousand miles of border, the notion of putting the National Guard arm in arm across two thousand miles of border in my opinion would be a whole lot of money spent with very little if any benefit whatsoever.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 16, 2012

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed Oct. 25, 2012):

Illegal immigration must stop. Our borders must be secure. In Congress, I supported and cosponsored legislation to stop illegal aliens, terrorists, drug smugglers, and other criminals from coming across our Southern border. We need to utilize troops, fences, and other measures to stop the invasion from Mexico. I was the first to sponsor legislation providing for a fence along the Southern Border. We must continue to fight for funding and for adequacy of the fence.

Barack Obama

Editor’s Note: On June 3, 2010 the White House Office of the Press Secretary released a "Readout of the President’s Meeting with Governor Brewer of Arizona," available at www.whitehouse.gov. It contained the following statement:

The President had a good meeting with Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona at the White House today to discuss a range of critical issues of mutual interest, including the President’s comprehensive plan to secure the Southwest border and the unprecedented resources his Administration has devoted to that effort. The President and Governor Brewer also discussed the President’s decision to deploy up to an additional 1,200 requirements-based National Guard troops to the border and his upcoming request to Congress of $500 million in supplemental funds for enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities as part of that integrated strategy.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Jan. 11, 2011 video "Gary Johnson on Immigration," available at YouTube.com:

We shouldn’t stop what we’re currently doing. But the notion of securing the border, I think the rhetoric right now when we talk about securing the border is building a fence or putting the national guard arm-in-arm across 16 hundred miles of border. I just see that as a whole lot of money spent with no benefit whatsoever.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Dec. 18, 2011, "Statement on International Migrants Day," available at www.jillstein.org:

We must end the systemic practice of detention and deportation of immigrant women, men, and children. We must reverse the militarization of our borders and the federalization of our local police. Undocumented immigrants who are already residing and working in the United States, and their families, should be granted a legal status which includes the chance to become U.S. citizens. Our priorities for immigration reform must include family reunification, asylum for political, racial, gender, and religious refugees, and the normalization of border crossings throughout North America.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a June 21, 2012 speech before the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, "Growing Opportunity for All Americans," available at www.mittromney.com:

As I have said many times, it is critical that we redouble our efforts to secure the borders. That means both preventing illegal border crossings and making it harder to illegally overstay a visa. We should field enough border patrol agents, complete a high-tech fence, and implement an improved exit verification system.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Dec. 21, 2011 Americans Elect email questionnaire, available at www.ontheissues.org:

We are a nation of immigrants - and immigrants are a critical component of our economy. In Alabama, their tomato industry collapsed to the tune of billions of dollars when they passed very harsh anti-immigrant laws and the immigrants left town. That state learned the hard way how valuable the immigrant sector was to their economy. And that’s true nationally. The real solution is:

A) Fix the economic problems that are driving waves of immigrants into this country, initiated by our own trade policies.

B) Then, yes, providing a legal pathway to citizenship to the immigrants who are an integral part of our economy and our culture.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 14, 2012):

Illegal immigration costs the United States taxpayers billions every year through increased health care costs, social service utilization, emergency room fees, prison expenses, and in other areas. For example, of the 189,000 federal prisoners, 50,000 are illegal or recent aliens costing the taxpayers millions of dollars for their incarceration.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Nov. 30, 2009 video titled "Immigration," available on the website for Johnson’s campaign organization Our America Initiative:

First of all, I support immigration. I think immigration is a good thing. I’m opposed to building a wall across the border, which we have built a wall across the border. What we really need to do is we really need to make it easy for immigrants that are here in the United States to work in the United States... I think that illegal immigration is really the issue. We need to make documentation of illegal immigrants as easy as we possibly can. There’re all sorts of ways we could do that, starting with the employer. Let’s make it easy to document illegal immigrants so that they become legal, tax-paying immigrants.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the May 10, 2011 "Building a 21st Century Immigration System," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Others avoid immigration laws by overstaying their visas. Regardless of how they came, the overwhelming majority of these folks are just trying to earn a living and provide for their families. But we have to acknowledge they’ve broken the rules. They’ve cut in front of the line. And what is also true is that the presence of so many illegal immigrants makes a mockery of all those who are trying to immigrate legally.

So one way to strengthen the middle class in America is to reform the immigration system so that there is no longer a massive underground economy that exploits a cheap source of labor while depressing wages for everybody else... And that’s why immigration reform is an economic imperative. It’s an economic imperative.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Fox News/Washington Examiner Republican presidential debate held at Iowa State University in Ames, IA on Aug. 11, 2011:

We’re not looking to bring people in and -- in jobs that can be done by Americans... We let people come across our border illegally or stay here and overstay their visa. They get to stay in the country. I want the best and brightest to be metered into the country based upon the needs of our employment sector and create jobs by bringing technology and innovation that comes from people around the world.

Look, we -- we are a nation of immigrants. We love legal immigration. But for legal immigration to work, we have to secure the border, and we also have to crack down on employers that hire people who are here illegally.

I like legal immigration. I’d have the number of visas that we give to people here that come here legally, determined in part by the needs of our employment community. But we have to secure our border and crack down on those that bring folks here and hire here illegally.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, wrote the following on his official Twitter page on Apr. 25, 2011:

I do believe we should be pursuing off-shore drilling and ANWAR drilling.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a Mar. 2, 2012 open letter to the voters of Alaska, available at mittromney.com:

I understand the Alaska pipeline is running less than one-third full. As president, I would push to open new opportunities for America’s energy security, onshore and offshore, especially in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. I would not have dragged my feet on exploration and development of major prospects onshore and offshore as this Administration has.

In a Romney Administration, you will find permitting reform that will help Alaska unlock its potential, statewide. The federal government should be an ally in the effort to develop more of our nation’s resources, not an obstacle. We will respect the rights Alaska gained with Statehood -- including control of Alaska lands, waters, and wildlife.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a 2007 League of Conservation Voters questionnaire, as quoted in an article titled "Presidential Candidates Views on ANWR [Arctic National Wildlife Refuge]: The Democrats," available at anwr.org (accessed Mar. 20, 2012):

I strongly reject drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it would irreversibly damage a protected national wildlife refuge without creating sufficient oil supplies to meaningfully affect the global market price or have a discernable impact on US energy security.

Jill Stein

No positon found as of July 13, 2012

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in "Meet Gary Johnson, the GOP’s Invisible Candidate" on June 15, 2011, available at www.rollingstone.com:

I accept the fact that there is global warming and I accept the fact that it’s man caused. That said, I am opposed to cap and trade. I’m a free market guy when it comes to the clean environment the number-one factor when it comes to the clean environment is a good economy.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in the Oct. 7, 2007 "Barack Obama’s Plan to Make America a Global Energy Leader," posted on his 2008 election campaign website:

Global warming is real, is happening now and is the result of human activities. The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years. Glaciers are melting faster; the polar ice caps are shrinking; trees are blooming earlier; oceans are becoming more acidic, threatening marine life; people are dying in heat waves; species are migrating, and eventually many will become extinct. Scientists predict that absent major [green house gas] emission reductions, climate change will worsen famine and drought in some of the poorest places in the world and wreak havoc across the globe.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Dec. 12, 2011 article "White House Role in Blocking Climate Progress ’Unforgivable’," available at www.jillstein.org:

Current levels of fossil fuel use are already heading us toward indisputably catastrophic levels of global warming. Yet with emissions rising faster and faster every year, the Obama Administration has shockingly pushed an agreement to do nothing before 2020, ensuring that the critical time window for saving the climate will be missed. That the White House is responsible for this is unforgivable.

People are already dying from climate change. Extreme weather changes have already inflicted tens of billions in damage. This is a mere hint of the far greater impacts we are already on track for. The clear solution to the growing worldwide economic crisis is to invest in a sustainable fossil fuel-free economy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Mostly No.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in his 2010 book No Apology:

I believe that climate change is occurring - the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore. I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control... Internationally, we should work to limit the increase in emissions in global greenhouse gases, but in doing so we shouldn’t put ourselves in a disadvantageous position that penalizes American jobs and economic growth.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a July 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes. At the heart of CO2 regulation under the Clean Air Act is EPA’s authority - confirmed by the Courts - to decide that CO2 emissions ’endanger’ the public health and safety. That required EPA to decide that climate change is both caused by CO2 emissions and that climate change is endangering us. I would suggest that the threshold EPA should use to decide that CO2 is endangering us must require more certainty than has been provided to date on either of those questions.

What IS certain is that more regulation of CO2, based on uncertain need, is essentially a tax on every American who drives a car or uses electricity. Given what has happened with CO2 regulation under both the Bush and Obama Administrations, and the costly uncertainty that has resulted, perhaps the greater need is to amend the Clean Air Act to tighten the requirements that must be met before imposing job-killing regulations -whether it be CO2 or any other ’pollutant’.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on July 14, 2011 during a town hall event in Derry, New Hampshire, available at www.thinkprogress.org:

I believe we should keep our air and our water clean. And that we don’t want to have pollutants that are interfering with our health and damaging the ability of our children to enjoy good health...

I think we may have made a mistake, we have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation [Clean Air Act], and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies. We can agree to disagree..

My view is that the EPA getting into carbon and regulating carbon has gone beyond the original intent of the legislation. I do believe we should reduce the pollutants that harm our health.

Barack Obama

Editor’s Note: On April 5, 2011 the Executive Office of the President released a "Statement of Administration Policy," available at www.whitehouse.gov, on HR 910 the "Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011" vowing that Obama would veto the bill if it made it to his desk. It contained the following statement:

The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 910, which would halt the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) common-sense steps under the Clean Air Act (CAA) to protect Americans from harmful air pollution. H.R. 910 would also increase the Nation’s dependence on oil and other fossil fuels as well as contradict the scientific consensus on climate change.

The Energy Tax Prevention Act sought to amend the Clean Air Act to exclude carbon dioxide from regulation as a pollutant. The act passed the US House of Representatives (255-172) on Apr. 7, 2011. The Act was received by the Senate on Apr. 8 and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following response on Feb. 16, 2012, to "The Constitution Party of Indiana Presidential Candidate Questionnaire," available at www.cpindiana.org:

Section M – Environment and Energy...

Should the regulation and enforcement of the Clean Water and Air Acts be continued and/or strengthened?

[Virgil Goode’s response] No.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 13, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 28, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Generally yes, but I would want to see the specific bill with definitions.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, made the following statement on Nov. 10, 2007, during the 2007 Food and Family Farm Presidential Summit in Des Moines, IA, hosted by the Iowa Farmers Union, available at www.fooddemocracynow.org:

Here is what I will do as president... we will let folks know whether their food has been genetically modified because Americans should know what they are buying.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following on Aug. 28, 2002, on her 2002 gubernatorial campaign website jillwill.org, on the page titled "Labeling Food Accurately," available at www.web.archive.org:

We can provide adequate warning labels for toxic contaminants in food and for genetically-modified ingredients. Consumers have a right to know what is in the food they are purchasing.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a July 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

While I generally resist the idea of government mandates, public safety is a legitimate government function. For many people, certain food ingredients can do serious harm, and knowing what is in food is absolutely essential. For example, I have celiac disease, and absent adequate labeling, I cannot risk eating foods that may have gluten. For millions of Americans in similar situations, knowing what we are eating is not a matter of preference or convenience; rather, it is an issue of basic safety.

Mitt Romney

No position found as of May 30, 2012

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during an Oct. 17, 2012 speech, "Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event in Mt. Vernon, IA," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Look, we all agree we got to increase oil production. We all agree we got to increase natural gas production. But the question is whether we build on the progress for the new energy sources of the future. I’m not going to keep on giving corporate taxpayer-funded welfare to oil companies, $4 billion a year, when we could be using that money to continue to promote wind and solar and long-lasting batteries, and put Americans back to work right now - seeing that technology develop here in the United States instead of China or Germany, or some other country.

And I’ve got to tell you, Iowa, this is not a pipedream; there are nearly 7,000 jobs in Iowa right now depending on wind energy. Last night, Governor Romney claimed he didn’t have a plan to end wind jobs in Iowa, but he called these jobs ’imaginary.’ His plan would end tax credits for wind energy producers. That is a fact. My plan will keep these investments, and we’ll keep reducing the carbon pollution that’s also heating the planet - because climate change isn’t a hoax.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provided the following statement on her campaign website page "Sign On Statement: The Urgency of Climate Change in the 2012 Election," available at www.jillstein.org, (accessed Oct. 26, 2012):

Stein’s Green New Deal, the cornerstone of her campaign, is a blueprint for action to stop climate change. The massive investment needed to transition to a carbon neutral economy by 2025 will provide the foundation for a revival of the American economy, putting tens of millions of Americans back to work while providing reliable, safe and affordable energy for our future.

Jill Stein supports an annual fund of several hundred billion dollars to invest in clean renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, tidal), public transportation and organic agriculture. It will be funded via taxes on the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies, major cuts in the military budget, a rising fee on carbon emissions, and an end to subsidies on fossil fuels and nuclear power plants.

Stein and the Green Party will shut all oil, coal and nuclear plants by 2025. Dr. Stein will ban mountaintop removal coal mining, the hydrofracking of natural gas and the development of the tar sands oil and Keystone XL. Jill Stein will stop oil drilling off shore, on public lands, under the Great Lakes and in the Arctic.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in his article "Energy & the Environment," available at www.garyjohnson2012.com (accessed Oct. 25, 2012):

Government subsidies and incentives for specific energy resources don’t work.

Cap and Trade schemes, tax subsidies, and government efforts to steer us to one energy source over another are inherently inefficient, disrupt the market, and ultimately impose costs we cannot afford.

Nowhere in the Constitution is the government given the power to manipulate our behavior as consumers or producers of energy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed Oct. 25, 2012):

The United States must be free of foreign fossil fuel. Freedom from the Middle Eastern sheiks, Nigeria, and Venezuela is necessary for a continued bright future for our country. We cannot allow OPEC to control our energy supply. The United States must develop its own resources and alternative fuel sources. Hydrogen, biodiesel, and other alternative energy sources have potential in making us less dependent on foreign fossil fuels. I also support the utilization of nuclear power and expanded drilling opportunities for natural gas and oil in this country so that our energy needs are met by domestic and not foreign sources.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, issued the following statement in an Aug. 23, 2012 campaign whitepaper "The Romney Plan for a Stronger Middle Class: Energy Independence," available at www.mittromney.com:

The federal government has a role to play in facilitating innovation in the energy industry. History shows that the United States has moved forward in astonishing ways thanks to investments in basic research that have produced breakthroughs to benefit entire industries. Unfortunately, President Obama’s poor understanding of the private sector has spilled directly into his energy policy, as he sought to have government play venture capitalist and spend billions of dollars subsidizing his chosen companies and technologies. Meanwhile, as companies like Solyndra [solar power] were going bankrupt and the wind industry was shedding 10,000 jobs, revolutionary innovation in the private sector was paving the way for energy independence and an economic resurgence. Instead of distorting the playing field, the government should be ensuring that it remains level. The same policies that will open access to land for oil, gas, and coal development can also open access for the construction of wind, solar, and hydropower facilities. Strengthening and streamlining regulations and permitting processes will benefit the development of both traditional and alternative energy sources, and encourage the use of a diverse range of fuels including natural gas in transportation.

Instead of defining success as providing enough subsidies for an uncompetitive technology to survive in the market, success should be defined as eliminating any barriers that might prevent the best technologies from succeeding on their own.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 14, 2012):

The Canada to Texas pipeline needs to be built and operational expeditiously and not delayed or stopped as the current Administration is doing.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during a Mar. 1, 2012 internet town hall meeting, available at www.yowie.com:

I completely support the Keystone Pipeline if, if it’s not an issue of the government implementing eminent domain to procure right of ways...

I really don’t understand where the regulatory hurdles are... I would certainly remove the regulatory hurdles.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, was quoted as stating the following during a Mar. 1, 2012 campaign stop in North Dakota by the Canadian Press in the huffingtonpost.ca article, "Keystone XL Pipeline: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney Sing Praises of Contentious Project:"

When someone says we want to bring in a pipeline that’s going to create tens of thousands of jobs to bring oil in from Canada, how in the world could you say no?

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Nov. 13, 2011 article "Climate Victory on Keystone Pipeline Requires Continued Green Pressure Through 2012 and Beyond," available at www.jillstein.org:

The State Department makes it clear that the sticking point in their minds is the route of the pipeline. This fails utterly to address the critical issue - which is the amount of carbon that will be exhausted into the atmosphere from the Canadian tar sands. No matter which route is taken, this pipeline is a disaster for the planet. No further study is needed to come to this conclusion. As president, I would terminate this project so that we can move forward to a green energy future.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Jan. 18, 2012 press release titled "Statement by the President on the Keystone XL Pipeline," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Earlier today, I received the Secretary of State’s recommendation on the pending application for the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by Congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline’s impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment. As a result, the Secretary of State has recommended that the application be denied. And after reviewing the State Department’s report, I agree. 

This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people... In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Feb. 23, 2012 speech at the University of Miami, "Remarks by the President on Energy," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

We’ve got to have a sustained, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy. Yes, oil and gas, but also wind and solar and nuclear and biofuels, and more... We supported the first new nuclear power plant in three decades.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on his campaing website page "Energy," available at www.mittromney.com (accessed May 9, 2012):

As president, Mitt Romney will make every effort to safeguard the environment, but he will be mindful at every step of also protecting the jobs of American workers...

The first step will be a rational and streamlined approach to regulation, which would facilitate rapid progress in the development of our domestic reserves of oil and natural gas and allow for further investment in nuclear power...

[Mitt Romney would like to] [e]xpand NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] capabilities for approval of additional nuclear reactor designs.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

A new world really is possible. We can, and must, shift to an economy in which 100% of our electricity is generated renewably. We can and must leave the old economy behind – which was based on mining, extraction, and dirty dangerous expensive nuclear power. We can and must stop poisoning ourselves, our children, and other living beings.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 8, 2012):

The United States must develop its own resources and alternative fuel sources. Hydrogen, biodiesel, and other alternative energy sources have potential in making us less dependent on foreign fossil fuels. I also support the utilization of nuclear power and expanded drilling opportunities for natural gas and oil in this country so that our energy needs are met by domestic and not foreign sources.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following on Nov. 2, 2011, during an online Town Hall meeting, "Green Energy vs. Fossil Fuels vs. Nuclear - Gary Johnson Online Town Hall Q&A 11-2," available at YouTube.com:

I’m a free market guy when it comes to energy. In a free market approach to energy I don’t know if we build any new nuclear facilities given that no private underwriter is going to underwrite the liabilities associated with nuclear. I am open to seeing the government in a role to do that. It is an exciting notion to me that we have zero carbon emission from nuclear and the new electrical generation facilities are a one refuel for fifty years of life. To me that’s a really exciting prospect.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a July 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes. Gas prices should be determined by a marketplace freed from unnecessary government interference, and in the case of domestic oil drilling, that interference comes in the form of effectively keeping millions of acres of land off-limits to drilling - and to the marketplace. The development of the Bakken formation in North Dakota is a perfect example. Not only is Bakken formation oil bringing down prices, but it is creating thousands of jobs and significant economic activity.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Mar. 16, 2012 interview on Fox News’ Fox and Friends, available at www.electad.com:

The best thing we can do to get the price of gas to be more moderate and not have to be dependent upon the oil cartel is to drill in the gulf, drill in the outer continent shelf, drill in ANWR, drill in North Dakota, South Dakota, drill in Oklahoma and Texas.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in a Mar. 29, 2012 speech in the Rose Garden "Remarks by the President on Oil and Gas Subsidies," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

Instead of taxpayer giveaways to an [oil] industry that’s never been more profitable, we should be using that money to double-down on investments in clean energy technologies that have never been more promising - investments in wind power and solar power and biofuels; investments in fuel-efficient cars and trucks, and energy-efficient homes and buildings. That’s the future. That’s the only way we’re going to break this cycle of high gas prices that happen year after year after year...

...[W]e can’t just drill our way out of this problem. As I said, oil production here in the United States is doing very well, and it’s been doing well even as gas prices are going up. Well, the reason is because we use more than 20 percent of the world’s oil but we only have 2 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. And that means we could drill every drop of American oil tomorrow but we’d still have to buy oil from other countries to make up the difference. We’d still have to depend on other countries to meet our energy needs.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 8, 2012):

The United States must develop its own resources... I also support... expanded drilling opportunities for natural gas and oil in this country so that our energy needs are met by domestic and not foreign sources. I have supported and will continue supporting drilling in Alaska and the continental United States. If President, I would support the drilling off our coasts where it can be done safely and where the states, such as Virginia, have passed legislation requesting offshore drilling.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

America needs to go in a new direction. We are calling for a Green New Deal that would decisively end high unemployment and make a massive investment in solar, wind, energy efficiency and mass transit. We reject the President’s assertion that ’all of the above’ is the right answer when it comes to energy. We need to wean ourselves from the fossil fuels that pollute our land and water, motivate wars for oil, and which are pushing us to a climate catastrophe.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Yes. Limits on political contributions have never fulfilled their intended purposes, and never will. I believe that contributions are, indeed, speech, and that transparency and full disclosure allow voters and the public to make their own decisions as to the propriety of a candidate’s sources of funding.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during a Nov. 3, 2011 interview with the Portsmouth Herald, "Romney Speaks on Supreme Court Justices," available at YouTube.com:

Let’s take the decision that the [Supreme] court had that said that corporations could make political contributions [Citizens United]. I’m not wild about the idea of corporations making political contributions... as a concept, but I think the court was saying, ’wait a second, here is what the law says, here is what the constitution says, if you don’t like that you’d better change those things,’ but you can’t say that some corporations, unions for instance, can make political contributions, but other corporations can’t, I think their decision was a correct decision. I support their decision.

I wish we could find a way to get money out of politics. I have not found out a way to do that. I think the best way, by the way, is to let people make whatever contributions they want and have it instantly reported and know what conflicts exist, so we know where the money is coming from. I think the current system on campaign finance reform is a mess.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, US Representative (R-VA), stated the following in an interview with Tim Murphy, published Oct. 1, 2012, "Why This Man Won’t Be the Next Nader," available at www.motherjones.com:

You shouldn’t have political action committees... I think a constitutional amendment on that [overturning the Citizens United ruling] would pass even though you’d have a lot of heavy hitters on both sides objecting to it.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during his Jan. 10, 2010, "Remarks by the President in State of the Union Address," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections. I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I’d urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, provides the following statement on her campaign website page "Where We Stand on the Issues," available at www.jillstein.org (accessed Oct. 9, 2012):

Reverse the Citizens United ruling to revoke corporate personhood, and amend our Constitution to make clear that corporations are not persons and money is not speech.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following on Dec. 27, 2011 during a press conference in Londonderry, NH, "Mitt Romney Endorses Voter ID," available at YouTube.com:

I find it extraordinary that [US Attorney General] Eric Holder is, one more time, making a very serious error [in challenging a South Carolina law that requires a photo ID to vote]... The idea that people should not be able to be identified as they vote so that we can know that they are not voting multiple times. I mean, that’s the purpose here of course. We don’t want people voting multiple times and you can get a photo ID free from your state. You can get it at the time you register to vote...

That’s one more lawsuit I’d end if I were president of the United States.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Oct. 9, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

While ballot integrity is clearly important, I am concerned that the growing trend among states to require photo ID’s for voting poses a risk of broad vote suppression, particularly among the elderly and minorities, that outweighs the questionable benefits.  In short, I fear that requiring photo ID is a solution in search of a problem.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, authored a Sep. 20, 2005 senate resolution against voter photo identification requirements, "S. Con. Res. 53," available at brennancenter.org:

Expressing the sense of Congress that any effort to impose photo identification requirements for voting should be rejected...

Whereas historically, certain citizens, especially racial minorities, have been prevented from voting because of significant barriers such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and property requirements;

Whereas in the face of persistently low voter turnout relative to other industrialized democracies, exaggerated fears of voter impersonation have led to calls for more stringent voter identification requirements, including the requirement of government-issued photo identification cards as the only approved form of voter identification;

Whereas there has been no substantiated evidence of any significant incidence of fraud due to voter impersonation, and the more serious attack on ballot integrity has been the discounting of millions of ballots, including an estimated 6,000,000 ballots lost in the 2000 Presidential election;

Whereas there is no evidence that photo identification requirements address the few isolated instances of such fraud

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in a Sep. 27, 2012 interview with Sonali Kolhatkar, "How Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein Differs from the Two Major Parties," available at www.uprisingradio.org:

We call for, for example, a constitutional right to vote, which would make these voter ID laws obsolete and impossible. We would ensure that every voter has the right to vote......

which would put voter ID laws basically into court, and would render them unconstitutional, essentially. It would make very clear that anyone who tries to restrict the right to vote will be taken into court, where they will have to prove before a court of law and a jury that they are not violating that right. And right now that decision, you know, is left up to secretaries of state, and to legislatures and so on. So there would be constitutional protection

Virgil Goode

No position found as of Oct. 9, 2012.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following in a Dec. 1, 2011 online town hall co-hosted with GOProud:

As a believer in individual freedom and keeping government out of personal lives, I simply cannot find a legitimate justification for federal laws, such as the Defense of Marriage Act, which ’define’ marriage. That definition should be left to religions and individuals – not government.  Government’s role when it comes to marriage is one of granting benefits and rights to couples who choose to enter into a marriage ’contract’.  As I have examined this issue, consulted with folks on all sides, and viewed it through the lens of individual freedom and equal rights, it has become clear to me that denying those rights and benefits to gay couples is discrimination, plain and simple…

[G]overnment’s promise should be to insure equal access to those rights to all Americans, gay or straight… Today, I believe we have arrived at a point in history where more and more Americans are viewing it as a question of liberty and freedom. That evolution is important, and the time has come for us to align our marriage laws with the notion that every individual should be treated equally.

Editor’s Note: Prior to Gary Johnson’s Pro statement made on Dec. 1, 2011, he expressed a Not Clearly Pro or Con position as indicated below in a June 8, 2011 interview on C-SPAN.

Well, I think that government should get out of the marriage business, be in the civil union business, and leave marriages to the churches. So, I would like to think that I am in support of gay rights. Included in those rights would be the ability of gays to be civility united.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, made the following statement on May 9, 2012, during an interview with Robin Roberts from ABC’s Good Morning America, available at www.abcnews.go.com:

I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.

Editor’s Note: Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in an Oct. 3, 2011 interview with George Stephanopoulus on ABC News, available at www.abcnews.go.com:

President Obama: That at minimum, that gays and lesbians have strong civil unions that provide the same kinds of protections.

George Stephanopoulos: At minimum?

Obama: At minimum.

Stephanopoulos: So you’ve said your position is evolving. You said you’re struggling with it. What more do you need to know?

Obama: Well-- you know-- I probably won’t-- make news right now, George. But I-- I think that there’s no doubt that-- as I see-- friends, families-- children of gay couples-- who are thriving-- you know, that-- that has an impact on how I think about these issues. It’s also one of the reasons that I made the decision for us not to defend-- The Defense of Marriage Act, which-- I believe violated the Constitution. And, you know, is going to be-- decided in the courts probably-- in the next-- next few terms.

Stephanopoulos: You think you’ll change your mind before the election?

Obama: You know-- I-- I’m-- I’m-- still working on it."

Editor’s Note: Prior to Barack Obama’s Not Clearly Pro or Con statement from Oct. 3, 2011, he expressed a Con position as indicated by the statement from Aug. 18, 2008 interview with Reverend Rick Warren of Saddleback Church, available at www.suntimes.com:

I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. For me, as a Christian, it is also a sacred union. You know, God’s in the mix.

Editor’s Note: Prior to Barack Obama’s Con statement from Aug. 18, 2008, he expressed a Pro position as indicated by the statement from a Feb. 15, 1996 questionnaire for Chicago gay and lesbian newspaper Outlines, reprinted in the June 18, 2011 article, "Obama’s Views on Gay Marriage ‘Evolving;”:

I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a May 11, 2012 article "Stein Welcomes Obama’s New Position on Marriage Equality," available at www.jillstein.org:

I’m proud that I don’t have to change my position to match the polls. I have supported marriage equality since at least 2002, when I ran for governor. And I’m going to continue to work to eliminate this insidious form of discrimination. President Obama is still enforcing the Defense of Marriage Act - and that has to stop. And the President is saying that its acceptable for individual states to discriminate. I believe that when it comes to basic rights, it’s improper for a President to treat them as local options. The federal government is charged with defending the human rights of all people, no matter which state they live in.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following on his campaign website page "The Issues," available at www.goodeforpresident2012.com (accessed May 14, 2012):

I believe that marriage should be a union between a man and a woman. I am opposed to gay marriages and so-called gay civil unions. I support the federal Marriage Protection Amendment.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following at the Aug. 11, 2011 Republican presidential debate in Des Moines, IA hosted by Fox News, available at FoxNewsInsider.com:

I believe we should have a federal amendment in the constitution that defines marriage as a relationship between a man and woman, because I believe the ideal place to raise a child is in a home with a mom and a dad.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

How long ago?

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Honesty and transparency will provide voters with the information they need to make that decision for themselves. Other than the requirements of the Constitution and governing laws, it is not for me to render judgments as to personal qualifications for office.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, US Senator (D-IL) at the time of the quote, stated in a Dec. 19, 2007 interview titled "Candidates Offer Views on Infidelity" on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric:

Katie Couric: Should infidelity qualify someone, or should infidelity disqualify someone?

Obama: You know...I’m very cautious about applying strict moral rules to...or a blanket universal rule to...people. Because, you know, I mean, there are some people who might say that the fact that, you know, I indulged in drugs when I was young, disqualifies me. I mean, there are a lot of ways that you can apply that kind of morality. What I’m always hopeful of is that people...judge our public servants based on their passion, their commitment, their public integrity, how they operate with that public trust. And, you know, if we start getting too sanctimonious about some of these issues then there aren’t going to be that many people who are able or willing to serve.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in a Dec. 19, 2007 interview with Katie Couric on CBS Evening News, available at CBSNew.com:

Katie Couric: Well, what do you think of people who base their judgment at least partially on a candidate’s ability to remain faithful to his or her spouse?

Romney: You know, I let people look at me any way they want to. I’m not gonna give advice to the American people in which aspects of a person’s life they look at. After all, the president of the United States is gonna be under a microscope. He will be. The first lady will be. The whole family will be. Every mistake will be open to the world. In some respects, you respect the nation.

In some respects you represent an example to the children of America. So we’re gonna get looked at in all sorts of ways. And I’m not gonna try and counsel the American people as to what to look at. I know they look at my faith, for instance. And I’m happy to have them do so. Some are critical. Some are positive. It’s just part of the package. And take me as ... the whole character that I am.

Couric: Do you think that people shouldn’t vote for candidates if they are -- commit adultery, for example?

Romney: I think people should be able to do what they want to do. And express their own views when they get into the ... voting booth. I’m not gonna tell them how to ... do that. And I know that people will, again, take their own counsel.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 16, 2012.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, wrote the following in his Oct. 21, 2011 Huffington Post article "Government Picking Winners and Losers = Corruption":

I’ve been trying to figure out what the ’Occupy’ protesters are protesting, so this week, while in New York, I took the time to visit the protesters and just talk to them. What I found is pretty straightforward: They are angry about a system that is being gamed for the benefit of a connected few. I also concluded that it is a mistake to dismiss these protests, as the Establishment is trying to do, as a bunch of malcontents.

The fact is, Americans are angry, and Wall Street may be as good a target as any. Why shouldn’t we be protesting the fact that our tax dollars were used to bail out AIG and General Motors and a bunch of banks, while the rest of us — who aren’t too big to fail — are left to sink or swim in an economy the politicians have strangled with deficit spending, over-regulation and punitive taxation?...

The system is corrupt. There is no other way to describe it, and it’s time we faced that simple truth. And maybe instead of dismissing or trying to manipulate the Occupiers to partisan advantage, we should all just go join them. All we need to agree about is that the status quo sucks.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following in an Oct. 18, 2011 interview on ABC News Nightline, available at www.abcnews.go.com:

I understand the frustrations being expressed in those [Occupy Wall Street] protests. In some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them.

The most important thing we can do right now is those of us in leadership letting people know that we understand their struggles and we are on their side, and that we want to set up a system in which hard work, responsibility, doing what you’re supposed to do, is rewarded. And that people who are irresponsible, who are reckless, who don’t feel a sense of obligation to their communities and their companies and their workers that those folks aren’t rewarded.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, was quoted in a Feb. 1, 2012 article "Stein Condemns Police Attacks on Oakland, DC, Miami," available at www.jillstein.org:

I stand firmly with those brave Americans in the Occupy Wall Street Movement in hundreds of communities across our country who have been willing to put their bodies on the line for democracy. The demand to end the rule of the 1% is the civil rights movement of our time. People are rising up to demand a more just nation, and police brutality and state violence are being unleashed to suppress democracy for the 99%...

Occupying public spaces as protest is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. I call upon local, state and federal officials to stop attacking the Occupy Wall Street movement. I also call upon our courts to enforce the constitution and protect the first amendment rights of the occupiers.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

Mostly no.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, said in response to a question about Occupy Wall Street at an Oct. 4, 2011 campaign stop at a Florida retirement community, available at nationaljournal.com:

I think it’s dangerous, this class warfare.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, stated the following during an Oct. 8, 2012 campaign event at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, CA, "Remarks by the President at a Campaign Event," available at www.whitehouse.gov:

The other night he [Mitt Romney] ruled out asking millionaires and billionaires to pay even a dime more in taxes to help us bring down our deficit. Not a dime. When he was asked what he’d actually do to cut spending, he said he’d go after public television. So for all you moms and kids out there, don’t worry, somebody is finally cracking down on Big Bird...

Governor Romney plans to let Wall Street run wild again, but he’s bringing the hammer down on Sesame Street...

...We can’t afford to gut our investments in education or clean energy or research and technology. We can’t afford to roll back regulations not just on Wall Street, but on oil companies and insurance companies. That’s not a jobs plan. That’s not a plan to grow our economy. That’s not change. It’s a relapse. We’ve been there. We have tried that. We’re not going back.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

The Green New Deal creates a Corporation for Economic Democracy, a new federal corporation (like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) to provide publicity, training, education, and direct financing for cooperative development and for democratic reforms to make government agencies, private associations, and business enterprises more participatory.

And speaking of the public broadcasting, the Green New Deal strengthens media democracy by expanding federal support for locally-owned broadcast media and local print media.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), stated the following during the Oct. 23, 2012 "Third Party Presidential Debate," in Chicago, IL, hosted by the Free and Equal Elections Foundation, available at www.c-span.org:

I’m not for funding public broadcasting.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the Oct. 3, 2012 presidential debate in Denver, CO, available at www.npr.org:

What things would I cut from spending? Well, first of all, I will eliminate all programs by this test — if they don’t pass it: Is the program so critical it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And if not, I’ll get rid of it...

I’m sorry, Jim. I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you too. But I’m not going to — I’m not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it. That’s number one.

Gary Johnson

No position found as of Oct. 29, 2012.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org

Yes.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following during the NBC News/Politico Republican presidential debate held at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA on Sep. 7, 2011, available at NYTimes.com:

I believe in a lot of what the Tea Party believes in. The Tea Party believes that government’s too big, taxing too much, and that we ought to get -- get to the work of getting Americans to work. So I put together a plan with a whole series of points of how we can get America’s economy going again. Tea Party people like that. So if the Tea Party is for keeping government small and spending down, and helping us create jobs, then, hey, I’m for the Tea Party.

Barack Obama

President Obama’s 2012 campaign Press Secretary, Ben LaBolt, stated the following in an Oct. 3, 2011 memo available at www.barackobama.com:

From economics to immigration, Governor Perry, Governor Romney, and the Republican field have embraced policies that the American people oppose. The campaign to win the Republican nomination has become a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Tea Party. They would return to policies that have been tried before and done nothing to improve economic security for the middle class, rewarding special interests who can afford to pay for lobbyists instead of looking out for working families.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, said the following in an Aug. 19, 2011 speech at the National Press Club according to Michael Coleman’s Aug. 21, 2011 Albuquerque Journal article titled "Johnson Forges Ahead Sticking to ‘Pocketbook’ Issues":

The tea party is a mixed bag. If the tea party stands for the federal checkbook, great. But I have seen tea party events that don’t have that as a basis but have a social agenda as its basis. I don’t see that as addressing the problems this country faces.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 17, 2012.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, stated the following during the Sep. 22, 2011 Republican presidential candidate debate hosted by Fox News in Orlando FL, available at www.foxnews.com:

Balance the federal budget now, not 15 years from now, not 20 years from now, but now. And throw out the entire federal tax system, replace it with a fair tax, a consumption tax, that by all measurements is just that. It’s fair. It does away with corporate income tax. If that doesn’t create tens of millions of jobs in this country, I don’t know what does.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, then-Senator (D-IL), co-sponsored a Mar. 27, 2007 bill in the 110th Congress titled "A Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Relative to Equal Rights for Men and Women," available at thomas.loc.gov. The S.J. Res. 10 said in part:

The following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States...

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following in an article titled "Here Is How I Will Control Federal Spending," posted www.mittromney.com on Sep. 29, 2011:

We must cut government spending, cap that spending at a sustainable level - 20 percent of GDP is the target I would shoot for - and pass a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution.

Jill Stein

Jill Stein, MD, former Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, stated the following in her Jan. 2012 speech "A People’s State of the Union: A Green New Deal for America," available at www.jillstein.org:

When corporations and big money dominate our elections, government of, for, and by the people cannot take root. For this reason, we urgently need to amend our Constitution to make clear that corporations are not persons and money is not speech. Those rights belong to living, breathing human beings like you and me - not to business entities controlled by the wealthy.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, was quoted as having said the following in an Aug. 14, 2010 article by Ryan Creed titled "President Obama Supports Building of Mosque Near Ground Zero," posted on the ABC News website:

As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable.

Virgil Goode

Virgil Goode, former US Representative (R-VA), provided the following statement in a May 14, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

No.

Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, stated the following through his spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, as quoted in an article by Ben Smith titled "2012ers on the Mosque," posted on www.politico.com on Aug. 10, 2010:

Governor Romney opposes the construction of the mosque at Ground Zero. The wishes of the families of the deceased and the potential for extremists to use the mosque for global recruiting and propaganda compel rejection of this site.

Gary Johnson

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico, issued the following statement through his Communications Director, Joe Hunter, in a Feb. 10, 2012 email to ProCon.org:

It is appropriate that property rights and local control be respected. My opinion as to who builds what and where they build it is a matter of taste that should not be imposed on anyone’s rights.

Jill Stein

No position found as of July 17, 2012