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On the Issues
The Liberty Principle
-Back to the topLiberty and Government are opposing principles; to the extent that one expands, the other must necessarily contract. Government diminishes Liberty in two ways, by taking what we own (economic liberty) and by criminalizing what we do (personal liberty).
I will vote against any bill that infringes on the individual liberties of American citizens, particularly any bill that violates any of the 1st 10 amendments to the Constitution - the Bill of Rights. The 2nd amendment is the only guarantee we have for the other 9.
Limited Government
-Back to the topThe proper role of government is to defend our liberty, protect us from force and fraud, and facilitate commerce through sound monetary and fiscal policies. Our Constitution is the job description for government; the black ink tells government what it is allowed to do, and the white space belongs to us.
Over the past four decades, government has expanded greatly, meddling and interfering where it does not belong, while at the same time it has failed to do its primary Constitutional functions.
I will vote against any bill that expands the scope of government, and will vote against any bill whose provisions are not expressly authorized by the Constitution.
Voluntary Exchange
-Back to the topThe bedrock Libertarian principle is voluntary exchange. Any voluntary exchange between persons or legal entities is just. Any involuntary exchange - through force or fraud - is unjust. Government has no moral basis to interfere with the voluntary exchange between people who have reached the age of consent.
I will vote to repeal victimless crime laws and to enact a uniform age of consent at 18 years of age. We can deal with the social problems our vices cause; we cannot deal with the gangs, crime, violence, and corruption that our vice laws have created.
Economy
-Back to the topThe worst imperfections of free market capitalism pale in comparison to the injuries inflicted daily by government intervention and control of the economy. Decades of subsidies, preferences, bailouts, protectionism, regulatory manipulations, and mandates have created the modern corporate welfare state.
Government incompetence has nearly ruined our economy, the value of our property, and the value of our currency. Government spent billions screwing up our markets, and then trillions more trying to fix what they broke. The private sector produces all of the wealth, pays all of the bills, and creates all of the jobs in this country. The best thing the government can do to help the economy recover is to leave it alone.
I will vote against every bailout. I will vote against any further government intervention in the private economy. I will work to de-regulate the economy, and to reduce the burden of government on American businesses and the jobs they create.
Fiscal Policy
-Back to the topThe government spends too much, borrows too much, and taxes too much. We are stealing money from two generations of Americans not yet born. In my lifetime, total government spending has increased from 20% of GDP to nearly 60%. The debt and unfunded liabilities now total over $200,000 for each private sector job.
Government spending needs to be drastically cut, ineffective programs scrapped, agencies and even whole cabinet departments eliminated, beginning with the Department of Education.
I will work to reduce the footprint of government and to cut spending and taxes by 50%.
Fairtax
-Back to the topI support the Fairtax initiative, which establishes a consumption tax on everything we purchase and eliminates all other federal taxes. Fairtax does not reduce or increase taxes, it just collects them in a way that is more efficient and fairer. It eliminates the convoluted system of preferences and loopholes and saves us nearly $400 billion in annual costs of compliance with the current incomprehensible tax code.
Social Security
-Back to the topOver 20 years ago, the US-backed IMF warned all nations who provided government pensions to transition these programs to personal retirement accounts. Many nations did - Chile and Great Britain come immediately to mind. The United States did not, and we now face over $6 trillion in unfunded liabilities.
We need to make our current system voluntary, and transition those who choose to opt out into personal retirement accounts over the next 20 years. It is the only way to keep the system viable.
National Defense
-Back to the topI believe that we should have the strongest military in the world, and that we should rarely use it. We need to defend ourselves and our vital interests, specifically trade routes in the air and sea; we do not need to defend other countries and their vital interests. We should not engage in any foreign military interventions without a Congressional declaration of war, and we should not use our military for nation building. They are magnificent war fighters, and that is their only noble purpose.
I will vote to close foreign bases, to bring our troops home, and to reduce Defense spending to a level that is appropriate for its rightful defensive mission.
War on Terror
-Back to the topThe threat of Islamist terrorism is real. The terrorist organizations that have attacked us in the past and are plotting to attack us again in the future need to be destroyed. States who sponsor terrorists need to be deterred. Neither of these goals are achieved by violating the 4th amendment rights of U.S. citizens, and the safety of all Americans is compromised by political grandstanding and posturing from both the left and the right.
Congress has a solemn obligation to defend our nation, while at the same time protecting our rights from the excesses of a rigorous defense. I will take this obligation seriously and with great deliberation.
War on Drugs
-Back to the topIf the choice was drugs or no drugs, I would take no drugs. But that is not the choice that presents itself in the real world. The real-world choice is drugs or drugs-gangs-crime-violence. The high profits in illicit drugs have funded the private armies that have made our inner cities unlivable, corrupted law enforcement, and are tearing apart whole countries.
We cannot afford the cost of incarceration for drug users, and we can't even keep the drugs out of the prisons we have built to house them. Drugs do not cause gangs and violence and crime; our drug laws do, and they need to be reformed. We learned this lesson in the 1920's with alcohol prohibition, and we need to come to the same sensible approach for all other drugs, too.
I will vote to repeal federal drug laws, and to dismantle the apparatus of enforcement and incarceration.
Foreign Relations
-Back to the topFree trade, not foreign aid. We should be willing and friendly trading partners with every nation on earth, and that should be the beginning and end of our foreign policy.
We have no business propping up regimes with foreign aid money, or interfering with the internal affairs of sovereign nations who have different priorities and beliefs than we do. I vehemently oppose any ceding of American national sovereignty to unelected internationalist bureaucracies like the UN, WTO, IMF, and the like.
States Rights
-Back to the topThe 9th and 10th amendments to the Constitution specifically direct that all authority not expressly granted to the federal government in the Constitution is reserved to the states and to the people. This is both a principled and a pragmatic mechanism for coping with issues that are intractable at a national level.
So many of our most divisive national issues - abortion, gay marriage, school curricula, welfare, labor laws, church/state balance, to name a few - should not be taken up by the federal government. These issues should rightly be decided by the states. Let the people in Utah decide what is best for Utah, and Massachusetts for Massachusetts.
Pro-choice On Everything
-Back to the topWhat does that mean - to be pro-choice on everything? It means the absence of government in the decisions you make. What to eat, what to drink, what to smoke, what to drive, what radio stations to listen to, what drugs to take for what purposes, how much to recycle, what job to do, what to charge, what to earn, how much to give, and to which causes.
If you have reached the age of 18, you should be free to make your own choices based on your own conscience and beliefs, without being made a criminal for it.
Libertarians do not endorse one choice or another; we support your right to make your own choices and accept responsibility for the consequences of those choices. As long as your choice does not reduce an equal right of another person, your right to choose supersedes any indirect and vague notion of public good.
I do not support drug use, prostitution, 18 year old drinking, concealed carry of firearms, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, abortion, gay marriage, or an almost endless list of things that people decide to do whether I like it or not. That's not the point, and you should not vote for me based on what I choose to do in my own life anyway.
The point is that I will defend absolutely your right to make those decisions for yourself. You should vote for me on that basis, and on that basis alone.
You earned it, you keep it. You choose how to spend or invest or give it away however you see fit. You reap the rewards and accept the consequences - that is what those guys meant by the Pursuit of Happiness. It is your right.