Libertarian Party response to 2014 State of the Union address
Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict issued the following statement today in response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address:
Thanks to unprecedented levels of government interference and government coercion, Americans’ rights are violated like never before. We are harmed by taxes, regulations, prohibitions, and shocking privacy intrusions.
Unfortunately, most of the harm and injustice of government occurs because too many Americans support existing government policies. We’re suffering under a tyranny of the majority. Our Libertarian hope is that we can convince enough Americans to change their minds. We hope voters will come to understand that government is force, and force is unjust.
Here are some of the problems we see.
The government debt situation is atrocious. Government debt is a terrible thing, because it forces future generations to pay off debts they never agreed to incur. From 2001 to 2008, George W. Bush doubled the debt, mostly with the support of a Republican Congress. Since 2009, Barack Obama and the Democrats (and Republicans) have nearly doubled it again. It doesn’t matter whether Republicans or Democrats control the government. Libertarians would quickly balance the budget by cutting spending on everything, including entitlements and the military.
Thanks to the work of Republicans and Democrats, America has declined in the Economic Freedom Index. We’ve been sliding for years, and now we’re down to #12. We’re below Australia, Canada, and Denmark. Libertarian policies would get us back to #1.
Government should stop creating programs to fight economic inequality. Some economic inequality is natural and healthy in a free society. Actually, government often creates artificial inequality by granting special privileges to certain businesses or classes of people. Republicans and Democrats do that all the time. Libertarians prefer a level playing field.
The employment situation is still pretty bad. Why? Because government gets in between employers and employees, and tries to dictate everything. Minimum wage laws, hiring laws, firing laws, subsidies, and business taxes all make it harder to create jobs and find jobs. These laws are supported by both Republicans and Democrats. Libertarians would eliminate the minimum wage, employment red tape, and business subsidies and taxes.
Since 2001, the federal budget has exploded. Whenever the government spends money, it displaces it out of the private sector. That means the government is making more choices about how we use our resources, and free people are making fewer choices. That inevitably harms our economy. Libertarians would eliminate most programs, and cut spending on the rest.
If there’s one thing we have learned since 2001, it’s that we can’t trust what government officials say. They lie. Bush and Cheney said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence) said under oath that the NSA does not collect data on Americans. Those are a couple of the most outrageous lies, but there have been many others. The more power government has, the more government officials will have the opportunity and incentive to lie. Libertarians would greatly reduce government power.
Government should not be trusted to tell the truth about global warming, or to create restrictions in the name of fighting it. Look at the waste and environmental damage caused by government ethanol subsidies!
It used to be that if you said the government was watching you, people thought you were paranoid. Now, partly thanks to the efforts of Edward Snowden, everyone knows it’s true. Between the Patriot Act, the IRS, the FBI, and the NSA (and probably other agencies as well), Americans have no idea whether ANYTHING they do is private anymore. Government should respect people’s privacy, not violate it. Libertarians would end foreign wars, and end the War on Drugs, which would take away most of the government’s excuse for spying. Libertarians would also repeal the Patriot Act and other invasions of privacy.
What about Obamacare? The problems with American health care go far beyond Obamacare. The problem is the whole huge mess that government interference has created. For decades, the government has done nothing but undermine health care by interfering in the health care market, and creating mandates and prohibitions that override our choices. Obamacare took a bad situation and made it worse — but let’s not forget that it was already very bad. And that’s thanks to the efforts of both Democrats and Republicans. As stated in our platform, Libertarians would “recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want (if any), the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.”
Libertarians believe that government should have no involvement in education whatsoever. That goes double for the federal government. Unfortunately, the federal government massively interferes with education today: subsidies for preschool, subsidies for K–12 education, subsidies for higher education, and lots of mandates and regulations thanks to efforts like the Republicans’ No Child Left Behind law. Our children would be much happier and better educated if government would get out of the way. Libertarians would eliminate the Department of Education and repeal No Child Left Behind.
Republicans and Democrats have also created a mess with immigration. The immigration debate has nothing to do with border security; it’s all about employment. Currently, millions of foreigners work here illegally, because Republicans and Democrats have made it almost impossible to do legally. Libertarians would make it very easy for foreigners to come here, live here, and work here.
How about the military? The Libertarian attitude is pretty simple: the U.S. military should leave other countries alone, even if their governments are unstable, and even if there are people living there who hate Americans. We need to cut military spending a whole lot. Try getting Republicans or Democrats to support ANY cuts to military spending.
Amid all this gloom, we do see a bright spot: the War on Drugs. In 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington passed initiatives to end prohibition of marijuana. Recently the New Hampshire House of Representatives did so too. A majority of Americans now believe that marijuana should not be prohibited. As time goes on, we believe that more and more Americans will join us in opposing the War on Drugs. We’re pleased President Obama is moving in our direction on this issue.
All in all, the state of our union is a big mess created by Republicans and Democrats. Libertarians offer a path forward to peace and prosperity. Our 149 elected Libertarians nationwide work to implement libertarian policies directly. Hundreds of other Libertarians run for office each election cycle.
I think they were looking for something not quite so long, but that is good.
As an alternative civil liberties message:
“On the most fundamental of all issues, our civil liberties, the situation is appallingly bad. The Fourth Amendment, indeed our entire Bill of Rights, is being trampled underfoot by national security agencies, not to mention state and local law enforcement and other agencies. The NSA and its fellow agencies are tapping every telephone line and email link they can reach, using them to record your every word and text message. [For sure, you do not need a 5 yottabyte data center, and its still-secret data backup center, if you are only recording metadata.] Those messages are being seized not via legal search warrants but by unconstitutional writs of assistance.
Some people will claim that ‘if you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.’ These claims are totally in error. If your romantic interest works for the NSA, she may be peeping on you as I type. Are you going up for a promotion? You may be better than the other gal, but if the other gal’s uncle works at a spy agency, uncle may be blackmailing your boss to promote the other gal. Do you invest? That wiretap information is the ultimate in illegal inside trading information. You may be pure as the driven snow, but that spying operation still endangers you, your family, your friends, and your community. That spying operation is a menace to every American.
Fortunately, there is a sound libertarian solution to this problem. Impeach Clapper. Impeach Alexander. They lied to Congress. They’re spying on you right now. They’re waging electronic warfare on all of us. Impeach them both. Then impeach their counterparts at every other agency that shared in the establishment war on America. That’s two down, lots to go. The judges who violated their oaths of office by issuing writs of assistance, a crime against the Constitution, should also be impeached. The PRISM operation and its diabolical parallel tools were all criminal conspiracies against our Constitution and Bill of Rights. The people who put them into effect should be subject to fair trials for their evil deeds.
Civil liberties are doing poorly at the state level, too. State after state has passed laws intended to hinder or destroy the right of a woman to have an abortion. Libertarians have a simple answer: We’re 100% pro-choice. The Federal government should defend the right of every person to make their own choices on this issue. Thanks to the Fourteenth Amendment and Civil Rights laws, the Federal government has the tools needed to protect the civil rights of every woman in America. Those tools should be vigorously employed.
We see some progress on freedom of religion. The Supreme Court struck down the Republican Defense of Marriage Act. That unconstitutional law tried to suppress freedom of religion for faiths that wished to marry gays and lesbians. Real Libertarians opposed DOMA and its legal relatives from the beginning, back when that opposition was radical and controversial.
There is no right more fundamental than the right to vote. There are few attacks on democracy more effective than voter suppression. In state after state, Republican voter suppression laws target students, the aged, the poor, and the non-European. Americans properly expect the Federal government to protect their civil liberties. The Department of Justice should engage in vigorous litigation and prosecution against schemes — voter ID acts, remote polling places, huge lines at the polls — whose intent is manifestly to deny our fellow Americans the right to vote.
The notion that Americans need travel papers to ride on busses or trains or sit as passengers in automobiles is totally unAmerican. Even Justice Taney, writing in the anti-liberty Dred Scott decision, recognized that American citizens did not need papers to travel where they wished or bear arms when they travelled. The civil liberties of American citizens should be restored. Federal agencies that interfere with those liberties should be closed.
HQ decided against a video response because of technical/video production/quality issues with past video responses. Gary Johnson was on Stossel, though. I watched it on TV. Will try to find youtube.
I wish there was a video of this as opposed to just the text version. The Democrat, Republican/Tea Party/Rand Paul responses were on video and the Constitution response was on radio.
I read it out loud to myself and it sounded very good, but I was looking forward to a video like Carla Howell did last year.
How is the surveillance critique feeble?
No calls for impeachment. No calls for criminal trials. “There are only 50,000 or so people who may be suspected of criminal activity here, a small fraction of the number of people doing time under the War on Some Drugs, so there can be no doubt that our criminal justice system can try the lot of them.
“paulie Post authorJanuary 29, 2014 at 5:28 pm
It’s not like it’s a huge secret what the Democrats and Republicans will say, with or without the actual text”
More bullshit like they always say is really about all one needs to know.
It’s not like it’s a huge secret what the Democrats and Republicans will say, with or without the actual text.
The White House Press Office releases the speech in the afternoon, the day of. So if they’re still on the email list, they would have had an advanced copy that’s embargoed.
Looks about the same – given the scale difference.
Of more importance was the rest of my response, before the last graphic, which I added to the comment retroactively. Here was the comment without the graphic:
Notice especially the whitehouse.gov projections of future revenues and outlays. That doesn’t portend well for future debts.
And that’s not even getting into offline spending and unfunded mandates.
Or the credit rating.
Neither the LP graphic nor the Scott Grannis one gets into those, or the future projections.
Of course it was. No one writes that fast, LOL.
LOL! If it WERE written BEFORE Obama spoke, it was a “Preemptive Attack”!!! :>)
The deficit and revenue curves do not look very accurate.
Here from a fiscal conservative blog are the actual curves
http://scottgrannis.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-incredible-shrinking-budget-deficit.html
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qnELsr5NJmg/UtRqMJhS1mI/AAAAAAAAP3o/LqUszp-Ron8/s1600/Receipts+and+Outlays.jpg
It may have been written before Obama spoke.
Apparently, NO ONE noticed that although this was an excellent position paper on what the LP stands for and it’s views on the horrible condition of the nation —- it had NOTHING to do with Obama’s “State of the Union Address”.
Side note to Phillies: “Obamacare” Republican line”
Nonsense! “Obamacare” is a MSM term. WHAT DO YOU CALL IT?
How could that be, when Republicans have contributed to it at least as much as Democrats with their support for the welfare-warfare-corporate bailout state? Are we supposed to just ignore the burgeoning debt?
The quote says since 2001, and it’s true. 2001: 1.991 trilion receipts and 1.863 trillion outlays; 2013: 2.712 T receipts, 3.685 T outlays (up from 3.537 the year before). It’s true that it’s been roughly 3.5 trillion for several years, but it’s projected to start climbing again (I’m using whitehouse.gov data) and reach 4.247 T by 2017 and 4.449 T by 2018. That’s on the outlay side. Receipts top 3.5 trillion by 2016 and close in on 4 trillion by 2018 according to whitehouse.gov projections.
2014: 3.033 T receipts, 3.778 outlays
2015: 3.332 and 3.908, and so on…
So we were in a state of crisis before 1979?
Well, I’ve long suspected Obama of being a secret Republican. If Obamacare is a Republican line, here’s further evidence that he is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V25HvZ_CJ9o
I just quoted the language earlier this morning. How is it feeble?
Try getting that from Democrats and Republicans.
Ranting about the budget deficit is indeed a Republican theme.
“Since 2001, the federal budget has exploded.” Actually, it has been flat for the last five years, which is why the Bush deficit of his last (2008-2009) budget is shrinking so rapidly.
“eliminate the Department of Education” One might wonder if he knows what it does. This might be phrased as “break many treaty commitments”.
“Obamacare” Republican line
The critique of national surveillance state is remarkably feeble.
The critique of the Obama wars on everywhere is remarkably feeble.
Actually, the thing I like best about the response is how frequently it points out the similarities between the Democrats and Republicans. However, I think it should go even farther in that regard. In my opinion, the primary message the LP should try to hammer home with people is just how similar the Democrats and Republicans are, and just how trivial the differences between them are. As long as the public buys into the myth that there are significant differences between them, the LP will never overcome the “wasted vote” argument.
Thank you Wes for responding to the State of the Union address promptly and well.
Well, I think Phillies and Wagner are correct, the “Libertarian” party should stop being so far right conservative. I like groups like the ACLU so that’s what the Libertarian Party should be.
To a Democrat like Phillies, any criticism of Fuhrer Obama sounds “Republican.”
How is this Republican-sounding?
* From 2001 to 2008, George W. Bush doubled the debt, mostly with the support of a Republican Congress. Since 2009, Barack Obama and the Democrats (and Republicans) have nearly doubled it again. It doesn’t matter whether Republicans or Democrats control the government. Libertarians would quickly balance the budget by cutting spending on everything, including entitlements and the military.
* Actually, government often creates artificial inequality by granting special privileges to certain businesses or classes of people. Republicans and Democrats do that all the time. Libertarians prefer a level playing field.
* If there’s one thing we have learned since 2001, it’s that we can’t trust what government officials say. They lie. Bush and Cheney said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. James Clapper (Director of National Intelligence) said under oath that the NSA does not collect data on Americans.
* It used to be that if you said the government was watching you, people thought you were paranoid. Now, partly thanks to the efforts of Edward Snowden, everyone knows it’s true. Between the Patriot Act, the IRS, the FBI, and the NSA (and probably other agencies as well), Americans have no idea whether ANYTHING they do is private anymore. Government should respect people’s privacy, not violate it. Libertarians would end foreign wars, and end the War on Drugs, which would take away most of the government’s excuse for spying. Libertarians would also repeal the Patriot Act and other invasions of privacy.
* Currently, millions of foreigners work here illegally, because Republicans and Democrats have made it almost impossible to do legally. Libertarians would make it very easy for foreigners to come here, live here, and work here.
* How about the military? The Libertarian attitude is pretty simple: the U.S. military should leave other countries alone, even if their governments are unstable, and even if there are people living there who hate Americans. We need to cut military spending a whole lot. Try getting Republicans or Democrats to support ANY cuts to military spending.
* Amid all this gloom, we do see a bright spot: the War on Drugs. In 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington passed initiatives to end prohibition of marijuana. Recently the New Hampshire House of Representatives did so too. A majority of Americans now believe that marijuana should not be prohibited. As time goes on, we believe that more and more Americans will join us in opposing the War on Drugs. We’re pleased President Obama is moving in our direction on this issue.
WW: “Blaming your audience is almost as distasteful as the individual who called the voters the “unwashed masses” at the Las Vegas convention.”
Fact is, the “unwashed masses” are the most “brainwashed” people on earth and the American voter is a significant portion of those masses.
Not sure why the negativity? Seems fine to me, and I’m not anywhere close to being Republican.
Many parts of the response are to the left of both the Republicans and Democrats. I could highlight them if you want.
“Government should not be trusted to tell the truth about global warming, or to create restrictions in the name of fighting it. Look at the waste and environmental damage caused by government ethanol subsidies!” <--notice, this does not take a position on global warming per se.Obama has said that he is proud of the term Obamacare. Calling it the Affordable Care Act is certainly not an accurate description, even though that is the official name. Can you disagree with the paragraph about health care in the article, and if so, on what basis?"Unfortunately, most of the harm and injustice of government occurs because too many Americans support existing government policies. We’re suffering under a tyranny of the majority. Our Libertarian hope is that we can convince enough Americans to change their minds. We hope voters will come to understand that government is force, and force is unjust."That's not blaming the audience; it's a truism.
Blaming your audience is almost as distasteful as the individual who called the voters the “unwashed masses” at the Las Vegas convention.
Government has extremely little today with telling the truth about global warming. This reads like a Republican hackpiece, complete with “obamacare”.
That was fast.