Full text of the response delivered by Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the National Libertarian Committee, on January 20, 2015:
Good evening. I’m Arvin Vohra, vice chair of the Libertarian National Committee.
Mr. President, in your State of the Union address, you propose to make Big Government even bigger.
You propose pouring more taxpayer dollars into another federal education program, this time for community colleges. But federal intervention has driven up the price of higher education.
What if we could make college affordable right now by simply getting government out of higher ed? Without subsidies and costly mandates, competition will force colleges to decrease their tuition or go out of business. Massive student debt would be a thing of the past.
Mr. President, we can have world-class education. The first step is defunding and eliminating the federal Department of Education, abolishing Common Core, and allowing parents to take full control over their children’s education. Free-market competition will raise educational standards, lower costs, and prepare students to compete in a global economy.
Mr. President, your attempts to raise the minimum wage will destroy one of the most important forms of education in this country. Many young people develop responsibility and marketable skills in entry-level, minimum-wage jobs. Those skills make workers more attractive to future employers.
The Republican answer, to leave the issue to the states, is a cop-out. All minimum wages kill jobs and hurt the poor. Libertarian candidates have pledged to sponsor legislation to eliminate the minimum wage in every state. That makes it easier for young people to gain experience, for the poorest workers to gain a foothold in the job market, and for small businesses to grow.
Here’s how we really grow the economy and create jobs: dramatically cut taxes and government spending. Libertarian candidates have pledged to sponsor legislation to cut federal spending to 1998 levels and eliminate the income tax. That means that you keep the money you earn, and spend it how you see fit: on charities and the arts, science research, education, and the health care of your choice.
Eliminating the income tax also defunds government’s ability to infringe on our privacy, to create enemies through needless wars, and to imprison our fellow citizens for victimless crimes.
Mr. President, so many of your supporters have begged you to defund and end the War on Drugs, but you have refused their pleas. Drug prohibition separates families, fosters violence, and destroys communities. You can end the war on drugs today, by doing what so many Libertarian gubernatorial and presidential candidates have pledged to do: pardon all nonviolent drug offenders.
Libertarian candidates have pledged to completely end the war on drugs, and thereby eliminate the black market profits that fund violent cartels. Ending the Drug War will make our streets safer, and people will no longer have to fear incarceration if they seek help overcoming an addiction.
Mr. President, over the last weeks you have repeatedly argued that Americans should be able to go online without risking their privacy. On that, we completely agree. Americans should be able to use their computers and phones without fear of anyone listening in or recording their communications through mass surveillance.
But your words, Mr. President, don’t match your actions. You have funded and enabled the surveillance state. To protect privacy, Libertarian candidates have pledged to defund the NSA’s mass surveillance program, repeal the Patriot Act, and massively downsize and consolidate redundant spy agencies.
Mr. President, your party and the Republican Party are damaging lives here and abroad through misuse and overuse of the military.
Libertarian candidates have pledged to sponsor legislation to end all foreign military operations, shut down needless foreign bases, cut military spending by at least 60 percent, and bring our troops home.
Even after those spending cuts, we will still outspend both Russia and China combined. We will also be safer, because our military will be focused on defense. We will stop creating enemies through unwarranted military intrusions.
Republicans have talked about repealing and replacing Obamacare. With what? Romneycare? That will continue to damage businesses and make health care worse.
When Republicans controlled the House, they had the chance to defund Obamacare. They refused.
Libertarian candidates have pledged to completely repeal Obamacare along with the many laws that stand in the way of low-cost, high-quality health care. Providers will compete for customers by lowering costs and increasing quality.
To help people in need, Libertarian candidates will make charitable hospitals legal. Doctors should not have to leave our borders to be able to offer free care.
We need to massively downsize and defund the federal government. But Republican and Democratic politicians only want to make it bigger. Get involved with the Libertarian Party in your state by going to LP.org, and by voting Libertarian.
Politicians can do one thing well: count votes. When you vote for a Democrat or Republican, it tells them, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” But when you vote for a Libertarian, it tells them, in no uncertain terms, “You have neither my approval nor my permission to grow or sustain Big Government. Shrink it now.”
Thank you for listening. Let’s bring liberty back to our communities and to the United States of America.
I think if you were to put him on on the Nolan Chart, Beck would fall within the libertarian quadrant, particularly since he left Fox.
I don’t think he’s anybody I would want speaking for the party, or as a Libertarian candidate. But if he wants to declare his partisan affiliation to be Libertarian, I’m ok with that. He’s certainly a better fit than plenty of other high-profile right-wingers who’ve claimed to be partisan Libertarians. My objections would be more to his past and the (mostly well-earned) negative perceptions of him from his Fox days, but he’s always had a libertarian-leaning streak on some issues that came with a willingness to contradict right-wing orthodoxy. Same-sex marriage was noted, I can’t recall the exact others but I remember hearing about them at the time.
However, I think it was just an off-the-cuff comment expressing his support for our response to Obama, more than him declaring “I’m a registered member of the Libertarian Party and am not a Republican or member of another third-party.”
Beck seems to careen back and forth. It’s like he doesn’t remember what he says from one minute to the next, much less one day or week to the next.
I used to be a fan of Glenn Beck, then he went all religious right-wing fundie & lost me. I welcome him to the party, but he’s not my cup of tea. I will say it’s pretty cool that he’s that religious but still supports same-sex marriage, you don’t see that very often.
Thanks for sharing that tidbit, William. I am not sure that does much to help the LP but I guess any publicity is a positive at this point.
Glenn Beck featured the Libertarian Party response on his show and said “that’s my party.”
http://www.glennbeck.com/2015/01/21/thats-my-party-glenn-reacts-to-the-libertarian-sotu-response/
You could ask him. I doubt it, since his business is home based and requires him being there so travel would probably be pretty limited. I’m not sure if he was born in the US or not. But it doesn’t hurt to ask.
http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/82965/libertarians-working-for-you
I’m on for the second half of the show starting around the 32 minute mark.
That was me.
I didn’t edit your post, I don’t have that power.
Thanks, Jed & Paulie, for editing my post to make it better and adding the video!
http://reason.com/blog/2015/01/20/libertarian-party-on-obamas-state-of-the
“Ending the drug war” is a pretty open-ended phrase, that’s been used to describe drug policies ranging from Barack Obama’s (and Rand Paul’s) we-just-won’t-call-it-that messaging, to whatever basket of full legalization that libertarians would prefer. So I don’t think using that phrase sounds too radical, if anything my concern would be the opposite, even though I agree with the general point of focusing on the low-hanging-fruit of marijuana legalization.
This is why I tend to avoid talk about the “drug war” though, instead preferring “prohibition” or “criminalization.” It more accurately specifies that actual policy I’m talking about, and exactly what I would change, rather than beating up on a label for that policy that the government itself has already disclaimed for several years now.
av: Libertarian candidates have pledged to sponsor legislation to end all foreign military operations, shut down needless foreign bases, cut military spending by at least 60 percent, and bring our troops home.
Even after those spending cuts, we will still outspend both Russia and China combined. We will also be safer, because our military will be focused on defense. We will stop creating enemies through unwarranted military intrusions.
me: Could be put better (always true!), but such a winning message when framed properly!
I’d prefer to see more discussion of marijuana legalization vs. a full-blown call to end the drug war. Baby steps. Walk before you run, and all that.
A-
Very nice response. I didn’t watch Obama’s speech. I was out of alcohol, and I don’t think I could have sat through it if sober!
Arvin does good work. Every time I see something from him, it’s solid, smart promotion of the LP.
I skipped the D/Roid tall tales.
Great job, Arvin.
BTW I will be on Arvin’s radio show at 2:30 eastern time tomorrow to discuss ballot access. Andy may also be on, not sure.
I didn’t get that passionate, but I did riff on him quite a bit.
Excellent response!
So, how many times did each of you jump out of your chair tonight, shake your fist at Obama on the TV, and shout: “Liar! Liar!” I’d say at least three times for me.
Great speech!
I like the response, and agree with Jed above. I am puzzled by one thing, though, or maybe just bothered by it – lately, Obama and his administration have done quite a few things that I like. Holder’s announcement about civil forfeiture, pointing out the obvious that property can’t commit crimes, is an easy example. But, and others may disagree, I’m thrilled with his action on immigration (and think it’s perfectly constitutional since enforcement carries with it the power to decide where to commit resources), and I’m thrilled about Cuba (although I want an immediate end to the embargo, obviously.) There seems to be some movement in direction of ending indefinite detention. This raises the frightening possibility to me that he may actually mean well, and be doing these things because he’s a lame duck. This bothers me because it would suggest that the past 6 years really are the best that he was able to do in these areas. I describe myself as a politician who wants to do the right thing (or, more often, I just say I want to not be an asshole) but maybe it really is impossible.
Or maybe he’s doing these things because he needs to save Hillary from a challenge from the left, and this kind of thing takes the wind out of Warren’s potential sails.
Nothing has changed his economic illiteracy, of course – his comments about community college remind me of a speech of his I heard once where he opined that no American should ever be below the poverty line – this is either incredibly stupid, or just a gamble that his listeners are incredibly stupid – and based on the applause, I guess he was right about the latter.
Of course, he managed to speak about income inequality and concentration of wealth without mentioning the role of government in causing this, privilege, corporate welfare, bailouts, etc.
Arvin Vohra 2016?
A good response. I would add that the president talked about the right to vote, but not about the right to vote for the candidate of your choice. Bad ballot access laws must be repealed in the United States of America if we are going to claim to be the freest nation on earth.