Tipton County TN Libertarians

hat most people consider "welfare") costs taxpayers about 60 billion dollars. And that doesn't include the trillions in unneeded projects that enrich lobbyist backed corporations. The Libertarian Party absolutely opposes all corporate welfare, bailouts, and subsidies. We support a truly free market, not a market in which politically connected corporations get huge unfair advantages. Defense

Every unnecessary war is a bailout for defense contractors. To quote Mad Men, "Bombs are the perfect product. They cost a fortune and you only use them once." Through our taxes, we buy those bombs (and tanks, guns, planes, etc.) from defense companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, and Raytheon. And the more enemies we make overseas (by killing), the more weapons we will later on have to buy from defense contractors. That's quite possibly why defense contractors spend so much money lobbying. During the surge in Iraq, for example, defense contractors spent $27 million on lobbying—about $50,000 per senator and congressman. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/top- defense-contractors-s_n_431542.html

And for a quick video on why foreign wars create enemies (and drive up demand for the weapons sold to the military by defense contractors), take a look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhxBM8ebECo

Drug Policy

The Libertarian Party believes in legalizing ma*****na. It's safer than alcohol, and keeping the safer drug illegal, while making the more dangerous one legal, is unscientific and illogical. Past that, we believe any drug should be legal. If you take a drug, it doesn't affect your neighbor. By what right does he stop you? If you steal to support your drug habit, or commit assault while high, then obviously that's different, but the problem is not the drugs; it's the robbery or assault. Who supports the War on Drugs? Prison guard unions, private prison contractors, and the like. In other words, the people who directly benefit from unnecessarily imprisoning nonviolent civilians are the actual proponents of this money-wasting boondoggle. Currency

In 1913, an ounce of gold cost about $20, and $20 would also get you a nice suit. Today, $20 won't get you a nice suit. But an ounce of gold certainly will. So why don't people just use gold as currency? As it turns out, it is illegal to do so! Currently, "Legal Tender" laws force Americans to use dollars (it's written right on every dollar bill.) The Libertarian Party believes that individuals should be allowed to use whatever they want as currency, as was the case for most of American history. That includes dollars, yen, gold, silver, platinum, copper, and whatever else people voluntarily agree to use. The Federal Reserve

Normally, if Congress wants to tax us, they have to go through a debate, pass a bill, etc. But the Federal Reserve, a private bank that is not under the control of congress or the president, can pump as much currency as it wants into the system. The more money in the system, the less your money is worth. As a simple example: if the Fed doubled the money supply, the purchasing power of the money you hold would be cut in half. In other words, the Fed has the ability to essentially tax you…without a congressional fight! Re-legalizing competing currency would reduce the power of the Fed. But the Libertarian Party also supports ending the Federal Reserve, and returning to a market-based currency. Education

Would you want to read a novel written by the U.S. Federal Department of Literature? Would you want to be forced to pay for the production of such a novel? Many have falsified the Libertarian position on education, saying that the Libertarian Party opposes universal education. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Libertarian Party opposes government involvement in education, just as we oppose government involvement in literature. Education requires more than good intentions. It requires skill, brilliance, genius, and creativity. And right now, government policies get in the way of improvements in education. For example, one of the top private girls' schools in the world is the Holton Arms School. It started from a push cart. But today, due to government regulations, you could never dream of starting a school from a push cart — or from your living room, office, or computer. Unneeded regulations block great innovations. So who benefits from restricted competition? Public school teachers unions and their lobbyists. To learn more about these pernicious groups, and how they have distorted public policy and damaged education, take a look at the film Waiting for Superman, or watch the first few minutes of John Stossel's, Stupid in America: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4pN-aiofw

The Libertarian Party believes that you should have the right to educate your children however you see fit, and that educators should be able to create schools that adapt to modern needs. That absolutely includes creating free schools for less wealthy families — without government interference. The government has no business blocking innovation, interfering with educational charities, and restricting choice. Welfare

Writing a novel takes skill, not just good intentions. The same is true of designing an educational method. And the same is even more true of charity. A great charity helps people transform their lives. A horrible charity makes people dependent. Government welfare, unfortunately, falls right into the latter category. The Libertarian Party believes that individual creativity, genius, and dedication absolutely have a place in charity. That's why we support voluntary, innovative charities, not government boondoggles. And just for the record: no part of the Libertarian philosophy suggests that charity should be driven by profit. That would be, economically speaking, completely insane. Instead, we believe that voluntary donations and volunteers can be far more effective than forced taxes and bureaucracies. After all, the Libertarian Party itself is entirely powered by donations and volunteers. And finally, a bit of economic reality. TANF, what most people consider welfare, costs about $60 billion a year. Despite that, Americans donate about $300 billion to charity a year. The Environment

In theory, environmental regulation makes sense. After all, the one thing we can all agree on is that we want to protect our environment, and maintain clean air and water. But the reality is that environmental laws are often misused. Sometimes politically connected groups use them to blockade competitors. Other times, politically connected groups push for regulations far laxer than what a private-property model would ever allow. A great way to start re-examining our approach to the environment is to look at Mark Grannis's article on the subject: http://www.grannisforcongress.org/blog/libertarianism- and-environment

Agricultural (Monsanto) Subsidies

The agricultural mega-corporation Monsanto, whose abuses were featured in the film Food Inc., currently produces over 70% of corn seeds in America. Thus, a pretty high percentage of current corn subsidies directly benefit Monsanto, and its army of lobbyists. The Libertarian Party believes mega-corporations like Monsanto should have to compete in a fair and open market. Corn subsidies, which benefit large, politically connected corporations like Monsanto, are not only unfair, they damage the food supply. All the high-fructose corn syrup in our food is a direct result of the government's subsidizing corn. For the same reason, we also oppose food-libel laws, which grant unfair protections to large, politically connected agricultural mega-corporations. Recently, raw milk raids have become popular. The reason is obvious; by raiding independent farmers that sell organic, raw milk, the government eliminates competition for giant milk factory farms. This is crony capitalism at its worst. Under the guise of trying to "protect people from themselves," the government violates property rights and reduces competition to giant agricorporations. The Libertarian Party opposes all agricultural subsidies, which are just a type of corporate welfare. We also oppose raw milk raids, and affirm the rights of individuals to seek healthy alternatives as they see fit. Social Security

If your goal were to rob retirement pensions, you might create something like social security. A large portion of social security payments is used to buy government bonds. This allows the government to issue more debt, and spend more money—on crony capitalism, unnecessary pet "projects", and the like. But don't we get interest on those bonds? Not exactly. Normally, when you buy a bond, you get interest. But guess who pays the interest on a government bond? In other words, congress gets to spend the principal (on its crony-capitalism riddled programs). And the interest is paid by the taxpayer! That's a horrible deal. Would you voluntarily invest in a mutual fund that had been historically repeatedly raided by its managers, that had a nonexistent rate of return, that had no obligation to ever pay you back a dime of your investment? After all, according to the Social Security Administration's own website, "Entitlement to Social Security benefits is not [a] contractual right." (http://www.ssa.gov/history/nestor.html) By what right does the government force you to buy into such a fund? The Libertarian Party recognizes that people have the right to invest retirement dollars however they see fit—not just in social security, or even in some small number of politically connected funds (as some Republicans have suggested). The investment of your retirement dollars is no one's business but your own. Freedom of Expression

Historically, censorship has been applied to the ideas that threaten the status quo. But those ideas also happen to be the very ones that move society forward. Look at Socrates, Galileo, James Joyce, Lenny Bruce...and even Jesus (look what happened to him when the government and dominant church of the time didn't like what he had to say.) The Libertarian Party opposes all censorship. That includes obscenity laws, regulations on what can be played on the radio or television, and indirect censorship (e.g., 2257 laws). Marriage Laws

The government has no place whatsoever in marriage. George Washington didn't need a marriage license to get married, and states today have no business legislating what happens between consenting adults. And that includes giving preference to any group (e.g., heterosexual monogamists). And as to this idea about civil unions being separate but equal to marriage...there are a couple of drinking fountains we'd like to show you. Gun Policy Based on Facts, not Fear

The facts: of the 30,000 gun deaths per year, more than half (18,000) are suicides. The number of accidental deaths is about 1000. Each year there are about 3000 deaths caused by medical error, about 15,000 deaths caused by accidental falls, and over 40,000 accidental deaths caused by automobiles. In comparison, civilians use fi****ms to defend themselves from criminals between 800,000 and 2.5 million times per year. About 8% (between 64,000 and 200,000) of those involve stopping a sexual assault. If you are not allowed to protect yourself, you will have to depend on the government for protection, and that essentially requires supporting police unions, private prison corporations, etc. Citizen disarmament is forced dependency on government—and on the politically influential unions and corporations that financially benefit from that dependency. And as to "gun free school zones": it's probably not the smartest idea to first disarm everyone in a building, and then advertise their disarmament to every sociopath in the country. To see the full Libertarian Party Platform, please visit www.LP.org/platform.