On Sun, 22 Oct 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
= On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, A bunch of people wrote:
=
= <<< SNIP! >>>
=
= Well, since you people won't stop these political off-topic posts...
=
= #mount /dev/soapbox
=
= [....]
= Do you want smaller government?
Although it may seem counter-intuitive to some, the Clinton-Gore
administration made considerable progress in reducing the size of
government. If memory serves, there was a net reduction of 300,000
positions in the Federal government. And of course the budget was
balanced and the national debt considerably reduced. I went looking on
the web just now for scrupulously non-partisan information on this, but
couldn't find it. If anyone has a link, would you please send it my way.
=
= Do you want an end to the welfare state,
This question/statement has come up quite a bit in past years. What does
it mean specifically?
= to government destroying our health-care system,
It's been my experience that HMOs and insurance companies are more
detrimental to quality healthcare than the Federal government.
= to government at all levels taking 47% of the national
= income in taxes,
I don't mind paying taxes per se. It depends upon what the money is spent
for. It's nice to have free schools, police and fire departments, roads
and highways and bridges, court systems, environmental laws and
enforcement, building codes (most of them), a monetary system,
regulations
on banking, consumer and worker protection, product safety, import
regulation, and a lot of other things we've come to take for granted. And
most people would agree that the US needs some degree of military defense
and diplomatic services. Specifically now, what government services would
you want to see reduced or eliminated?
= to government intrusions into your life and your business?
In 1969 the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland caught fire. Literally.
It was so polluted with industrial waste simply dumped into it,
that one day (actually more than one day) it caught fire. One
man who happened to be working on a barge going down the river
was killed by it and two or three others were injured. Because
the responsible corporations were so large and politically
situated, the Cleveland city government couldn't do anything
about it. Nor could the county or state of Ohio governments. It
took the power of the Federal government to get the polluters to
stop and to get the river cleaned up somewhat. To my way of
thinking, this is a completely valid and warranted "intrusion" of
the government. Yes, the responsible corporations and their
(purchased) representatives in government made the time-worn
claims that stopping this pollution would cost jobs and hurt the
consumer, but I didn't see that. And even if such claims were
true, cleaning up the river and stopping pollution were a
worthwhile trade-off. In this case the (Federal) government was
pursuing the interests of the citizens, doing what government
should do. Who else could we trust to do things like this?
Obviously not corporations. If it were up to them, we could have
burning rivers all over the country, in every major city.
Sometimes-- when powerful forces are working against the quality
of life of ordinary people-- there is a real need for "big
government".
= Do you want smaller government?
Large corporations who want to trample on the environments and workers
rights certainly do.
= Then stop supporting big
= government! If you do want smaller government, the first step toward
= getting it is obvious:
= You must stop supporting those who are making government bigger.
= You can't go north by moving west. It's a physical impossibility. You can't
= make government smaller by rewarding those who make government bigger. It's
= a political impossibility. Only when you begin asking for what YOU really
= want do you have any chance of getting it.
= Al Gore wants to make government bigger. He's proposed a long list
= of new government programs.
Al Gore's record is one of making government more efficient: reducing its
size while not adversely impacting already provided services.
= George W. Bush wants to make government bigger. He's proposed an
= equally long list of new government programs to show that he's as
= compassionate as Mr. Gore -- as though having government spend YOUR money
= somehow demonstrates compassion.
Again, it depends upon what we get for the money we put into taxes. For
example: It was recently noted that for the paltry sum of one-tenth of a
cent additional tax on a gallon of gasoline, we could fund all of the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting-- this includes all of public radio,
public television, some oversease broadcasting, and the several
educational services (like college courses on video) that it provides.
Many people think this is a good idea, a worthwhile use of our money. I
too think it would be in the public interest to put this individually
small piece of change into a trust fund if it would insulate this
government service from ideology and politics of special interests.
= Pat Buchanan says he wants a return to constitutional government.
= But he's made no specific proposals to reduce government, while proposing
= to have government fix what he thinks is wrong with America. For one thing,
= he wants to tell you what kind of car you can drive.
= And Ralph Nader wants to tell you whether you can drive a car at
= all. But that's the least of his many plans to make government much bigger.
I like hyperbole as much as the next guy, but it doesn't help us
when we're trying to understand highly nuanced political
positions.
=
= What Smaller Government Means
=
= Harry Browne is the only presidential candidate offering specific
= proposals to make government smaller -- much smaller:
=
= * Harry Browne wants to get the federal government COMPLETELY out of every
= area where it's made such a mess -- health care, education, law
= enforcement, welfare, foreign aid, corporate welfare, highway boondoggles,
= farm subsidies. Not only are these programs unconstitutional, they do
= tremendous damage to our lives.
I'm reading a lot more ideology than reason here. First of all,
the President doesn't decide how much money to collect or spend
on what programs, Congress does. Does Harry Browne have a plan
to take this function away from Congress? ... without violating
the Constitution? Secondly, and just to address a couple items:
* No more new highways or bridges? Who's going to vote for that?
Are we to go back to the days when some farmer put in a dirt
road across his land and charged a fee to each buggy that came
along?
* If we don't have public education, then we have either private
education or no education. Having both attended and taught at
private schools, I can tell you that people are going to be
spending more for private education... a lot more.
* And instead of having police and court systems, everyone should
just hire a bodyguard to watch their house while they're at
work? Unless we do away with laws against, for example,
stealing, who's going decide whether a suspect is guilty or
not? Are the courts going to be comprised of unpaid volunteers
like back in the Wild West?
Granted, these institutions aren't all perfect, but that
shouldn't mean we rid ourselves of them completely.
=
= * Harry Browne wants to make the federal government so small you won't pay
= ANY income tax. (The tariffs and excise taxes already being collected are
= enough to finance the constitutional functions of government.)
=
= * Harry Browne wants to free you immediately and completely from the
= continually bankrupt Social Security system. Harry Browne wants to sell off
= government assets to finance private retirement accounts for anyone now
= dependent on Social Security -- so you and I and every other American can
= immediately stop paying the 15% Social Security tax. (Harry Browne believes
= that YOU'RE smart enough to invest for your own retirement!)
=
= * Harry Browne wants to end the nightmare of Prohibition by stopping the
= insane War on Drugs. At least 90% of the invasions of your civil liberties
= over the last 30 years have been justified by the Drug War. You may have no
= interest in drugs, but the government still snoops in YOUR bank account,
= monitors YOUR email, and claims the power to search and seize YOUR
= property without due process.
I can agree with (most of) this. The War on Drugs has been a terrible
waste of money for decades. It's obvious that it hasn't worked. It may
have even made the situation worse. I'm glad that your candidate at least
mentions this issue... something the others have not.
=
= * Harry Browne wants to restore completely your unconditional right to keep
= and bear any weapon necessary to defend yourself and your family. We can't
= end gun violence with new laws or by enforcing the 20,000 useless anti-gun
= laws on the books now. The gun laws are the principal CAUSE of gun
= violence, so we must repeal those laws.
I'm thinking you mean that there'd be less gun violence if everybody would
just carry a gun, yes? And I should be able, too, to take it to the
office with me? My boss wouldn't like that. But then maybe he'd try to
shoot me first. So I then I should shoot him first. No, I don't work at
the post office. But I would think that many places of work would start
looking like Columbine High School. It would be harder to get any work
done with worrying about who might be around the corner that I might have
to have it out with.
=
= * Harry Browne DOESN'T want to appoint Supreme Court judges who are
= "strict constructionists" or who divine "original intent." Harry Browne
= wants to appoint judges who can read the plain language of the Constitution
= -- who understand that when the Constitution says "Congress shall make no
= law," it means _Congress_shall_make_no_law_. Harry Browne wants judges who
= will strike down government programs that are not authorized by the
= Constitution.
They didn't have planes back when the Constitution was written, so I guess
we'll have no airline regulations. Anybody can fly anything whenever and
wherever they want. There'd be a lot more planes crashing and falling out
of the sky, but then we wouldn't have to pay those nasty taxes.
And anybody could set up a TV or radio station and just start
broadcasting. Hey, somebody might broadcast Gilligan's Island on the same
frequency as West Wing and I couldn't see either of them, but then that's
the price of smaller government.
=
= In short, he doesn't want to slow the growth of government. he
= doesn't even want to stop the growth of government. Harry Browne wants to
= REDUCE government dramatically -- to the limits imposed by the
= Constitution.
It sounds like this would cause a terrible mess.
=
= What Freedom Means
=
= Harry Browne wants you to be free to live your life as YOU want to live
= it -- not as Al Gore or George Bush thinks you should.
I haven't heard Al Gore tell me how I should live my life.
= You're the one who gets up every morning and goes to work for 8,
= 10, or 12 hours a day. How dare politicians like George Bush or Al Gore
= presume to decide how much of what you earn you should be allowed to keep?
Again, it's Congress who is much more responsible for these kinds of
decisions. Again, taxes are okay with me if the money is put to good use.
And in my judgment, it is for the most part. I agree with those who say
that government can be improved... a lot in fact. But this political
platform (from HB?) doesn't do it for me.
I'm about played out on this for today. Please don't take my lack of
response to the rest as assent. And again, I'm glad to see that you have
an interest in politics.
Regards,
kf
--
My recommendation: Don't shop at Explorer Micro, Columbus, Ohio.
= Harry Browne wants you to be able to keep EVERY dollar you earn
= -- to spend it, save it, give it away as YOU think best -- not just the
= crumbs the politicians leave for you.
= Harry Browne wants you to be able to use your own money to put your
= children in a school of your choice -- private, religious, or home school
= -- without having to beg the state for a voucher or plead with the Board of
= Education for improvement.
= Harry Browne wants you to be able to use your own money to start
= your own business. Or to support your church or favorite charity in a way
= you've never been able to do before.
= Harry Browne wants you to be free. Harry Browne wants to get
= government out of your life.
= Isn't that what YOU want?
=
= How to Get to Smaller Government
=
= If so, why would you vote for someone who's moving in the opposite
= direction -- someone who's made it clear he intends to make government
= bigger, not smaller?
= Harry Browne is the only candidate who's running solely for the
= purpose of making government smaller. He's the only candidate who doesn't
= presume to know what charities your money should go to, or how much of your
= income belongs to the politicians.
=
= How YOU Can Win
=
= Can Harry Browne win? Probably not. But if you vote for anyone else, you
= won't win either. Your candidate might win, but YOU won't get what you
= want. Government will continue to get bigger, more expensive, more
= intrusive, and more oppressive -- and you will have given your approval to
= this.
= No matter what your reason for voting for Mr. Bush or Mr. Gore --
= to keep Al Gore out of the White House or to ward off the Religious Right
= -- your vote will be interpreted as an endorsement of every big-government
= proposal your candidate has made.
= Even though we Libertarians may not win this year, every vote we
= get will be an endorsement, a statement, a declaration on behalf of smaller
= government. No one can misinterpret a vote for me as a vote for more
= government.
= And if Harry Browne gets even one million votes, it could change
= politics in America forever. It could cause the press to pay more attention
= to smaller-government proposals, it could encourage other voters to abandon
= the big-government parties, and it could attract millions of non-voters who
= have given up on any hope of getting smaller government.
= Please don't let the old parties destroy your future by scaring you
= into voting AGAINST someone this year.
= Raise your sights. Vote in a way that could lead to a free America
= with a constitutional government before the end of this decade.
= For once, vote for yourself instead of a politician. Vote for
= freedom. Vote Libertarian.
=
= Harry Browne is the Libertarian candidate for president, and the author of
= ``The Great Libertarian Offer.'' His articles are available at
= http://www.HarryBrowne2000.org
=
= #umount /dev/soapbox
=
= Now let's please return to Red Hat Linux topics!
=
=
= Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
= Russ.
=
= The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were
= not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.
= -- H. L. Mencken
=
= Would you like to be free from the income tax?
= Then dump your old party and vote Libertarian.
= See www.HarryBrowne2000.org for more info
=
=
=
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