Austerity

The current situation we find ourselves in with respect to the financial situation of the Federal Government is one that should be of grave concern to all Americans. This problem did not arise over night; this has been a slow and gradual step up the rungs to financial insolvency.

One example is the enormous amounts of money we have spent on the War on Poverty. We were told that this would “end poverty as we know it”, and it did, it made it worse.

The extreme failure of the War on Poverty has done nothing to pull people out of poverty, because the poverty that exists is not monetary, it is a cultural poverty. It is a poverty that no government can fix; it is one that requires individuals to be responsible for their actions. Through hard work and dedication one can pull themselves up out of their own situation by attaining success through learning from their failures and doing what is right.

The culture of dependency has nearly destroyed the soul of our country. The welfare state is wrought with fraud and failure. It has deprived generations of their dignity and few ever break out of the cycle. They have become enslaved by dependency and are trapped under the giant footprint of government.

Big Government solutions only lead to more misery, with more people identified as “poor” and it places a heavier burden on hard working taxpayers. The Keynesian Economic examples of Greece, Italy and Spain are a brief glimpse into America’s near future if we do not make drastic changes now.

The successful examples of Austerity, which have been implemented into a variety of forms in the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, are prime examples of responsible government solutions. These countries are on the road to recovery after slashing government spending and in Latvia’s case they eliminated nearly half of their government agencies. Latvia did borrow money from the European Union, but that was coupled with significantly reducing the size of its government.

Even if we look to the north at Canada, they have seen strong economic recovery from reducing taxes and government spending while responsibly reducing their debt and their deficit.

When coming back home and looking at America’s situation we have to honestly look at our situation and recognize that it is not sustainable. There is no longer a tax base available to sustain increases in taxes to maintain our current levels of spending. We must accept that this is the greatest threat to our National Security and that when addressing these issues there cannot be any sacred cows.

We must begin the era of Austerity in America by eliminating wasteful and fraudulent programs and agencies. We must begin the era of Economic Liberty by lower taxes and eliminating stringent regulations on businesses.  We must begin the Era of A Smaller Government Footprint.

www.boda4congress.com

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"I believe it is the right of the people to own guns without government interference. As criminals, especially violent ones, don't show much regard for the law, government mandated gun control only prevents law abiding citizens from owning guns. I oppose any attempts by the government to take away the rights granted by the Constitution."

Josh Crandall

Candidate Maryland House of Delegates District 31

Wicomcio County Libertarian Endorsed by the Daily Times

District 2
District 2 is geographically the county's largest district, located south and west of District 1 from the West Side of Salisbury to the Nanticoke River and western end of the county. It has been represented for the past 12 years by Stevie Prettyman, who as an incumbent is facing her first opponent for the seat. A Republican, she supports low taxes, efficient use of taxpayer dollars and the county's 2 percent property tax revenue cap as long as county residents wish to keep it in place. She supports the efforts of law enforcement and is engaged in the process of writing a new Comprehensive Plan for the county; she opposes "downzoning," which was designed to preserve farmland in the county but opposed by farmers who wished to retain the right to subdivide and develop their land if they so desired.

Her opponent, Mike Calpino, is not a Democrat; he is running as a Libertarian but describes himself as a tea party candidate. He advocates minimal government intrusion into the lives of individual citizens, but recognizes the need for some functions. He is a resident of Nanticoke who is engaged in his rural community and is personally familiar with the issues that concern residents of the far western portion of the county --the Westside Community Center and the Cove Point Beach parking controversy, for example. On his website, he quotes Ayn Rand and the founding fathers when describing his political philosophy. He also has lengthy sections devoted specifically to Wicomico County issues --budget, business climate, revenue cap, school board and public sector compensation among them. It is clear he has spent a great deal of time researching, considering and coming up with specific ideas about how county government should operate, within the framework of his minimalist concept of government.

Prettyman has had 12 years on the County Council and during that time, provided adequate -- if not visionary -- representation. Calpino, while advocating some radically unorthodox proposals, would also inject some truly fresh ideas for the rest of the council to consider. Those new considerations could have a positive influence on the way our county does business, even if not adopted as presented. We urge District 2 voters to give Calpino an opportunity to test his ideas by electing him to serve on the council.

Daily Times County Council Endorsements

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"This is an issue on which many Libertarians differ, because the very first question we need to resolve is whether there is one life at stake or two. Because I believe there are two lives involved, I believe each life deserves to be protected from any physical harm caused by the other. I recognize, of course, that many good people disagree, and in some states they may be in the majority. But the federal Constitution simply does not settle this issue, and we should restore the states' autonomy over abortion regulation."

Mark Grannis

Candidate for Congress, 8th District

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"We need to end the war on drugs. Those who want to use are already using. We are just creating a black market which creates crime. If we end the war on drugs we could save over $13 billion dollars. As a cavat I would add that the same liberty that give a person the right to use drugs also give an employer the right to drug test and fire anyone who test positive for drugs. An employer has the right to conditions for a contract for employment."

Dan Massey

Candidate for Congress, 6th District

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"PEACEFUL people should be able to cross borders PEACEFULLY for PEACEFUL purposes. What's going on along the southern border between the United States and Mexico is not an open border. I am tired of hearing that it's an open border. We don't have an open border any more than Sarajevo had open streets when people had to dodge bullets from snipers on rooftops. What we have on our southern border is chaos, mayhem and horrific crimes.

People's property is being invaded, people are being kidnapped and murdered; women trying to cross the border (admittedly illegally) are being raped. The march across the border becomes a death march. Who does this benefit? I guess the people whose only goal is cheap labor. It has some benefit for those who make it in, IF they make it on the death march through the desert, since they can work, etc. "

Candidate for U.S. Congress, District 2: Lorenzo Gaztañaga

Dr. Richard Davis' interview with the Daily Times

Mike Calpino: Plan offered to motivate efficiency in government

It is popular in an election season to fill the airwaves and roadsides with platitudes and slogans, often promising to lower taxes and make government more efficient. Substantial proposals to accomplish these ends are, however, few and far between.

I believe campaigns should be about substance, so I present "The Wicomico Plan" -- the details of which can be found at http://www.electmike.webs.com/.

The core of the plan, in addition to an initial reduction in taxes, spending and regulation to encourage businesses and job creation, is to introduce an incentive for government employees to save money and reduce the size of government. Instead of each department having to spend everything in its budget for fear of having it cut, employees will be encouraged to save and managers inspired to streamline.

The vehicle for this change will be the promise of bonuses comprised of half of the money each department saves, equally distributed among all the members of that department and the other half being deposited in the rainy day fund.

This will motivate each department to work efficiently, save money, blow the whistle on thieves and eliminate unnecessary employees.

Once the fiscal year ends and the savings have been realized, the budget and attendant taxes can be reduced and the process begun again. After two or three years, we will finally have a county government that operates efficiently and effectively, and costs the taxpayers -- you and I -- a lot less.

Mike Calpino
Nanticoke
Calpino is a Libertarian candidate for Wicomico County Council, District 2. -- Editor

Scott Spencer on Being a Libertarian

"As a Libertarian, I believe in personal liberty and personal responsibility. Libertarians favor an end of the use of government force to enact the policies of special interests, regardless of their place on the political spectrum.

Ultimately, this is based on the principle that no person should deprive another of life, liberty, or property through the initiation (or threat) of force or fraud.

Vote Libertarian, and help us renew the American values of freedom and independence."

Scott Spencer

Libertarian for U.S. Congress

District 7, Maryland

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"It's time to take a good, hard look at what the Federal Reserve does, and at what it has done to both to the economy, and to the US dollar.

If, after careful examination, it is determined that this is an institution that has done more harm than good (a position stated in Ron Paul's End the Fed, and in Murray Rothbard's The Case Against the Fed), then it should be abolished."

Scott Spencer

Libertarian Candidate for Congress

District 7, Maryland

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians

"Our country is bankrupt. Our representatives in Congress and the Senate don't want to talk about it, but it's true. This is a greater threat to our national security than any terrorist organization, and it's a threat we have created ourselves. Acknowledging the fact that we're bankrupt will allow us to start fixing it. We need the right person in Congress -- me."

Lorenzo Gaztañaga
Libertarian Candidate for Congress 
District 2, Maryland

Great Quotes from Maryland Libertarians - Lorenzo Gaztañaga

"The "war on drugs" has cost billions of dollars, ruined lives, and made all Americans less free, while doing nothing to help the addicted. It's alcohol prohibition redux, and we bleed the billions. The facts are there, and I'm willing to discuss it with anybody."

Lorenzo Gaztañaga
Libertarian Candidate for Congress
District 2, Maryland

Don't we need a strong government to protect us from business?

by Mark Grannis- Libertarian Candidate for Congress in Maryland's 8th District

Yesterday we looked at how liberty creates prosperity, and how government interference with our economic liberty distorts investment decisions and makes us worse off. But some people think we need a strong government to protect us from powerful economic interests. That theory sounds reasonable—if you don’t know what it’s like to run a business and you don’t pay any attention to how government works in practice.
But in practice, even large businesses don’t have anything like the power screenwriters give them in the movies. As the late Harry Browne used to say, “No matter how big a business is, you don’t have to deal with it; there’s always an alternative—including not buying at all.” Show me a business that treats its customers the way the Post Office and the Motor Vehicle Administration do, and I’ll show you a stock you should short.

And in practice, career politicians and industry regulators almost always use government to advance the interests of the largest and most politically connected businesses rather than their smaller competitors or their customers. Indeed, when I ask people to give me an example of a business from which they need to be protected, most reach for government-sponsored monopolies, like the old AT&T. Occasionally someone mentions a firm that figured prominently in the credit meltdown of late 2008, but those firms would no longer exist if it weren’t for their political clout. As a purely economic matter, the free market was all set to discipline those firms with bankruptcy until the government stepped in.

LP Monday Message: Candidates, Campaigns, Polls, Fundraising

Dear Friend of Liberty,

We have a great slate of over 800 Libertarian candidates for the upcoming November elections. Many of them are looking for more coverage on our website, in our emails, and in LP News. They want publicity, donations and help. That's a good thing.

Unfortunately, there's just too much information about our candidates for us to convey directly. And even though there are probably a hundred candidates around the country who would be happy to email all Libertarians nationwide each week, we know that you might not appreciate getting that much unsolicited email.

We have to rely on our state and local affiliates to provide announcements about the campaigns. I also encourage you to seek out candidates you might be interested in, and get more information. You can visit all 800 candidates listed here. Some of them have websites with email announcements you can sign up for.

Even though it's impossible to give you a picture of what's going on with all our candidates, I would like to pass along some notes about a few of this year's campaigns. (The selection of campaigns is arbitrary, but hopefully interesting, even if you live in a different state.)

How Liberty Creates Prosperity

by Mark Grannis- Libertarian Candidate for Congress in Maryland's 8th District

Most people in the United States take for granted that free-market economies “work” better than centrally planned economies. That is, almost everyone in any domestic political debate will agree, without thinking about it much, that placing the government in charge of how many shoes get made, and what the price of corn should be, and where we all work, would be disastrous for everyone.  We've seen other countries try it, and we know it doesn't work.

It’s good that we don’t have to argue about this. But an unfortunate side-effect of not arguing is that many voters don’t really understand why free-market economies are more prosperous, or why government interference usually makes us poorer even when it falls well short of total centralization. And that makes these voters suckers for politicians who promise to “improve” unpopular economic outcomes like high gas prices or electricity brownouts. So let’s look in very basic terms at how liberty creates prosperity.

Economic reporting often focuses on arcane aggregate statistic of dubious reliability and uncertain meaning, so I think it’s important to emphasize that economics is about how to solve the very real and very human problem of how to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves. Humans have material needs, as well as a natural drive to satisfy those needs. We also have a natural inclination to satisfy our needs with as little effort as possible. The overriding goal of all economic activity is really only this: to satisfy human needs as abundantly as possible with the minimum amount of work.

... In Their Own Words - Special Guest Dr. Richard Davis

Dr. Richard Davis is a dentist from Hurlock, Maryland.  He is the Libertarian Candidate for Congress in the First District of Maryland.

"...In Their Own Words" is designed to provide a format where news makers on the Lower Shore of Maryland can provide the public with answers about themselves or information on a variety of topics at a deeper level. There are no canned answers, time limits or talking points.

This video was produced by www.nowbeingserved.com

Making Government Irrelevant

by Mike Calpino

One of the great causes of division in America is the fact that everything, and I mean everything, has become a political issue. Any problem, any complaint, any issue that someone has is now thrown into the political sphere. Consider some of the big news on "the hill" this week. Rodger Clemens, a baseball player, is being prosecuted for lying to congress. What did he allegedly lie about? State secrets, embezzlement, fraud, treason? No. It was whether or not he ever used "performance enhancing" substances. Not to excuse his alleged lying but why was he ever before congress in the first place?! What authority does the government have to regulate A GAME!

We the people, unfortunately, have come to believe that it is right and proper to use the power of government to solve all our problems and meet all our needs. Every time one American citizen says "there ought to be a law" to fix some complaint or offense and another one says "government ought to..." to meet some need or want, our government is happy to intervene and in the process take more or our freedom and more of our money. Did you ever stop and wonder why we have all the special interest groups and lobbyists we love to complain about? It is because each one of them represents some group of citizens, small or large, that want to use the power of government for their own ends. In this game there are winners and losers and the animosity between the two increases as the stakes get higher and government becomes larger and more powerful. For every citizen that wants the government to do something, there is another citizen that must pay for it and give up some bit of freedom to accommodate this new government activity. That other citizen must now "lobby" on his own behalf, playing the game for his own protection. The government becomes no more than a legalized criminal enterprise, granting arbitrary favors and demanding payment for protection. 

What's the Libertarian way to protect the environment?

 

by Mark Grannis

I’m an environmentalist. I spend several weeks each summer in New York’s Adirondack State Park, enjoying the mountains, lakes, and rivers in that beautiful place. But I’m against the “cap and trade” bill and most other ideas for new environmental laws and regulations, because they don’t work. Environmental protection has been dominated for decades by large government regulatory initiatives, but experience shows that government regulation can’t and doesn’t protect the environment as effectively as private ownership and a strong dose of civil liability for actual environmental damage.

In the short term, I favor waiving the government’s sovereign immunity in environmental litigation, so that government is fully accountable for the environmental harms it covers. In the longer term, I favor a transition away from government regulation, which doesn’t work, and toward strict enforcement of property rights so that people can sue for restitution from polluters who put things in our air, water, and soil that we don’t want there.

The first thing to understand about environmental protection is that government is the main culprit. Our federal government (particularly the military) is the nation’s largest polluter, and a great deal of pollution by commercial enterprises occurs on government lands that are being poorly managed. Why are government lands poorly managed? Because government managers do not take care of them as well as a private owner would. The Izaak Walton League, the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club—any of these would manage our national parks better than the federal government does.

The Lion of Liberty Award

I would like to present the first ever Lion of Liberty Award.  This is bestowed upon those individuals who stand on the fronline in the war between statism and freedom.  Those who, despite constant criticism, threats, and willingness to put their names on the line, stand firm in their principles and fight for Liberty regardless of political affiliation. 

Based on those qualifications Mike and Julie Brewington are presented with the Lion of Liberty Award and shall forever be known as Lions of Liberty.

In June Mike decided to run Wicomico County Council At-Large.  He hails as a conservative Democrat and often uses the phrase "raise chickens not taxes."  His wife Julie decided run for Maryland House of Delegates in District 38A.  Both have been deeply involved in the Tea Party movement and the Americans for Prosperity. 

Establishment politicians and their attack machine have launched some of the nastiest personal attacks on them for their political stances and willingness to fight to make difference.  I for one applaud them and thank them for their work.

The J. Millard Tawes 34th Annual Crab and Clam Bake

Mike Brewington (D) and Dr. Richard Davis (L).

Crisfield, MD: The J. Millard Tawes Crab and Clam did not disappoint if you were in search of politicians. Candidates from the Democratic Party, Republican Party and Libertarian Party were present meeting voters and distributing campaign flyers.

Independent District 1 Congressional Candidate Jack Wilson had his people gathering signatures. Dr. Richard Davis signed the petition form to show his support for Wilson to be on the ballot, even though he would be an opponent. Wilson needs around 40,000 signatures according to the campaign worker.

Richard Davis(L) and Andy Harris(R).

                Read the rest at Examiner.com

The Vote Libertarian Buttons were very effective.  Governor O'Malley got the message when we shook his hand.