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Archive for Op eds

Jul
21

It’s never fair to take your money

by R. Lee Wrights

“There is nothing wrong with a strategy to avoid the payment of taxes. The Internal Revenue Code doesn’t prevent that.” – Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist

In “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Sally asks Charlie Brown to write a letter to Santa Claus for her. She dictates, “I have been extra good this year, so I have a long list of presents that I want … send as many as possible. If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself: just send money.”

She concludes, “All I want is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.” We laugh at that line because we understand what Sally really means. She doesn’t want merely what she thinks is due her, she wants more than the other guy. We laugh because we understand this really isn’t her “fair share.”

Fairness is an inherent belief of all Americans. We believe everyone should be treated equally and everyone should play by the same rules. That’s what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote “all men are created equal.”

Politicians know this, and unscrupulously manipulate this trait of American character to advance an agenda that’s exactly the opposite. In the name of fairness, they callously convince Americans to support policies and laws that are anything but fair and equal. President Barack Obama has adopted fairness as his campaign mantra. He repeated it so many times in his State of the Union address he sounded like a preacher asking for an “Amen.”

To our great shame and detriment, we let them get away with it, because no one wants to be against fairness. Whenever a politician says they want “the rich” to pay “their fair share” in taxes and we nod our heads and applaud we reinforce this subterfuge. And no one ever defines the terms. Who are “the rich?” What is “fair?” And who decides?

When politicians talk about fairness they’re just like Sally writing to Santa Claus. They don’t mean “equal,” they mean “let someone else pay.” When the president and his supporters allege that “the rich” don’t pay their “fair share” in taxes, what they are really saying is that the rich should pay more.

The simple but unspoken truth is that it is never right or moral, even if it is legal, to take money by force from one person and give it to another. That is theft. No one, not even the government, has the right to do it. Theft is theft, no matter who is doing the stealing. The claim that most Americans won’t have to pay more in taxes is not a justification.

That claim is also shaky, notes the Cato Institute’s Michael D. Tanner. The rich who President Obama so despises encompasses some 2.5 million Americans, including 750,00 independent and small business owners. By the president’s standards Tanner notes, a New York City teacher with 22 years service, married to a police captain, is rich.

When it comes right down to it, the charge that the rich don’t pay their fair share and should pay more is just another way of saying “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.” Income redistribution has no place in a free society. Besides, stealing from the rich is no more justified than stealing from the poor.

The charge that the rich don’t pay their fair share is also a “bit specious,” according to Tanner. I would call it a deliberate lie. He notes that the top one percent of Americans who earn 16 percent of the income in the U.S. pay 36.7 percent of all federal income taxes. And the Congressional Budget office reports that the wealthy Americans who earn about 50 percent of the income in the United States carry nearly 70 percent of the federal tax burden.

Oh and by the way, the same president who protests that the rich don’t pay their fair share employs 36 people who haven’t paid their share at all. According to the Internal Revenue Service, which President Obama supposedly oversees, they owe $833,970 in back taxes. Looks like it pays to know people in high places.

It’s not surprising that those who pose as our political leaders resort to the Orwellian tactic of reversing the meaning of words. It’s merely one tactic used throughout the ages by ruling elites to pit one group against another in order to maintain the grip on power. It’s a valuable instrument for catering to the masses by giving them entitlements in exchange for their votes. In other words, buying their votes using their own money that was forcefully taken from them.

Only Libertarians have the courage to discuss the real issue. The entire federal tax system, particularity the income tax, is not only unfair to everyone, it is immoral and unsustainable. Rather than putting a band-aid on a sucking chest wound, we need major surgery. Rather than forcing one group to pay more, why not have everyone pay less? We can start by abolishing the income tax and replacing it with nothing.

Of course, that would mean that we’d have to stop out-of-control spending, particularly in the areas of entitlements and national defense. It would require our leaders to make drastic decisions which, alas, they lack the moral courage and intellectual integrity to even think about and discuss, let alone make.

Economics is not a zero sum game. If rich get richer, it doesn’t mean the poor get poorer. Libertarians envision a society where every person can achieve their full potential and tap their creativity to its full potential. A free society is one where politicians don’t tear down one group at the expense of another.

All people may start out poor, but the free market allows them to become prosperous, even rich. The best way to create wealth and prosperity, the way that has been proven successful time and time again in history, is not through government force, but by the voluntary cooperation and interaction of free persons working in a free market. Don’t allow President Obama and the media to tell you any differently. No matter how much you make, it is never fair to take your money.

R. Lee Wrights is a writer and political activist living in Texas. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party national committee. He is the co-founder and editor of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All. Contact Lee at rleewrights@gmail.com.

Categories : Blog, Op eds
Jul
7

The Quiet War On Ballot Access

by R. Lee Wrights

Not all of America’s wars are clear and visible. For decades establishment politicians have been waging a quiet, secret war most Americans don’t even realize is going on. But this war is just as destructive of our liberty as the war in Afghanistan, the war on drugs, the war on taxpayers and the myriads of other conflicts our government is waging.

This war is stealing one of our most precious birthrights, the right to vote for the representative of our choice. It is the war on ballot access. Unlike other wars, the war on ballot access is waged by a united front of Democrats and Republicans who always willingly and eagerly stand together to restrict and obstruct any contender for political power but themselves. They’ve seized control of a nation and have no intention of ever relinquishing their stranglehold on the reigns of power.

Most Americans are oblivious to the monopoly of power exercised by the Democrats and Republicans because they’ve been conditioned to believe that “America has always had a two- party” system. Even some otherwise honest and intelligent Republicans and Democrats believe this is the way it’s always been, and seem genuinely amazed when they’re told how difficult it is for third-party and independent candidates to get on the ballot in many states.

That’s exactly what the professional political class wants them to believe. The arrogance of the two-party establishment feeds on itself; the longer it maintains and holds sole power, the more convinced it becomes of its rightness. They see nothing wrong in limiting your choices. In their haughty position of self-importance, they piously proclaim that having more than two choices on the ballot would only result in a “cluttered ballot” and “voter confusion.

These claims are merely a cover for their cynical belief that American voters are too uninformed and uneducated — in other words, too stupid — to make decisions from a long list of choices, unlike voters in countries like Iraq. The same politicians who piously demand other nations institute “democracy” have no qualms about blatantly denying to their own people the right to vote for representatives of their choice.

The stark truth is, if you’re not a Republican or a Democrat in the United States of America, you are a slave to a government controlled by a majority that forces it’s will upon you. Restrictive ballot access laws, perpetuated by the two-party duopoly, are the ultimate abuse of power. They’re depressing testimony to the mortification and calcification of the two-party system to the point that it is close to death.

“One of the best-kept secrets in American politics is that the two-party system has long been brain-dead maintained by a life-support system that protects the established parties from rivals,” said Theodore J. Lowi, senior professor of American Institutions at Cornell University. “The two-party system would collapse in an instant if the tubes were pulled and the IVs were cut. And until then, the dominant two parties will not, and cannot, reform a system in which they are the principal beneficiaries.”

In almost every case, state ballot access laws are an impediment to our rights, our freedom and our liberty. They’re designed exclusively to muzzle dissent and limit voter choice in order to secure power for the ruling class. In this election, however, America will have a clear choice and an opportunity to pull the IV tubes on the two-party duopoly.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson may well be  on the ballot in all 50 states. But to make that happen, the Libertarian Party needs funds to secure ballot access in 19 more states. You can help that effort here.

Then on Nov. 6, 2012, be Libertarian one time and vote Libertarian to stop the war on ballot access. Help us achieve a historic one million votes for the Libertarian candidate for president. Send a clear message to Democrats and Republicans that it is your choice, your vote, your rights, and you will no longer stand idly by while they take them away from you.

Enough is enough! Make them remember this November! Vote Libertarian!

R. Lee Wrights is a writer and political activist living in Texas. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party national committee. He is the co-founder and editor of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All. Contact Lee at rleewrights@gmail.com.

MillionVoteMarch2

Categories : Op eds
Jun
16

Peace is Profitable

by R. Lee Wrights

Most discussions about the costs of war focus on two numbers, the cost in dollars and cents and the more profound and heartbreaking cost in lives. Yet even as depressing as these numbers are, the figures discussed rarely encompass the whole truth. Over many generations those in power have learned there are benefits to keeping the populace as ignorant as possible when it comes to the true costs of war.

American politicians never talk about all the people killed in war, just American service members. Everyone else who is killed, even Americans arbitrarily classified as “enemy combatants,” are marginalized as mere collateral damage. Dollar costs consider only the “official” Defense Department budget, not the funds scattered and hidden throughout the federal budget. And the tally sheet deliberately excludes the cost of caring for the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines physically and emotionally scarred by war.

The Eisenhower Study Group at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies has compiled a comprehensive study of the human, economic, social and political costs of war. It’s available online. As you might imagine, the real numbers of wars we are presently involved in are staggering and stunning: more than 224,000 lives lost, more than 365,000 wounded, and in excess of seven million refugees.

The total estimated cost to the American taxpayer for our current wars is $3-4 trillion dollars through 2020 — plus an additional $1 trillion just to pay the interest on the money borrowed to fund war. Funding war by borrowing money is one of the devices politicians have devised to pay for war, particularly for unpopular wars. This means our children must pay tomorrow for the wars we are involved in today.

In the modern era, including Word War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Cold War and our present conflicts, the United States has funded its wars through debt, taxation or inflation, or sometimes a combination of these methods. In each case, according to a recent report by the Institute for Peace and Justice, the result has been detrimental to the economy in the long run. In each case, the burden has fallen on the American taxpayers and the private sector, through increased taxes, increased cost of goods and shortages. In short, in each case the result has been a depressed civilian economy.

The report also found that excessive military spending can displace more productive non-military outlays in investments in high-tech industries, education, or infrastructure. The crowding-out effects of disproportionate government spending on military functions can affect service delivery or infrastructure development, ultimately affecting long-term growth rates. In simpler terms, the more the government borrows and spends for war, the less the private sector is able to grow and prosper.

For the period after World War II, if the wars had not happened the report concludes “it is likely taxes would have been lower, inflation would have been lower, there would have been higher consumption and investment and certainly lower budget deficits.” That can lead, in my view, to only one conclusion, a conclusion I reached years ago and one that is familiar to any libertarian: War is a waste. Peace is profitable.

War disrupts and distorts the free market, steals resources and workers from construction and diverts them to destruction. War does not produce anything except death. It only destroys. Jobs supposedly created by war industries, including drafting men into the military, is not full employment, it is slavery.

The businesses that profit from war are not free market entities, but “merchants of death” who would not exist if there were no war. “They are economic parasites, who take society’s resources but do not produce anything for civilian use in return,” wrote Jacob H. Huebert, author of Libertarianism Today. Again, we see that war is waste.

War spending is a monstrous manifestation of the broken window fallacy. In the war politicians’ perverted view of economics any war, no matter how many people are killed or how widespread the destruction, is an opportunity for them to increase their power and control by “jump-starting” the economy with projects to rebuild what they’ve destroyed. They deliberately ignore and discount the illogic and immorality of their actions. They have no concept that the money and resources squandered to break things, and then rebuild them, and to kill people, could have been better used building news things and saving lives.

War breeds war. War does nothing but devour valuable resources and destroy precious lives for the sole purpose of perpetuating itself. On the other hand, peace breeds prosperity. In peace, valuable natural resources can be preserved and used at home where we need them most. When there’s peace, people prosper. There have been economic booms, scientific advancements, and cultural progress after every conflict America has fought.

War is waste. Peace is production. War means we all lose. Peace means we all profit and prosper. What does America need more of right now?

R. Lee Wrights is a writer and political activist living in Texas. He is currently the Vice Chair of the Libertarian Party national committee. He is the co-founder and editor of the free speech online magazine Liberty For All. Contact Lee at rleewrights@gmail.com.

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
May
26

Peace Is the Death of War

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas (May 26) – When I began my quest for the Libertarian presidential nomination, my staff and I were committed to making the campaign about more than just winning the nomination. We determined that whoever was the nominee, the message of the Libertarian Party in 2012 would be “Stop All War,” and that message would be heard in all 50 states. To that end, we pledged 10 percent of all donations to insure ballot access, and began The Million Vote March project to achieve a historic first for the Libertarian Party.

As I have said from the beginning, this is not about Lee Wrights. It’s about the Libertarian Party and the libertarian message of peace, prosperity and progress. While the campaign for the nomination is over, the campaign to Stop All War, to gain 50-state ballot access, and to win one million votes for the Libertarian candidate for president continues. It must continue. Not only because it’s what my staff and I have pledged to do, but because it’s right for the Libertarian Party and it’s right for America.

So we’ll continue to seek donations for ballot access. We’ll continue to produce videos for Libertarian candidates and affiliates. We’ll continue The Million Vote March to vote libertarian to stop all war. We’ll strive to Occupy Ballot Access in as many states as possible.

But if the Libertarian Party is going to be the Peace Party, we must begin by declaring peace among ourselves. I’ve said it at dozens of state conventions, I said it in Las Vegas, and I will say it again and again until everyone hears and believes: I am not at war. If enough of us say it, they can’t have them anymore.

Peace is the death of war. Peace is not the opposite of war. Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is the death of war. Peace happens when enough people decide they have had enough killing. Peace happens when enough people say, “I am not at war.”

And peace, like charity, begins at home. As I’ve said across the nation at state Libertarian conventions and repeated in Las Vegas: we cannot begin to stop the wars outside of a convention hall until we stop the wars within its walls. Libertarians must first stop being at war with each other before we can even begin to think about stopping the wars Democrats and Republicans conjure up. As long as we’re fighting each other, the only victor will be those who desire neither peace nor liberty, but only war and tyranny.

On Saturday night and early Sunday, between the two rounds of voting for national chair, I was besieged by people asking me if I would support this or that person, or this or that compromise. I told every one of them that all they were doing was setting themselves, and the party, up for war. I told them all: “I am not at war.”

These are not just words. Many people who know my reputation as a warrior have found it difficult to believe, but it’s true. Those who know me know I’m sincere. These are not just words to be recited, they are words that must be lived. Peace, like libertarianism, is more than a philosophical or political concept. Peace is a way of life. We must be it and live it.

Categories : Blog, Op eds, Press Releases
Apr
28

Let’s Offer a True Libertarian Message to America

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas  – It’s been nearly two years since I began this campaign to earn the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. From the beginning I stated my goal clearly and I’ve stuck to it. I said then that the Libertarian Party faces a critical test in 2012 and I want to make sure we’re up to the challenge. The Libertarian message in 2012 must be a loud, clear and unequivocal call to stop the wars! Stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop the war on drugs and alternative lifestyles, stop the war on civil liberties – stop all war.

At every presidential debate, state party convention and event I’ve attended, I’ve asked libertarian activists to join me in saying ‘I am not at war,’ and I’ve been encouraged and inspired by their response. It has been my honor to take part in forums with my fellow presidential candidates. I’ve learned some things from them, and I hope they have learned some things from me.

The only thing that has changed is that today it’s even more critical that the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President of the United States is ready, willing and able to present a clear, principled, unwavering and unequivocal libertarian message that offers Americans radically different answers to our nation’s problems, not variations or modifications of the false solutions promoted by Democrats and Republicans.

I believe I’m the person most qualified to fill that role. I’ve been a libertarian all my life; never have I been anything else. There is no learning curve for Lee Wrights as the 2012 standard bearer. I can wave the Libertarian flag high without exception or compromise.

We Libertarians are in the business of pulling up weeds like taxes and regulations, not planting new ones. We offer the American people true choices and rational alternatives. The Libertarian Party can make a difference in 2012, but only if we are different, and our candidate for president is not afraid to be a true, principled libertarian. The libertarian promise of peace, prosperity and progress is a message Americans are longing to hear. We don’t need to soften, refine or modify what we believe to win votes.

If you honor me with your nomination for President of the United States, I pledge to campaign like a libertarian, offer libertarian solutions to problems and issues, and eventually govern like a libertarian. I promise to always bear in mind that no matter what the question, freedom is the answer. If elected, I will be:

  • A Libertarian president who conducts foreign policy on the basis of conversation and commerce, not bullets and bombs.
  • A Libertarian president who supports our troops by bringing them all home now, leaving only embassy guards overseas.
  • A Libertarian president who never orders American troops on any mission other than defending the United States of America from direct attack.
  • A Libertarian president who never enters any “entangling alliance” or suggests giving foreign aid to any nation, no matter how friendly they are.
  • A Libertarian president who never proposes to “reform” or “replace” the federal income tax, but who’ll work to abolish it.
  • A Libertarian president who never condones or orders the detention – let alone the killing – of any person anywhere, regardless of their citizenship and their suspected activities, be they criminal or terrorist, without due process of law.

Gandhi said that we must become the change we want to see in the world. In 2012, the Libertarian Party must become the change it offers to the American people. We need a presidential candidate who is willing to speak about change, real change, and not deviate from principle for political expediency. I believe that I am that candidate. If you honor me with your nomination, I will offer the American people the change that will lead us all to liberty and freedom, and bring us peace, prosperity and progress.

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
Apr
7

The Messenger is Also the Message

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas – In the 1960s Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian educator and philosopher, coined the phrase “the medium is the message.” He meant that the method used to convey a message, the medium, becomes part of the message itself and affects the way the message is perceived. His ideas about technology and human communication were revolutionary. He predicted the advent of the World Wide Web, even though he was writing 30 years before the web and social media like Facebook and Twitter blossomed.

Anyone trying to explain libertarian ideas should remember that “the medium is the message.” They should also keep in mind that the messenger is a medium, so you could say “the messenger is the message.” In many situations the libertarian messenger may be even more important than the message.

People won’t listen to you if they don’t like you, or if you don’t present yourself well. They won’t listen to you if you project an attitude of superiority, if you sound like you think you’re smarter than they are. They won’t listen to you if you call them stupid, or ignorant, or summarily dismiss whatever they say. They won’t listen to you if you argue instead of trying to persuade, or if you are loud or abusive, if you rant and rave.

As I’ve said many times, libertarianism is more than a political philosophy; it is a way of life. We must be it and live it. The libertarian promise of peace and prosperity is one Americans are longing to hear. We don’t need to soften, refine, modify or craft our message to appeal to conservatives or liberals in order to win votes. Instead, we must embrace our beliefs and wear them proudly. Our messengers must be as radical as our message, but in a nice way.

Our messengers must realize that how people receive and understand libertarian ideas depends on their background and upbringing. As any good libertarian communicator will tell you, not everyone gets the libertarian message right away. For many, it takes time. Even for some of the great libertarians I know, it took years for them to fully embrace the philosophy.

Just because someone doesn’t immediately see the light doesn’t make them evil, doesn’t mean they’re the enemy. It’s natural for people to cling to the ideas and ways of doing things they’ve known and believed all their lives. That doesn’t make them sheeple, or Statists, just human. There’s a difference between being ignorant and stupid, but we don’t win any converts by calling people either.

Libertarianism is about tolerance. How can we claim to be principled libertarians when we don’t tolerate those who disagree with us? Who was it that said a libertarian society would tolerate a socialist community within it, but not the other way around? Surely it is a true statement.

Everything we libertarians believe, we believe because we honestly think it’s best for all people. If it truly is the right thing, most people already know it in their hearts. Everything we libertarians believe can be packaged and sold to the voters in a way that invites them to agree with us and join us.

“Don’t teach, sell.” That’s the key to good communication for libertarian candidates. My good friend Sean Haugh once wrote, “You just have to find that sentiment of Liberty already within people’s hearts and connect with it. You can take the most hardcore Libertarian position on any issue and get the majority of people to agree with you, because you make them feel they always agreed with you.”

But sell gently, with calm and compassion. Politics is the art of the possible, as Sean reminds us. That means we must listen to people and present ideas and public policy proposals that make sense to them, in language they understand. We must identify and connect with their goals, their wants, their needs and their aspirations, claim them as our own, and then present to them reasonable, rational — and libertarian — alternatives that will achieve those goals, and meet those wants, needs and aspirations.

Libertarians can make a difference, but only by being different. One of the most important ways we’re different is that our core value is the belief in the individual human being. We dishonor that value by treating any person as less than ourselves in any way, including by demeaning them with our words or dismissing their concerns and ideas.

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
Mar
31

The Health Care Law Is Not Only Unconstitutional, It’s Unhealthy

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas – Like most bills passed by Congress, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does exactly the opposite of what its title implies. It doesn’t protect patients at all, but actually harms them by making health care more expensive and less available. The U.S. Supreme Court has the opportunity to overturn this unconstitutional and damaging law, and it should – do away with the entire law.

The most obvious reason to strike down this law, to anyone who has a clear understanding of the U.S. Constitution, is that there’s nothing in the Constitution that grants the federal government the power to have anything at all to do with health care in the first place. The law completely disregards the principle of a limited federal government with specific and enumerated powers.

To justify the law, supporters employed a distorted interpretation of the commerce clause. When the Founders gave the federal government the power to “regulate commerce … among the several states” it was clearly understood to mean that individual states couldn’t put tariffs on goods or services from other states, or prevent the import or export of goods or services between states.

In other words, people could buy and sell across state lines without hindrance. It was in no way intended to give power to the federal government to force people to buy something. As James Madison explained, this principle of specific and limited power would be turned on its head because “If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done … the government is no longer a limited one possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one subject to particular exceptions.”

The second reason the court should overturn this noxious law is that it fundamentally destroys the special relationship between doctors and patients. Contrary to attempts by President Barack Obama and others to blame the greed of medical practitioners for the supposed health care crisis, most people do not go into medical practice to get rich. They become doctors to help people. This law prevents them from doing that. An increasing number of doctors are giving up their private medical practices because of the burden of excessive government regulation.

As the federal government has become more and more entangled in health care, doctors spend more time dealing with government bureaucrats and insurance companies than they do with patients. Costs, to doctors, and to patients, have skyrocketed and the quality and availability of care has declined. The health care law only made this problem worse.

Under the plan, “accountable care organizations” operating under rules written by federal bureaucrats will decide what medical practices and services are provided and how much reimbursement is paid to doctors. In other words, medical decisions will be determined by cost, not by patient need. Further, the law stifles innovationwith more controls on the cost and use of services. It even places a tax on pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.

America once had the best health care system imaginable. As recently as the 1960s, low-cost health insurance was available to virtually everyone — including people with existing medical problems. Doctors made house calls. A hospital stay cost only a few days’ pay. Charity hospitals were available to take care of families who could not afford to pay for health care.

That system was destroyed not by the free market, not by greedy doctors or insurance companies, but by power-hungry politicians seeking a means to increase their power. They saddled health care providers with excessive and intrusive government regulation, thus driving up costs and limiting access to health care for many Americans. In effect, they had the federal government break your legs, then hand you a pair of crutches and say, “See, if it weren’t for the government you would not be able to walk.”

If Americans are ever going to learn to walk again without the aid of a government crutch, the Supreme Court must strike down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. That will be the first step toward true health care reform.

For more reasons why the Supreme Court should overturn the health care law, read “The Best 4 Legal Arguments Against Obamacare” by Damon Root.

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
Mar
24

Jump Start The Economy With Tax Relief, Not Tax Reform

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas – I have heard it said by some that the “revenue-neutral” Fair Tax will “jump-start the economy for the next 100 years.” That is simply not true. No tax has ever jump started any economy. Taxes have the opposite effect. They stall the economy by stiffing incentive and creativity. The only thing a tax stimulates is a desire to avoid it by those who the tax is imposed upon.

What this country needs is tax relief, not tax reform. All you have to do is look at American history to see the proof of this. When taxes are reduced, and the nation is at peace, the economy thrives and people prosper. When taxes are raised, and the nation is at war, the economy stagnates. There is no escape from these simple economic realities.

Daniel Mitchell, a Heritage Foundation senior fellow, examined three periods in U.S. history and found, “There is a distinct pattern throughout American history: When tax rates are reduced, the economy’s growth rate improves and living standards increase.” And while lower tax rates are important to economic growth, they are not the only critical issue. “Both the level of government spending and where that money goes are very important,” he wrote.

We also know that cutting taxes, along with cutting regulation and eliminating trade barriers, was a key factor in fostering economic booms in Great Britain, New Zealand and Ireland during the 1980s and 90s. Any time taxes and regulations are decreased; the citizens who drive a nations economy become wealthier. Indeed, the very signs of economic recovery and boon are a wealthier people and a poorer government.

Fair Tax fans are proud to defend their proposal because it’s “revenue neutral.” It will generate as much revenue as is currently collected with the income tax and other federal taxes. But that’s just the problem; it’s not a tax cut, so it won’t stimulate the economy. Indeed, it’s likely to create havoc by suddenly changing the incentives to spend and save. It’s like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. All the Fair Tax does is change the method a bloated federal government employs to extort money from the people. It merely rearranges the already staggering burden of government on the shoulders of American taxpayers.

The economy will continue to flounder so long as those who run government think they’re smarter than us, and are better judges of how we should spend our money. Economic growth and prosperity will continue to stagnate so long as politicians can use money wrung from taxpayers to subsidize the businesses and industries that finance their campaigns. America will never regain its economic preeminence so long as the tax code is used for social engineering, to manipulate people into buying hybrid cars, saving for their retirement, or investing in historical buildings.

How can the Fair Tax “jump-start” anything if it allows the federal government to take the same amount of money from the American people? What difference does it make if the spending addiction of politicians and bureaucrats is fed with money generated by a national sales tax or a payroll tax? In either case, the money is taken from the people and is no longer theirs to spend. Americans do not need tax replacements or tax reforms. Americans need tax relief!

The only thing the Fair Tax is sure to jump-start is more federal spending, because as Milton Friedman noted, “In the long run government will spend whatever the tax system will raise, plus as much more as it can get away with.”

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
Mar
17

Libertarianism Is Different Because It’s About Peace

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas – As I’ve crisscrossed the country the past few months visiting Libertarian state party conventions, I’ve had plenty of time on the road between stops to reflect on what I’ve heard from my fellow libertarians. And what I’m hearing from an increasing number of them is that they’re ready to make a difference in 2012 simply by being different, by being true libertarians.

Libertarianism is all about non-aggression. The philosophy of life which guides all libertarians and which drives some of us to plunge into the political process is the exact opposite of what motives Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives. We leave people alone. They tell everyone how to live. We’re good neighbors. They’re nosy neighbors. We’re for peace. They’re for war.

As I’ve said many times, I’m running for president of the United States not to do things, but to undo things. I am, proudly, part of that vast libertarian conspiracy that wants to take over the government so that we can leave you alone. My good friend Anthony Gregory called libertarianism “the ultimate anti-war philosophy.” I can see manifestations of that truth at every event I attend. When I started this campaign more than a year and a half ago, I was motivated primarily by the many young people I met who asked why the Libertarian Party wasn’t taking the lead in the antiwar movement. But as this campaign has progressed, I’ve been encouraged and reinvigorated by the fact that people of all age groups have been just as receptive to the message to stop all war.

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Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
Mar
10

They’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught To Kill

by R. Lee Wrights

BURNET, Texas – One point I’ve repeatedly emphasized during this campaign is that you can’t teach people that it’s wrong to kill people by killing people. I’ve said this so often that I almost forgot what it really means. A good friend of mine recently brought me back to reality. He asked simple, “Well, then, if you don’t teach people that it’s wrong to kill by killing people, then how do you do it.”

When he asked that question, I was briefly stumped. I had to think about how to answer for a while. Then the answer came to me: you don’t. You really don’t have to teach people that it’s wrong to kill because they know it already. It’s instinctive. It’s a basic part of human nature. People know that taking someone’s life is wrong.

In America, it’s a fundamental principle of our Judeo-Christian heritage: Thou shalt not kill. But it’s equally important in most other cultures, belief systems and philosophies all over the world as well. The problem, of course, is that what a person believes, or what they learn from their culture, society and upbringing, is not always reflected in how they act.

This is not to say that human beings are naturally pacifists. They are not. Some people, not everyone, will kill to defend themselves, or others. But for most people, that’s generally as far as they’ll go. In fact, the mark of an advanced civilization is that people don’t arbitrarily kill one another. They voluntarily follow informal rules of society or enact the formal rule of law to handle disputes.

If you want to get someone to kill other people on a large scale, you have to work on it. People have to be taught to kill. They have to be taught to hate and fear. They have to be indoctrinated with the belief that their lives, the lives of their loved ones, or their very existence, are in mortal danger. It requires a careful, deliberate and methodical lesson plan, like that used in military basic training, to overcome a person’s natural instinct to leave others alone unless they’re personally threatened.

Throughout history, ruling elites have manufactured fear and hate to manipulate people into acting contrary to their natural, peaceful instincts. They start by dehumanizing and demonizing the intended enemy, and anyone who opposes them in their own country. They wrap their arguments in the flag, proclaiming that it’s right, it’s noble, it’s patriotic to kill in the name of the Fatherland, the Motherland — or the Homeland. This evil subterfuge is an essential tool for the ruling elites. Without it, they would not be able to wage war.

We don’t need to teach people it’s wrong to kill, because they already know that. What we have to do is teach them that it’s not right, or noble, or patriotic to kill someone who has done you no harm, or who does not directly threaten you. It’s not your duty to kill merely because your so-called leaders tell you to.

On the contrary, we must teach them that it’s just as wrong to kill someone next door to you merely because they said something nasty about your grandmother, as it is to kill someone in another country who the president labels as an enemy. We must all say, “I am not at war.” If enough of us say it, they can’t have them anymore.

Categories : Op eds, Press Releases
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"I am not at war!"
-R. Lee Wrights

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