Or?
Are you one of the forty-seven percent of Americans who pay no income tax, yet daily, pay a boat-load of other taxes, and are labeled by Mitt Romney, as irresponsible, worthless, and a moocher looking for nothing other than a government handout?
Well my friends, have I got a Presidential candidate for you to look into and see if he is for you, and that would be…
Former New Mexico Governor, and 2012 Libertarian Candidate for President, the Honorable Gary Johnson.
Gov. Johnson is a no-nonsense, fiscally sound, yet amusing and personable public servant who built his own construction company from nothing, unlike President Obama, who has a career based on social work, and Gov. Romney who has never really built a company, but instead has spent his entire career carving off and selling out at great personal profit, existing companies.
As Governor of New Mexico from 1994-2003, Gov. Johnson became well-known as a tenacious watchdog in all matters fiscal. He balanced budgets in the Land of Enchantment State several times through weighing cost-benefit analysis rather than singly focused ideology or the typical closed-door promises of self-interested lobbyists.
I am as far as most definitions go, a fairly Liberal guy, however, I have a huge Libertarian streak in me as well, in fact, I have often defined myself politically as a, Liberaltarian. And here is what I like about some of the policy stances of Gov. Johnson…
*End excessive spending, bloated stimulus programs, unnecessary farm subsidies, and earmarks.
I am not against an interjection of Federal stimuli when needed, but earmarks and antiquated subsidies? Oh Hell Yes!!
*Enact the Fair Tax to tax expenditures, rather than income, with a 'prebate' to make spending on basic necessities tax free.
I don’t mind a fair and flat, consumer type tax at all, and with his caveat about basic necessities being tax-free, that’s a plus.
*Legalize, tax, and regulate marijuana, rather than wasting money on an expensive and futile prohibition.
I don’t even smoke dope, but therein lies a HUGE cannabis cash cow into the Federal hookah right there. Right Duuuude?
*Eliminate needless barriers to free trade and make it easier for would-be legal immigrants to apply for work visas.
In this, Gov. Johnson highlights something similar that Americans don’t really hear about. We allow bright foreign, college age students to come to this country to get a world-class education, and upon graduation, they want to stay here in the U.S. to start a business and we say, “No, I’m sorry, your Visa has expired. Take yourself, your first-rate Stanford, M.I.T, or Harvard education, and your great ideas back to where you came from.” Brain Drain!!
Lastly…
*Government should not impose its values upon marriage. It should allow marriage equality, including gay marriage. It should also protect the rights of religious organizations to follow their beliefs.
Gov. Johnson and the Libertarians have my full support on this one. Gays should be recognized as legally wed couples if they should want to tie the knot, but the government should NOT dictate that churches recognize it as so. Legally binding marriages, yes. Church approved marriage? Eh, that’s up to the particular churches and denominations.Ha, and you know what the irony of legalized and fully lawful recognition of Gay Marriage is? Churches everywhere would be accepting it, because there is money to be made on marriages.
Anyway…While I only touched on a few policy views of Gov. Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party, I like these principles.
There are more than a few of his policies with which I disagree, but eh…He is a nice change of pace, and…I am going to give considerable consideration to him when it comes to my vote on November 6th.
To check out Gov. Johnson’s campaign website and delve further into his stand on many other issues, you can click HERE.
Be involved...Be informed...and most importantly...Be a voter.
Cheers!!
Matt-Man
mattmaniws@ymail.com
@MattMan_IWS
