One big sticking point is that I do not know if I can check the box Libertarians mark that says "YES, sign me up as a member of the Libertarian Party. To validate my membership, I certify that I oppose the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals."
There's a couple ways to look at that and I have to figure out what it means to most people. Some I have talked to take it to mean that expect me to NEVER agree to anything use tax payer dollars out side of MAYBE defense. But what is defense? Is funding fire departments a form of defense? Osama Bid Laden has said he is basically trying to spend us to death. Is education defense against economic attacks? I'll get back to you when I have surer footing on these questions.
On to policy... The bold and bullet points are what is on Missouri's Libertarian Party webpage the percentages and pondering are mine
EDUCATION 68.75% overall support for Libertarian education policy. Mostly I don't see how they can implement these actions across economic lines. Most of the goals I agree with (support homeschooling) but don't want to re-create the exact same conditions that initiated government interference in the first place.
- Restore local control of all schools.75% behind and it is conditional. There must be some protection in place for poor communities. I really don't know how that will happen so that is an awfully big condition.
- Remove restrictions on home schooling.50% behind. As a parent that home-schools and knows many others who also home-school the restrictions are not a big problem. The larger issue is the right to privacy vs. the child's well being. I have heard horror stories of schools persecuting home school kids to boost their attendence. If this is the case the policy needs to have a higher burden of proof.
- Move toward privatization of government public schools.75% behind. Again this can create classist issues. If I come up with or across a plan that gets around that then fine.
- Repeal all Federal and State education mandates.75% behind. I don't know about all mandates. I don't know what all the mandates are. The reason I favor it as much as I do is that I like the idea of different states coming up with different solutions and learning from each other.
HEALTH CARE 89% behind. Most of my concerns are price fixing but I also have some reservations the fact that health care is often something you buy when not in a position to negotiate.
- Establish tax-free Health Savings Accounts.100% behind. Part of the reason medical costs are so high is because insurance companies don't have much negotiating power.
- Make all medical and dental expenses income tax deductible.100% behind.
- Restore patient choice in medical care by removing interference from the State including access to nurse practitioners, midwifery, alternative medicine, and self-medication.95% behind.
- Restore a true free market in health care by removing federal and state regulations which restrict competition.75% behind, I don't know of any restrictions I support but I would have to study up on them before tossing them all out. I do believe in regulation that prevents monopolies or price fixing.
- Oppose federal regulation of health care and government health care options.75% behind. same as previous point.
TAXES 33.3% I'm for smaller government but there are a lot of things government does that we have to have a replacement for before it can be eliminated. Prime example is unemployment benefits. Many people don't consider that unemployment is what pays for taking care of the mentally disabled in Missouri.
- Initiate ceilings on personal property taxes.0% behind. um, land barons....
- Repeal the state income tax provision of the Missouri Constitution.25% behind. cart before the horse. Aren't we in a budget short fall? I'm interested in consumption tax but I don't know how that would work on a statewide level when our major cities are all near state lines.
- All state and local government functions should, where possible, be funded by user fees.25% behind. I'm not sure how this would work in practice. Things are generally paid for by government because there isn't an appropriate consumer-product model to apply to the service.
- By Constitutional Amendment require 75% voter approval for all tax increases or new taxes.25% behind. Seems too obvious to manipulate if you can afford lobbyist.
- Enact 100% property tax credits for those who send their children to non-government schools.50% behind. Again equal protection for the poor is difficult to maintain when rich people can opt out.
- Pass enabling legislation to permit voters to repeal, and in the future prohibit sales taxes on food and prescription drugs for Counties, Municipalities and all other political entities in the state which have authority to levy sales taxes. This includes the State-wide 1% sales tax for public schools.75% behind. I have no problem with doing this with current tax system. But with the other tax proposals here doesn't seem viable.
PROPERTY RIGHTS AND EMINENT DOMAIN 73.75 as much as I don't like government bureaucracy there are somethings I am uncomfortable with replacing it with a for-profit honor system.
- End the practice of using eminent domain powers to seize property for the benefit of private developers.100% behind.
- Repeal the ability of local governments to turn over condemnation authority to independent parties.75% behind. I don't know who would be 'independent'. It seems the more obvious solution would be to give people a fighting chance against the government's existing authority.
- Eliminate the use of "blight" as a rationale for using eminent domain to seize private property.95% behind. Not familiar with cases described as "blight" but agree with the sentiment.
- Oppose the National Animal Identification System.25% behind. I understand the opposition but I think it's a good thing that we can track mad cow disease.
JUSTICE 85% behind. Mostly problems with where I could see potential for abuse.
- Eliminate mandatory sentencing.95% behind.
- Restore Second Amendment rights.90% behind. I support drivers license style certification for people who want to bypass waiting periods on some weapons.
- Repeal statutes regarding victimless crimes.100% behind.
- Enact legislation supportive of victims' rights and restitution.100% behind.
- Privatize prison and parole programs and demand accountability.100% behind.
- Add an explicit right to a Fully Informed Jury to the State Constitution.95% Sounds good but this is my first encounter with this phrase.
- Amend Missouri's Constitution to require a 'sunset clause' for every new law.100% behind. I didn't even know this was a libertarian idea.
- Require criminals to make restitution to their victims as a condition of parole or early release.85% behind. I like the idea but see some potential for abuse.
- Prohibit all jurisdictions from seizing property in connection with an alleged crime until such time as the accused is tried and convicted.100% behind.
- Require Prosecutors to produce actual victims in court as witnesses subject to cross examination when prosecuting so called victimless crimes.95% behind. I like the idea but it seems that someone with a slick lawyer could get off if they can make the prosecutor's choice of victim look bad.
JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 67% behind. A lot of my hesitation is how it will be handled not the core concept.
- Repeal all subsidies.75% behind. I rather subsidies a non-profit than create a government agency.
- Eliminate mandated benefits.25% behind. I could get behind this if the NEED was first eliminated.
- Eliminate taxes, do not abate them for certain groups.50% behind. There are things that I don't want individuals or businesses to own. And as long as we expect the government to do anything there will be some taxes.
- Eliminate the abuse of Tax Increment Financing (TIF).95% behind. Only reservations are that I haven't spent a lot of time researching the issue.
- Sell all State agencies that duplicate services provided by businesses or charitable organizations.75% behind. I'm skeptical of who would decide which niche's are being served by businesses.
- Give responsibility for licensing drivers and vehicles over to auto insurers, including standards for vehicle inspections.50% behind. Interesting idea but I'll have to think about it. It seems like a good idea but I have to figure out where the hidden incentives would be for insurance companies. I definitely don't like the inclusion of inspections unless environmental standards are put on them.
- Oppose the use of government mandates to dictate the smoking policies of privately-owned businesses.100% behind. Though begrudgingly since I hate smoking.
ELECTIONS 95% behind. I know how difficult they make it just to get on the ballot
- Support fair ballot access and free and open elections.100% behind.
- Support reduction of signatures required for ballot initiative.100% behind. I have some alternative ideas as well.
- Support proportional representation of popular vote for electors in presidential elections.100% behind.
- Support legislation requiring a "None of the above" option on all election ballots for public officials.75% behind. Only objection is for the sake of taking up too much room on the ballot.
- Support legislation requiring a "Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail" when using electronic voting equipment.100% behind.
- Repeal all Federal and State campaign finance laws which restrict Free Speech.90% behind. I'd probably be less in agreement before citizens united ruling but seeing as how that ruling made plutocracy easy-why not jump in with two feet.
- Support legislation requiring the use of an objective scientific metric when comparing alternatives for district boundaries to eliminate gerrymandering.100% behind
PRIVACY 91.66% behind. Reservations are that I don't want to implement something that would simple create the 'need' that initiated the original legislation in the first place.
- Define an explicit right to privacy in the Missouri Constitution.
100% behind. - Allow citizens to sue public officials individually and personally for violations of citizens' rights.
90% behind. Public also means biggest target. While we might be keeping politicians out of trouble by keeping them wrapped up in court I could see how a lobbyist for say the banking industry could keep a say Ron Paul in an endless series of lawsuits. - Oppose implementation of the "Real ID Act," which requires enhanced security for state drivers licenses – essentially establishing a national ID card.
85% behind. Reading the position that gave me an idea for an app that could accomplish the same thing this act would try to do without being anymore intrusive or without all the big brothery overtones
STATE SOVEREIGNTY 75% behind. just read below..
- Support efforts to assert state sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution for all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government under the Constitution.
75% behind. We might not have ever had an intercontinental rail system if there wasn't a national standard for the size of rails. Most of the time this could be accomplished by a non-enforced national GUIDELINE, but I am sure that there is an occasional need for interstate standard setting.
TOTAL 75.38% behind. The percentages were based entirely on my first gut number that came to mind (or gut I guess). On a different day I might have been a few percentage points up or down in any direction. Also note worthy is that I added up the categories and divided by nine for the total. I would probably have lower compatibility if STATE SOVEREIGNTY and PRIVACY didn't have as much weight as TAXES or JOBS.
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