Libertarians criticize CPAC conservatives

WASHINGTON - As the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) holds its annual conference, Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict offered the following statement:

I'm sure we'll hear an awful lot about "limited government" from the mouths of CPAC politicians over the next few days. If I had a nickel every time a conservative said "limited government" and didn't mean it, I'd be a very rich man.

Unlike libertarians, most conservatives simply don't want small government. They want their own version of big government. Of course, they have done a pretty good job of fooling American voters for decades by repeating the phrases "limited government" and "small government" like a hypnotic chant.

It's interesting that conservatives only notice "big government" when it's something their political enemies want. When conservatives want it, apparently it doesn't count.

• If a conservative wants a trillion-dollar foreign war, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants a 700-billion-dollar bank bailout, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to spend billions fighting a needless and destructive War on Drugs, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to spend billions building border fences, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants to "protect" the huge, unjust, and terribly inefficient Social Security and Medicare programs, that doesn't count.
• If a conservative wants billions in farm subsidies, that doesn't count.

It's truly amazing how many things "don't count."

Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh can't ever be satisfied with enough military spending and foreign wars.

Conservatives like Mitt Romney want to force everyone to buy health insurance.

Conservatives like George W. Bush -- well, his list of supporting big-government programs is almost endless.

Ronald Reagan, often praised as an icon of conservatism, signed massive spending bills that made his the biggest-spending administration (as a percentage of GDP) since World War II.

Some people claim that these big-government supporters aren't "true conservatives." Well, if a person opposes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, opposes the War on Drugs, opposes border fences, and opposes mandatory Social Security and Medicare, it's hard to believe that anyone would describe that person as a conservative at all. Most people would say that person is a libertarian (or maybe even a liberal).

Obviously, most liberals don't want limited government either. It's just that their support for big government leans toward massive handout and redistribution programs.

The fact is, liberals and conservatives both want gigantic government. Their visions sometimes look different from each other, but both are huge. The only Americans who truly want small government are libertarians.

An article posted at CNS News, linked prominently from the Drudge Report, noted that the Obama administration is on track to beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration in terms of average federal spending as a percentage of GDP. However, the article failed to note that the Reagan Administration already beat the Franklin Roosevelt administration easily. Roosevelt's average was 19.4 percent of GDP, while Reagan's average was 22.3 percent of GDP. (Source: White House OMB data)

Wes Benedict will be observing the proceedings at the CPAC conference on Saturday, February 20. For more information, or to arrange an interview, call Benedict at 202-333-0008 ext. 222.

The LP is America's third-largest political party, founded in 1971. The Libertarian Party stands for free markets and civil liberties. You can find more information on the Libertarian Party at our website.

-From LP.org

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects

Senators diverted $2.6 billion in funds in a defense spending bill to pet projects. "In 30 years on Capitol Hill, I never saw Congress mangle the defense budget as badly as this year." [2]

Teleprompter-in-Chief

Teleprompter-in-Chief: During a recent speech Obama twice mispronounced the term "corpsman" that he was reading from his ever-present teleprompter as "corpse-man", obviously not even understanding what he was saying.

Missouri Libertarian has strong showing in special election

Libertarian Patty Tweedle received 22% of the vote in yesterday's special election for Missouri State Representative (District 62). Tweedle's only opponent was a Republican.

Ballot Access News editor Richard Winger points out that Tweedle had almost as much support as the 2008 Democratic Party candidate for that office. In 2008, the Democrat received 27% of the vote.

The Libertarian Party congratulates Patty Tweedle on her strong showing.

A lot of Americans identify as libertarians

An analysis published by the Cato Institute on January 21 offers a variety of statistics to support the notion that Americans are becoming more libertarian, and that they are becoming more comfortable with the word "libertarian" itself. I thought this study was very interesting, and I encourage you to take a look at it.

According to the study, a 2006 Zogby poll posed the following question to a sample of voters: "Would you describe yourself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, also known as libertarian?" Apparently 44% of the respondents said "yes"! That's very encouraging to me, because I had thought the word "libertarian" was scary or confusing to most people. I doubt that all of those 44% really have political views that I would describe as libertarian, but I think it's great that they feel comfortable with the libertarian label.

The authors of the study used a different poll to determine how many voters are actually libertarian. According to their criteria, about 15% of voters are libertarian. I think one of the most important jobs of the Libertarian Party is to make sure that libertarian voters are voting for Libertarian Party candidates. There is a lot of untapped potential out there.

Obviously, the Republicans and Democrats in Washington are not making voters happy. Fewer and fewer voters are identifying as Republicans or Democrats.

States Seeking to Ban Mandatory Health Insurance

States Seeking to Ban Mandatory Health Insurance. Conservative lawmakers in many states are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates. In many states, the proposals began as a backlash to Democrat's 'Obamacare' plans pending in Congress. But instead of backing away after the Massachusetts election gave Senate Republicans the filibuster power to halt the health care legislation, state lawmakers in about 25 states are ramping up their efforts with a new enthusiasm. [4]

Fact Checking Barack Hussein Obama: Mostly Lies. What Did You Expect, The Truth?

• Proposed 3 year spending freeze. TRUTH: He attacked John McCain for proposing one, & his so-called freeze would save only about 0.58% of the total, non-security related budget.
• Called for a bipartisan fiscal commission. TRUTH: Crashed in the Senate this week, defeated by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans.
• Called for open government, "to do our work openly.." TRUTH: Obama skipped past a broken promise from his campaign -- to have the negotiations for health care legislation broadcast on C-SPAN. Nor has Obama lived up to his pledge to ensure legislation is posted online.
• "We will continue to go through the budget line by line to eliminate programs that we can't afford..." TRUTH: Congress routinely rejects the White House's suggested spending cuts.
• "The United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades." TRUTH: While officials say they think a deal on a new treaty is within reach, there has been no breakthrough.
• Claimed more success than his predecessor at killing terrorists. TRUTH: It is an impossible claim to verify. Neither the Bush administration or the Obama administration has published enemy body counts. [6]