From: jeff@frodo.b30.ingr.com (Jeffrey A. Johnson)
Subject: Re:  BUSH IS A NEO_NAZI!
Keywords: libertarian
Organization: Intergraph Corporation, Huntsville, AL.
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 18:21:47 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.224504.2208@infonode.ingr.com>,
   dianne@dianne.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (Dianne Ferrans ) writes:
 
> Seriously, folks, tho, I have questions
 
[ some questions deleted ]
 
> 6.  Does ANYONE have a plan to tackle the deficit?
> 

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                        1992 National Platform
                                of the
                          Libertarian Party
 
                        Adopted in Convention
                             August 1991
                          Chicago, Illinois

		........
 
    1. THE ECONOMY
 
    Government intervention in  the economy  imperils  both  the  personal
    freedom and the  material prosperity of  every American.  We therefore
    support the following specific immediate reforms:
 
	a.  drastic reduction of both taxes and government spending;
	b.  an end to deficit budgets;
	c.  a halt to inflationary monetary policies;
	d.  the removal of all governmental impediments to free trade; and
	e.  the repeal  of all controls  on  wages,  prices,  rents,  profits,
	    production, and interest rates.

		........
 
    5. GOVERNMENT DEBT
 
    We support the  drive for a  constitutional  amendment  requiring  the
    national government to  balance its budget,  and also support  similar
    amendments to require  balanced state budgets.   To  be  effective,  a
    balanced budget amendment should provide:
 
	a.  that neither  Congress nor the  President be permitted to
	    override this requirement;
	b.  that all off-budget items are included in the budget;
	c.  that the  budget is balanced  exclusively by cutting
	    expenditures, and not by raising taxes; and
	d.  that no exception be made for periods of national emergency.
 
    The Federal Reserve  should be forbidden  to  acquire  any  additional
    government securities, thereby  helping to eliminate  the inflationary
    aspect of the deficit.  Governments facing fiscal crises should always
    default in preference  to raising taxes.   At a minimum, the  level of
    government should be frozen.
 
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                      LIBERTARIAN PARTY PROGRAM
 
            Adopted by the Libertarian National Committee
                            28 August 1991

		..........
 
                     FEDERAL SPENDING MUST BE CUT
 
         Federal spending and  federal taxation are  connected.   We  must
    reduce spending to reduce taxes.
 
         Unfortunately, the United  States  government  has  expanded  its
    operations and spending  far beyond the  original constitutional plan.
    No matter what the subject, there is some group which wants government
    to regulate or  subsidize it, and  there are always those  in Congress
    eager to take  over more power  and control.  But it  is impossible to
    get something for  nothing.  The government  produces no goods, so  it
    can hand out  favors to some  people only by taking  the earnings  and
    property of others first.
 
         In  recent  years  the  government  has  attempted  to  hide  its
    expensive meddling by  forcing private organizations and businesses to
    adopt certain expensive  programs, rather  than  have  the  government
    implement them directly.   These programs are  no less costly nor less
    intrusive than if they were adopted directly by the government.
 
         Libertarians join with  the vast majority of Americans in calling
    for a  smaller,  less  expensive,  less  meddlesome  government.   The
    following are some  first steps in  the process  of  bringing  federal
    government spending under control:
 
    1.  Place the  federal budget under  a "cap" at current  levels.   Any
    increase in spending on any project must be accompanied by an equal or
    greater reduction in other spending.
 
    2.  Phase out spending on aid to foreign governments and international
    organizations such as  the World Bank  and the International  Monetary
    Fund.
 
    3.  Phase out  federal subsidies to all businesses such as the tobacco
    industry,    the    maritime    industry,    agriculture,    or    the
    military-industrial complex.
 
    4.  End federal  subsidy programs  to  state  and  local  governments.
    These programs merely  take taxes out  of the community and  then send
    the  money  back,   minus  the  amounts  consumed  by  the  government
    bureaucrats who administer them.
 
    5.   End  all  federally  mandated  programs  forced  on  individuals,
    organizations, and businesses.
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> 7.  Why doesn't anyone admit that when they say "Family Values" they
>     mean "MY values and not YOUR values".

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    20. FAMILY LIFE
 
    We support protection  of the integrity  of families and households as
    contractual   institutions   against    government    intrusion    and
    interference.  Such governmental interference has undermined the value
    of families and  households as cultural institutions of love, nurture,
    companionship, kinship, and  personal development by  forcing them  to
    conform to a  rigid, inflexible  design.   Moreover,  we  condemn  the
    usurpation by  government  through  morals  laws,  government  welfare
    programs, and government  schools, of activities  long carried  on  by
    families and households.   We further accuse  government of  designing
    educational programs that  place civic and  moral education under  the
    control of politicians  and of designing  welfare  laws  that  destroy
    families and households.

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> D.D. "1st amendment" Ferrans 

	^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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    9. FREEDOM OF COMMUNICATION
     
    We defend the  rights of individuals to unrestricted freedom of speech
    and freedom of  the press and  guarantee the right of  individuals  to
    dissent from government  itself.  We recognize  that full  freedom  of
    expression is possible  only as part  of a  system  of  full  property
    rights.  The freedom  to use one's  own voice; the freedom  to hire  a
    hall; the freedom  to own a printing press, a broadcasting station, or
    a transmission cable;  the freedom to wave or burn one's own flag; and
    similar property-based freedoms  are precisely what constitute freedom
    of communication.  At  the same time,  we recognize  that  freedom  of
    communication does not extend to the use of other people's property to
    promote one's ideas without the voluntary consent of the owners.
     
    We oppose any  abridgment of the  freedom of speech through government
    censorship, regulation or  control of communications media, including,
    but not limited to, laws concerning:
     
    -- Obscenity, including  "pornography", as  we  hold  this  to  be  an
    abridgment of liberty  of expression despite claims that it instigates
    rape or assault, or demeans and slanders women;
     
    -- Reception  and  storage  equipment,  such  as  digital  audio  tape
    recorders and radar  warning devices, and  the  manufacture  of  video
    terminals by telephone companies;
     
    -- Electronic bulletin  boards,  communications  networks,  and  other
    interactive electronic media  as we hold  them to  be  the  functional
    equivalent of speaking  halls and  printing  presses  in  the  age  of
    electronic communications, and as such deserving of full freedom;
     
    -- Electronic newspapers,  electronic "Yellow Pages",  and  other  new
    information media, as these deserve full freedom.
     
    -- Commercial speech or advertising.
     
    We oppose speech  codes at all  schools that are primarily tax funded.
    Language that is deemed offensive to certain groups is not a cause for
    legal action.
     
    We favor the  abolition of the Federal Communications Commission as we
    would provide  for  free  market  ownership  of  airwave  frequencies,
    deserving of full First Amendment protection.
     
    We oppose government  ownership or subsidy  of, or  funding  for,  any
    communications organization.
     
    We strongly oppose  the government's burgeoning  practice of  invading
    newsrooms, or the  premises of other  innocent third parties,  in  the
    name of law  enforcement. We further  oppose court orders gagging news
    coverage of criminal proceedings -- the right to publish and broadcast
    must not be  abridged merely  for  the  convenience  of  the  judicial
    system.  We deplore  any efforts to  impose  thought  control  on  the
    media, either  by  the  use  of  anti-trust  laws,  or  by  any  other
    government action in the name of stopping "bias."
     
    Removal of all  of these  regulations  and  practices  throughout  the
    communications media would  open the way  to diversity and innovation.
    We shall not  be satisfied until  the First Amendment is  expanded  to
    protect full, unconditional freedom of communication.
     
    10. FREEDOM OF RELIGION
     
    We defend the rights of individuals to engage in (or abstain from) any
    religious activities that  do not violate  the rights of  others.   In
    order to defend freedom, we advocate a strict separation of church and
    State.  We oppose  government actions that  either aid or  attack  any
    religion.  We oppose  taxation of church  property for the same reason
    that we oppose all taxation.
     
    We condemn the  attempts by parents  or any others -- via kidnappings,
    conservatorships,  or  instruction   under  confinement  --  to  force
    children to conform  to their parents' or any others' religious views.
    Government  harassment  or  obstruction  of  unconventional  religious
    groups for their beliefs or non-violent activities must end.
 
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    You can order copies of the 24-page "Platform", and the 9-page
"Program" from:

	Libertarian Party National Headquarters
	1528 Pennsylvania Ave SE
	Washington, DC 20003

	Tel: 202-543-1988
	FAX: 202-546-6094
	CompuSuerve: 76177,2310
	MCI Mail: 345-5647
        Tel: 800-682-1776 ( for general introductory information only )

    For those on the Internet, copies are also available via anonymous ftp
from machine think.com, directory /pub/libernet/LP, file name
libertarian-platform-1992.

    I could also be persuaded to post either of these documents here, or
send them via private e-mail.  I could even go so far as to mail paper
copies via U.S. postal mail if someone can't get the information any
other way.

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Jeffrey Adam Johnson              Internet:  jeff@frodo.b30.ingr.com
("I speak only for myself.")          UUCP:  uunet!ingr!b30!frodo!jeff
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[A good government is one] "which shall restrain men from injuring
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the
mouth of labor the bread that it has earned."
 - Thomas Jefferson, inaugural address

"The sole object and only legitimate end of government is to protect
the citizen in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and property, and when
the government assumes other functions, it is usurpation and oppression."
 - Alabama Constitution
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