Again, in the spirit of Thomas Knapp's suggestion that even Libertarians who are skeptical/hostile to the Barr/Root ticket should engage positively in a way that strengthens the overall party:
Here's a first gauge of our candidates' ability to keep themselves relevant and in the public eye:
Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act comes up for debate next week. It is a comprehensive carbon cap-and-trade proposition which will--in its effect on refineries--cause gasoline prices to spike by an estimated 48-cents-per-gallon almost immediately, followed by an additional 13-cent-rise over the following year.
It is a knee-jerk, poorly considered piece of global warming legislation that--if it passes (Dubya has promised a veto)--will wreck more immediate havoc on the American economy that ethanol subsidies have. Moreover, it combines the worst sort of shoot-from-the-hip social engineering with a regressive tax that will be felt primarily by the working poor.
John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton are all on the record supporting cap-and-trade.
The Demopublicans intend to solve the world's environmental problems by taxing poor and middle-class Americans.
Here's how you keep Barr/Root in the news and begin to gather voters to the Libertarian standard.
Plain and simple: next week we get the first indication of whether Barr is serious about challenging the status quo and keeping his candidacy alive in the mainstream media, or whether he just plans to sit on his ass.
I really hope he'll come out firing.
Here's a first gauge of our candidates' ability to keep themselves relevant and in the public eye:
Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act comes up for debate next week. It is a comprehensive carbon cap-and-trade proposition which will--in its effect on refineries--cause gasoline prices to spike by an estimated 48-cents-per-gallon almost immediately, followed by an additional 13-cent-rise over the following year.
It is a knee-jerk, poorly considered piece of global warming legislation that--if it passes (Dubya has promised a veto)--will wreck more immediate havoc on the American economy that ethanol subsidies have. Moreover, it combines the worst sort of shoot-from-the-hip social engineering with a regressive tax that will be felt primarily by the working poor.
John McCain, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton are all on the record supporting cap-and-trade.
The Demopublicans intend to solve the world's environmental problems by taxing poor and middle-class Americans.
Here's how you keep Barr/Root in the news and begin to gather voters to the Libertarian standard.
The Democrats and the Republicans think that $4/gallon gas is too cheap.
Not satisfied with forcing food prices up by using billions of dollars of your tax money to subsidize ethanol, they want to add more than 60 cents to the price of every gallon you have to pump.
That's what the Lieberman-Warner America's Climate Security Act would do.
The Senate starts debating it this week.
All three Democrat or Republican presidential candidates support the idea of using the so-called cap-and-trade policy to force higher gasoline taxes.Shouldn't there be at least one presidential candidate with the common sense to say NO to higher gasoline taxes for poor and middle-class American families?
Shouldn't there be at least one presidential candidate capable of admitting to America that the hundreds of billions spent on ethanol subsidies have been a disaster at the grocery store and the gas pump?
Shouldn't there be at least one presidential candidate willing to go beyond phony gas tax holidays and tell the American people the truth: it's our own government's ridiculous taxes, regulations, and policies that are primarily responsible for our current energy crisis?
Fortunately, there is one.
His name is Bob Barr, and he's a Libertarian.
Plain and simple: next week we get the first indication of whether Barr is serious about challenging the status quo and keeping his candidacy alive in the mainstream media, or whether he just plans to sit on his ass.
I really hope he'll come out firing.
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