Spending & The Economy
Actually, historically speaking, government spending is what jump starts the economy in a recession.
Entitlement Programs
In practice, the idea sounds good. It also sounds like Hoover.
Energy Policy
The free market doesn't work out international deals for drilling or pipelines, nor did the free market develop the nuclear reactor. Bell labs developed the first viable Solar Cell, as a subsidiary government created monopoly, not a free market economy.
Privacy
I agree, so do the democrats.
Iraq War
I was against the war from day one, but now that we are there we can not just pick up in 4 months. We need to give them a time frame of 16-24 months, so the country we crippled can get ready properly.
Foreign Intervention & Foreign Bases
This is very naive. U.S. citizens live a nice lifestyle and pay less taxes by being the sole significant military power. I do think it needs to be scaled back, but isolationist defense is not the answer in the real world.
Education
Eliminate education grants? really? This is about the only good spending the FedGov does. Children don't pick their parents. Health care and Education should not be denied to any child or young adult and should be subsidized by the government on the basis of building a strong base of human capital for peace and war. It's relatively cheap in the big picture.
Public Schools are managed locally. This position never made sense to me, even when I was a libertarian.
Property Rights
Yup.
2nd Amendment
Pretty much, some regulation won't kill anybody but basically I agree.
Taxes
What's fair? Capital gains use proportionally more government resources than labor income, so should they be taxed a higher percentage? I think so. Inheritance is facilitated by a stable government, so it should face higher taxes than income as well.
Fair is debatable.
Immigration
Secure the border, legalize non-resident, non-citizen workers so they can pay taxes and pay for health care.
Racism
Yup.
Marriage
Agree, but the problem with state level control is interstate recognition of marriage. The issue needs to be settled either direct adressing same sex couples or removing marriage legislation from all levels of government outside of record keeping.
Monetary Policy
This actually makes me slightly happier. Market based is a new approach by Libs under Barr, they all used to cry for the gold standard. What they needed to realize that in reality, gold is just as valueless as any other thing humans give value. It's all in our heads.
The feds powers need to be redefined, but that is the nature of real world democracy. It a balance of freedom and security that goes back and forth like a pendulum.
No mention of health care?
Health care is not currently free market, it has been lobbied for so much that new competition is kept out and prices artificially high. They need to repeal and fix much of the previous legislation if they want to fix that. but this is very mature and pragmatic talk, not the big L's strong suit.
I would cite regulation, but I know you will simply ignore it.
