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Before I dig in, allow me a personal note: If you put me in a philosophy class, I am a pretty radical libertarian, but if you ask me how I want the government of these United States of America to conduct its business in the real-world here-and-now, Im an Eisenhower Republican. I dont love the debt-ceiling gamesmanshipI didnt love it when Democrats, including Joe Biden, were doing it, and I resent that Im apparently expected to forget that ever happenedand, in general, I prefer orderliness in administration and predictability in policy. I would prefer a politics of consensus to our current politics of apocalyptic imbecility.

All that being stipulated, the direness of the debt ceiling is in some ways exaggerated and in many ways misunderstood. Three ways of looking at it.

First, the math: Almost all of our media conversation about the debt ceiling is presented as though it were a foregone conclusionand an economic necessitythat the federal government would default on its debt if the debt ceiling is not raised. There isnt any reason for that to happen: We have something like $11 in tax revenue coming in for every $1 in debt service going out of the Treasury doors. Congress declining to raise the debt ceiling would not change that. The federal government does not have to borrow money to have enough to keep current on its obligations to bondholdersin fact, when you are obliged to borrow money to make good on current debt obligations, thats when you really are in a debt crisis, and we are not there. (Yet.) It is the case that the federal government would not have enough money to pay for all authorized spending (that is why we borrow in the first place) but there is no financial reason that should mean defaulting on the debt rather than suspending or deferring some other spending.

Owing at least in some part to what looks suspiciously like an intentional campaign of obfuscation to me, much of the media has taken to use the word default in such a way as to blur the distinction between a debt defaultwhich would be economically catastrophicand deferring or forgoing other congressionally authorized spending. The latter would not be a great outcome, for all sorts of reasons, but it is not the same thing as a debt default and nowhere near occupying the same height of seriousness.

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Three Ways of Looking at the Debt Ceiling - The Dispatch

Donald Rainwater has decided to seek the Libertarian nomination for Indiana Governor in 2024.

Rainwaters campaign for Governor in 2020 drew nearly 12% of the vote, which was the highest ever in Indiana by a Libertarian statewide candidate in a three-way race. He says its time to build on that.

I believe that the three already declared candidates (Mike Braun, Suzanne Crouch, and Eric Doden) represent Eric Holcomb 2.0. Indiana doesnt need another Eric Holcomb, said Rainwater in an interview Friday morning with 93 WIBCs Kendall and Casey.

Rainwater will focus on education reform, tax reform, and administrative reform.

Our government education system is inexorably failing. Weve ignored the fundamentals of education to focus on our social indoctrination. We need better government, not bigger government. If you look at the budget that was just passed, its bigger government, said Rainwater.

Rainwater maintains that taxes are too high and the fact that Indiana politicians are getting raises while so many other people are out of work is an injustice that has to be fixed. Rainwater thinks hes the man to fix it.

Weve decided that now is the time to get to work. Renters and homeowners are adversely affected by these current ballooning property tax assessments and it needs to stop. These politicians that are running our legislature are living in a completely different Indiana than we are, said Rainwater.

Instead of hard-working small business owners getting relief, Rainwater believes the government is giving the majority of the tax breaks in Indiana to the lawmakers and their donors.

Rainwater has spent the last 20 years as a software engineer. He and his wife have a blended family that includes six children and three grandchildren.

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Donald Rainwater to seek Libertarian nomination for Indiana Governor - 953mnc.com

Ubet, WIThe bipartisan dysfunction over the Federal national debt ceiling and the increasing deficits directly threatens every family in the country, said the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin (LPWI) Press Office, in a statement released this week. Democrats and Republicansbothhold absolute responsibility for their bullet-train deficit policies rapidly running out of track. They must own up for the mismanagement of their public trust.

Right now, with no plan in sight to actually change the business as usual, the national debt will more than equal 100 percent of the American GDP. Every man, woman, and child in the country now owns almost $100,000 each of that debt. That share will only go up. Did voters and taxpayers actually consent to that by their own free choice? Did they have any other choice at all?

Libertarians believe that the governments use of courts, sheriff auctions, and the threat of imprisonment to ensure tax collectionall violate a political doctrine of free-will choice and responsible consent, a doctrine promoted by the LPWI. And as such, forced taxation leads to fiscal irresponsibility, larger deficits, and unsustainable debt.

In contrast, many libertarian economists propose a competitive choice of goods and services for rents or fees, or a system of consumption-based taxation where people have choices. Voters who join or adopt a Libertarian Party program of restraint in government revenues and expenditures rid a free people of the problem of their government mismanaging its business, and it stops the moral crime of using violence against citizens in order to collect tax revenues, the LPWI statement concluded.

To find out more on the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin and its platform, please visitwww.lpwi.org.

Originally posted here:
Libertarian Party of Wisconsin: Government fiscal mess: Bipartisan ... - WisPolitics.com

CASTLETON House Rep. Jarrod Sammis appears to have left the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party.

His biographical page on the Legislature's website, bit.ly/0428Sammis, now lists his party affiliation as Libertarian.

In an email on Thursday, Sammis referred questions about the matter to his "press secretary," Patrick Ford.

As of press time, Ford, whos listed on the Libertarian National Committee as the regional representative for Region 8, had not responded to an email from the Herald.

Region 8 appears to include New England and New York.

Sammis ran as a Republican when he was elected in November, beating Mary Droege, who ran as a Democrat, 835-793.

House Minority Leader Pattie McCoy, R-Poultney, said in a voicemail Thursday that Sammis had not let the Republican Party know that hed be doing this ahead of time.

Its not clear when exactly Sammis changed party affiliations.

The reasons he offered were, he felt he wasnt being effective or being heard by his committee, said McCoy. I wish him well in whatever future endeavors he has as the sole member of a House Libertarian caucus. Theres not much more I can say about Jarrod.

According to his legislative page, Sammis graduated from Fair Haven Union High School and later Castleton State College with a degree in communications, public relations, and political science.

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Castleton House rep changes parties | Local News | rutlandherald.com - Rutland Herald

Today's guest is Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio-based biotech entrepreneur and best-selling author who is running for the Republican presidential nomination. His America First 2.0 platform combines some libertarian elements (prioritizing economic growth, opposing central bank digital currencies, shutting down whole federal agencies) with others that are anything but ("using our military to annihilate Mexican drug cartels").

He tells Zach Weissmueller and me why Donald Trump has accomplished as much as he ever will as president and why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantiswho, like Ramaswamy, opposes woke corporate activitiesis simply "responding to what the base wants, jumping like a circus monkey without actually having independent thoughts about what our actual principles ought to be." He discusses why he thinks Julian Assange should be pardoned and why the FBI, IRS, and other federal agencies should be shuttered. And he explains why he no longer calls himself a libertarian.

We also discuss his new book, Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For, a critical analysis of ESG rules and what he calls "lurking state actions" that he says are driving corporations to develop policies to ward off government interference.

This is a podcast version of Reason's weekly livestream, which takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Continued here:
Podcast: Vivek Ramaswamy On Why He's Running for President - Reason