Won't Get Fooled Again
Libertarian Michael Badnarik Dismisses Hastert Tax Plan
Austin, TX (PRWEB) August 5, 2004 -- "How do you know it's election time?" muses Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. "The Republicans are babbling about eliminating the IRS again. Give me a break."
Badnarik pauses to sip a soft drink. He's back at his Texas campaign headquarters, after celebrating his 50th birthday and doing radio interviews after a hard week on the stump in New England and the south. "It's like Groundhog Day, only every other year," he says of House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-IL) "plan" to eliminate the IRS. "The Republicans come up with nifty ideas for cutting taxes in August of even-numbered years. Then right after the first Tuesday in November, they see their shadows and scurry back into their budget conferences."
Badnarik has also proposed eliminating the IRS ... and anyone who listens to him say it believes he means it. "I'm not Dennis Hastert or Trent Lott or Bob Dole," he says. "And I'm not George W. Bush. Bush promised us tax cuts, too. And he delivered -- a whopping 1%, phased in over ten years. Some honeymoon. We shaved our legs for this?"
Badnarik's proposal has teeth. He wants to repeal the 16th Amendment. "If we don't get rid of the authority for the income tax, it won't go away. We'll end up with Hastert's national sales tax or value added tax or whatever ... and the income tax, too."
The key? "If you want to cut taxes, you have to cut spending," he says. "The Republicans have proven for the last four years that they aren't willing to do that. Running up debt to be paid off by inflating the currency or taxing our grandchildren isn't an answer."
Even excluding defense, federal spending -- along with the deficit -- is now at its highest level since WWII.
Badnarik takes his message back on the road tomorrow, hitting Florida and Alabama before spending a full week in New Mexico, where his campaign is already running television commercials critical of the Iraq War and the Bush administration's spending policies. "If Hastert comes out with an emergency bill to repeal his spending increases, drop me an email," he says, tossing his empty cup into a nearby trashcan and heading off for another interview. "Then maybe someone will take him seriously."
The Libertarian Party is America's third largest political party. More than 600 Libertarians serve in public office at the local, state and federal level.
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