Three Libertarians
W hen it comes to watching where your money goes and spending it wisely, you can’t get more bang for your buck than when taking the advice of a Libertarian. I’ll discuss that – but first – let’s open with a few Libertarian jokes, shall we? Joke: Why did the Libertarian cross the road? None of your business! Joke: What is in a Libertarian salad? Lettuce alone.
Joke: Did you hear about the Libertarian plot to take over the government?
…and leave everyone alone? Now to the question under consideration: So, what is a Libertarian?
I found this concise definition on the Internet, which seemed most accurate: “Libertarians believe that liberty is the most important political value, advocating for individual autonomy and the right to make personal choices without interference from others or the government.”
Here are three Libertarians in Internet articles that have come to my attention lately when the discussion of government overreach and wasteful spending comes up in conversation.
#1-John Stossel, on Red State. com, in an article by Brandon Morse, Dec. 2024.
In “John Stossel Exposes Just How Big of a ‘Crisis’ a Government Shutdown is Not,” it seems that Stossel is not impressed very much by talk of cutting back.
“As Stossel points out, the Washington Post attempted to generate panic over it with words like ‘Shutdown sows chaos, confusion, and anxiety’ and ‘Pain spreads widely!’ The New York Times also got into the game with a headline that included, ‘It’s all too much!’
“Yet, as Stossel points out, if you look around everyday America, nothing has changed. We go about our daily lives with zero interruption. Some of it even goes on ‘in spite of government,’ he says.”
“’We could take a chainsaw to so much of government,’ he says.
“He’s right. Even the food inspections from the FDA that the government warns would stop are actually done by the Department of Agriculture… and they’re still doing them even despite a shutdown. In truth, private business has more food safety measures than the government does thanks to competition anyway.”
#2-Then, there’s Rand Paul, the Libertarian Senator from Kentucky.
In “Rand Paul’s Festivus Report: What Your Government Piddle Your Money Away For,” on P.J. Media.com, Lincoln Brown on Dec. 26, 2024 presents us with these vinettes: “To that end, Rand Paul has issued The Festivus Report 2024, outlining in sickening detail how the aforementioned slopjaws managed to pizzle away $1,008,313,329,626.12 of your hard-earned and quickly appropriated tax dollars on projects that would gag a maggot.
“For example: “The National Endowment for the Arts forked over $10,000 to the Bearded Ladies Cabaret for an ice skating show focused on climate change.
“What’s the impetus for the show, you ask? The founding artistic director describes it: ‘It’s so impossible, the issue of climate change and climate anxiety right now – almost as impossible as drag queens learning how to ice skate. So if we can get these drag queens to ice skate, maybe, just maybe, we can solve the climate crisis.’” “Those are just the greatest hits. Other standouts include:
■ ■
$419,470 to figure out if lonely rats did more cocaine than happy ones
■ ■ $4.8 million in aid for social media influencers
■ ■ $365K for circuses in city parks
■ ■
$3 million to support “Girl-Centered Climate Action” in Brazil. (How dare you?)
■ ■ $873,584 to support the movie industry in Jordan
■ ■ $288,563 to create safe spaces for bird-watching groups
■ ■
$2.1 million for border security. No, not for the U.S., for Paraguay. Yes, you read that right, Paraguay. I think we spent $1.95 on border security here
■ ■
Since January 2022, $2.24 has gone out the door so scientists could figure out if cats could transmit and contract COVID-19” Now, for a ‘blast from the past.’ And who doesn’t like a good ‘throwback’ (as they say) right?
And the one I’m bringing up now is a good one … not like those economists in the Biden Administration these last four years who forecast with hopey-changey outlooks based on fairy dust and will-o-the-wisp intentionality.
Of those, you could justly tell this joke: Joke: “If an economist and an IRS agent were both drowning and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?”
Because they are both totally useless … witness our economic situation at present if in doubt about that.
#3-But, this one is Milton Friedman, the late Libertarian economist, who had a few choice words to say about government waste on a television show some years ago, when he was interviewed.
It is gratis The Western Journal. com, by writer, By C. Douglas Golden-December 29, 2024: “… the Libertarian Nobel laureate economist sat down with Peter Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University – a body which Friedman, at the time, was part of as well – for an interview for Robinson’s show ‘Uncommon Knowledge.’” Here are some of his takes on government agencies: “Department of Agriculture: Abolish,’ Friedman said.
Department of Commerce: ‘Abolish,’ Friedman said.
Department of Defense: ‘Keep.’ Department of Education: ‘Abolish.’
Department of Energy: ‘Abolish,’ although Friedman said he would ‘accept that energy ties in with the military.’
Department of Energy: ‘Abolish,’ although Friedman said he would ‘accept that energy ties in with the military.’
‘Well, then we shove it under defense,’ Robinson said.
Department of Health and Human Services: ‘There is use for some public health activities to prevent contagion[s]’ and the like, he said.
‘So you keep the National Institutes of Health, say, and the Center for Disease Control,’ Robinson said. No, Friedman wouldn’t: ‘Those are mostly a research agency. No, no, that’s a question about whether the government should be involved in financing research, and the answer is no.’
However, the answer isn’t easy due to contagions and other such matters, so Robinson said ‘We’ll eliminate half the Department of Health and Human Services.’ This, Friedman agreed to.
Department of Housing and Urban Development: ‘Out.’
‘Oh, didn’t even pause over that one,’ Robinson said, as Friedman smiled.
‘But Housing and Urban Development has done an enormous amount of harm,’ Friedman said, insisting to pause a little bit. ‘My God! If you think of the way in which they’ve destroyed parts of cities under the rubric of eliminating slums.’
Department of the Interior: ‘Well, given the problem there is that you first have to sell off all the land that the government owns – but that’s what you should do … The government now owns something like one third of all the land in the country, and that’s too much,’ Friedman said, adding it should go down to almost zero. However, they should own government buildings, so maybe a very, very, very downsized Department of the Interior would suit Friedman’s likings.
Department of Justice: ‘Oh yes, keep that one.’ (Friedman died roughly 15 years before he could to come to know the words ‘Attorney General Merrick Garland,’ it must be worth noting.)
Department of Labor: ‘No.’ Department of State: ‘Keep it.’ Department of Transportation: ‘Gone.’
Department of the Treasury: ‘You have to keep it to collect taxes.’ (Not that Friedman was much fond of that, but ‘thems the breaks’ of where we were at, financially, even back then.)
Department of Veterans Affairs: ‘You can regard Veterans Affairs as a way of paying, essentially, salaries for services of those who have been in the Armed Forces. But you ought to be able to get rid of it, you should be able to pay off [lump sums]’ and dump the department.”
So, okay for the Friedman pronouncements.
Ready for one last Libertarian joke?
I know … you were waiting for it. Well, here goes: “Late one night in Washington, DC a man stepped out of a deluxe restaurant and a mugger wearing a ski mask stuck a gun in his ribs.
“’Give me your money!’ the mugger snarled.
“Indignant, the affluent man replied, ‘You can’t do this. I’m a Libertarian and United States Congressman!’
“’In that case,’ the mugger snorted, ‘give me my money!’” A-a-a-a-n-n-d, there it is.
Robert L. Hall is a resident of Marion and has a Bachelor’s Degree in music from the University of Memphis and a Master’s Degree from Florida State University. He is the pianist for Avondale Baptist Church.
Robert L. Hall
The Wordaholic
