ISSUES
A Foreign Policy of Peace, Due Process, and Non-Interventionism
The war in Iran is an immoral war of aggression and a strategic disaster for the United States. Tragically, American troops have now died in this needless, senseless, illegal war.The bombing of alleged drug boats in the Caribbean is a disturbing and cruel betrayal of our sacred American values of due process and the presumption of innocence. These extrajudicial killings shock the conscience and are morally reprehensible.The invasion of Venezuela and kidnapping of head of state Nicholas Maduro was an unjustified and immoral attack on a sovereign nation that did not attack us.We need a foreign policy of peace and non-interventionism. The United States’ current interventionist foreign policy is causing unnecessary harm and suffering here at home in the United States and around the world. We need to stop policing the world, interfering in other nation's affairs, and engaging in endless wars.Our current interventionist foreign policy is not in our national security interest, it makes us less safe, it unnecessarily places our brave young men and women in harm's way, and it results in catastrophic loss of life for everyone involved. In addition, we can't afford these expansive military operations, as we are now nearly 40 trillion dollars in debt.Spending on the military industrial complex is now completely out of control. It is outrageous to spend over 1 trillion dollars on national defense.We also must end all foreign aid, across the board. It shocks the conscience to take money from the American people through direct taxation or inflation, and then to give that money, which rightfully belongs to the American people, to foreign governments and citizens of other countries.
Uniparty's Endless Money Printing and Forced Collectivism Are Causes of Affordability Crisis, Free Markets Are the Solution
The number one problem with affordability in the United States is rampant inflation. Inflation is caused primarily by the uniparty government printing up trillions and trillions of dollars out of thin air. This dilutes the money supply and causes the dollar to rapidly lose its spending power. This uniparty inflation is an insidious regressive taxation that crushes the poor and the middle class, it hurts them the most. The uniparty government will never stop printing up money, and that is the main cause of inflation. Politicians cannot be trusted to stop spending. As long as they control the printing presses, they will never stop printing money. The only solution is to take this power to manage currency away from the state and return it to the people. We must transition away from our current fiat currency system and embrace a free market, voluntary monetary system. Separating currency and state is the only way to end inflation.The next part of affordability is the state's constant destruction, interference, and stifling of the free market. This government's extensive involvement in healthcare and education industries in particular are especially destructive, as the costs of both healthcare and education have now spiraled completely out of control in accordance with the increasing level of tyrannical government control over these industries. The more the government is involved in any industry, the more prices go up and spiral out of control. We must embrace the free market competition in all areas of our economy. The free market always drives prices down as far as possible, often times far exceeding expectations, and gets the most goods and services to the most people in the most efficient manner possible.
Separation of Healthcare and State, Especially for patients with Pre-Existing Conditions and the Indigent
This federal government has continued to strengthen its iron grip on the healthcare industry, stifling patient freedom of choice, eliminating free market competition, and taking us down a dark path toward full authoritarian government control of our healthcare system.With government controlled healthcare, everyone will be at the mercy of a massive government bureaucracy to provide for themselves and their family. When this monolithic, government controlled system proves unsatisfactory and unacceptable, fundamentally, there will be no recourse, and no escape from it.We need separation of healthcare and state, a liberated healthcare system free from government coercion and control, a free-market system which will drive down prices, inspire innovation, and increase quality through competition. We need a healthcare system where patients and healthcare providers interact with each other voluntarily, and where patients are free to pursue the medications and treatments they want without any interference from government.Only the patient has the right to decide what medication they take or what treatment they pursue, because it is their body, and it is their choice. The FDA must be immediately transitioned to an advisory agency, and then responsibly phased out. The FDA has absolutely no right to forcibly prevent any patient from taking a medication or pursuing a medical treatment.Regarding pre-existing conditions, a free market system is the only ethical answer to this problem, and it is also the most practical. Free market competition and innovation will provide a myriad of options and solutions for those with pre-existing conditions who don't have health insurance. Only through free market innovation and competition can we solve this problem. The free market always rises to meet customer demand, often in unpredictable ways, and it always drives prices down, often in unforeseeable ways. Patients with pre-existing conditions have the right to a free market healthcare system and the incredible benefits that system will produce. The government has taken this right away from them.
End the Tyrannical Drug War
We need to end the war on drugs, because people voluntarily taking a substance into their body is their right, and should be their choice. Voluntary drug use in and of itself is a victimless crime. All currently controlled substances should be legalized and treated the same under the law as alcohol. Most drug overdose deaths are from street drugs where the user didn't know exactly what they were ingesting. Freedom would allow for drug users to know exactly how much of a drug they were taking, and would ensure the substances were not contaminated.
Address Climate Change Crisis by Removing Government Barriers to Nuclear Power which is the Feasible, Available Solution with Virtually Zero Carbon Emissions
The federal government has failed to protect our environment. Because the federal government is so big, bloated, and involved in so many areas it should not be involved in, the federal government has neglected one of its only legitimate responsibilities: protecting our environment.It is important to note that the federal government is by far the biggest polluter in the United States, no other entity comes close.This EPA failed the American people when in 2010 it allowed BP to dump millions of gallons of the hazardous chemical "Corexit" into the gulf of Mexico as an impulsive response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This Corexit dumping, approved by the EPA, only exacerbated the problem and added to the long-term ecological damage and human suffering caused by this disaster.We need a revamped EPA that is one main sector of a limited government, where government can focus dramatically increased effort and attention on protecting our environment.In addition, this government has failed to effectively fight global climate change by severely blunting the development of nuclear power. Nuclear power, in terms of carbon emissions, is by far the cleanest mass produced source of energy we have today. Nuclear power plants produce virtually zero carbon emissions. Nuclear power, here and now, is exactly what we need to fight global climate change. The government needs to stop restricting the development and production of nuclear power immediately.While I'm optimistic about green energy sources being primary generators of electric power in the future, we have clean nuclear technology right now with the potential to power the entire country. Experts and scientists are telling us we are in an urgent situation with global climate change. We need to heed their admonitions. The government needs to immediately cease forcibly preventing nuclear power development and production.
Freedom of Conscience and Voluntary Taxation
We need to implement a system of voluntary taxation. Nobody should be forced to provide the fruits of their labor to further policy and government actions they don't agree with. Having your money taken from you and then having that money spent on things you believe to be morally reprehensible is a violation of your freedom of conscience. Further, no person should be forced to be responsible for another, no person should be forced to labor for the benefit of another, or to have the fruits of their labor forcibly taken from them for the benefit of another. A free society requires that the government's broken, fragile, and unsustainable safety net rooted in coercion and theft be phased out and replaced with sustainable, voluntary charity.
Eliminate All Bailouts, Handouts, Giveaways, and Subsidies
Taxpayers should never have their money, which has been taken from them through force and against their will, used to bailout failing corporations, banks, other business entities, or individuals, for any reason. There is no such thing as "too big to fail". In a free market, failing entities must be allowed to fail with no exceptions. Further, government should not play favorites by awarding subsidies to certain companies while not awarding subsidies to others. Subsidies are not only rooted in coercive taxation, but also unjustly provide one entity a competitive advantage over another in the marketplace.
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
We need to vigilantly protect our right to keep an bear arms; the American people should never be helpless, defenseless victims.The right to bear arms is a human right. The 2nd Amendment is important in that it recognizes this human right, but our right to keep and bear arms does not come from government.We must resist the expansion of "red flag" laws, which are a dangerous slippery slope toward government obtaining the power to disarm American Citizens at will and without any semblance of due process.
Criminal Justice Reform
We need real, substantive policy change in our law enforcement and criminal system. In addition to criminal prosecution, it is also essential that police officers who violate the rights of others be held personally liable in civil court. I stand for ending qualified immunity, which will allow for civil action against individual police officers who have harmed others and violated their individual rights. While this is only one of many issues that needs to be addressed, ending qualified immunity would be a small but important step in the right direction toward fighting injustice and addressing racial disparities in our justice system.
Unions are Essential
Unions have the right to organize, collectively bargain, and strike. Unions are often fundamental to workers being able to negotiate for a wage that reflects the value of their labor. Unions are a critical and essential part of the free market and must always be allowed to form and flourish freely without any interference from government.
Remove Government from Education Entirely
We need to transition to a privatized education system and allow our students to be lifted up by competing teachers and schools. School leadership needs to be able to easily replace personnel who are failing students. Just as leadership in the private sector can easily replace an employee who is failing their customers and co-workers, our schools should be no different. On the other hand, education providers who are exceeding expectations and helping students succeed should be, and certainly would be promoted and rewarded in a free market. Likewise, students and families should have freedom of choice in selecting their school which includes the right to eschew schools that are not meeting student needs. Free market incentives, innovations, and competition, particularly in our new digital age, would transform our education system and make the United States the global leader in education.Government schools are failing children in our community in a wide variety of metrics. This is unacceptable and cannot continue.The management and funding of a child's education is the responsibility of the parents of that child and no one else. In a free society it is not permissible to use force against one person to make them pay for the education of another.
Allow people the choice to opt out of Social Security
Social Security is an oppressive government program rooted in coercion, theft, and authoritarian control. Social Security is an infringement upon individual liberty and it must be dismantled and shuttered. Social security is broken, fundamentally unreliable, fragile, and forces individuals to be dependent upon the state. We need to allow people the choice to opt out of Social Security. We need to transition toward privatization of retirement.
Voluntary Charity
The government safety net is fragile, unreliable, inefficient, inadequate, and rooted in coercion. We must replace this broken system with peaceful, sustainable, virtuous, voluntary charity. In a free society, charity must be rooted in free will.
Abortion
I believe that innovations in medical technology unleashed by the free market can make abortion obsolete in our society. The abortion issue is part of the reason why “separation of healthcare and state” is the one of the most important issues in our campaign. If we get the government completely out of healthcare, I believe the healthcare industry will be able to quickly develop the technology to enable pregnancies to be viable from conception, without any need for the mother’s continued involvement in the pregnancy. We are very close to having the technology to take a fetus at any point after conception and transfer that fetus to another woman's womb, or to an artificial womb. After this advance in technology comes to fruition, which will be dramatically expedited in a free market, fetuses will be viable from conception, and will be able to be placed for adoption at any time after conception.This technology will help to fill the overwhelming need from loving, qualified families eager to adopt. There are already far more families wanting to adopt in the United States than there are children available for adoption.In addition, a birth mother in a free society will have the right to be freely compensated for giving the parental rights to her child over to a loving family that has demonstrated they are capable of raising that child, a family the mother wants and has approved of herself. Why should it be that adoption agencies, government agencies, healthcare providers, lawyers and so on, are all allowed to be compensated for effectuating an adoption, but the birth mother isn’t? Everyone involved in effectuating an adoption and providing the adoptive family with the incredible gift of a child, especially including the birth mother, should be allowed to be compensated, and would be allowed to be freely compensated in a free society.The free market, a free society is the best hope for reducing abortions and making abortion obsolete in our society.
Immigration
The ideal in a free society without compulsory taxation or government welfare programs is that immigrants would be able to move across borders as freely as possible. Immigrants seeking a better life, immigrants eager for freedom, should be, and would be welcome in the United States. This is the ideal and the system I ultimately advocate for.
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Libertarians want to build a bridge to a better future, a liberated society, where individuals are free to pursue their interests without interference from the state. Peaceful people have the right to be left alone, and should be allowed to pursue their goals and dreams without interference from government.Libertarians stand for maximizing individual liberty, embracing self-ownership, and eliminating government's use of force against peaceful people. Government's only legitimate function is to protect individual liberty and individual rights. I advocate for a minarchist or "night-watchman" state, which includes only civil and criminal law courts, police, defensive military, and environmental protections. Any other use of force by government against an individual is a violation of that individual's right of self-ownership.My name is Tom Schmitz, I'm the Libertarian candidate for Congress in Missouri's 1st Congressional District. If I'm elected to congress, I will do everything I can to achieve these ideals and to move us toward a free society. I humbly ask for your vote, thank you.