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115 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
115 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
The Moral Case _For_ Taking Federal Matching Funds
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by Michael Emerling
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As a "matter of principle", Libertarian Presidential candidates have
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refused to seek federal matching campaign funds. Taxation is theft and
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accepting tax funds makes us party to the crime. By taking the loot, by
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welcoming stolen goods, the Libertarian Party betrays the
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non-aggression principle. We surrender our morality, integrity and
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principles.
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So we've been told.
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This position is not merely wrong. It is the exact opposite of the
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truth.
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As Frank Chodorov observed, "Taxation is robbery." Government is funded
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by legalized looting. Government has no right to the proceeds of
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plunder. Nor does it have the right to "assign" or "transfer" the booty
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to others.
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Who has the right to this loot? The rightful owners. The victims of the
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tax crime: those who earned and owned it. The tax payers.
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Let's look at Libertarian taxpayers. How many Libertarians are there in
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America today? No one knows. Libertarians don't like being counted or
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registered by the State.
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Individuals who believe that they have a right to their life, liberty,
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and property; Individuals who know that their life is their own and
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intend to run it by their own judgement; Individuals who value
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voluntary relations and oppose force and fraud; these individuals mind
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their own business and live their lives as they see fit. Their privacy
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is their protection, so they jealously guard it. They live by the code
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of liberty. They are libertarians, whether they know it or not. But
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their way of life makes them invisible, uncounted and forgotten.
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A few Libertarians organized to reclaim their rights to life, liberty
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and property. They did so as a matter of self-defense. They called
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their organization the Libertarian Party.
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Today there are 9000 dues paying National Libertarian Party members in
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America. And perhaps another 6000 local Libertarian Party members.
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There are over 50,000 voters registered as Libertarians, even though
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many states do not allow us to register Libertarian.
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For the sake of discussion, assume that there are only 10,000
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Libertarians in America. Assume that the average Libertarian earns
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$30,000 a year. (Probably a low figure, with all the professionals and
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computer programmers in the Libertarian Party.) A person earning
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$30,000 a year is paying a minimum of $3,000 a year in federal income
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taxes. Using these deliberately low figures, we can see that
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Libertarians are paying a minimum of $30,000,000 each year in income
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taxes. That's $2,500,000 each month.
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Libertarians have a right to recover this money. Or authorize another
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to recover it.
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In light of this, let's reframe the matching funds issue:
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1. "Do taxpaying libertarians have the right to authorize the
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Libertarian Presidential Candidate to use the matching funds process to
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recover taxes taken from them?"
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2. "Do they have the right to authorize their candidate to use the
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recovered taxes to fight the looters?"
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An example from history might highlight the issue. During the
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Revolutionary War, Francis Marion ("the Swamp Fox") organized a
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guerilla army in South Carolina. Marion staged midnight raids, hit and
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run attacks and sabotage. This frustrated the British officers and tied
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up troops that might have been used to defeat Washington or Lee.
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Marion and his men ran out of ammunition. So they raided British
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armories, taking all the weapons and ammunition they could carry. They
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did return the bullets to the British ... one at a time.
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These British weapons were paid for by past taxation and the source of
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future taxation.
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Did the Swamp Fox have the right to seize and use the weapons against
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the British? Or should Francis Marion have left them in the hands of
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the enemy?
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***Libertarians not only have the right to recover their taxes through
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matching funds, they have the moral obligation to do so.*** The taxes
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we do not recover will fund the State... or be turned over to
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Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates who will seek to make
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Big Government bigger. Your taxes either fund the State or Statist
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Campaigns. Every tax dollar we do not reclaim will be used to sustain
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or expand the State. As State Power grows, individual liberty and
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self-responsibility dies.
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Can you afford to have the money you've earned used against you? You've
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been disarmed and your own weapons have been turned against you. Take
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them back.
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After all, whose money is it? Yours.
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Do you live off the State or does the State live off you? Are you a tax
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producer or a tax consumer? Are you a tax victim or a tax beneficiary?
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When you fill out your 1040, if you have a refund due from the IRS, do
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you take back your money? Why? Because it's yours. It's not welfare.
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It's recovering a part of what is rightfully yours.
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Matching funds are tax refunds. By contributing to the Marrou
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Libertarian Presidential Campaign, you are allowing us to recover money
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looted from you through federal income taxes and use it to fight the
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government for liberty.
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
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This text appeared in a brochure distributed by the Marrou for President
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campaign in November 1990.
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