textfiles-politics/pythonCode/personTestingOutput/libr-ism.xml

<xml><p> The Moral Case _For_ Taking Federal Matching Funds</p>

<p> by Michael Emerling</p>

<p>As a "matter of principle", <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Presidential candidates have
refused to seek federal matching campaign funds. Taxation is theft and
accepting tax funds makes us party to the crime. By taking the loot, by
welcoming stolen goods, the <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Party betrays the
non-aggression principle. We surrender our morality, integrity and
principles.</p>

<p>So we've been told.</p>

<p>This position is not merely wrong. It is the exact opposite of the
truth.</p>

<p>As <ent type='PERSON'>Frank Chodorov</ent> observed, "Taxation is robbery." Government is funded
by legalized looting. Government has no right to the proceeds of
plunder. Nor does it have the right to "assign" or "transfer" the booty
to others.</p>

<p>Who has the right to this loot? The rightful owners. The victims of the
tax crime: those who earned and owned it. The tax payers.</p>

<p>Let's look at <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> taxpayers. How many <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s are there in
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent> today? No one knows. <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s don't like being counted or
registered by the State.</p>

<p>Individuals who believe that they have a right to their life, liberty,
and property; Individuals who know that their life is their own and
intend to run it by their own judgement; Individuals who value
voluntary relations and oppose force and fraud; these individuals mind
their own business and live their lives as they see fit. Their privacy
is their protection, so they jealously guard it. They live by the code
of liberty. They are libertarians, whether they know it or not. But
their way of life makes them invisible, uncounted and forgotten.</p>

<p>A few <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s organized to reclaim their rights to life, liberty
and property. They did so as a matter of self-defense. They called
their organization the <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Party.</p>

<p>Today there are 9000 dues paying National <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Party members in
<ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. And perhaps another 6000 local <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Party members.
There are over 50000 voters registered as <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s, even though
many states do not allow us to register <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>.</p>

<p>For the sake of discussion, assume that there are only 10000
<ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s in <ent type='GPE'>America</ent>. Assume that the average <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> earns
$30000 a year. (Probably a low figure, with all the professionals and
computer programmers in the <ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Party.) A person earning
$30000 a year is paying a minimum of $3000 a year in federal income
taxes. Using these deliberately low figures, we can see that
<ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s are paying a minimum of $30000000 each year in income
taxes. That's $2500000 each month.</p>

<p><ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s have a right to recover this money. Or authorize another
to recover it.</p>

<p>In light of this, let's reframe the matching funds issue:</p>

<p>1. "Do taxpaying libertarians have the right to authorize the
<ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Presidential Candidate to use the matching funds process to
recover taxes taken from them?"</p>

<p>2. "Do they have the right to authorize their candidate to use the
recovered taxes to fight the looters?"</p>

<p>An example from history might highlight the issue. During the
Revolutionary War, <ent type='PERSON'>Francis Marion</ent> ("the Swamp <ent type='ORG'>Fox</ent>") organized a
guerilla army in <ent type='GPE'>South Carolina</ent>. Marion staged midnight raids, hit and
run attacks and sabotage. This frustrated the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> officers and tied
up troops that might have been used to defeat <ent type='GPE'>Washington</ent> or Lee.</p>

<p>Marion and his men ran out of ammunition. So they raided <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>
armories, taking all the weapons and ammunition they could carry. They
did return the bullets to the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> ... one at a time.</p>

<p>These <ent type='NORP'>British</ent> weapons were paid for by past taxation and the source of
future taxation.</p>

<p>Did the Swamp <ent type='ORG'>Fox</ent> have the right to seize and use the weapons against
the <ent type='NORP'>British</ent>? Or should <ent type='PERSON'>Francis Marion</ent> have left them in the hands of
the enemy?</p>

<p>***<ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent>s not only have the right to recover their taxes through
matching funds, they have the moral obligation to do so.*** The taxes
we do not recover will fund the State... or be turned over to
<ent type='NORP'>Republican</ent> and <ent type='NORP'>Democratic</ent> Presidential candidates who will seek to make
<ent type='ORG'>Big Government</ent> bigger. Your taxes either fund the State or Statist
Campaigns. Every tax dollar we do not reclaim will be used to sustain
or expand the State. As State Power grows, individual liberty and
self-responsibility dies.</p>

<p>Can you afford to have the money you've earned used against you? You've
been disarmed and your own weapons have been turned against you. Take
them back.</p>

<p>After all, whose money is it? Yours.</p>

<p>Do you live off the State or does the State live off you? Are you a tax
producer or a tax consumer? Are you a tax victim or a tax beneficiary?</p>

<p>When you fill out your 1040, if you have a refund due from the <ent type='ORG'>IRS</ent>, do
you take back your money? Why? Because it's yours. It's not welfare.
It's recovering a part of what is rightfully yours.</p>

<p>Matching funds are tax refunds. By contributing to the <ent type='PERSON'>Marrou</ent>
<ent type='NORP'>Libertarian</ent> Presidential Campaign, you are allowing us to recover money
looted from you through federal income taxes and use it to fight the
government for liberty.</p>

<p>------------------------------------------------------------------------
This text appeared in a brochure distributed by the <ent type='PERSON'>Marrou</ent> for President
campaign in November 1990.
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