Elected officials are considering a temporary shutdown of small parts of the federal government. But the Libertarian Party is calling for something much more drastic.
Indeed, the Libertarian Party, which stands for free markets, civil liberties and peace, is vying for a permanent shutdown of most of the federal government.
“Just think how a permanent government shutdown would allow so many Americans to regain the blessings of liberty,” says Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict. “Education would blossom as the Department of Education ended its war on learning, no longer wasting our money and preventing educational innovation with one-size-fits-all centralized mandates.”
As Benedict sees it, job opportunities at companies big and small would multiply, providing opportunity and choice for American workers and the world would enjoy peace as we withdrew our forces from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.
“Our government spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined. Millions of industrious men and women who work for the military and its contractors could be focusing on building up our economy, rather than tearing down others’,” Benedict says. “Crime would plummet as the government’s war on drugs ended, no longer sustaining a giant violent black market and overfilling our prisons. The life of many poorer Americans would improve as welfare programs stopped, no longer trapping low-income families in an endless cycle of government dependency.”
In the worldview of the Libertarian Party, a permanent government shut down would lead to a huge burden lifted every tax season. But most importantly, Benedict says, Americans would once again be free of unjust and unconstitutional violations of their unalienable rights.
“We’re not talking about eliminating the federal government,” Benedict clarifies. “We want to end all federal activities that are not authorized by the Constitution, and we want to cut everything else as much as we can. In 2000, the federal government spent $1.8 trillion. This year it’s expected to spend $3.8 trillion. Things are going the wrong way-fast.”
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