Paving the Path to Liberty!
The Goal:
Get liberty-loving candidates elected to Congress. Our short-term goal is to elect 15 members, and our long-term goal is to elect 50 or more.
The Plan:
Organize a big tent of liberty lovers to support and elect liberty-minded candidates who can win seats in Congress.
We need to support liberty-minded candidates willing to run in Republican and Democratic primaries. Then, we need to encourage liberty lovers in those districts to register to vote in the appropriate primary and support the liberty candidate.
If we can help elect 15 liberty-minded members of Congress, we can begin to influence policy in Washington, D.C., and create a path to liberty.
Liberty candidates can win seats if they focus on policies that advance liberty and are popular with the American public.
How You Can Help Increase Liberty:
- Join our email list and follow our Facebook page.
- Share liberty-related posts and links with friends and family.
- Support and vote for liberty candidates who can win seats in Congress.
For example, if a strong liberty candidate is running in the dominant party’s primary in your district, consider registering with that party, if necessary, and voting in its primary.
If enough liberty lovers support liberty candidates in both red and blue districts, some of those candidates may win their party’s primary and go on to win the general election.
If you live in a swing district and a strong liberty candidate is running in either the Republican or Democratic primary, consider registering to vote in that primary, if necessary, and voting for the liberty candidate.
A Liberty Platform That Can Win Elections:
Reduce Housing Costs
Reduce housing costs by easing zoning restrictions, limiting permitting barriers, reducing property taxes, and allowing more private development. Fewer regulations would increase housing supply and competition among builders and landlords, lowering rents and home prices while giving consumers more choices about where and how they live.
Reduce Healthcare Costs
Reduce healthcare costs by increasing competition, deregulating healthcare providers, expanding direct-pay options, reducing licensing barriers, and limiting government restrictions on insurance and medical services. The goal is to encourage price transparency, innovation, and consumer choice, lowering prices while allowing patients to choose among competing providers.
Reduce Prescription Drug Costs
Reduce prescription drug costs by increasing competition, reducing regulatory barriers to drug approval and importation, strengthening generic competition, limiting policies that restrict market entry, and eliminating government rules that protect pharmaceutical monopolies. Greater price transparency and consumer choice would pressure manufacturers, pharmacies, and insurers to compete more aggressively on prices.
Improve K–12 Education
Improve K–12 education by expanding school choice through vouchers that give parents greater control over education funding, allowing families to choose public, charter, private, or home-based education. Competition among schools would encourage innovation, lower administrative costs, and improve educational outcomes. School choice allows families to select schools that best fit their needs.
Reduce College Costs
Reduce college costs by removing regulatory barriers that prevent students from earning accredited degrees through independent study and examinations that allow them to test out of college courses.
Several nonprofit organizations already offer free or low-cost college credit through examinations, allowing students to study independently and earn credit for a significant number of courses at many universities. Unfortunately, most universities limit these nontraditional credits to 25% or less of a degree, leaving students to pay full price for the remaining credits.
Read more and sign the petition…
Reduce Crime
Reduce crime by focusing on protecting individual rights while targeting violent and property crimes. Emphasize effective policing, swift and proportionate punishment, criminal justice reform, and the repeal of laws criminalizing nonviolent conduct. The goal is to concentrate resources on genuine threats while minimizing unnecessary government intrusion and incarceration.
Abolish the Military Draft
Increase individual liberty by abolishing the military draft. According to the cited poll, 85% of Americans oppose the draft.
Improve the Economy and Create Jobs
Improve the economy and create jobs by making it easier to start and operate small businesses, including exempting them from onerous regulations that may be appropriate for large companies but are excessively burdensome for smaller ones.
End Civil Asset Forfeiture
Increase individual liberty by ending civil asset forfeiture and prohibiting the government from permanently taking a person’s property without a criminal conviction.
Reform Occupational Licensing
Make it easier and cheaper for people to enter the workforce by reforming occupational licensing and preventing states from requiring expensive government licenses for ordinary jobs that pose little risk to the public. This policy will increase job opportunities and competition while lowering prices for consumers.
Decriminalize Marijuana Federally
Increase individual liberty and reduce crime associated with black markets by decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level and ending federal criminal penalties for adults who possess and use cannabis.
Bring American Troops Home from Unnecessary Wars
Reduce the deficit, national debt, and the number of military veterans who suffer disabilities or die as a result of military service by bringing American troops home from unnecessary wars, requiring Congress to clearly authorize military action, and making diplomacy the first resort whenever possible.
Eliminate Tariffs That Raise Consumer Prices
Reduce the cost of consumer goods by eliminating tariffs that raise the prices of everyday products. Tariffs function as a hidden tax on American families and businesses.
Improve the Federal Budget Process
Improve the federal budget process by urging your members of Congress to support the No Budget, No Pay Act.
The No Budget, No Pay Act is proposed legislation that would prohibit members of Congress from receiving their salaries unless they pass a budget resolution and all regular appropriations bills for the fiscal year. The legislation is intended to promote accountability by requiring timely budget approval.
Under this proposal, members of Congress would not be paid during a fiscal year until both chambers approved a budget resolution and passed all regular appropriations bills. Retroactive pay would also be prohibited for any period during which the budget remained unapproved.
Click here to contact your members of Congress.
Reduce Political Division by Reforming Elections
Reduce division in America by reforming our election process. This includes implementing ranked-choice voting, establishing open primaries, and ending gerrymandering.
One benefit of ranked-choice voting and open primaries is that they encourage candidates to be less polarizing by requiring them to appeal to a broader range of voters. Instead of focusing solely on the most ideologically committed voters in their party, candidates have greater incentives to consider the views of moderate voters.
Gerrymandering, on the other hand, can diminish the influence of voters, create noncompetitive races, favor incumbents, and contribute to the election of more ideologically extreme candidates.
Address the National Debt Crisis
Avoid a financial catastrophe by addressing the national debt crisis now.
In remarks on February 7, 2023, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell commented on the nation’s fiscal outlook:
“We’re on an unsustainable fiscal path, at the federal government level. That has been the case for some time and it’s something we will have to deal with. And better to deal with it sooner rather than later.”
We need to elect politicians who are committed to addressing the U.S. debt problem now rather than kicking the can down the road for future generations to deal with.
Make the Federal Government More Effective and Efficient
Improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the federal government by reducing its size and scope so that it can focus on the functions it should perform.
In a January 2023 Gallup poll, government was identified as the top problem facing the United States.
Click here to fiew Gallup poll.
Increase Our Standard of Living Through Free Trade
Increase our standard of living by reducing government-imposed trade barriers. Most economists agree that countries can benefit from trade by specializing in the goods they produce most efficiently. Specialization and trade allow countries to use resources more efficiently, leading to significantly higher standards of living.
Make Congress More Accountable by Ending Gerrymandering
Make Congress more accountable to the people by ending gerrymandering. Gerrymandering can diminish the influence of voters, create noncompetitive races, favor incumbents, and contribute to the election of more ideologically extreme candidates.
According to an April 2024 Pew Research Center survey, 85% of Americans believe that most elected officials don’t care what people like them think.
We need to make them care!
Improve Market Efficiency by Reducing Price Controls
Improve market efficiency by reducing or eliminating price controls. Many economists oppose broad or long-term price controls because they can produce unintended economic consequences. Price controls, including price ceilings (limits on how high prices can rise) and price floors (minimum prices), can distort supply and demand, potentially resulting in shortages, surpluses, and reduced market efficiency.
Read more…
Fix the Border and Immigration System
Fix the border and immigration system, expand the economy, and increase the tax base by making it easier for properly screened immigrants to obtain legal status, work legally in the United States, pay taxes, and pursue the American Dream.
To ensure a secure yet humane border system, reform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to focus deportation efforts on serious criminals and require ICE agents to wear body cameras when interacting with the public.
Reduce Poverty and Government Waste Through Work-Based Assistance
Dramatically reduce poverty and government waste, strengthen the labor force, and potentially reduce crime by emphasizing work-based assistance over traditional welfare through substantial earned-income supplements for lower-wage workers.
Reducing poverty is both a moral imperative and a practical goal, as lower poverty rates contribute to reduced crime.
Reduce Government Corruption and Strengthen Accountability
Reduce corruption and strengthen government accountability by reforming the incentives that allow abuses of power.
This includes banning or strictly limiting stock trading by members of Congress, lowering campaign contribution limits to reduce dependence on wealthy donors and special interests, requiring timely transparency in political spending so voters can see who is funding elections, and closing the revolving door by prohibiting former members of Congress and senior officials from lobbying for at least five years after leaving office.
End Corporate Welfare
End corporate welfare by eliminating subsidies and special privileges for favored businesses and industries.
Repeal the Jones Act to Lower Shipping Costs
Lower shipping costs and make goods more affordable for consumers by repealing the Jones Act.
The Jones Act restricts domestic shipping between U.S. ports to vessels that are U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged, and largely U.S.-owned and crewed. Critics argue that these restrictions raise shipping costs, reduce competition, limit vessel availability, and make it harder for U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico and noncontiguous states such as Hawaii and Alaska to receive affordable goods.
The Jones Act also restricts the ability to ship U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) by tanker from the Gulf Coast to New England, potentially increasing energy costs.