Statement to Lubbock Hispanic Chamber of Commerce 3/28/03

Hello, I’m Chip Peterson, I’m a Libertarian running for Congress. I have a website: Chippeterson .com that will contain the full text of this statement if I run out of time here.    

I am here to tell you that I am running for several reasons.

First, the nation is heading for a train wreck on social security and our politicians keep ignoring that fact!  I wrote a book titled, The REAL Social Security Problem: What Everyone Must Know Before It’s too Late. Copies are available free to those in the audience, since the book analyzes the problem and explains it in very simple terms so people can no longer be fooled about it. We need to face up to our potential social security problems now so the train wreck won’t happen.

Second, when writing the book I realized that many of the potential solutions to the social security problem involved Libertarian policies. Some of the most important policies that I support are the following:

1.     Lower Tax Rates and Simpler Taxes without Double Taxation. Such policies are necessary so that people will have incentives to work hard and be more productive, thereby producing more goods that retirees could consume in the future.

2.     Less Wasteful Government Spending on Pork Barrel Projects and activities no longer needed.  Wasted resources are gone forever and won’t be available to support future retirees.

3.     Lower Levels of Government Regulation. Such regulation often impedes the productivity of farmers and business, thereby wasting resources, and again leaving less product for future generations to enjoy.

4.     Unimpeded legal immigration for people who want to work in the U.S. People who come to work should be allowed to, while those who come only for welfare or with destructive intentions should be excluded from the U.S. Additional production by new immigrants will be helpful when taking care of future retirees.

5.     A strong domestic defense policy to protect what we have, ourselves, and our freedoms.

The above are all basic Libertarian positions. In addition, as you will see if you read my social security book, I also favor strong family and strong educational policies, including educational choice or home schooling if that would be more effective. Choice in education is also a Libertarian Policy.

          I also agree with Libertarian positions that take their guidance from the intent of our nation’s founding fathers. I strongly believe in our nation’s Constitution and its Bill of Rights, which were intended to provide explicit guarantees that government would not become too powerful and try to enslave its citizens by taking away their rights. In recent years, unfortunately, some of those constitutional protections and rights have been eroded as government has grown and reached for more power.

          Thus, I want to state that I strongly support first amendment rights regarding freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of peaceable assembly and petition to redress grievances. I also support second amendment rights of the people to keep and bear arms, and fourth amendment rights that protect people against unreasonable searches and seizures. In addition, I support the Fifth through 8^th amendments that guarantee people the right to not be deprived of life liberty or property without due process, the right to trial by jury, and the right to reasonable bail. Finally, I support the 9^th and 10^th amendments that reserve all rights not expressly given to the federal government to the people or to the states unless the rights are expressly prohibited to them.

          I am concerned that many of the protections promised by our Constitution’s Bill of Rights have been violated by government entities in the war on drugs. There have been unreasonable searches and seizures, seizures of property without due process, and other violations of individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. constitution. Recently, in Tulia, it appears that many minorities were cited for drug offenses based upon the testimony of a single, possibly unreliable, undercover agent who may have been biased against many of them. That action caused the accused to bear substantial legal costs and hardships.

          Abuses of government power in the name of the drug war make me ask, like all Libertarians, whether the “cure” to the drug problem is worse than the “disease.” I think we need to seriously question whether government solutions to the drug problem are too draconian with regard to drugs that are no more dangerous than alcohol, and could be regulated similarly.

Email Chip with any questions.

Richard Peterson Campaign, Richard Peterson treasurer