Do You Really Want Small Government?

If so, says Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, you should be supporting him for president.

Tweet

Third party presidential candidates are often overlooked in the horserace discussions leading up to an election, but -- as George H.W. Bush and Al Gore learned the hard way -- they can have an impact. This year, even though he's not getting a lot of attention, the third-party candidate who has the best chance to upset the political applecart is Libertarian Bob Barr.

A former Republican Congressman from Georgia, Barr came to Washington in 1995 as part of the "Republican Revolution." He gained a reputation as one of the most conservative members of Congress, authoring the Defense of Marriage Act and serving as one of the major forces behind the Bill Clinton impeachment proceedings. Barr, however, began questioning the Bush administration over post-9/11 privacy and civil liberties issues. After leaving Congress in 2003, he became a more outspoken critic, formally leaving the Republican Party in 2006. He became the Libertarian candidate for president in May and has made the reduction of the federal government, the end of the Iraq War, and the expansion of personal liberties the centerpieces of his platform.

Polls currently have Barr at between 3 and 6 percent nationally, but Zogby has him performing stronger in some key states. He's polling 5 percent in Florida, 7 percent in Arizona, 8 percent in Colorado, 10 percent in Nevada and 11 percent in New Hampshire, numbers that should be giving both the McCain and Obama camps pause. Barr, however, says he's in it to win it.

Entrepreneurs tend to have a strong Libertarian streak. What would they like best about a Barr administration?

No longer would there be thousands of new regulations each year by faceless bureaucrats. The federal government would finally start to shrink instead of growing ever larger under Democrats and Republicans. We'd see a tremendous burst of enthusiasm and support represented in a dramatic increase in investment activity that would be reflected on Wall Street.

What would you do right away?

To set the example, immediately upon taking office, I would reduce the size, expenditure, and personnel of the Executive Office. We would start conducting cost/benefit analyses of federal programs and agencies, prioritizing those agencies performing legitimate functions and the much larger number that aren't. I would send a message to Congress that there will be no legislation raising the ceiling on the national debt. We'd begin dramatically cutting from that point to reduce the size, scope, and power of the federal government.

What effect do you think the "war on terror" has had on small business and scientific research and development?

A main one is the decrease in the number of foreign students able to enter the United States for educational purposes, which will have dramatic and long-term negative effects. We lose participation from those individuals as potential entrepreneurs in this country, and we lose this generation and future generations as pro-American entrepreneurs in other countries. In decades past, the magnet was the United States. The goal of students with an entrepreneurial bent was to come here to study and conduct research with American companies. Those students have been diverted to Europe.

Are there any business regulations you favor?

I think regulations should do two things: protect against piracy and fraud of one's intellectual or tangible assets, and those related to the broad general welfare. Other than those two things, businesses ought to be left to operate subject only to legal actions if they harm other individuals or businesses.

In a recent Newsweek cover story, Fareed Zakaria wrote, "Bush 43 has surely been the most fiscally irresponsible President in American history." Do you agree?

 1 | 2  NEXT