Navigation

“Cut, cut, CUT federal taxes and spending,” Libertarians say

By on May 29, 2014 in News

In response to a Libertarian Party website poll that asked, “As soon as is practical, how much should we cut federal government taxes and spending?” Libertarians came down overwhelmingly in favor of dramatically reducing taxes and federal government spending.

  • A majority (59 percent) want federal spending reduced by more than 90 percent.

This would balance the budget plus end the personal income tax, plus end all payroll taxes including FICA (Social Security) and Medicare tax, plus end the corporate tax.

It would reduce federal spending from today’s $3.8 trillion to $345 billion, the level when Jimmy Carter was president in 1979.

  • Almost half of respondents (48 percent) say cutting federal spending by over 90 percent is still not enough because “government was way too big in 1979 after presidents LBJ, Nixon and Carter pumped it up.”

“The federal government has been growing by leaps and bounds over the last century,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, chair of the national party. “Since the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, politicians in Washington, D.C., have been ratcheting up the size, authority, spending, and taxation of the federal government without restraint. We need to move it back to a more reasonable level.”

  • Almost three quarters (73 percent) of respondents say we should end both the personal and corporate income tax, as well as balance the budget, by rolling back government spending to $1.3 trillion — the level in 1991 when George Bush Sr. was president.
  • An overwhelming majority (87 percent) say we should balance the budget and end the personal income tax, rolling back taxes to $1.65 trillion, the level in 1998 when Bill Clinton was president. This cuts federal government spending by more than half.

The stunning popularity of this sizable reduction in the federal government may be why 41 Libertarian candidates who are running for federal office in 2014 have pledged to do what these 87 percent of poll respondents want by taking the following pledge:

“If elected, I will sponsor legislation to cut federal spending to the 1998 level, eliminate the federal [personal] income tax, and get the IRS off the back of taxpayers.”

The Libertarian candidates who have taken this pledge are:

The poll was taken from May 9 to May 27, 2014. See full poll results here.