As conservative groups plan to score lawmakers’ votes on the Ryan-Murray budget deal for future ratings, the Libertarian Party is expecting that it could help reel in some new voters.
“While people are busy preparing for the holidays, now’s a great time, they figure, to jam more government overspending and tax increases on the American people, just as they did earlier this year,” said Geoffrey J. Neale, chairman of the Libertarian Party.
The party said the bill would add nearly $1 trillion yearly to the national debt, lock in funding for Obamacare, add $60 billion in spending “for special interests, including defense contractors and federal government retirees,” and eliminate the “pathetically small reduction in future government overspending” known as sequestration. They also decried the TSA security fee that would be added onto airline tickets.
“Why not grab every tax dollar they can, they figure, and nail down a budget during the holidays that will avoid the backlash of a possible government ‘shutdown’ in January?” Neale said. “Why not pass a two-year — rather than a one-year — budget deal, Democrats and Republicans figure, so they don’t have to deal with prickly budget negotiations next fall, right before many of them are up for reelection?”
The party charged that “Republicans who pretend to oppose Obamacare are letting it fly, refusing to defund it,” which “may well deal the final, fatal blow to America’s status as the world’s leading economy.”
“‘An outrage’ does not begin to describe the level of wanton, self-serving, fiscally irresponsible, and heartless behavior of today’s Democratic and Republican politicians in Congress,” Neale said. “There is only one way to stop them from destroying the economy: Vote Libertarian.”
With 1.27 million votes in 2012, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson had the best showing of any Libertarian candidate in a presidential election.
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