Highlights of the Libertarian Party's "Ending the Welfare State" Proposal

From across the political and ideological spectrum, there is now almost universal acknowledgement that the American social welfare system has been a failure.

Since the start of the "war on poverty" in 1965, the United States has spent more than $5 trillion trying to ease the plight of the poor. What we have received for this massive investment is -- primarily -- more poverty. This has played a huge part in generating our $9.5 trillion national debt.

Our welfare system is unfair to everyone: to taxpayers who must pick up the bill for failed programs; to society, whose mediating institutions of community, church and family are increasingly pushed aside; and most of all to the poor themselves, who are trapped in a system that destroys opportunity for themselves and hope for their children.

The Libertarian Party believes it is time for a new approach to fighting poverty. It is a program based on opportunity, work, and individual responsibility.

1. End Welfare

None of the proposals currently being advanced by either conservatives or liberals is likely to fix the fundamental problems with our welfare system. Current proposals for welfare reform, including block grants, job training, and "workfare" represent mere tinkering with a failed system.

It is time to recognize that welfare cannot be reformed: it should be ended. We should eliminate the entire social welfare system. This includes eliminating AFDC, food stamps, subsidized housing, and all the rest. Individuals who are unable to fully support themselves and their families through the job market must, once again, learn to rely on supportive family, church, community, or private charity to bridge the gap.

By reducing taxes, citizens will have more funds available to voluntarily contribute to these charities. By removing the government bureuacracy, more funds will actually make it those who need it most.

2. Establish a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to private charity

If the federal government's attempt at charity has been a dismal failure, private efforts have been much more successful. America is the most generous nation on earth. We already contribute more than $125 billion annually to charity. However, as we phase out inefficient government welfare, private charities must be able to step up and fill the void.

To help facilitate this transfer of responsibility from government welfare to private charity, the federal government should offer a dollar-for-dollar tax credit for contributions to private charities that provide social-welfare services. That is to say, if an individual gives a dollar to charity, he should be able to reduce his tax liability by a dollar. As taxes are reduced and this transition is implemented, this credit would be phased out.

3. Tear down barriers to entrepreneurism and economic growth

We are sensitive to the needs of America's aged, blind, and disabled citizens, and fully support the to enable these citizens to live in dignity and economic security. The challenge is finding the right way to administer these programs.

Almost everyone agrees that a job is better than any welfare program. Yet for years this country has pursued tax and regulatory policies that seem perversely designed to discourage economic growth and reduce entrepreneurial opportunities. Someone starting a business today needs a battery of lawyers just to comply with the myriad of government regulations from a virtual alphabet soup of government agencies: OSHA, EPA, FTC, CPSC, etc. Zoning and occupational licensing laws are particularly damaging to the type of small businesses that may help people work their way out of poverty.

In addition, government regulations such as minimum wage laws and mandated benefits drive up the cost of employing additional workers. We call for the repeal of government regulations and taxes that are steadily cutting the bottom rungs off the economic ladder.

4. Reform education

There can be no serious attempt to solve the problem of poverty in America without addressing our failed government-run school system. Nearly forty years after Brown vs. Board of Education, America's schools are becoming increasingly segregated, not on the basis of race, but on income. Wealthy and middle class parents are able to send their children to private schools, or at least move to a district with better public schools. Poor families are trapped -- forced to send their children to a public school system that fails to educate.

It is time to break up the public education monopoly and give all parents the right to decide what school their children will attend. It is essential to restore choice and the discipline of the marketplace to education. Only a free market in education will provide the improvement in education necessary to enable millions of Americans to escape poverty.

Summary

America's welfare crisis is government-induced. Government social and cultural policies have undermined the work ethic - just as the government's economic and regulatory policies have undermined the ability of our citizens to obtain work. Provision of welfare to those in need is not a Constitutional responsibility, or power, of the federal government. Under no circumstances should the taxpayers of the United States be obligated, under penalty of law through forced taxation, to assume the cost of providing welfare for other citizens. Neither should taxpayers be indentured to subsidize welfare for persons who enter the United States illegally.  

We should not pretend that reforming our welfare system will be easy or painless. In particular it will be difficult for those people who currently use welfare the way it was intended -- as a temporary support mechanism during hard times. However, these people remain on welfare for short periods of time. A compassionate society will find other ways to help people who need temporary assistance. But our current government-run welfare system is costly to taxpayers and cruel to the children born into a cycle of welfare dependency and hopelessness.

The Libertarian Party offers a positive alternative to the failed welfare state. Private charities and groups do a better and more efficient job of helping the truly needy get back on their feet. We offer a vision of a society based on work, individual responsibility, and private charity. It is a society based on opportunity and genuine compassion. It is a society built on liberty.

Individuals should be encouraged to volunteer and charitably support those in need; however, this support should be offered ungrudgingly and from the heart. When a government, under threat of force, takes hard-earned money from one family (that may be used to support that family's well-being) and gives it to another, this is not charity. It is government-sponsored theft.

It is the intended purpose of civil government to safeguard life, liberty and property - not to redistribute wealth. Such redistribution is morally wrong and contrary to the religious dotctrines against theft. We encourage individuals, families, churches, civic groups and other private organizations, to fulfill their personal responsibility to help those in need.

On the Issues: 

• I support the abolition of all federal welfare programs.
• I support the replacement of the current tax system which burdens the poor with the Fair Tax that will ensure citizens pay no taxes on an amount of money equal to that of the poverty level. As planned, it is progressive in nature and will effectively tax those with more discretionary income at a higher, but fair, rate.  This includes replacing taxes, such as FICA, which are levied on the working poor.
• I support, during the transition from government-sponsored welfare programs, all welfare recipients should be required to spend at least 40 hours per week in a combination of work and training programs. State employment agencies may opt to place these recipients into jobs earning at least a living wage; should a recipient decline, all further federal may be terminated.
• I support the concept of allowing private firms to offer affordable, insurance against involuntary loss of income and disability; this is one free-market solution to unemployment and welfare needs. 
• I oppose legislation that perpetuates dependency on government-sponsored welfare programs and limits a welfare recipients ability to obtain gainful employment.
• I support, on a related topic, termination of 'corporate welfare' programs as well. Taking funds from existing businesses (and individuals) to fund competitors who should be competing in the free-market is equally unacceptable.