An Hour With Bob Barr

Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr is tonight's guest on the Glenn Beck Program on CNN Headline News.   He will be on the show for the full hour answering questions about all things political.  What follows is my summary of his key points throughout the interview.  It won't be an eloquent, flowing post.  It looks more like quickly scribbled notes during a college lecture.  Where you see questions asked, those were the questions asked by Beck.

Segment One:
Is voting for Barr throwing away your vote?  According to Barr, a vote for McCain or Obama is a vote for the establishment status quo.  A vote for the status quo is truly a wasted vote.

Barr left the Republican party because the party became "the establishment," which violates the law at will and has abandoned Republican fiscal values.

What is going on with oil?  Why are other countries building refineries & nuke plants but we aren't?  Bob says we have no leadership.  Glenn argues that yes we need leadership, but we the people aren't doing anything.  Bob thinks that people don't really realize the magnitude of what is facing us in our dependency on foreign energy.  Glenn can't understand why people don't get it.  Bob suggests that most people really don't care what their government is doing (or isn't doing) as long as they have their entitlement programs.  We have to understand that environmentalists run things.  The administrations are scared to death of them.  We have to get people in Washington who will stand up to them and keep the best interest of Americans at the forefront.  Barr believes global warming is a myth, but it is what is driving the environmental movement.  McCain buys into it.  Obama buys into it.  Glenn says that foreign oil is the problem with our foreign policy.  Barr thinks the market should be freed to develop our own natural resources.

Segment Two:
Glenn suggests that every American is libertarian at heart until they learn how to benefit from the government.  Glenn suggests that Republicans went wrong by getting tangled up in "compassionate conservatism, rather than letting people pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Glenn says Libertarian Party is too divided around fringe issues like legalization of drugs.  Bob affirms diversity within the party.  But says that new leadership is young, energetic, and understands that libertarian philosophy must work in the real world.  Beck brings up abolition of governmental depts. and pulling military out of middle east, but you can't do all of this overnight.  Bob agrees that it will take time, but we must start now or the trend will never be reversed.

Beck asked, is this the end of America as we know it?  Barr says we are an inch away from becoming the kind of country that won't take risks and settles into pessimism.

Beck: What will you do fiscally?  Barr responds, freeze on spending in executive branch.  No legislation that raises ceiling on national debt or increases spending over previous fiscal year will be signed.  Beck asks how he will get anything done?  Barr responded, the system has been so poisoned by partisanship that the parties won't talk to one another.  Barr will talk to all sides.   A Libertarian elected to president would send such shock waves through congress that they would realize they need to get with the program of representing the people or be kicked out themselves. 

Beck believes we are intentionally sinking the dollar because we can't afford interest on federal debt.  What will you do about the debt tied to future entitlement payouts?  Institute savings accounts credited against social security.  Empower Americans to privatize social security.  Possibly raise retirement age.

Segment Three:
Why are food prices going up?  Barr responds, partly because of ethanol.  We're diverting a huge percentage of our ag production into ethanol reducing supply of feed grains for livestock.  Barr suggests getting rid of subsidies for corporate farms.  What about subsidies to NOT plant things?  Absolutely not.

Would you have bailed out Bear Stearns or foreclosures?  Absolutely not.  Government shouldn't bail out stupid people.  Tax cuts to oil companies to explore and drill?  In the short-term, no.  In the long-term, get away from tax incentives to manage economy.

Why is rest of world going to flat tax and we aren't?  Because Steve Forbes wasn't elected president.

Barr believes that McCain-Feingold threw cold water on 1st Amendment.

Segment Four:
Foreign policy.  Beck believes there is a time to fight and we have to be there now because of our dependency on oil.  Do you want to pull us out of places around the world?  Barr says, yes, we need to downsize significantly, but not everywhere immediately.  We don't need to occupy countries. 

Beck says we have to win Iraq.  Barr responds, what is the goal?  Is it occupation?  We are over five years from the "liberation" and are now in "occupation."  We are now trying to build a nation where there is no basis to do that.  Beck argues that this is where administration is lying to us.  We shouldn't have listened to "WMD" evidence, the real goal is to crush Iranian militant Islam through planting democracy in their neighboring nations.  Barr responds that we can't crush Iran, but should seek partners with the populace.  Beck agrees that the Iranian people are our greatest allies because we stand against the evil of their leadership.  But we can't pull out of the Mideast until we are secure in our energy.  Barr believes that 150,000 troops doesn't secure our energy.  Beck says to let us get our own resources first, then pull out of Middle East.  Barr believes we need to work with other countries in Middle East to deal with rogue and dangerous nations.  Barr believes we should make it very clear to the Iraqi government that they need to accept responsibility for their own country so we can more quickly leave them as a stable nation.

How do you get the troops out?  Consult military leaders and ask for plan through which we significantly and quickly pull troops out.  Do we do this apart from a sound energy plan?  It's not necessary to keep 150,000 troops and spend all of this money in Iraq for the sake of energy.

Segment Five:
According to Barr, since 911 we have allowed government to become oppressive and pervasive.   Barr was the one who insured that Patriot Act had "sunsets."  But the government has abused all provisions of the Patriot Act.  He now wants to abolish the Patriot Act and reexamine what we really need now, eight years out from 911. 

How far away are we from the government confiscating our guns?  Not at this point, but a potential problem down the road thanks to NRA and other organizations. 

Barr supports Minutemen on the border, they are not vigilantes. They are simply citizens who care about our sovereignty.

Why do we have 6,000 dead within five miles of our border and we are allowing it?  Agents are under orders to just let Mexican vehicles come across if line of traffic gets too long.  Administration thinks we have to cow-tow to Mexico even when it's irrational.  Beck suggests it's because of a deliberate plan to unite MexAmeriCanada into one trading block without borders.  Barr thinks it is a very real possibility with many governors in on the deal.  He says NAFTA Superhighway is already being built.  Imminent Domain in Texas already underway.   We must stop it now before we end up with something like the EU.

Did US orchestrate 911 as is suggested by the "911 Truthers?"  I don't pay any attention to that at all.  We need to worry about the real problems we face, not conspiracy theories.

Segment Six:
How does a Libertarian deal with something like abortion?  You have been very strong against abortion.  Barr says he is in good company because there are many "pro-life" Libertarians.  Abortion is the taking of life by force, and this violates the most fundamental liberty, life.

Polygamists in Texas...did the state over-reach?  Barr doesn't condone polygamy, but was disturbed by Texas storming in on bogus tip and ripped children away without due process or real evidence.

Do you have a website?  www.bobbarr2008.com

Comments

[Bradley Hankins]

I was sad to see that I missed Bob Barr on one of my favorite T.V. shows, but from what I have read he did a great job during the full hour. I was going to watch the segments on his website, but it seems the YouTube videos are not working, so tomorrow I will find them.

Anyways, I have an interesting post that will be up on my blog tomorrow evening, maybe you could come around and check it out? It would be greatly appreciated.

[Ann]

Hey. I was actually able to see some of that. I was tired, but I couldn't sleep because of it.

[Bill Huffhine]

Hey Ann,

So what did you think?

[Gary Baumgarten]

Bob Barr will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com Friday at 5 PM ET.

You can join in the conversation by following the link from my blog:

http://garybaumgarten.blogspot.com/2008/06/libertarian-presidential-candidate-bob.html