Positions

Thanks to Liberty-Candidates.org for framing these questions. I will be adding to this page as specific local issues evolve, such as how to remedy Vermont’s lack of disaster preparedness, as evidenced by our common experience with Hurricane Irene this Summer. The facts include that our Vermont Guard were in Afghanistan & Iraq, rather than available for disaster relief in Vermont.

Excerpt:

Why not eliminate or at least minimise the need for costly social services, by restoring economic opportunity?

The State has virtually eliminated economic opportunity, through confiscatory taxation of capital investment, improvement, earned wages and enterprise. Americans turn to hand-outs, which the State freely gives… and the size & scope of the State budget grow and grow. Vermont can’t even balance its bloated budget! We have to go back to 1980s budget levels as quickly as possible, because federal funds to bail out the Vermont budget are drying up (about $100 million this year, $400 million last year because it was an election year and the incumbent Democrats would have been disgraced).

Our Seniors, our Vets, the disabled, these are people whom we should be taking care of. Yet these are precisely the people most affected by the Vermont Legislature’s cuts in the past two sessions. There were no cuts to corporate welfare or the tax-free privatisation of public assets. The bogus ‘Farm to Plate’ which delivers no food, and Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund’ which creates no jobs other than its own bureaucracy, got all the funding they asked for. Dubious tax credits of $8m were instituted for Solar, which instead of being awarded to enterprising homeowners, were almost all forked over to a single corporation with political pull. Entergy Corporation of Louisiana had to pay no fine for contaminating Vermont’s groundwater with radioactivity, even though the cash-strapped City of Burlington had to pay a fine for an inadvertent leak of its sewer system, and a small enterprise had to pay a $6000 fine for a windmill that was slightly higher than the plan. (And forced to demolish the windmill).

When social programs expand, the Vermont economy becomes addicted to bureaucratic management of virtually every aspect of our lives. We have to shift taxes away from capital/wages and cut the size and scope of government drastically, back to its constitutional limits.

I) Re. the U.S. Financial System:
1. What is your view of the monetary system in the U.S. today?

A fiat currency, money based on debt, is a dead end.  We are in serious need of currency reform.  The world is on the brink of losing faith in the USD.  Money is, as Henry George said, that which business and folks are willing to accept in exchange… an assumption that a return to a ‘gold standard’ would fix everything is hasty.  Capital investors, business and other nations and working people need to have faith in the productive capacity of the US.  The current monetary system erodes at this faith, and it is only a matter of time before the faith in the US stops moving on its own inertia.

2. What corrective actions could we take right now to improve the economy?

Government has to STOP taking expensive actions, STOP regulating, STOP expensive programs and illegal, unconstitutional wars & occupations.  Most new ‘actions’ get the economy in even more trouble.  So, stop taking actions and withdraw government from the marketplace.  We can’t afford it.  The situation is so dire that the only way out that I can see is the development of State banks like the Bank of North Dakota, and localities issuing their own complementary currency.  If we are to have a national currency someday that the world accepts without threat of force, we will have to earn it through sound fiscal policies and economic development based on capital investment in free & open markets with no restraint of trade.  Not derivatives and other instruments created literally, out of thin air.

3. Do you agree with the actions the Federal Reserve has taken to solve the financial crisis? If not, what could the Fed have done differently?

No.  The only positive action the Fed could possibly take, is to dissolve itself.  Central banks and central economic planning is not needed.

4. Should the Federal Reserve be audited fully, no secrets, or does it need to keep some information under wraps?

You don’t audit a ponzi scheme.  You shut it down.  See Dr. Ron Paul’s remarks to this effect.

II) Re. Foreign Policy:
1. What is your opinion on current US foreign policy?

No opinion.  There is no policy.  There’s only a Congress that takes its direction from corporate boardrooms with no allegiance or loyalty to the US and our laws; direction from the UN, the IMF, and the Fed. There may be debate on the floor, but in the end most congressmen vote to fund illegal & unconstitutional actions both in the US and around the world.  This reduces our security, it does not add to it; thus it is not a policy.

2. How should we fight a “war on terror”?

Every ‘war’ that the US have fought on some particularly undesirable thing, has just served to create enemies that did not exist before.  It has perpetuated that thing.  People in occupied countries who resist occupations are called ‘terrorists’. It’s gotten so that anyone, foreign or domestic, that opposes not only US policy but the whim of a bureaucrat or policeman, is being called a ‘terrorist’.  Security is built through mutual respect, not attacking civilian targets with bombs and drones.

3. Should the U.S. occupy other countries? If not, would you push to close all bases? Are there any you would keep open?

No occupations, bases outside the borders of the US.  The US must also withdraw from all bases in Indian nations, honour & respect the treaties, and return the Black Hills to the Lakotah.

4. Should the U.S. maintain its standing army?

Yes, but bring them home and release all State Guard that have been deployed in support of the wars and occupations (the Vermont Guard was deployed to Afghanistan). They will all be needed to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure and deal with disasters, recovery and lawful borders.

5. Is the Patriot Act necessary to protect America? If not, would you vote to repeal it?

Absolutely not.  A locked-down, passive people just seem to need more and more expensive protection.  Both Patriot and the Military Commissions Act must go.

III) Re. Personal Liberty:
1. What information may the U.S. government legally gather about its citizens? When would it be necessary to overstep those boundaries?

None that is not freely and voluntarily provided.

2. What limits, if any, should be placed on the U.S. government’s ability to search its citizens without a warrant?

Limits are already placed by the US Constitution. Enforce those limits and hold government accountable to the law of the land., the Constitution.  The States are duty-bound to nullify any illegal actions of the federal government and its many agencies.

3. Ought the U.S. government be allowed to protect its citizens’ health by outlawing foods it considers unsafe, or to force medicate (i.e., fluoridation) or force vaccinate citizens?

The US government is manifestly NOT allowed to do this.  They have neither the authority nor the competence.  Again, the individual States need to protect themselves against federal regulation that intrude on the Liberty of citizens.

4. What controls, if any, should be placed on the right to own a gun? Is there an effective way to keep guns out of the hands of madmen and criminals without encroaching on the rights of free, law-abiding citizens?

A right that is ‘controlled’ is not a right.  It is a privilege.  There’s a basic distinction there!  Vermont has most of the most liberal gun laws in the US and I would keep it that way, using State authority only to stop the surveillance of federal agencies looking to disarm citizens and build databases of citizens who are armed.

Keeping guns out of the hands of madmen & criminals… a government may not label or profile people.  A government may only recognise criminal acts.  Free, law-abiding citizens in the Swiss federation are armed to the teeth, and the crime rate is correspondingly low.  In Switzerland, citizens own a modern military style rifles, and train with them regularly each year to improve and maintain proficiency.

Finally and most importantly, babies and children need to be held by their parents, nurtured and raised by their parents. An economic climate that forces both parents to work longer and longer hours for less money, so that babies and children are placed in care and/or raised by their peers, by televisions and video games, is the root cause of later antisocial violent behaviour.  Address that root cause, and the resulting social problems are taken care of.

IV) Re. U.S. Sovereignty:
1. Is our involvement in and subjugation to global organizations, such as WHO, NATO, the UN, etc., a benefit to U.S. citizens?

No. Involvement, collaboration, communication is one thing, giving up sovereignty is another thing entire.

2. Would you work to repeal international agreements that purport to hold U.S. citizens and/or property under its jurisdiction, or do you think there might be times when benefits outweigh concessions?

The benefits accrue to whom?  Yes I would.

3. Are trade agreements with other nations, i.e., NAFTA, CAFTA, good for U.S. citizens?

Only GLOBALLY free trade is of benefit to US citizens.  Exclusive trade agreements such as NAFTA/CAFTA do not imply free trade, but create an oligopoly that restricts trade with others.  For example, because of NAFTA, I recently had to purchase a $1000 visa and fill a mountain of paperwork just to attend some business meetings in Canada.

This over-regulation increases the cost of doing business, and is one of many ridiculous bureaucratic regulations that are driving business offshore… or putting business out of business.  It has fostered a mentality common in the former Soviet Union, to be as unproductive as possible.

4. Should the U.S. give foreign aid to other countries? If yes, for what purposes would it be justified? If not all countries, which would you continue to support?

No aid whatsoever.  The United States have some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, a crumbling infrastructure, a vanishing middle class, record foreclosures and many other problems.  Let’s concentrate on becoming a positive model for the world, of free opportunity and class mobility, sound fiscal policies and limited constitutional affordable government.  Then we can revisit the ‘aid’ question.

V) Re. State Sovereignty:
1. When does state law take precedent over federal law?

As the Tenth Amendment says, ‘The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people’.

2. Would you stand up to the federal government and demand that it stay within the bounds of its enumerated powers and out of state business?

Yes, that’s why the Thirty are running for the Vermont Senate, every seat.  Because the existing body accepts any federal abuse of power, in return for handouts!  They glory in the power of deciding who gets what handouts.  Vermont is currently run like an Indian Reservation, not a State.

Here is a partial list of bills that I will sponsor and support in the Vermont Senate, assisted by other members of the Thirty:

State sovereignty
Food Sovereignty
Firearms freedom legislation and federal gun laws nullification
Discontinuance of public surveillance and nullification of federal surveillance (drones) within Vermont
Medical marijuana laws
REAL ID nullification
Animal Identification, Food Safety Acts nullification
National health care nullification
TSA Fourth Amendment controls
Bring the Vermont Guard home
Cap & Trade nullification
Sheriffs first legislation
Federal land legislation
Federal intrastate commerce regulation nullification

3. Do federal officers have the right to arrest non-military citizens within the individual states for any crimes?

No, absolutely not!  The The Posse Comitatus law is clear on that point.

VI) Illegal Immigration:

1. What do you see as the #1 problem with illegal immigration?

The free lunch.  If there were no free lunch, but rather the opportunity to improve onesself, all would be able to compete.  The US were at its most prosperous during a time of open immigration.  Eliminate the free lunch, and an entirely different class of immigrant will be attracted, one that will continue to enrich the nation.  There would be no need to set up berlin walls.

2. What actions could we take to stop illegal immigrants from taking advantage of social services?

Social services exist, for the most part, because of government intervention in free markets.  The markets become distorted, distant corporations benefit at the expense of local business, opportunity disappears.  Why not eliminate or at least minimise the need for costly social services, by restoring economic opportunity?

The State has virtually eliminated economic opportunity, through confiscatory taxation of capital investment, improvement, earned wages and enterprise.  Americans turn to hand-outs, which the State freely gives… and the size & scope of the State budget grow and grow.  Vermont can’t even balance its bloated budget!  We have to go back to 1980s budget levels as quickly as possible, because federal funds to bail out the Vermont budget are drying up (about $100 million this year, $400 million last year because it was an election year and the incumbent Democrats would have been disgraced).

Our Seniors, our Vets, the disabled, these are people whom we should be taking care of.  Yet these are precisely the people most affected by the Vermont Legislature’s cuts in the past two sessions.  There were no cuts to corporate welfare or the tax-free privatisation of public assets.  The bogus ‘Farm to Plate’ which delivers no food, and Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund’ which creates no jobs other than its own bureaucracy, got all the funding they asked for.  Dubious tax credits of $8m were instituted for Solar, which instead of being awarded to enterprising homeowners, were almost all forked over to a single corporation with political pull.  Entergy Corporation of Louisiana had to pay no fine for contaminating Vermont’s groundwater with radioactivity, even though the cash-strapped City of Burlington had to pay a fine for an inadvertent leak of its sewer system, and a small enterprise had to pay a $6000 fine for a windmill that was slightly higher than the plan.  (And forced to demolish the windmill).

When social programs expand, the Vermont economy becomes addicted to bureaucratic management of virtually every aspect of our lives.  We have to shift taxes away from capital/wages and cut the size and scope of government drastically, back to its  constitutional limits.

VII) Misc. Questions:
1. If you could make one amendment to the U.S. Constitution, what would it be?

Render unconstitutional all taxes against earned income: all taxes against capital investment, wages, improvements, anything that is the product of human ingenuity and sweat.  Both federal and State governments will be forced to downsize, sell off assets at market price (especially land) to folks who will put it into production.  Tax only unearned income from speculation, natural resource extraction.  It’s not farfetched, Alaska does it already, cancelled the State income tax, and distribute a yearly dividend check to Alaskans.

This would eliminate the IRS and necessitate tax assessment and collection at the Town & City level.  I recommend the Swiss model of taxation, in which the localities collect taxes, fund their needs and then push the remainder upstairs to the federal level.

2. Would you vote to end government subsidies to private industry?

End them immediately!  The Soviet Union subsidised industry.  Soon after rebuilding from the war, innovation ground to a halt.  We are making the same mistake and must stop.

Some subsidies are hidden in the form of regulation.  Oligarchs and multinationals lobby FOR regulation because it raises the cost of doing business and kills off the competition.  Large corporations can then sell inferior products at higher and higher prices, without competition from better-made products.  Given real choice, Americans would simply not accept batteries that don’t last anymore, appliances that don’t do their jobs and break… nor feed their families milk containing Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) and pus from cows sickened by the BGH accelerant, or solid foods containing GMO ingredients like High Fructose Corn Syrup.

Small family farms in Vermont are disappearing, two per week, no matter how much money the USDA with their $149 Billion budget throw into ‘programs’.  This must end.  Vermonters already know how to grow food, and in a free market we can grow, process, teach, sell, distribute, and make a good living.

3. What should our government’s action be against Julian Assange, if any?

No jurisdiction.  Clean house instead and prosecute criminal activity in the government that has been exposed.

4. Do you know what Agenda 21/Sustainable Development and the Communitarian agenda is? Do you support it? Why or why not?

I consider it one of the gravest threats to our livelihoods and freedoms so far this Century, and I am fighting it tooth and nail in Vermont.  There is a LOT of money flowing into tiny Vermont to support Agenda 21, going into ‘programs’ to catalog, file, stamp, assess and control Vermont’s agriculture… under the guise of feeding people.  We Vermonters wish to feed ourselves, not be fed at a trough.  Food does not come from a Supermarket!  But the wishes of constituents are not taken into account by the Vermont Legislature, which hires commissions and relies in information from lobbyists, rather than go by Vermonters.

The words ‘Sustainable’ and ‘Communitarian’, while noble in their original meaning, which is to build durable communities from the bottom up, have been grabbed and misused by those who wish to impose top-down planning agendas for the benefit of those whom Vermonters never even see.  Money is pouring into Vermont to co-opt citizens organizations.

The largest ‘organic’ farmers association, NOFA-VT was co-opted early last year and is run by a political officer who directed the organisation to support things like the Food Safety Modernization Act, National Animal ID, and other top-down central planning efforts.  As a result this ‘grassroots’ organisation now has $5m and felt confident enough to bring Monsanto insider & lobbyist Tom Vilsack, who was recently appointed head of the USDA, to deliver the keynote in its last convention.  Ironically, that convention in 2010, which was moved to Burlington from a smaller city, couldn’t feed all of the paid attendees.  Some went hungry because the computer generated only a certain amount of meal tickets, and trays of food were put in the trash by the caterer.  A perfect example of how central planning and control works.

Once Peter Shumlin (D) was elected governor, he appointed a federal operative to head the Vermont Agency of Agriculture.  This operative reports directly to Sen. Leahy who controls the Senate Ag Committee in DC.  Immediately, the Agency began cracking down on raw milk, and harassing individual farmers.  I work with an organisation called the Vermont Coalition for Food Sovereignty, which made a lot of public noise about this, so the Agency backed off a bit and are quiet for now.

The battle continues.  That’s what I think of Agenda 21.

Your Name: Robert Wagner
Office you seek: Vermont Senator
State: Vermont
District: Addison
PRIMARY DATE: n/a, Independent
Mailing Address: PO Box 174, Ripton Vermont 05766
Email: http://SenatorWagner.com/contact
Website: http://SenatorWagner.com