On radio this morning, New York Times bestselling author and president of FreedomWorks Matt Kibbe joined Glenn to discuss his new book, Don't Hurt People and Don't Take Their Stuff: A Libertarian Manifesto. Glenn called the work “a dynamic book that every listener should read.” Whether you are looking to brush up on libertarian values or want to learn how to better communicate those values, this book has something for everyone.
“Thank you for writing this,” Glenn said to Matt. “It is a tremendous book, and I want to talk to you a little about the main thrust of this. Tell me, if anybody could just get one thing out of it, what would it be?”
As Matt explained the book seeks to clarify the “misnomer” that conservatives and libertarians focus on individualism is evil, while progressive notion of collectivism is caring.
“So many people are trying to figure what liberty's all about and progressives have so misrepresented this idea that you can be an individualist or you can care about your community. It is exactly the opposite,” Matt explained. “They are insanely authoritarian and they want to stomp out the individual, but communities don't work without freedom. They don't work without responsibility. They don't work unless individuals say, ‘I'm going to solve that problem. I'm going to bear that burden. And I will do something about it.’ I think we need to take back this misnomer that somehow they care and we don't. It's exactly the opposite.”
One of Glenn’s favorite parts of the book is when Matt lays outs the steps that will “restore liberty.” Glenn ran through the list while Matt elaborated on some of the points:
1. Comply with the laws that you pass
“Obviously, today, most of the laws that Congress imposes on us they refuse to comply with because they know how bad it would be for them,” Matt said. “If they have to live under Obamacare, they won't force us to live under Obamacare.”
2. Stop spending the money we don't have
“The President obviously doesn't get this, but the first principle of fiscal responsibility going back to Thomas Jefferson is: Debt is dangerous. Debt undermines the future of our country, our national security, everything about us,” Matt explained. “I say we put everything on the table. Stop spending money we don't have. What's great about our guys, the Mike Lees of the world, is they have proposed specific plans. They are not talking vague promises in the future. They came up with ways to do this.”
3. Scrap the tax code
“The IRS and the tax code is the most manipulative, corrupt system for controlling people's lives,” Matt said. “And you saw that with the way the IRS went after mom and pop Tea Partyers on 501 status. What if we treated everybody just like everyone else.”
4. Put patients in charge
“This is exactly the opposite of what Obamacare does. What government has done over the last 50 plus years is always put a middleman between you and your health care decisions. Sometimes it's the government. Sometimes it's your employer or an insurance company run by a guy that you never get to meet,” he explained. “What if we let patients choose? What if they controlled the money and were able to save for their own healthcare needs? When you are young and healthy, you save. When you are older and have the needs, you spend. This is how the market works. This is how we put bread on the shelves in grocery stores.”
5. End insider bailouts
“I think this is one of the biggest issues. There's so much collusion between fat cat CEOs… they don't compete in the marketplace anymore. It’s become a lucrative business to go to Washington and buy the committee chairman instead. It is not just the banking system,” Matt said. “If we don't call out the bad actors in corporate America first, Barak Obama can create that caricature showing that business is evil, that entrepreneurship is evil. It's not. It's the cronyism, the power between Washington and some of these CEOs that's really corrupting the political process.”
6. Let parents decide
“This is a fundamental debate we are having over Common Core and education,” he said. “The more and more we spend, the more we define what education should look like, the less our kids get out of the process. And it's hurting kids.”
7. Avoid entangling alliances
“I think this is really important, and maybe one of the more controversial things in the book. Libertarians are skeptical about nation building. We're skeptical that we can solve civil wars that have exists for centuries in places like Syria,” Matt explained. “And I'm sort of a George Washington guy on this. He wasn't an isolationist. He was practical. He said, ‘We can't afford to be everything to everybody.’ If we could, maybe we should. But part of this is finances.”
“This was only one chapter. There's a ton in this book,” Glenn concluded. “I don't think you need that much help on thinking things through, but it will help you explain it to your friend. Ever thought, ‘I wish so-and-so was here, so they could explain it’? After reading the book, you will be able to explain it. And you will be the defender of your own principles.”
