Libertarians From The United States

"“We're making a mountain out of a mole hill. We're creating laws. We're trying to deal with this. Deal with the obvious: We do not seem as a nation to be able to solve this problem the way we've been approaching it.”"

"“I've advocated, people, follow the money if you want to find out what's going to happen after any one of these individuals are elected. Follow the money, because it's politics as usual is what you're seeing.”"

"COOPER: How many people here a private jet or a chartered jet to get here tonight? GRAVEL: I took the train…"

"“Iran's not a problem, never has been, never will be. What you're seeing right here is something very unique, very courageous. What the intelligence community has done is drop-kicked the president of the United States. These are people of courage that have watched what the president is doing, onrush to war with Iran. And so by releasing this information, which is diametrically opposed to the estimate that was given in '05 by showing that there is no information to warrant what the White House has been doing, they have now boxed in the president in his ability to go to war. So, my hat is off to these courageous people within the bureaucrats — bureaucracy of the intelligence community.”"

"“The Democratic Party used to stand for the ordinary working man. But the Clintons and the DLC sold out the Democratic Party to Wall Street. Look at where all the money is being raised right now, for Hillary, Obama and Edwards. It's the hedge funds, it's Wall Street bankers, it's the people who brought you what you have today. Please wake up. Just look at the New York Times of the 17th of July that analyzes where the money's coming from.”"

"“We don't need a minimum wage; we need a living wage. We don't have that in this country because of what they passed.”"

"“George Bush's oil war was a mistake. We need to stop killing Americans and Iraqis. Been around since the beginning of time. It's not a war. It should be a police action based on global intelligence. It's the most serious problem facing humanity today.”"

"“The tremendous increase in their defense. They're only 10 percent of American defense. They haven't had a tremendous increase. Ten percent of our defense. And I want to take all of them to task. Clearly, none of them are running for China — president of China — because this amount of demagoguery is shameful. Here, the Chinese people have a problem. And when we continue this rhetoric of beggar thy neighbor, where our interests always come first, there should be the interests of human beings, the interests of human beings.”"

"“Well, the first thing that you would do is to realize that terrorism is not a war. Our war on terrorism makes no sense. We've had -- (interrupted by applause) -- we've had terrorism since the beginning of civilization, and we'll have it to the end of civilization.”"

"“I'm first-generation American. My parents came here like many of your parents, and I spoke French before I could speak English as a child. And my parents carved out -- my dad was very humble, didn't have a third-grade education, but he was able to work and prosper in this country, and so I honor anybody that comes to this country as an immigrant, because we're all immigrants. There's been nobody else but the Indians in this great land.”"

"“Totally. I think it's abominable that they go out and do these raids, separate families. (Applause.) Stop and think -- all these people want to do is earn enough money to feed their families, whether they send them money back home or they bring their families here. If we made it easier for them to go back and forth on the borders, you wouldn't have this problem.”"

"“Is it a surprise to anybody in this room that if you don’t have any money, you don’t get any justice? (Laughter.) Is that a surprise to you all? (Applause.) My gracious, the only way you’re going to get justice is to turn around and empower yourselves to become lawmakers so you can change the system, and there’s no thought of really changing the system today. It’s politics as usual. (Applause.)”"

"“Education? Yes. Health care? Yes. But understand that the health care that we’re talking about, by and large, is going backwards, going backwards. We’re subsidizing the insurance companies. And all the plans that I’ve heard of, except Dennis’s, is a continued subsidization of the insurance companies.”"

"“No, outsourcing is not the problem. What is the problem is our trade agreements that we have that benefit the management and, of course, the shareholders, and have neglected on either side of the issue, whether it’s in Mexico or in other countries or the United States. That’s the problem that must be addressed.”"

"“I am embarrassed at the thought of building a wall on the southern border. (Cheers, applause.) Embarrassed. And I want to tell you, you don't know the fence that's in Canada. You don't -- I just recently went to Canada. I went into Canada, it took me three seconds. Coming out took two hours. Two hours in line to get back into our country. Something is wrong. We need to stop scapegoating people. People come here because they want to feed their families because they're starving in other locations. We need a foreign policy that addresses the entire Western Hemisphere in this regard.”"

"“Because when you have a foreign policy that's beggar thy neighbor, we all become beggars. And so when they talk about the currency of China, what about the — what manipulations we do? What about the American companies that dump things abroad?”"

"When the industry that profits from health care calls the shots on the way health care is going to be delivered, then you are going to see the anomalous situation that you have in this country where they can’t even deliver it to everybody fairly.""

"The only way you’re going to pay for it is not by saddling business. All you do by forcing business to pay for health care or passing a law telling people they have to go buy insurance, which is a subsidy for the insurance companies, all these plans are going backwards."

""If things are going bad, just remember who put these people in power. What I’m trying to say to you Americans, and that is you have to become empowered. You’re too busy trusting your leaders, thinking they’re going to do the job for you. They’ve proven they cannot do the job, whether it’s war, whether it’s education, whether it’s health care. Please go to nationalinitiative.us and vote to empower yourself. Because that is the only answer. Representative government and our government is broken. It’s in pieces, and the people are the only ones that can do something about it. There’s only two venues for change. One is the government, where the problem lies, and the other is with the American people. And that’s the message of my campaign, is the American people have to step forward and solve the problem. Don’t wait on your leaders, because they’ll never get the job done.”"

"The country is run by corporate America, particularly the military-industrial complex, the medical-industrial complex, and we do nothing about it. Look at this election and it’s all money. Follow the money, and you’ll find out what you’re going to get in the way of leadership"

"“No, we are failing, and it’s our leadership that’s failing, and the American people, if they had the power to make laws in partnership with representative government, they could correct this.""

"“Well, we’re failing our children, and let me give the figure, how bad it is. 30%, one-third of our children, do not graduate from high school, and that’s a good number. I’ve been in parts of the country where it’s 40%. We’re failing? Of course, we’re failing. How can we not fail when we make the No. 1 priority in this country the military-industrial complex? We’re spending more money on our defense than all of the rest of the world put together. There’s no money left to make what should be the No. 1 priority, and that’s education.”"

"“Stop and think. When he’s talking about the money we’re squandering. 21 million Americans could have a four-year college scholarship for the money we’ve squandered in Iraq. 7.6 million teachers could have been hired last year if we weren’t squandering this money. Now, how do you think we got into this problem? The people on this stage, like the rest of us, are all guilty and very guilty, and we should recognize that, because there is linkage!”"

"“It’s easy to get the troops out. But what are you doing to address the problems, and what are you doing to address the problems you’re leaving behind. I would go to Iran, I would go to Syria, I would go to Saudi Arabia, I would go to Israel, and Russians and Chinese, but primarily the regional group, and say, ‘We screwed up. We screwed up. Help us solve this problem’. So now, that takes a lot of leadership to admit that we’ve made a mistake. And that is one of the primary problems with the legacy of Vietnam: that as a nation, we never admitted the moral wrong.” -- On the comparison between the Iraq War and the Vietnam War. Interview."

"“How the hell do you think I was able to stop the draft with a five month filibuster? I’m a good tactician! And here’s how you do it Chris. You know that he’s going to veto it, so you get 2/3rds vote to override his veto!” — Being questioned on the viability of passing anti-war legislation. Interview."

"“First off, what’s wrong with Iran acquiring nuclear devices. Truthfully, look at it. We’ve got ‘em. China’s got ‘em. India’s got ‘em. Anybody’s who’s afraid of us has got them." -- On Iran’s Nuclear Program. Interview."

"Chris Matthews: “Where have you been for 35 years, sir?” Mike Gravel: “Hiding under a rock for ten years because I was so disgusted.” -- On Gravel's hiatus from politics. Interview."

"“Because they are running for office and it’s politics as usual, business as usual. And they don’t want to rock the boat! They don’t want to rock the boat! And so they just dance around the issues and they’ll keep on doing so long as you in the media keep lifting them up. Does that answer your question Chris?” — On being asked why the media does not challenge Democrats on ending the Iraq War. Interview."

"“What we’ve got to have is a law! A law, not a resolution, a law.. A law that says that if you don’t get out of Iraq, what you’ve got to do is prosecute the President criminally for disobeying the law!” — On how his views on the Iraq War differed from then-candidate Obama’s. Interview."

"Well, I don’t enjoy running for president. I’m running for president because I don’t know of anybody around that’s prepared to end this war. And it should be ended. And the sooner we can pull American troops out, as soon as possible. And it can be done in 120 days, Charlie. And what we can then do is begin an aggressive diplomacy. And that would mean to go to Iran, go to Saudi Arabia, go to Syria. And tell these people, help us restabilize the region that we destabilized, and tell them we made a mistake in doing this. A tragic mistake, and it puts the whole world at risk of a possible nuclear confrontation."

"“The scourge of our present society, particularly in the African-American community, is the war on drugs. I’ll repeat again as a challenge to my colleagues on this stage, that if they really want to do something about the inner cities, if they really want to do something about what’s happening to the health of the African-American community, it’s time to end this war.”"

"“Hasn't it become obvious in this discussion that there has to be a reason why over the last 15 years we haven't solved this problem as a nation? Stop and think. Our unemployment level is about 4.5, and that's about as low as you can get it. So, where is the problem? We have to have people fill these jobs. They come in and fill these jobs. We call them illegal. Are they illegal? They're filling jobs that need to be done.”"

"“But that’s before I had a chance to stand with them a couple of three times. It’s like the Senate. You go there and you say, ‘How the hell did I get here?’ You stay there six months, and you say, ‘How the hell did the rest of them get here?’” — On Gravel's intent to win the Presidency. Speech."

""George Bush communicated over a year ago that we would not leave there until he left office. What, do we not believe him? … How do you get out? You pass a law. Not a resolution, a law, making it a felony to be there." — On Gravel's plan to pull out of Iraq. Speech."

"“I gotta tell you, we should just plain get out - it’s their country, they're asking us to leave, and we insist on staying there! And why not get out?” — On the Iraq War. Speech."

"Stephen Moore is a particularly poor choice for the Federal Reserve Board. He appears more devoted to pursuing a far-right economic agenda than willing to understand the complexity of economic policy."

"This is the first genuinely bad Trump pick for the Fed. He hasn’t gotten a thing right in twenty years, (check the record), and the Senate should not confirm him. Here’s my challenge to any informed voter of any partisan leaning: call your favorite economist. Whether they’re left, right, libertarian or socialist, none of them will endorse Stephen Moore for the Fed. He’s manifestly unqualified....By the way, and I’m totally serious about this—I think Ivanka would be a better pick for the Fed than Stephen Moore."

"This is truly an appalling appointment. An ideologue, charlatan, and hack. Frankly so bad the putatively serious economists in Trump administration should resign as matter of honor."

"“You know what's worse than a soldier dying in vain? It's more soldiers dying in vain.” — On staying in Iraq. Speech."

"The Fed is a disaster. We should have a discussion in this country about whether we need a Fed."

"I am not an expert on monetary policy."

"I’m kind of new to this game, frankly, so I’m going to be on a steep learning curve myself about how the Fed operates, how the Federal Reserve makes its decisions. It’s hard for me to say even what my role will be there, assuming I get confirmed."

"No Women. How outrageous is this? This year they allowed a woman ref a men’s NCAA game. Liberals celebrate this breakthrough as a triumph for gender equity. The NCAA has been touting this as example of how progressive they are. I see it as an obscenity. Is there no area in life where men can take vacation from women? What’s next? Women invited to bachelor parties? Women in combat? (Oh yeah, they’ve done that already.) Why can’t women ref he women’s games and men the men’s games. I can't wait to see the first lady ref have a run in with Bobby Knight.... Here’s the rule change I propose: No more women refs, no women announcers, no women beer venders, no women anything. There is, of course, an exception to this rule. Women are permitted to participate, if and only if, they look like Bonnie Bernstein. The fact that Bonnie knows nothing about basketball is entirely irrelevant. Bonnie Bernstein should wear a halter top. This is a no-brainer, CBS. What in the world are you waiting for?"

"Colleges are places for rabble-rousing. For men to lose their boyhood innocence. To do stupid things. To stay out way too late drinking. To chase skirts. (At the University of Illinois, we used to say that the best thing about Sunday nights was sleeping alone.) It’s all a time-tested rite of passage into adulthood. And the women seemed to survive just fine. If they were so oppressed and offended by drunken, lustful frat boys, why is it that on Friday nights they showed up in droves in tight skirts to the keg parties?"

"Capitalism is a lot more important than democracy. I'm not even a big believer in democracy. I always say that democracy can be two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner."

"What makes peewee soccer particularly insidious is that boys and girls play together. The left has converted this sport into a giant social experiment imposed upon us by the geniuses that have put women in combat in the military. No one seems to care much that co-ed sports is doing irreparable harm to the psyche of America’s little boys. At this pre-puberty state of life girls tower over the boys and typically have greater coordination. Last year the Pele of my son’s league was a kindergartner named Kate Lynn—Secretariat in pig tails. During one game, Kate Lynn stampeded over Justin repeatedly, which, of course, did wonders for his fledgling self-esteem. After the third knockdown, I quietly pulled him aside and advised: “Remember that rule about never hitting a girl. Let’s suspend that for the next 40 minutes.” But he never did because she was bigger than he was. If the girls are bad, the moms are worse. They berate the referees. Taunt opposing players. Nag the coach unmercifully to put their no-talent kid back in."

"We have got to get rid of the Federal Reserve and move toward a gold standard in this country."

"We have courts overturning the will of the people in state after state on issues like gay marriage and if you are — God forbid — for traditional marriage and refuse to bake the cake, you are chastised as a bigot."

"I’m a radical on this; I’d get rid of a lot of these child labour laws. I want people starting to work at 11, 12."

"The women tennis pros don’t really want equal pay for equal work. They want equal pay for inferior work. There's a very practical reason why Pete Sampras, for example, makes a lot more money than Martina Hingis does. He's much, much better than she is. The day that Martina can return Pete's serve is the day she should get paid what he does. If there is an injustice in tennis, it’s that women like Martina Hingis and Monica Seles make millions of dollars a year, even though there are hundreds of men at the collegiate level (assuming their schools haven’t dropped the sport) who could beat them handily."