Subsidies
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Status Quo Option: Keep the Existing Plank. For all platform categories
we have the option of doing nothing; that is accepting what the LP already
has.
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The LP Platform Currently Reads
The Issue: The unrestricted competition
of the free market is the best way to foster prosperity.
The Principle: In order to achieve a free
economy, in which government victimizes no one for the benefit of any other,
we oppose all government subsidies to business, labor, education, agriculture,
science, broadcasting, the arts, sports, or any other special interest. In
particular, we condemn any effort to forge an alliance between government
and business under the guise of "reindustrialization" or "industrial policy."
Relief or exemption from taxation or from any other involuntary government
intervention, however, should not be considered a subsidy.
Solutions: We call for the abolition of
the Federal Financing Bank, the most important national agency subsidizing
special interests with government loans. We also oppose all government guarantees
of so-called private loans. Such guarantees transfer resources to special
interests as effectively as actual government expenditures and, at the national
level, exceed direct government loans in total amount. Taxpayers must never
bear the cost of default upon government-guaranteed loans. All national,
state and local government agencies whose primary function is to guarantee
loans -- including the Federal Housing Administration, the Rural Electrification
Administration and the Small Business Administration -- must be abolished
or privatized. Furthermore, the loans of government-sponsored enterprises,
even when not guaranteed by the government, constitute another form of subsidy.
All such enterprises -- the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, the Federal
National Mortgage Association, the Farm Credit Administration, and the Student
Loan Marketing Association -- must either be abolished or completely privatized.
Transitional Action: We oppose any resumption
of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, or any similar plan that would
force the taxpayer to subsidize or sustain any enterprise.
[If you think the current LP position on this subject is acceptable, then
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vs. comments about particular proposals.)
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