Libertarian Candidate Hopes To Have An Impact

LANSING, Mich. (AllPolitics, April 23) -- Leading Libertarian Party candidate Harry Browne told a gathering here today Americans are ready for his message since "the anti-government revolution has been going on for 25 years."

Forget about block grants and the flat tax. Browne would eliminate sales taxes, the income tax, federal welfare and junk Social Security. In fact, whatever parts of the federal government left standing would be funded mostly by sales of government assets, says senior Browne aide Jack Dean.

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"We want to throw the engine away and replace it with a smaller one," Browne told The Detroit News. "The other parties want to look under the hood and tinker with the engine."

Browne, a business writer, has campaigned mainly over the radio, bringing his message of radical government downsizing to numerous talk-shows each week. He hopes he can capture as much as 15 percent to 20 percent, which he predicts would "change politics in this country forever," since "that means whoever lost the election will have lost it because I was in it."

While that seems a bit over-optimistic, given the likely candidacy of Texas billionaire Ross Perot, the Libertarian Party continues to make modest strides, seeing its dues-paying membership jump 44 percent since 1992 to some 14,000 today.

Related Story:

• Who's On Third -- April 2, 1996

Related Site:

• The Libertarian Party

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