What is a Libertarian?

My Mom faxed this article from today's USA Today from Rand Paul, who is running for the US Senate in Kentucky. I know nothing about him other than this article and I heard/read somewhere that he recently said some silly things that seemed bigoted. Not judging on that 'stuff' or even commenting on it, but really read that article and tell me where you can find much fault?

Personally, I think that the Government is causing a lot of our issues right now. Most of my economic commentary is found on my Economics blog, but this one is a bit more Political. Yes, the Economy is kind of 'stuck' right now. But think of this-would YOU want to hire anyone right now? There are so many governmental regulations coming down the road, such as the health care legislation. There are rumblings about raising the minimum wage (actually, indexing the minimum wage with inflation, which will serve to raise the wage). The "George Bush Tax Cuts" are set to expire and that may have some effect on hiring (I have read articles on both sides of this; some 'Pro-expiration' and some 'Anti-expiration' and both sides actually have merit).

With the Government takeover of Wall Street companies as well as at GM we have unprecedented meddling into private enterprise (ditto for the new 'banking bill'). Oh, and evil BP had to cough up $20B (that's the big B for Billion) 'up front' for the disaster in the Gulf--while it may be warranted ($3B has been paid out I believe) it's bizarre to see a Government go after a Company in this manner. What I'm trying to say is that there is too much Government interference in our lives. Even the most Liberal among us can admit that SOMETHING in their life has been affected by Governmental regulations--to their detriment. How about LESS Government?

You can blame 'de-regulation' for many economic woes; you can blame too little oversight for the mortgage meltdown--if you dig a little deeper it's not just Wall Street that's to blame--try our Government and the 'goal' of putting more people in houses dating back to the late 1990's. That's a self-serving goal for me as well (as a real estate attorney and as the son of a builder) but some of these buyers weren't ready for home ownership (or had loans that were higher than they should have had, etc.). I guess look at it this way--if you made $3000 per month, would you try to take on a mortgage that would be $2800 per month? If you wanted to walk everywhere, have no money for furnishings or entertainment and eat Ramen noodles daily, maybe you would go for that deal. I would think that would be setting up a failure!

Try taking this quiz--you may find out you are a Libertarian as well! (I was!) Does that mean that we all want to legalize marijuana (one of the Libertarian Party's stated platform items)? Not really, but "Less Government" is the main focus for me--is the Libertarian Party or Tea Party "THE" answer? Not so much. But I am certainly NOT a Democrat and I don't feel the Republicans have truly represented me at all in the last several years, so where to go? THAT's the main Q I have. Sigh...