I, Phil Maymin, will always vote to protect your freedom:

Protect our borders No amnesty for illegals.
Protect your privacy No fishing expeditions.
Protect your property No gov't land grabs.
Protect your money No gov't waste.
Protect your dignity No toilet regulations.
Protect your health No bans on medicine.
Protect your life No nation-building wars.

Stealing is wrong.

If I had just one sentence to summarize my Libertarian philosophy, it would be that stealing is wrong. In today's world that seems to have been forgotten. Congressmen debating bills focus only on where the money is going. Should we give aid to poor people in foreign countries? Should we give companies tax breaks to promote research and development? These sound like noble causes but they ignore the simple fact that they are being funded at the point of a gun.

Suppose circumstances are such that you steal a crumb from a baker to feed a starving child. Would you feel that the baker owed it to you? Or would you feel guilty because you know that you are still stealing? You wouldn't make the choice lightly because you know that stealing is wrong. Certainly you wouldn't do it repeatedly, as a matter of policy, spanning several generations. If someone else stole to support a child, we would be right to pity them, not to honor them or praise them. Certainly we wouldn't vote for them.

Note that in this situation the person doing the stealing has absolutely no money left of his own to donate to the cause he believes in, namely, a child's life. A person who urges an increase in taxes to feed starving children has no moral right to do so until and unless he has spent his entire wealth on it himself. Rich celebrities and businessmen who urge greater taxes have absolutely no moral authority because they are trying to steal from you rather than spend their own money. If they want to take 30% of your income to support a particular cause such as welfare or social security, unless they have already spent 100% of their entire wealth on the same cause, they are nothing more than thieves.

Taxes steal money. Wars of aggression steal lives. Laws invading our civil liberties steal our privacy. Allowing illegal aliens access to government funding -- which is what all the amnesty fuss is all about -- increases the number of people who are stealing from the taxpayers.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

No other candidate for Congress in CT's 4th district can promise to always vote against stealing. Why? Because they need to steal. The basics of politics is to promise lavish luxuries for most paid for by taxes on the few. Such a strategy can earn the support of some people but the majority of us will simply sit home and not vote for the lesser of two evils, because we know stealing is wrong, and we wish to keep far from evil.

Now you have a choice. Now you can vote for a candidate who agrees with you that stealing is wrong and will always vote against it.

Cut taxes.

I will always vote to cut any and all taxes, including estate taxes, income taxes, payroll taxes, Social Security taxes, corporate taxes, dividend taxes, gas taxes, and death taxes.

Nobody has the right to steal your money. What's even worse is that the traditional system of taxing the few to pay for the votes of the many means your children will be victims of the stealing, because they do not get to keep what money they earn if they are successful. Now you can use your vote to give your children a pay raise.

A pay raise for your children.

Perhaps it is too late for us. Perhaps our generation will die as slaves, paying taxes, sacrificing our lives, and surrounded by the red tape of invasive laws. But we want better for our children. 

You can give them a pay raise. If the income tax is 33%, and of course it is much larger than that now, then for every $100 your child earns, he only keeps $67. Bringing that back up to $100 increases your child's take-home pay by half. If the income tax is 50%, which for residents of Connecticut's Fairfield County is probably a closer approximation to the total bill, then by removing those taxes you can actually double your child's take-home pay.

Think about that: you can double your child's take-home pay. Not just for a year but for the rest of his life.

What can he do with the extra money? For one, he can help take care of you. Wouldn't you rather be supported by the extra income of your loving family in your old age than by the government? For another, perhaps he can stay home more often. If he raises a family of his own, one of the parents could afford to stay home, or they could both work but fewer hours and be home more with their children. Your grandchildren.

Of course, he can give that money to charities of his choice, charities that will actually thank him for his contributions, charities that help him sleep well at night, knowing he has contributed to a greater world.

And finally, he can just spend it or waste it or throw it away. He can get a massage, or a great meal, or a boat, or whatever else he wants. He can spend it all on candy. He can bury it at sea or use it to make paper airplanes. Because it is his money after all, to do with as he pleases. That choice is the essence of freedom.

Bring our troops home.

I will always vote to bring all of our troops home, from Iraq, from Afghanistan, from Germany, from Korea, from Japan, from everywhere. We should not be readying to fight massive global wars. We should be focusing on defending our borders. Our military exists for one reason only: because stealing is wrong.

Our military exists to prevent other nations and groups from stealing American property, including lives. Internal wars within other countries and external wars between other countries are not the concern of the federal government unless they pose an immediate threat of attack to American property or lives.

Individuals and citizens should be free to support whichever side of whichever battles they wish, and only if they so wish, but only as private citizens.

Specific threats can be dealt with in specific, targeted ways such as strategic strikes. When American property or lives are threatened, then we must respond, but not until then, and not after we have protected our interests.

Our military should respond only when we are at war and it is obvious beyond a shadow of a reasonable doubt who the enemy is and how we need to fight him. Our justice system sets the bar at reasonable doubt for a criminal conviction. We need a higher bar for war.

Here's a simple rule of thumb: if the war cannot be fought by unpaid volunteers, then it ought not be fought at all.

You'd fight for free against an enemy on your doorstep. But if you're going halfway around the world, you'd probably expect either wages or bounty. I will always vote against government-run mercenary wars.

Roll back invasive laws.

I will always vote to roll back invasive laws, and to punish lawmakers who bend the law to suit their whim. Warrants are not mere formalities but a vital part of the justice system. No mere wave of the presidential pen should let a government agency listen to your phone calls or read your emails or log your activity in any other way. But restrictive legislation does not only mean invasions of privacy. All sorts of regulations have been enacted under the fiction of protecting the consumer or the end user. Licensing restrictions, employment law, and a bevy of regulations keep many small businesses from flourishing, from hiring freely, and sometimes from even being formed at all. Americans should be able to communicate and make contracts with other Americans without the federal government getting involved. Otherwise we are all effectively prisoners who have the illusion of freedom because we can vote for the warden. I will always vote to release you.

Illegal aliens are illegal.

There are many problems with granting amnesty to illegal aliens, not the least of which is it would ultimately entitle them to receive your money, whether through welfare, Social Security, Medicare, housing assistance, or any of the myriad other ways the federal government redistributes your wealth. And that's wrong. Our nation should be able to decide what kind of foreigners and how many it allows in. Why do we keep out talented doctors, scientists, and artists yet grant amnesty to those who enter and work illegally?

The fact that there are twelve million of them does not make it right. Otherwise, does that mean once the number of violators of any given law exceeds a certain threshold, the criminals should start talking about amnesty?

The American government exists to protect American interests and liberties. Free migration is one of those liberties. It does not exist to protect Mexican interests and liberties. American citizens should be free to travel to and from America as they please but we owe no duty to let in anybody else.

I will always vote to close our borders to illegal aliens. To the maximum extent possible whether by humans or technology, our borders should be secure and impenetrable. Those who have already entered the country illegally deserve no more amnesty or rights to citizenship for their hard work than would a factory worker in China or Mexico. If they are here illegally, they must be arrested or deported or both. Until and unless they are Americans, the government we pay for owes them no duty.

Change the agenda.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do by voting for me is to change the agenda in Washington. The questions should always be: is this worth funding by stealing? Most of the time the answer will be no. Sometimes, far more rarely than it has been, the answer will be yes, and the reason will be: because stealing is wrong. The American government must protect American property, American lives, and American liberties. It must never sacrifice them for the benefit of non-Americans. Because that would be stealing, and stealing is wrong.

Next steps. Feel free.

Do you have a comment? Feel free to contact the campaign using the Contact link or speak out publicly in our forum by using the Forum link.

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Do you want to contribute? Feel free to donate to the campaign using the Contribute link.

Do you want to vote for me? Be sure you are a registered voter in one of the 17 towns in Connecticut's Fourth Congressional District. Then feel free to come out on November 7, 2006 and vote.

Most importantly, feel free.