Fredrik Coulter: Difference between revisions

Fred describes himself as an '''incrementalist'''.  He doesn't concern himself with the debates between anarchists, minarchists, limited government conservatists, fiscal conservatives, or other strains of libertarianism.  He isn't concerned about the final goal of the party, just that it's in the direction of significantly smaller government.  Also, as an incrementalist, he doesn't plan on a Great Leap Forward, rather focusing on a series of political battles shrinking the government.  In general, he is not a believer in "this first, then that" policy development.  The primary exception to this is in the realm of government finance.  He feels that cutting taxes cannot occur prior to cutting spending.  The deficit which occurs when taxes are lower than spending is merely a deferral of taxes, not a reduction of taxes.  As such, any focus on lowering revenues to the government prior to cutting spending is merely a postponement of taxes which will eventually need to be collected plus interest.

Despite his desire to significantly shrink the size of government, there is one area in which he would like to see additional spending.  That's in the area of space exploration and settlement.  While he supports all private activities in this area, he also supports governmental action in this area.  He describes it as a many eggs, many baskets approach.  In addition to the romance of exploration, he also feels that government grows less when there's a frontier for citizens to yearn for.  The growth in the size of the federal government which occurred after the closure of the American frontier is evidence of this.