Medicaid and Medicare both need to be devolved to the states.
— Gary Johnson
Imagine a libertarian president challenging Congress to repeal the PATRIOT Act.
I'm a plodder, one foot in front of the other. Life is all about understanding that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And it's your ability with how you deal with that adversity that ultimately affects your success.
America is big enough to accommodate differences of opinion and practice on religious and social beliefs. As a nation and as a society, we must reject discrimination, forcefully and without asterisks. Most importantly, as president, I will zealously defend the Constitution of the United States and all of its amendments.
Given the divisiveness and pain that have accompanied several state religious freedom laws, I approach attempts at legislating religious exceptions to anti-discrimination laws with great sensitivity and care.
I majored in political science and English, but starting from the age of 17, I've paid for everything that I've had in my life. It was a personal choice. My parents would have helped me in any way whatsoever, but for me, you know what? I can make my own way.
I am totally a fringe candidate, and so is Bill Weld: you know, two Republican governors serving in heavily blue states, outspoken, small government guys, outspoken on the social liberal side. We're fringe, totally. We're fringe.
We need to understand the difference between freedom of religion - which is absolutely guaranteed and I would fervently defend. Sharia law is politics; it's not religion. If you say that a woman is voluntarily going to be of lesser value than a man, which is in sharia law, can we allow that?
One of the biggest concerns that many voters have with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but particularly with Ms. Clinton, is the sense that she uses government power to advance her personal and political interests. She is the very status quo. Americans want that changed.
I'm one of the people that, when I hear Republicans talk about repealing Obamacare, I just want to roll my eyes. Republicans talk about reform to the healthcare, and they talk about selling insurance across state lines, and that's their solution?
In New Mexico... I may have vetoed more legislation as governor of New Mexico than all the other governors in the country combined.
Millennials - who will soon be a full one-third of American adults - may be especially ready to become engaged in politics with a candidate who wants to give them a government that will leave them alone and get its finances in order so that they don't inherit an economic collapse.
It is long overdue that we have a woman as a legitimate contender for the White House. But Hillary Clinton is the definition of the establishment so many are determined to reject.
Do I favor the death penalty? Theoretically, I do, but when you realize that there's a 4 percent error rate, you end up putting guilty people to death.
If we had zero corporate tax in this country, tens of millions of jobs would get created in this country for no other reason.
I think we should balance the federal budget tomorrow. I'm optimistic. I think Americans are optimistic. We went to the moon; we can balance the federal budget.
I agree that the two-party system stomps on any kind of competition. A great first step is to open the presidential debates to all qualified candidates, including the Libertarians. If that happens, the Libertarian party will experience unprecedented growth.
I think a great starting point for a debate and discussion over a national consumption tax is, let's start with the Fair Tax, legislation that has been written up and, I think, signed up on by 80 congressmen and women.
Imagine a libertarian president ending impediments to free markets.
New Mexico is the second Hollywood. No, it is, it is. They built all sorts of film studios.
I believe we can, and must, strike a balance between our shared American values of religious liberty and freedom from discrimination. My concerns lie with the possible consequences of politically-driven legislation which claims to promote religious liberty but instead rolls back the legal protections held by LGBT Americans.
I would abolish the federal Department of Education and very quickly. People don't realize that the federal Department of Education gives each state 11 cents out of every school dollar that every state spends. But it comes with 15 cents worth of strings attached.
We are a nation of immigrants, and if the truth be known, don't we need a whole lot of immigrants to be buying homes and to drive our economy and to take jobs that U.S. citizens don't want?
There's no way that a third party wins without being in the presidential debates. I think the vast majority of Americans are Libertarian; they just don't know it.
Hillary - at the end of the day, isn't that going to be about bigger government? Isn't that going to be about more taxes?
Our government should not be spying on the electronic communications of American citizens. Nor should our iPhones or Android devices be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures.
I think Hillary is going to be more hawkish perhaps than Obama. Perhaps more hawkish than Trump. Trump, though, is really a windshield wiper. He says one thing that makes sense and then says something that doesn't make sense.
If China wants to spend $10 producing a product and sell it for a buck, who benefits from that? I think we do. I'm the free market guy. I think free markets work.
I had my freedom, and I had my comfortable life, but I couldn't accept the fact that the politicians were making it increasingly difficult for my kids and millions of others to achieve their dreams as I had achieved mine. So, in 2012, I ran for president.
I think there are plenty of Libertarians that are socially conservative.
If Clinton is elected or if Trump is going to get elected, I think the polarization in Congress will be greater than ever. Nothing is going to get done. It is going to be so ugly, so partisan, so back-biting. Well what if you elect a couple of Libertarians?
If I could wave a magic wand, we would eliminate income tax; we would eliminate corporate tax. We would abolish the IRS, and we could replace all of it with one federal consumption tax.
One of the things government should be around for is to deal with catastrophes. It should do that well. To me, that's a government function, and we shouldn't be playing political games with it.
My fear is that people associate Rand Paul's social conservatism with libertarianism, when it's not.
Imagine a libertarian president challenging Congress for meaningful immigration reform.
I don't think you can climb Mount Everest with a broken leg, but I did break my leg prior to going to Mount Everest, so I was really climbing with a healing broken leg. I had the good fortune of climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. That was a goal that I had.
It costs more money to put a person on death row than it does to lock them up for the rest of their lives because of attorney fees.
Religious beliefs have played a vital role in forming America's character as well as my own. I was raised as a Lutheran, and I believe in God and consider my faith and involvement with organized religion to be an important part of who I am.
I'm not a stone-thrower when it comes to Hillary Clinton and her emails and her server. I don't think there has been criminal intent on Hillary Clinton's part. I don't see an indictment.
At the end of the day, Democrats go out and appeal to 30 percent of the far left; Republicans go out and appeal to 30 percent of the far right. Hey, there's a big middle ground here that's not represented. I think that, Bill Weld and myself, I think the Libertarian Party really occupies that ground.
With regard to Trump, he's saying some things that I just think are ridiculous and would disqualify any other candidate.
Having been governor of New Mexico, I know that legislation gets passed to benefit those who have money and influence. Then they buy more money and influence. That's one reason why, as governor, I vetoed more than 750 bills and thousands of line items. I did it to keep crony capitalism away from government.
I was the Republican governor of the heavily Democratic state of New Mexico. I focused on good government, and I got it done - just like my running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld. The people of New Mexico reelected me by a comfortable margin. Ditto for Weld.
On Hillary's side, I don't think it gets more establishment than Hillary Clinton. If I had one word to describe Hillary, it would be 'beholden.' Nothing's gonna really change. Government's gonna have the answer to everything, and that's gonna mean taxes are gonna go up.
My opinion, having done this now for two cycles, is I think the national media really likes me and likes what I have to say. But, at the end of the day, 'He's a Libertarian,' and that denotes some loose screws, maybe.
I have had the good fortune to be able to climb the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. I have enjoyed the freedom I had gained from building a successful business from scratch, making some money, and creating the lifestyle I wanted.
I just see religious freedom, as a category, as just being a black hole.
I hear that Donald Trump is watching the Olympics tonight. He's seeing how high the Mexican pole vaulters go.
We should be open to a discussion on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. I don't know how that manifests itself, but I'm looking to get elected president of the United States. I just want to let people know I have an open mind about how we might - how government might - interject itself in a lot of the problems we have.
I reject the insurance model. I think we should have a free-market approach to healthcare.
