Give Us Liberty? Q&A with Dick Armey & Matt Kibbe of Freedom Works

Liberals advocate control of your economic freedom, Conservatives advocate control of your personal freedom. Both are Statist. Right now the Republicans are being held accountable by the Tea Party, so to me they are DEFINITELY the better choice between the two.

I hate big government...

Nick Gillespie really asked some tough questions right from the beginning. Good job guys. Don't let the big guys in DC off the hook so easy. I like it. Give them a challenging interview.

Hey, guys. Tell us about the Koch brothers and how much money you guys have taken from them. Hello? Is this mic on? Hello? I want to hear it from Kibbe and Armey - "FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity are not supported by money from the Koch brothers or any of their organizations." If this proves to be true I will listen to them. Otherwise, they are corporate puppeteers using hate and fear to manipulate a justifiably angry audience.

@S1aptasticSquadalah Exactly, you dont see much opposition to the Patriot Act or our clusterfuck foreign policy from the Palin, Beck, and Bachmann crowds. Its only from Ron Paul's faction.

I hope that Tea Party will somehow take down Harry Reid. If they can do it, that would be a victory for all Americans.

Next time, please ask Mr. Armey not to get sauced right before the interview.

The tea party movement had been hijacked. It's gone from a libertarian movement to a neo-con movement.

@priorzola That's funny, I know many gained liberty and personal freedom and certain extend of the law by SUING the big-fat government using the Constitution as their weapon and won. I don't remember any socialist inspired or progressive movements until communists started claiming EVERYTHING to their credit. It's a good idea to bring back the "property for vote" thing. Too many sleazy communists are using democracy to undermine the Republic, raised taxes, and ran the country into a shit hole.

@newyorkairsoft there is no such thing as 100% morality. That is a Judeo-Christian fallacy based on the false concept of absolutes. There is nothing that 100% MORAL for everyone at every moment. There was nothing MORAL about slavery or the perpetuation of third world de facto slavery (done in the name of capitalism and profit) to this day. Stop hiding your failed ideology behind implacable symbols of morality or patriotism. All the symbols in the world won't disguise libertarianisms failures.

@newyorkairsoft That's funny, because between the purchase of the Lousiana Purchase and their invoking of WE THE PEOPLE (as in the COLLECTIVE) the Founding Fathers knew their way around socialism and the good that it can do for a nation to maintain it's unity. The only people expressly given personal liberty in the beginning of our nation were white males over 21 who owned property. All other gained the access to PERSONAL LIBERTY usually on the back of PROGRESSIVE & SOCIALIST INSPIRED movement.

@kamikazee55 Yes I think the Constitution does leave a lot to be desired, the Fathers believed that sooner or later, people will find abuses in all laws, so they can try their best to allow balance of power, even if sometimes it doesn't allow morality [say, freedom to sin as long as it doesn't harm others]. The Fathers armed us with the Cons; most "civilized" nations do not believe in personal liberty. They do not have a way to fight back to the rulers or socialists alike. They just follow.

@kamikazee55 It's not getting messy, it's getting clearer. Like I said, I am agreeing with a lot of what you said. I agree 100% morality is what laws should be based on, and that's what we lack today. Human is not perfect and incapable of creating or executing perfection. Human will find ways to abuse a law. The USA is founded as a Republic, so if ONE state screws itself 10x over, other states do not have to follow. When all states said "screw it," then we are truly screwed.

@kamikazee55 Like I said, I am not disagreeing with you on a lot of issues. I grew up in a communist state, and I am100 percent against it. Like I said, I agree with do not steal or murder. But a "law" can get complicated. If human is not perfect, how can we create a perfect law? Add a group of imperfection will just create more of the same. And the Founding Fathers understood that, hence they said, "to form a more perfect Union." It's not perfect, but they tried.

@kamikazee55 you can write a lot of morality propositions out there, and I'll agree with you. Do not steal, do not murder, etc. But "law" is more complicated: how do you ENFORCE it? What if someone stole? Do you punish him by taking back that amount? Or MORE? If less, that opens up incentives to steal. If you take back more, is that stealing in return? You also open up possibilities of abuse. Then a perfect law quickly becomes very flawed.

@kamikazee55 You didn't say "murder." You said, and I quote, "Do not take the life of another human. What is wrong with this law? Nothing." And you contradicted yourself there by saying "If it is for self defense then it wouldn't be murder." But you still took a human life, and supposedly under your first proposition, there's shouldn't be any gray spot in this law. Until you disagreed with yourself. Does that make FUCKING sense to you?

@drewstarr71 Right on and amen!

I reject sara palin, she is a female george w bush, just another idiot!!

Give all money and power and tax breaks to the East India Trading Company. Dick Armey = Rich's Army A leaderless movement with a lot of money flowing into it..... Hummmm follow the money find the leader.

These clowns are trying to steal Ron Paul's thunder. They are phonies. Ask them about the Patriot Act, they will scatter like roaches.

It is not a leaderless movement. it is a HEADLESS movement!!!

@fishsama999 Actually, let me rephrase that last statement. It's a de facto support. Nick is really good about bringing up those issues within the Tea Party movement. However, it doesn't feel like it's being pressed hard enough.

I'm really skeptical of the Tea Party. Most of the time, I'm just inclined to call them Neo-Cons afraid to say they're Neo-Cons in a post-Bush world. I'm all for their less government spending stance, but the amount of them that align themselves with Christian Fundamentalists and Muslim bashing idiots seems to be a much larger group than the small problem making minority that typically is present in large political groups. It really pisses me off that Reason TV keeps supporting them like this.

@kamikazee55 Oh, really, what if it's for self defense? Is it ok for the criminal to beat the living crap out of you, and if you kill him for self defense, should you put in prison because you took the life of another human? Now, if you wish to carry on a conversation, can you keep the Fucks and Shits to yourself? If not, then good day to you and your little quest to create a perfect society.

@kamikazee55 Oh, wow, I shouldn't act like I know shit about communism? Because why? You lived in a communist country before? I came from one, and it ain't nice. The idea is flawed, and people are flawed. It doesn't work.

@whoo689 Well the actual tea party of 1773 worked out alright in the end. The Revolution, after all, was essentially a tax revolt. The founding fathers, for all their wisdom were often in vicious disagreement about everything else. Slaves, Tariffs, the Banking and Monetary System, the need (or lack) of an Army, Indian relations, the breadth and scope of the federal government...etc. But they still had that core belief about self-determinism vis-a-vis taxation.

@whoo689 Creating a dependency on government is a form of abuse, for one thing. And of course it goes against freedom to have men demand "Give us X amount of your money so we can give it to what we want, otherwise men with guns will take you away." So the argument for freedom is two-fold, the freedom of the taxpayer and the freedom of the recipient, who would have more options and better, more efficient results without the government near monopoly of welfare.

I have zero faith on the mainstream tea party effectiveness, and even their sincerity. We will only have changes after we have a real collapse, like Greece.

These two are republicans, with a little libertarian rhetoric sprinkled in. They aren't libertarians, and they avoided really talking about the biggest waste of money - war and the defense department. They want to herd the tea party movement back into the republican fold, so they talk like fiscal conservatives, but it's all crap. These two money grubbing power lusting neocons in sheeps clothing are a waste of time.

FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity both originated from a campaign called Citizens for a Sound Economy, which split in two in 2004. CSE was set up by businessman David Koch, who has also promoted liberty and research organizations (Cato Institute and Reason Foundation).FreedomWorks is closely tied to its founder, corporate lobbyist and former Republican Congressman Dick Armey, whose former lobbying firm DLA Piper that he resigned in August 2009, represents Bristol Myers Squibb

@bigc028282 The CONs have co-opted the Tea Party movement.

You don't need to be a liberal, a conservative, a marxist, a communist, or a libertarian to understand what a deficit is. Spending money you don't have is spending money you don't have...end of discussion.

@Metalloveica We also have the 9th amendment which many forget says that the powers of the federal government can't be used to "disparage" those retained by the people. So that means that the interstate commerce clause can't be used to take rights away from the people or states. But, this is all academic unless the a great many Americans can come together and force their representatives to uphold their oaths to the constitution by voting out all of them who have voted against it.

@kamikazee55 Also, by writing the statement "the constitution is a piece of shit" you alienate many freedom advocates. I understand and accept that the constitution is flawed in that it does not explain itself, but it is probably one of the best tools that can be used to fight for freedom without the use of force which I consider abhorrent barring self defense.

@kamikazee55 You speak of "to regulate interstate commerce" right? Well, for this we have the 9th and 10th amendments. The states have to still be in compliance with the constitution, so they cannot pass laws that are incongruous with it. I agree, the framers should have defined what they really meant by "to regulate interstate commerce" which was "to make regular." The second amendment needs to be corrected as well, but the constitution is not "a piece of shit".

@kamikazee55 trying to have the "perfect law" and perfect society were exactly what give commies, and people like Karl Marx and Mao Zedong so much followers: they personally believe a progressive ideal and "make things more perfect" will lead to a utopia. And they believe in order to get there it's ok to destroy and trampled on others imperfect ideals. They usually failed, because they were usually the most flawed element in the equation.

@kamikazee55 why don't you try to write a law then. Unless you can write a perfect law, don't call the Constitution BS. It's the best I've seen. Even with a perfect law, it won't work because what the Founding Fathers understood is: PEOPLE are never perfect, and will find ways to bend a perfect law to their will. IE. 2A, it can't get more perfect, it shall not be infringed. But both sides find ways to infringe it. A perfect law is just as flawed when the people exercising it is imperfect.

Kibbe needs to kill those chops. he looks rediculous

@kamikazee55 I ain't calling it a perfect Constitution, but it's the best weapon there is, and it works, and it ain't shit. The commies are not using the Constitution, they are using the same old jealousy and democracy to undermine the Republic. USA is a republic, so even if some states failed, some will thrive. It's meant to be that way in a true republic. You will never find a perfect law on earth. Only a flawed law that allows the hope of an option can give people the energy to carry on.

A frightened and confused rabble being led by a lot of unscrupulous opportunists? How could I lose?! =D

The number one item spent for the Federal Government is inertest on the national debt. These guys don’t even talk about this. What fakes? The government should not be allowed to go into debt

@kamikazee55 If God ain't gonna save us, then we should make sure liberals and communists aren't gonna be there to get us. And the Constitution, inspired by God or not, is the best weapon against these zombies.

Why are teabaggers permitted to be on "reason tv." Tea Party Repubs are insane. Anyone who advocates for Palin needs to have their head checked.

Lots of liberal trolls on here.

Nice Chops Matt

Is it just me or does it look like two dudes and Nick are taped on different occasions and it's simply cut together? I don't mean to rag on ReasonTV, but why does it look so fake?

for the future of our children iam serious thinking of changing to the GREEN PARTY

@xkeltoix No the original documents that were written by our founding fathers ARE perfect, if followed. They were inspired by GOD himself. No I just want to amend the 14th amendment a little and get rid of the 19th amendment. The part in the 14th that changed the original thought about citizenship and revert it back. If you are here illegally how can your kids be citizens, even if they were born here. The original intent was for the kids of American citizens to automatically be citizens.

Fuck these guys. They clearly have no other strategy besides being uppity pricks. Hold politicians accountable? Cut spending? Start with welfare cases? This is watered down partisan bullshit. Making childish remarks about the intelligence of liberals is not going to influence anyone who doesn't already agree with you. Google voluntaryism.