Prosperity is something that we Americans must create for our selves through hard work, sound investment, and frugal spending habits. Uncle Sam cannot make us rich. We Libertarians would like him to stop throwing up roadblocks in our path.

I propose

• The current economic crisis arises from a liquidity shortage and counter-party risk. Tax cuts and rebates will soak up capital, making the current economic crisis worse.
• The first tax to eliminate is the national debt -- the tax on grandchildren.
• Federal corporate welfare should be ended, but that won't solve the budget deficit.
• We should make Washington, D.C. a model for how business deregulation lets small businessmen make their community wealthy.
• The Social Security system is in a near-impossible financial situation. We could encourage people to opt irrevocably out of the system and to invest what would have been their Social Security tax. That change will relieve the strain.

The Financial crisis: The current economic crisis has nothing to do with consumer spending or government regulation. Our financial institutions are in trouble because we have counter-party risk and liquidity shortages, all stemming from collateralized debt obligations and related securities. Counter-party risk? No one knows which debts are likely to be subject to default, so banks are not willing to lend to each other or to other institutions. As a result, the credit markets are freezing up. The effect is even reaching bonds that cover student loans, which are among the safest of obligations.

A tax rebate or tax holiday, proposed on Keynesian economic grounds that many real Libertarians distrust, will only make the economic situation worse. Our difficulty is not a lack of spending, it is a surplus of debt. The tax rebate is being paid for by Federal bonds, bonds that soak up scarce investment capital. The proposed multimonth tax holiday would only make the situation worse.

Like the child who ate too many underripe apples, and who is now very sick to his stomach, this crisis is one that we may simply need to live through.

The Budget Deficit - George Bush and his Democratic and Republican allies just gave America the biggest tax increase in history. It's called the budget deficit. It has a unique twist: You spend the money. Your grandkids get the bill, labeled 'interest on the national debt'. The grandchild tax is a terrible gift for our grandchildren. We should end the grandchild tax and pay our own bills. Federal debt should only be created in the direst of national emergencies and should be promptly discharged when the emergency is over.

How big is that terrible gift to our grandchildren? A baby is born. Uncle Sam hands her a bill for $30,000, her share of the funded National Debt. She takes her first breath. Uncle Sam hands her a second bill, for $130,000, her share of the unfunded national liabilities. No wonder many babies are born, take their first breath, and immediately start screaming. They understand what we've already done to them.

Taxes - The first tax we need to end is the grandchild tax, the tax that goes on forever and buys you the taxpayer absolutely nothing. Our skyrocketing national debt eats up every penny saved by all Americans. The only way we can borrow the national debt is by borrowing from foreigners. At some point, foreigners may declare to borrow, at which point we have a really serious national crisis. We end the grandchild tax by cutting spending. Will we cut...? No matter the choice, the answer has to be 'Yes. We have to cut that too.' not to mention 'we can't afford that any more'. The national debt chews up capital, so that savings are no longer available to pay for new factories, better roads, or energy-saving home improvements.

Corporate Welfare - Your neighbors should make money by selling desired goods and services, not by bribing Congressmen to give them subsidies out of your tax payments. Corporate welfare of all sorts should be brought to an end. The gasohol program that saves more-or-less no fossil fuel and that, fully implemented, will by Congressional decree violate basic laws of nature, is a prime example of everything that's wrong with corporate welfare.

Help Business to Compete - Mixed in with legitimate laws that prevent fraud and non-recoverable losses are a vast range of irrational regulations that hinder private businesses and keep people from making their own jobs. Many of these regulations are state and local, not something the Federal government can fix. However, Washington, D.C. is the Federal City, and Congress is its highest legislature. I will urge Congress to turn Washington into the American capital of free enterprise, an economic powerhouse that spontaneously causes its residents to choose voluntarily the life role of proud capitalist.

Social Security - More young people believe in UFOs than believe that Social Security will be there for them when they retire. It's really impressive how smart our younger generation is becoming.

The Social Security administration has the numbers. The medical component of Social Security will be broke, out of money, in a decade or so. The retirement component will last perhaps three decades. That's assuming there are no great increases in medical costs or human lifespan between now and then. The General Accounting Office has issued a clear report detailing how catastrophic the situation becomes. Even if every penny of every tax dollar goes to Social Security, over the next 70 years there are huge unpayable obligations.

Some people will tell you that those dates are far off, so we need not think about them. Let me put this into scale. If you retired today, your chances of outliving Social Security medical support are pretty good. If you turned 35 today, your chances of Social Security being in working order when you retire are poor.

A partial solution is reached by allowing people at some age of adulthood to opt irrevocably out of the Social Security system. They continue to get the money now collected by FICA, and save for their own retirement. Each person who irrevocably leaves the system reduces the lifetime deficit they personally would otherwise create. Which age? That's something that the executive will haggle about with Congress. However, we allow people to be elected Senators at 30, so that's a good oldest credible age.