Libertarians LOVE Roy.
The Cato Institute has long been the intellectual face of the libertarian political movement. I, like many conservatives, have had some sympathies for them — given their many limited government views. A college student named Art Pope founded The North Carolina Libertarian Party.
Then, the leftward creep began. Libertarian candidates were spouting things you’d expect from the Green Party or from Bernie Sanders acolytes. The John Locke Foundation even refers to themselves as “libertarian.”
I was more than shocked to see that Cato recently rated all 50 US governors on their “fiscal responsibility.” Roy Cooper earned a B-rating.
Seriously.
Cato gave Florida’s Ron DeSantis a grade of C !!!
Here’s what Cato had to say about ol’ Roy:
Roy Cooper entered office as governor after serving as North Carolina’s attorney general for 16 years. He and the legislature have battled over many issues. He has vetoed dozens of bills, and the legislature has overridden many of them. The governor has pushed for Medicaid expansion, but the legislature has blocked that so far.165 However, Cooper and the legislature have recently agreed on major tax reforms.
In 2018, Cooper vetoed the budget because it cut the individual income tax rate from 5.5 percent to 5.25 percent and the corporate tax rate from 3.0 percent to 2.5 percent. Cooper wanted to retain higher rates to fund more spending, but the legislature overrode him.
In 2021, Cooper changed direction and signed large tax cuts into law in SB 105, which will save residents an average of about $2.7 billion a year over the first five years.166 The individual income tax rate will fall from 5.25 percent to 3.99 percent by 2027, and the corporate tax rate will fall from 2.5 percent to zero between 2025 and 2030. Doing so will make North Carolina one of just three states—along with Wyoming and South Dakota—without a corporate income tax or gross receipts tax.167
News service WRAL noted, “Gov. Roy Cooper signed off on the cuts despite opposing some of them in the past, saying the two-year budget they’re backed into contains more good than bad.”168 Other reforms in the 2021 tax package included increasing the standard deduction, increasing the child deduction, simplifying the franchise tax, and eliminating income taxes on military pensions.[…]
Guys, guys — WRAL is a “propaganda organ” and NOT a “news service.” They LIE in the service of liberals everywhere.
The NCGOPe deserves some of the blame here. They have lousy messaging. They’ve allowed Roy Cooper to paint himself nationally as the fiscal “savior” of North Carolina. (How about all the stuff Jones Street backed away from because they were scared Roy would not like it?)
It sounds like Cato gave Roy the grade for meeting the Jones Street crowd about 25 percent of the way.
To describe him, though, as more fiscally responsible than Ron DeSantis? It confirms that our libertarian friends have purchased one-way tickets for a flight leaving Reality.
It’s pretty clear that ol’ Roy and Terrible Thom have ambitions targeting bigger and better things. Both are falling all over themselves to look more appealing and palatable. BOTH of them need to be exiled from office forever.
A possible Roy vs. Thom slug-fest in 2026? (Talk about a LOSE-LOSE scenario.).
Is Thom measuring for drapes in Roy’s current residence? Is Roy looking at Thom’s current office, just in case– say – Thom runs for a big job in Raleigh in 2024 and – God Forbid – wins?
Ayn Rand must be turning over in her grave over these fake “libertarians”
The bulk of the libertarian movement considers Cato to be “regime libertarians.” They crave the acceptance of those in Washington and turn their noses up at actual grassroots activism. They do not represent the sentiments or beliefs of most small-“L” libertarians, and now no longer represent the views of the Libertarian Party.
This is because the Libertarian Party was recently taken over from the ground up by the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus. The Mises Caucus is composed of activists who are largely followers of former Republican Congressman Ron Paul. These activists took over the LP starting at their state party conventions and in July took over the LP at their national convention in Reno, Nevada. They made some significant changes to the Libertarian Party national platform, stripping out woke-inspired language on racism, and stripping out a pro-choice plank on abortion.
Predictably, the Mises Caucus has been smeared as racist and transphobic, just like any other non-communist group, which is how you can tell they’re now firmly AGAINST the globalists running the U.S. government.