He climbed Mount Everest, but Gary Johnson is flying under the radar as a presidential candidate.
One doesn't have to look far to find pundits scoring the potential Republican candidates. But Johnson hasn't been noticed.
Gary Johnson was an entrepreneur and business owner before he became Governor of New Mexico. He's in favor of smaller government, lower taxes, personal responsibility, free markets and a balanced budget.
Watch his announcement at C-Spanvideo.org where he points a finger of blame at both parties for the current budget mess. Republicans, he said, would have a lot more credibility in the budget game if they would come out for repeal of the prescription health care benefit they passed.
He thinks we are on the verge of financial collapse because we can't repay $14 trillion in debt when we are racking up even more debt going forward.
Serious talk about balancing the federal budget should start with Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Block grants to the states for Medicare and Medicaid could produce 50 laboratories of innovation, solutions would be found.
Social Security needs to take in more than it pays out. And that could be accomplished by raising the retirement age, means testing, and changing the benefit calculation from the wage index to the inflation index. That last one alone, he said, could make Social Security solvent.
We are obligated to have a strong national defense, but that's not the same as the nation building we now do. He wants the U.S. to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and is opposed to the U.S. involvement in Libya. Not only was there no constitutional authority or congressional check off for the action in Libya, we don't know enough about rebels we're helping.
Immigration is a job creator, he contends, and we should make it easier for immigrants to get work visas. Businesses, not government quotas, should determine the need for immigrant workers. If employers don't need them, the immigrants will return home.
He connects the dots between drug cartel violence and prohibition and notes that 75% of drug cartels' business involves marijuana. Legalize marijuana and arguably 75% of the violence goes away.
When asked what he thinks about unions he answered with the example of two hypothetical union employees. One is the best worker the employer has seen, the other is the worst. The employer can't reward the best, and he cant fire the worst. Thanks to the unions he has to treat them both as equals.
He climbed Mt. Everest. And he hopes to climb over the competition for the Republican Presidential nomination. Can he do it? We'll see.
His campaign website.