Political Alternatives: The Green Rainbow & Libertarian Parties

The current political deadlock over the debt ceiling has many frustrated with both the Republican and Democratic parties and disillusioned with the American political system. While U. S. politics is  essentially dominated by a two-party system, there other political parties that often produce candidates for a variety of local and state elections. 

Green Rainbow Party (MA; known as Green Party nationally)

Taxes & the Economy

• Supports an ecological approach to economic security in which economic enterprises are a compatible, integrated part of local communities with increases emphasis on local cycles of production, consumption, and recycling
• Calls for tax fairness measures to be implemented to address the unfair tax burden in which lower income people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes and fees than do wealthier citizens and corporations
• Supports the repeal of the constitutional constraint that forbids providing tax relief by taxing lower income residents at a lower rate than higher income residents
• Supports legislation that would return any state-owned land deemed surplus to local communities to be used for affordable housing, local agriculture, public open space or enhanced community sustainability
• Supports programs to create community-based green jobs such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture, public transportation and recycling
• Supports the pursuit of food security by increasing the fraction of food that is locally grown
• Opposes increased reliance on regressive forms of revenue production such as the sales tax, gambling casinos, the state lottery and fees

Health care

• Support moving to a single-payer health care
• Calls for the elimination of any penalties upon people who do not purchase private health care coverage 
• Demands that steps be taken to ensure that people do not lose their health coverage when their employment situation changes

Education

• Calls for a value-oriented public school system that emphasizes the importance of literacy, good citizenship, civic participation and healthy self-realization
• Opposes the privatization of public education 
• Supports access to quality, free public education at all levels and support significant rollbacks of tuition and fees at public colleges and universities
• Supports real commitments to eliminate disparities in education and prohibit using standardized tests to punish students

Source: www.massgreens.org

Libertarian Party

Taxes & the Budget

• Supports cutting taxes 
• Supports reducing a defense budget it believes a large percentage of is spent defending "wealthy countries like Germany and Japan"
• Also supports ending or reducing foreign aid which it calls "welfare for nations"
• Opposes bailing out private industries

Health care

• Supports establishing Medical Savings Accounts
• Supports deregulating the health care industry
• Supports removing barriers to safe, affordable medicines

Poverty & Welfare

• Supports ending welfare; believes that the government should "get out of the charity business" and allow private charities and groups, who it believes to be more efficient, to help the truly needy
• Supports establishing a dollar for dollar tax credit for contributions to a private charity; believes this will help to facilitate a transfer from government welfare to private charity
• Supports eliminating barriers to economic growth such as the minimum wage and mandates benefits
• Believes that poverty cannot be solved without addressing public education system; supports school choice and a free marketplace in education

Source: www.lp.org