Santa Clara County party issues voter guide for June 7
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Joe Dehn, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Congress, Dist. 17, said Monday that the Big Government approach to gun violence proposed by his opponent, incumbent Ro Khanna, is not the answer. Dehn said none of the proposals that Rep. Khanna supports would be effective, or a good use of tax money.
“Khanna proposes to have the CDC do research into gun violence. This makes no sense on so many levels. Gun violence is not a disease. And there are already plenty of statistics about gun violence, from studies by academics and private organizations.” Dehn cited two examples: a study showing that in the U.S. people use guns to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2.5 million times per year and one showing that only 27 percent of the time are school attacks ended by police. “It was bad enough when politicians turned scientists and doctors into advocates for their political solutions to COVID-19, a situation about which an agency like the CDC at least has an existing plausible connection. But when politicians are allowed to frame the questions, and use our tax money to generate the answers they have already decided they want, that’s not real science,” he explained.
“What we are talking about here is basically a propaganda technique. Much like San Jose’s so-called gun-harm-reduction ordinance, Khanna’s approach of re-casting the social phenomenon of gun violence as a ‘disease’ is both a waste of taxpayer money and a redirection of attention from the real issue.” The city of San Jose is facing lawsuits over their ordinance, which would impose on gun owners an extra tax plus require they carry gun-specific liability insurance.
Dehn’s platform calls for dramatic cuts to all government spending, regulation, and mandates, in order to protect individual choice and spur prosperity. If elected, he would sponsor or support legislation to end costly U.S. interventions in wars abroad as well as to end our domestic “wars” such as the counterproductive war on drugs and the unjust war on immigrants. He has signed Liberty Guard’s “Liberty Pledge” that, if elected, every vote he casts will be in support of individual liberty and against enhanced or abusive government power. No other candidate in the race has taken the pledge.
Dehn has been endorsed for Congress by the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County (LPSCC), of which he was reelected chair in January.
The LPSCC recently issued its recommendation to vote “no” on five measures appearing on Santa Clara County voters’ June 7 ballots.
Measure A would relax Santa Clara Valley Water District’s term limit from three to four. (Terms are four years long.)
LPSCC Vice Chair Mark Hinkle, cosigner of the arguments against Measure A, explained, “Measure A’s language is so deceptive, it’s almost laughable. Proponents framed it as establishing a limit of four terms per board member — but they’re hoping we won’t realize the current limit is an already generous three terms. Voters who frown on career politicians should vote ‘no.’”
Some members of the district’s board itself disapproved of the misleading language and have publicly opposed the measure.
Three parcel tax increases appear on various ballots: Measure E: Milpitas Unified School District ($672 over eight years); Measure I, Alum Rock Union School District ($1498.70 over seven years); and Measure H: Mt. Pleasant Elementary School District ($665 over seven years)
Hinkle, who is also president of Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, said that because, in part, these districts’ residents and businesses have suffered job and financial losses over the past two years, and are contending now with record inflation levels, “school boards should face reality and figure out how to get their job done without the unrelenting increases in taxes.”
One school board member publicly opposes her district’s propose parcel tax: Alum Rock Union School District’s Linda Chavez, a former small-business owner in San Jose.
Dehn said that school boards’ approach to funding our children’s education is ill-conceived.
“In this economy, repeatedly asking for handouts is not a sustainable method of running things,” he said. “Every time a district wins a new or increased tax, it basically mushrooms into a kind of inflation: new tax; more spending; next year’s budget rises; and they need more from us taxpayers—again.”
Measure G: Fremont Union High School District ($275 million in bonds)
As Hinkle and his co-signers pointed out in the ballot argument, 30 years of bonded indebtedness is not a prudent way to fund the high-turnover equipment and technology identified in this measure.
“Placing a burden of 30 years of principal and interest payments on a $275 million debt is unkind to voters’ children and, likely, grandchildren, who would be paying for it until at least 2052,” explained Hinkle, adding, “Voters concerned about kids’ learning should know that those interest payments would be going to creditors, not to teachers.”
Dehn added, “This year the Libertarian Party is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary. We will be here for the next 50 years, ready to remind any elected representatives who lose sight of the founding fathers’ vision of a strictly limited federal government, that they don’t have a tax revenue problem — they have a spending problem.”