FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 10, 2011

Contact: Wes Benedict, Executive Director
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Phone: 202-333-0008 ext. 222

Libertarians at CPAC present Republican Wall of Shame

WASHINGTON - At their booth at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the Libertarian Party is displaying a "Republican Wall of Shame." (View low-res JPG or high-res PDF.)

These are the prominent Republicans featured on the Wall of Shame:

  • Mitt Romney, supporter of the RomneyCare socialized medicine program in Massachusetts.
  • Mike Huckabee, who as a governor supported so many tax increases that the Club for Growth labeled him a "liberal."
  • George W. Bush, who had a long track record of supporting big-government programs and regulations, and who once said, "I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system."
  • Newt Gingrich, who often supports big-government intrusion and who said about global warming, "The evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading in the atmososphere."
  • John McCain, who while running for president famously suspended his campaign to rush back to Washington to vote for bailouts.
  • Paul Ryan, the House Budget Commmittee chairman who voted for the Medicare expansion in 2003, the No Child Left Behind Act, the TARP, GM and Chrysler bailouts, and even ethanol subsidies.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger, former California governor. The caption reads "No comment necessary."
  • The "mystery Republican president." He signed many massive spending bills, and during his administration, federal spending was the largest percentage of GDP in post-WWII history. (His shameful record might be broken by the Obama administration.)

Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict commented, "Our goal at CPAC is to reach out to libertarians who have been misled into thinking of conservatism as a small-government ideology. In fact, conservatives just want their own version of big government, as we pointed out last year."

Benedict continued, "We've already heard some talk about the Republican 'three-legged stool.' My view is, Republicans are wrong on foreign policy, they're wrong on social policy, and they're lying hypocrites on economic policy. Their stool has no legs."