The Jason Stapleton Program

Yesterday Trump unveiled his tax plan for the U.S. I've been doing a lot of bashing of Trump and his lack of any defined plan, so it's important I give some time to his first real policy proposal in this election. The plan itself closely mimics Jeb Bush's plan. It's a graduated progressive tax that reduces taxes for just about everyone.  The problem with his plan is he gives no clear indication of what he will cut. This is typical of politicians.  You see if you're going to dramatically reduce revenue it tyically has to be associated with some form of spending reduction.  This isn't always true (as I explain on today's show) but politicians LOVE to talk about all the tax cut's they're going to provide and all the Government Waste, Fraud and Abuse they're going to trim. But an issue always arises when it comes time for them to get clear about exactly WHAT they intend to trim.  That's because despite what most Americans will tell you they don't really want to cut spending.  Sure they want to cut spending in general but it always needs to be someone else's handout, not theirs. We then move on to an incredible article from Mark Jones, who's a member of the private FB group where he shares his view on what's happing in the world. It's incredibly insightful, and it sets the stage beautifully for what we're going to spend the balance of the show discussing.Get ready for a whirlwind show!JasonSupport the show.

I feel like I don’t understand the Republican party anymore.More to the point I feel like I no longer understand the Republican voter. Sure I understand what they claim to stand for, but I find their current support for the leading Republican candidates to be mind boggling.Think back to 2008 and President Obama’s campaign. He was running on Hope and Change. Two ambiguous terms that held no real meaning save what someone applied to them. I remember listening to talk show hosts, and broadcasters complain about the Democrat voter suggesting they were mindless robots who were voting not based on the “issues” but simply on emotion.Now fast forward to 2015. You’ve got the leader of the Republican presidential race running on a platform of “making America great again.” What does this mean? Who knows. How is he going to do it? He apparently has no real plan. When pressed on the issue he simply says, “I’m just going to do it.” And Republican voters LOVE him for it.Explain the difference to me. What’s the difference between the Obama ’08 campaign and the Trump ’16 campaign? Fundamentally, nothing.Today on the show I’ll try to extrapolate from our discussion Friday how we create a more consistent coherent message and how we begin the process of creating political influence in America again.I also spend some time covering the middle east conflict. News out today suggests China is now joining Russia in the fight to end ISIS and support Assad. Russia recently struck a deal with Iraq to share intelligence making Russia now a key player in the fight against this tyrannical Muslim group.It’s a jam-packed show. Don’t miss a minute!Support the show.

If you're thinking, "That must be some nice furniture!" you're absolutely right. The EPA ended up spending an average of $6,000 per employee buying some of the most expensive furniture in America. It just goes to show you the government has no respect for the money it confiscates from you.  The progressive and the liberal would agree with you. But what they think we need are more government agencies to create more accountability. (Those agencies would no doubt need to furnish their offices with "quality" furniture as well.)Human nature is not that hard to understand. People act in their own self-interest. When they are spending their money on themselves, they tend to be very cautious and prudent, seeking out the best value and highest quality for what they can afford.But when they are spending someone else's money on them, well, no expense can be spared. And it gets even worse when the they spend someone else's money on someone else. We've got a lot more than just that today, but I'm in a bit of a hurry so I'll have to sign off early.  See you Monday!JasonSupport the show.

A couple of days ago I took an entire day to combat the idea of a guaranteed minimum income.  It's hard to imagine anyone who understands even a little about liberty, economics and human nature advocating for a Baic Income Guarantee or BIG.  Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened.  Even more disturbing is where I read it. Libertarianism.org recently put out an article explaining why Frederick Hayek supported a BIG. The rational being, if Hayek advocated for it, then it must be good. Rember, Keynes BAD, Hayek GOOD.  In the elementary rational for these two economic giants, it's easy to get sucked into trying to rationalize an idea by Hayek that clearly was not is best. And when this kind of thing is advocated for on a site like Libertarianism.org, it's not something I can simply let go. So the first part of our show today will be refuting what Matt Zwolinski wrote about this interesting subject. From there it's on to radical Islam and finally an update on the currency war.  Lots to talk about today.  Let's get started!JasonSupport the show.

The title of today's episode comes from a recent article by Porter Stansberry. In it he lays out a compelling example of why jobs continue to become more scarce in America. I don't read much of what Porter writes, but this little article was so well written I decided I had to share it with you on the show. If you want the full article to share you can find it here:https://rickrule.liberty.me/this-is-why-there-are-no-jobs-in-america/I spend some time today talking about politics and how the libertarian philosophy fits in. I think we're losing this war and even though it seems like our message of liberty is gaining traction I don't think it's for the reason a lot of libertarians think it is. I think we need a clear simple message that resonates with the ever growing group of disenfranchised voters here in America. I think we as libertarians should be willing to stand with anyone who stands with liberty. That's why I created the 5 principals of liberty and that's why I do this show every day. Also on the agenda today is Hillary Clinton and her plan to "fix" the high cost of health care and prescription drugs in America. Yesterday on the show we talked a lot about this issue and that's going to feed our discussion today as we combat the ridiculous plans put forward by both Hillary and Bernie Sanders.May the force be with you,JasonP.S. I also promised to share the Forbes article bashing Robert Reich.  Here you go!http://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/Support the show.

I mentioned this story briefly yesterday. It's about a couple of special forces guys who got into some trouble when the beat up an Afghan police commander who who chained a young boy to his bed and raped him repeatedly.This is apparently a quite common occurrence in Afghanistan and it comes a no surprise to those of us who spent time there. The U.S. military now wants to punish these soldiers for their actions and it raises some serious concerns.This isn't the first time it's happened. It turns out many soldiers and Marines had raised concerns with their command about the sexual abuse of young boys. Even abuse that was happen on base. But the military leaders told their troops to ignore the issue suggesting it was "their culture".It's a terrible tragedy and one that needs to be brought to light.We'll also talk today about the drug company that recently increased the price of one of it's drugs by 5,000%. Is this a case of a drug company seeking "excessive profits" or is there some deeper problem with the system?All that on todays show. Listen now!JasonSupport the show.

This is something that's been floating around the internet for some time. Most recently by Thom Hartmann who suggested it as a way to reduce the welfare state and end poverty in America.Oddly enough I've had several people in the private Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/JasonStapletonProgram/)make posts asking for clarification so I thought we needed to spend some time on it here. The difficult part about this topic, and more specifically Thom's promotion of it, is that it's full of not just distortions of economics but flat out lies about the success of this type of program in other countries. I could make a very simple case using the 5 principles of liberty we talk about on this show frequently but that will not be enough for many of the supporters of this idea you'll encounter in your daily life. So we have to spend some real time discussing the nuances of this idea and where it falls short.The important think to remember is that your goal should not be to try and write down the 5 or 6 economic problems with this idea and then try to recite them to anyone who will listen.  That won't win you converts. Instead what you should focus on is identifying the lies associated with this program and more importantly what it's implementation will mean for our current welfare state.I cover all of this in todays show so sit back and enjoy!JasonSupport the show.

As I expected the Fed held rates steady this week and the news caused a quick rally in the stock market. The question you might be asking yourself is WHY?  The Fed's decision to keep rates near zero is a signal that it does not believe the economy is on a firm footing. This SHOULD cause investors to sell amid the risk of another recession or slow growth. But that's not what happened.  It is further evidence that our financial market is addicted to Fed money and its current valuations are driven not by actual fundamentals but by Fed action.  It's a dangerous time to be an investor. But knowing what's happening and why is the first step in being able to make an informed decision about what to do. In other news the U.S. has decided it may need to change it's policy toward the training of Syrian rebels after a 500 million dollar attempt to train 5400 rebel troops resulted in a total of only 5 graduates.  This further demonstrates the total incompetence of the pentagon and the lack of a cohesive strategy while politicians on both sides clammer for more military action.  Complicating the situation is Russia who is now sending weapons and equipment to the Syrian military to use against ISIS and other rebels. These are presumably the same rebels we are training since they will be used not just to fight ISIS but also to overthrow the Assad regime.  It's ugly out there. But I'm going to make sense of it for you. Hit that play button and I'll see you Monday!  JasonSupport the show.

Last night CNN hosted the 2nd republican debate in 2 stages. Yes, the field of presidential hopefuls for the republicans is so large you can't even do it all at once.This highlights a question I have about debates this large. Would it be more beneficial for a candidate to refuse to attend? Certainly if you're running at the bottom of the pack and your'e almost sure to receive only a few questions it would be far better for you to simply refuse to attend and watch the media go crazy.On todays show I want to break down the debate in a way you won't see it done in by the mainstream media. While they all focus on the spat between Carly and Donald, or Chris Christies appeal to the "working man" I'm going to spend time focusing on the candidates responses to the few policy questions they actually answered.My hope is that you'll see what I saw. A bunch of people who have no real understanding of rights, of economics or history. It's a fun and exciting show. Check it out.JasonSupport the show.

Today I want to talk about a couple of different things. We start out with a  couple of exercises in libertarian principle. Recently there have been two cases of young kids caught in violations of the law and the question  I pose is simply, "Was it deserved?" Yesterday we talked about the 5 principles and today we get to see them in action. Then we move on to an issue I was first alerted to last week. It appears gold is flowing out of the banks and it's creating quite a strain on the paper gold market. Now if that doesn't make any sense to you don't worry. I'm going to spend some time today explaining it in detail You don't want to miss out. And make sure you download the report from Swiss America and put yourself in the running for a 1 oz. gold coin valued at over $1,200!!Talk to you soon,JasonSupport the show.