Libertarians Badhwar and Moulton on WPFW

It can be heard online at WPFW. See March 27th, 11 am Democracy Politics Hour. She praises Libertarians at 7:55. Our segment runs from minute 30 to 45.

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Martin Moulton, Libertarian for Statehood "Shadow" Representative reports:

Deborah Simmons, WashingtonTimes/@No1newshen (follow her twitter), who interviewed us instead of Eugene Kinlow (who was away), opened our segment with "I love Libertarians!" ... "Libertarians suggest freedom!" She echoed several of Pranav's points. Even in the previous segment, she kept bringing up — with democratic "the rent is too darn high slate" — the issue of DC being hampered by being such a one party town.

With only 15 min, it was just enough time for two of us to make some good points. 

D.C.'s Historic First Libertarian Primary Tuesday

D.C.'s Historic First Libertarian Primary Tuesday - PR.com

Get out and vote!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,
 

Please vote in the primary election today to liberate and empower individuals to succeed. Tell the establishment that we will challenge their authority, which rewards the power elite and special interests who feed off the misery of the least advantaged.

Vote Pranav Badhwar for Ward 6 on April 1st. And vote for the full slate of Libertarian candidates. Write-in our names on any ballot, even if you are not a registered Libertarian. The slate is here:http://www.dclibertarians.org/candidates/

Also, please donate so we can create cards and doorhangars. http://www.pranav4dc.com/contribute. We will go door to door until the Nov. 4th election to promote decentralized, rights-based alternatives which treat root causes of poverty, crime, and homelessness, in contrast with traditional policies which expensively bandaid symptoms and increase taxes while keeping people mired in poverty.

With fewer taxes and regulations we can:

Improve Schools: Charters effectively deliver education at about 40% of the cost of the almost $30,000 in per pupil spending. Reduce DCPS' central planning authority and put authority over the budget and operations in the hands of traditional public school principals and parents who can adjust staffing to meet the unique needs of their students. Improve educational effectiveness to reduce poverty, crime, homelessness, and taxes.

Create Jobs: Eliminate or reduce business licenses and fees, including the need for six years of education and experience for interior decorators, one year training for pest control applicators, and thirty-nine other restrictions on professions which don't require a college degree and which erect barriers for those already disadvantaged by government schools. Increase jobs to reduce poverty, crime, homelessness, and taxes.

Reduce Crime: Free police to pursue non-violent drug offendors and focus them on real crimes of violence, theft, and fraud. Reduce street violence by eliminating aggressive prosecution of victimless crimes. Stop criminalizing non-violent drug offendors and stunting their ability to get jobs and housing, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and crime and making them into wards of the state. Protect rights to reduce poverty, crime, homelessness, and taxes.

Thank you,
Pranav Badhwar, www.pranav4dc.com
DC Council, Ward 6 candidate

D.C. Should Aim Higher

  

Washington, D.C. recently rated near the top of American cities for income inequality. Perversely, D.C.’s economy is a welfare state for the rich, or at least the upper middle class: The federal government imports thousands people with law or other graduate degrees to D.C. monthly, and pays them between $75,000 and $150,000 a year.

Lobbying and law firms hire, at even higher salaries, other demographically similar people to navigate the expanding federal government. The new residents bid up real estate prices — both sale prices and rents — displacing D.C.’s long term residents, who have less money, are more likely to be minorities, and less likely to have graduate, or even undergraduate degrees.

Read more at: The Daily Caller.

Pranav Badhwar on the Hill

Ward Six Councilmember Candidates: Pranav Badhwar

March 20th, 2014 by Maria Helena Carey · No Comments · Capitol Hill, DC

Pranav Badhwar at home. Photo by María Helena Carey

It is no secret that Capitol Hill, like D.C., leans strongly Democrat.

So when Pranav Badhwar stepped forward as the Libertarian candidate for Ward Six council member, we at The Hill is Home wanted to know how his campaign would appeal to Hill voters.

Although this is Badhwar’s first time running as a candidate for any office, he has always strongly identified with Libertarian principles. He became more actively involved with the party when he helped Ron Paul’s campaign during the last election. It wasn’t until his friend Bruce Majors ran for the D.C. Delegate seat and obtained enough votes to make the Libertarian party a viable party that Badhwar gave serious thought to running for office (currently, Bruce Majors is running for D.C. mayor).

Pranav is quietly philosophical, quoting Cicero and other philosophers during our conversation. He also cites Gallup polls, scientific studies, and all manner of interesting articles.

He is a careful thinker who urges to be thoughtful in all aspects of government. He is aware that his delivery is not nearly as polished as that of the other candidates, but he hopes that people focus on the content of his ideas.

Originally from India by way of Toronto and New York City, Badhwar moved to Washington with his wife in 2000. After living in Northwest for a couple of years, and with the impending birth of their daughter, they started looking for a larger house in 2003. “Our realtor insisted in showing us places only in Capitol Hill,” Badhwar says. Since then, his family fell in love with the Hill and started getting involved in neighborhood activities.

At the core of Badhwar’s campaign is job creation and the curtailing business regulations in the city. A job, he argues, gives life, purpose, and meaning. He highlights the fact that in Washington D.C., part of what keeps the income disparity going strong is a lack of jobs, especially trade labor and unskilled labor. In order to make a livable wage in the city, Badhwar argues that the status quo makes it necessary to have a graduate degree, but it should not be that way.

He also feels like the regulations in place control tradesmen-type jobs — he cites at least 41 different professions that have lower education requirements and which are currently affected by too many regulations.

He is against raising the minimum wage across the board. To him, this would only place undue amounts of financial stress on smaller business. Since larger corporations are able to expedite and automate processes, they can afford to pay employees more. This is not always the case with smaller mom-and-pop shops, he says. Badhwar also supports giving business owners more free enterprise, especially in a places that cater to smaller business, like Capitol Hill.

When the subject of schools comes up, Badhwar says the schools have been run by politicians and bureaucrats, making it’s easier to “mask failures.” DCPS’s problems are due to its central office, he says. Decentralizing schools and pushing for charter-like autonomy is a priority, which would allow schools to self-regulate and govern as they see fit.

He also opposes the CSX Virginia Avenue rail tunnel expansion. Even though he is pro-rail and pro-industry, he is aware of the potential hazards to Ward Six.

Regarding crime, Badhwar talks about how a large percentage of crimes in DC are nonviolent in nature. This is due to the high penalties associated with the criminalization of drugs, he says. Badhwar supports decriminalization, a position that tends to be polarizing.

Although Badhwar is aware that he may not win this election, he is hoping to raise awareness of the Libertarian party and a more thoughtful approach to political issues. If you want to learn more about the candidate, you can visit his website at http://www.pranav4dc.com/ or follow him on Twitter.

Tags: Decision14·elections·Pranav Badhwar·ward six·ward six candidates

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- See more at: http://www.thehillishome.com/2014/03/ward-six-councilmember-candidates-pranav-badhwar/#sthash.pgiR21of.dpuf

Tonie Nathan, First Woman in U.S. History to Receive Electoral College Vote, RIP

Preserving Freedom: Tonie Nathan, First Woman in U.S. History to Recei...: From the Libertarian Party : Libertarian Tonie Nathan, first woman in U.S. history to receive an electoral vote, dies at 91 Poste...

My answers to the TENAC questionnaire - set D.C. housing free!

Many of the current Council members support these issues, what say you? (Me: It's curious that the City Council supports the proposed solutions, but the problems remain - that should be cause for reflection, no?) If elected:

Housing has become unaffordable for many in DC, and costs are rising rapidly. ---  Will you work with the tenant community to make housing once again affordable in DC? Me:  It's simply supply and demand.  The federal government has imported tens of thousands of people a year to D.C. who have law and other graduate degrees and it pays them on one side or another of $100,000.  They bid up prices.  You cannot compete with this or change it.  They will always be offering to buy or rent property for more than others can afford.  The best solution would be encouraging long term residents to buy homes in areas just beyond the area where gentrification is driving up prices, if you can still find such an area in D.C.

Recently and supposedly temporarily, the amount of annual rent increase for rent controlled apartments has been figured by adding 2% to the inflation (CPI) rate.  Through the power of compounding, that added 2% is killing rent control.  ---  Will you protect tenants by supporting the elimination of the added 2%? Me:  I would support eliminating the 2% as I would eliminate all rent control regulation now existing, the remnant of Nixon's wage and price controls, and seek other solutions.

Presently, many landlord petitions and voluntary agreements allow housing providers to effectively remove their apartments from rent control.  ---  Will you protect tenants by supporting the elimination of these loopholes? Me:  Small investors who buy smaller multi-unit buildings are leaving D.C. and selling their buildings to people who convert them to condos or tear them down and build luxury high rises.  They do this because they no longer want to deal with rent control and the D.C. government generally.  In some cases, they simply abandon properties.  We must remove government from the housing market, including getting rid of the absolute prohibition on building tall buildings, to increase the supply of housing.

When rent control was enacted in DC in 1975, all non-exempt rental apartments were subject to rent control protection.  The laws have not been updated to include buildings constructed after that time, so now more and more apartments lack the protection. ---  Will you protect tenants by supporting the phasing-in of rent control to apartment buildings constructed after 1975 (thereby starting to restore the original intent of the law to apply rent control broadly to existing apartments)? Me:  Rent control laws and other such interventions do not protect tenants, since they reduce the housing supply and ultimately drive rents up.  Imagine what would happen if we mandated that no one could buy a loaf of bread priced at over a nickel.  A funny story I heard once when at a Thanksgiving dinner at the Van Ness North cooperative.  Another guest lived in the rental apartment next door, that is between the Van Ness North, which is a co-op, and the Van Ness East, a condo.  She told me long ago, before the housing boom, the tenants in her building had started to buy their building and make it another co-op.  Self-described "Tenant's Right's" activists persuaded them not to do so, since it would "reduce the supply of rental housing."  And there sat my dinner partner year's later, still at the mercy of a landlord.  Whatever solutions can be engineered cannot be ones that reduce the supply of housing and prevent people from home ownership.

The Mayor's Summit designated the lack of affordable housing as DC's number one problem.  But on the City Council, housing concerns have been divided among committees and swallowed up by economic development.  The word, "Housing," was even removed from the name of the council committee, Economic Development and Housing. ---  Will you protect tenants by supporting the establishment of a DC Council Standing Committee solely focused on Housing, so that the lack of affordable housing will receive the attention it deserves? Me:  I pledge to eliminate and cut D.C. government agencies and not to create new ones.  No other candidates will do that. I will happily eliminate agencies that prevent people from building more housing.