April 2026
Taxing Times
Hello Liberty Lovers of Riverside County!
If you would like an essay featured in the Liberty Letter, or if you read or watched something awesome that you think should be in the Suggested Reading of one of these newsletters, reach out to us at admin@rclp.us and let’s chat!
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From the Chair
What do you want from your government? What do you think are the proper duties of your local, state and federal agencies? I think about this pretty much every day. It irritates me so much when I am driving down the highway and the road is so rough that I’m afraid my car is going to shake apart. It makes me want to cuss. Or trying to get a permit to build something on your property and it takes an “act of congress” to get that permit. Why doesn’t government work like what we think it is supposed to?
First of all there is very little incentive to do the job well. The majority of government employees in California at all levels are unionized. Very few can get fired and there is no profit motivation like in the private sector. Many are just biding their time until they can retire with a generous benefits package. Can you imagine if In-N-Out ran their drive- thru like the government? NO ONE would go there to get a burger! Imagine for a moment if the TSA was run like In-N-Out. NO ONE would ever miss a flight again! This is why we, as Libertarians, try to inspire people to run for office and possibly privatize the TSA or change a myriad of other things that are just plain awful. I want to hear your ideas on making government more efficient, more accountable, or just go away. Please come join us on April 18th at 11:00 am at Cactus Cantina in Riverside.
–Wendy Hewitt
In the News: Taxation, Theft, and the TSA
You may have heard that something government-related is shut down. That may seem odd to you, since apparently there’s a war on in Iran or something, but apparently it’s true. This “shutdown” also created a weird moment: the TSA didn’t get paid for over a month. This is apparently being “remedied,” though certainly not in a way that libertarians would choose. There are multiple angles of awfulness here, and it’s worth unpacking them a bit.
From the Epoch Times:
President Donald Trump on March 27 signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents who have not received a check since the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered a partial shutdown in mid-February.
“I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown,” the memorandum stated.
This is a problem in two major ways, neither of which is immediately obvious in any of the mainstream coverage.
Problem #1: The TSA Existing At All
So the TSA went over a month without paychecks. It caused “massive” pileups and wait times at airports. This raises a crucial question: why did they keep working?
A TSA job is not a great job. They’re not real law enforcement officers. The pay isn’t great, and they’re universally loathed by the flying public; at Ontario International over in San Bernardino County they put up signs saying it was illegal to verbally abuse them. Think about that a moment.
Why are they loathed? Because the TSA is the worst kind of petty bureaucracy. Their agents get to mess with people. They get to order people around. They can make you miss your flight. They can touch your crotch without repercussions. The whole agency is a misbegotten exercise in security theater that “catches” no “bad guys” and serves as little more than a jobs program. Check out elgatomalo is this month’s Suggested Reading for more on that.
What if the TSA just folded up? If Trump’s response to the shutdown was not to “find” money to pay them, but to simply close the agency down, then what? This is one of the great questions we libertarians should be able to answer AND EXPLAIN: the market would fix it. If the TSA folded up tomorrow, within days every airport in the country would stand up their own private security group. It’s what they did in the murky prehistoric days of … 26 years ago. Flights would still arrive and depart. It would be fine. The TSA has NEVER been needed, and private solutions have always existed that could do the job smoother and more efficiently. Security has always been something that airports themselves should do, in partnership with the airlines flying in and out. It creates competition, allowing screening best practices to be tried and iterated. If there were no TSA, we would be fine.
To the TSA agents who feel put upon by having to work a month without pay: resign. You work for a ridiculous agency with no success metrics, led by people with no idea what to do with any of you. It’s a pointless make-work garbage job, doing pointless make-work garbage that only serves to anger travelers. Stop being complicit in that foolishness. Just resign.
Problem #2: Where is the Money Coming From?
While it’s easy to tee off on the TSA, and the agency deserves every bit of scorn it receives, there is a far more troubling problem being illuminated here. On some level, it’s the real problem with Trump. Trump’s not a problem. He’s a symptom of much worse problems. And his actions, boorish and off-putting though they may be to some people, illuminate the deepest dysfunctions of the federal government, laying bare just how bad the rot has gotten. If you think Trump is The Worst/Literally Hitler/An Existential Threat to Democracy, you’re missing the real problem and need to step back and rethink.
Where is the money coming from to pay the TSA? Trump is having agencies shift money around to free it up somehow. Money supposed to be ALLOTED AND BUDGETED BY CONGRESS. This is an astounding end-run around THE foundational congressional power: funding and budgeting. And nobody’s talking about that. Nobody’s even trying to stop it.
If the Executive branch can just declare expenditures, congress loses even the illusion that it serves as a check on executive power. That’s a breathtakingly serious problem. And it’s a problem that congress is actively dodging. There’s bipartisan celebration for this money move from the administration. Chris Bray has more in the Suggested Reading section. Check him out this month. You’ll be disgusted.
More Suggested “Reading” This Month
(It’s not always reading; it’s the internet, you know how it is)
Here’s Chris Bray on the current rearranging of deck chairs on the Titanic:
While we’re on the subject of the TSA and the much larger problems it represents, consider el gato malo:
Meanwhile (and loosely downstream of gato, above), right here in Riverside County, the Registrar of Voters suddenly decided none of the challengers for the District 5 County Supervisor seat qualified for the ballot. They’re keeping the thousands of dollars in filing fees, though, because of course they are. The RCLP endorsed Eric Stalter for this seat, but now we get to enjoy four more years of Yxstian Gutierrez, who will now be running unopposed. Call your supervisor and letting them know how you feel about an ROV run amok and courts that enable such nonsense: https://www.pressenterprise.com/2026/03/27/two-candidates-lose-legal-fights-to-get-onto-riverside-county-ballot/
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Brian Doherty, the unofficial historian of the LIbertarian movement, died suddenly this past month. LPCA state chair Loren Dean is quoted in a tribute to Doherty in the Los Angeles Times. Read it here: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-03-17/brian-doherty-dead-libertarian-author-fatal-fall-california-bay-area
Want to make a few quick bucks? Riverside County is hiring Election Officers for the upcoming primary. This would be a great way to learn how the system works from the inside! https://voteinfo.net/county-riverside-registrar-voters-seeking-election-officers
https://thetorch.media/ is an independent Libertarian web portal publishing articles from all across the spectrum of liberty-loving thought. They’re worth a look.
https://news.lp.org/ is the website for the Libertarian Party news portal. Check it out, subscribe there for updates, and check out how to contribute yourself!
Calendar Notes
As always, bookmark and regularly check our website for the most up-to-date event details: https://rclp.us
18 April 2026: RCLP Q2 central committee meeting
Cactus Cantina in Riverside. Check the website for the address. Come complain about taxes. This is the month for it!
21-25 May 2026: LNC Convention
This is the national big one, this time in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Registration is open at https://www.lnc2026.com/ .
2 June 2026: Primary Day
The top two primary is stupid, but it’s the way the game is being played right now. Even if you hate all the candidates, at least vote against the tax and bond measures (because there’s almost certainly going to be one or more on your ballot, and they’re all bad since, you know, taxation is theft). And write in Eric Stalter for County Supervisor in district 5.
Voter Registration and Party Membership
If you vote, be sure your registration is Libertarian. Whether you vote or not, stay abreast of your registration details on the California Secretary of State page at this link: https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/cavoter
Being a registered Libertarian voter certainly allows you to call yourself a real libertarian. However, there is more you can do. You can join the national Libertarian Party as a “sustaining member” by signing the membership application statement and paying dues to the national organization. Note that while paying dues at the state level (California) makes you a local “central committee member,” national membership is separate.
Join with this online form: https://lpca.app.neoncrm.com/forms/join
Join us in taking a stand for a world set free!
Find us on the web at https://rclp.us
Email us at admin@rclp.us
LPCA Discord server: https://discord.gg/wfXzapGsTd
LNC Discord server: https://discord.gg/fxdH2bre