Libertarian Chase Oliver wants the federal government to spend less and let people make their own decisions

Libertarian candidate for president Chase Oliver said the price of food at the Iowa State Fair and at grocery stores is up, and the rising cost of houses is putting those out of reach for many people. He blamed deficit spending by the federal government. Oliver said it devalues the dollar, sparks inflation and amounts to a "hidden tax” on ordinary Americans.

"It’s because the government is making our dollar worth less and less and less each year, because they run deficit spending to the tune of trillions of dollars,” he said. "And they have to print money to make up for that. What that does is it devalues the dollars in your pocket.”

Chase told a small crowd gathered for his speech on The Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the State Fair that he would veto any unbalanced budget Congress might send him. The U.S. hasn’t had a balanced federal budget since the Clinton administration.

Chase was nominated earlier this year at the Libertarian Party’s national convention after seven rounds of voting. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress in Georgia in 2020, and in that state’s U.S. Senate election in 2022. He’s currently on the ballot in about three dozen states. His campaign said it filed paperwork for Iowa this month.

Oliver said at the fair that government should be less involved in the decisions people make. He cited the state giving Summit Carbon Solutions permission to use eminent domain to help route its proposed carbon capture pipeline as one example of government intrusion into individuals’ lives.

"I believe that property rights are sacrosanct in this state, and that you as a farmer or you as a business owner should be able to control your property as you see fit,” he said. "And if you don’t want to have a pipeline built a few hundred feet away from your home, where your kids sleep every night, you shouldn’t have to.”

Oliver said eminent domain should be rarely used, like in matters involving national security. He also said the environmental benefits of carbon capture are dubious, and that he agreed with pipeline opponents who question the lines’ safety.

In the latest NPR/PBS/Marist Poll , Oliver had the support of less than 1% of likely voters, while independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was polling at about 5%. But Oliver said Kennedy isn’t trying to build a viable third party, and that voting Libertarian in November would be a much better way to challenge the two-party system in the U.S.