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Alan Keyes isn't the only candidate challenging Barack Obama in the race
to claim Peter Fitzgerald's U.S. Senate seat.
Libertarian Jerry Kohn, a high school teacher from Oak Forest, Ill.,
visited the Du Quoin State Fair Saturday in an effort to offer Southern
Illinois voters a third-party alternative.
Kohn said the United States should immediately withdraw troops from
Iraq. He also recommends abolishing the federal income tax and
eliminating federal programs like Social Security and Medicare.
The problems in Iraq are being inflamed by the presence of the United
States, Kohn said, and things will only improve after a complete
withdrawal.
"There is no way the Iraqi government can establish its legitimacy while
it is surrounded by sandbags, bunkers and U.S. Marines," Kohn said. "I
think the Iraqis are educated, civilized people. I think they are
capable of resolving their problems in their own way. The longer we stay
there, the longer we exacerbate those problems."
Kohn said even though the Constitution was amended in 1913 to allow the
federal government to levy an income tax, he believes the federal income
tax is unconstitutional.
"When you repeal the federal income tax, everything else falls into
place. I think our economy would be a lot better off if we did that,"
Kohn said.
Kohn also favors a hard money standard, in which all money issued by the
federal government would be backed by gold.
The prices of American goods were falling in the century before the
Federal Reserve System was created. After the Fed was created and the
United States went off the hard money standard, prices started rising,
Kohn said.
He said the printing of money by the Federal Reserve is legalized
counterfeiting that creates inflation.
"Most people don't realize that when the federal government needs more
money, all they do is order it up," Kohn said. "When prices go up,
people always blame business - the evil, greedy corporations raising
prices. I'd like to see us go back to a hard money system where the
government can't simply print up more money."
Kohn favors the elimination of government programs such as Social
Security and Medicare, which he refers to as "Ponzi schemes" that simply
pay off old investors with the money collected from new investors and
are doomed to failure.
Instead, the Oak Forest Libertarian said private savings and investment
should provide for individual retirement and medical needs. Without an
income tax, individuals would have more money to provide for their
futures and wouldn't need to rely on government programs, Kohn said.
"I think we would eliminate inflation and the economy would prosper as
it never has before. If you combine nineteenth-century freedom with
twenty-first-century technology, I think people would be amazed at
what's possible," Kohn said.
Kohn is pro-life. He said the Constitution is silent on the issue of
abortion, making it the exclusive territory of state legislatures.
Even though he finds no guarantee of a right to privacy in the
Constitution, Kohn said he strongly opposes the USA-PATRIOT Act and
considers it an unnecessary intrusion into the lives of citizens.
Kohn said he would reduce the federal government to four departments:
Defense, Justice, State and Treasury, which were the only four
departments created under President George Washington.
As a third-party candidate, Kohn had to collect more than 25,000
signatures from registered voters in his petition to appear on the
federal ballot.
Kohn holds a bachelor's degree in education from Northwest University
and a master's degree in political science from Governor's State
University. He teaches economics, world history, American history and
American government at Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Forest.
Daily Egyptian 
