Rep. Justin Amash on Debt, Abortion, Immigration & More

"If you allow people to make people to make their own decisions, you actually get good outcomes for society," says Rep. Justin Amash in his recent interview with Reason Magazine's Nick Gillespie. "And that really is something that I think about a lot as a legislator."

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), often touted as "the next Ron Paul" had a rocky start to his second term in Congress. After overcoming a redistricting effort to win re-election by a comfortable margin in November, Amash was welcomed back to Washington with a pink slip: He and a group of libertarian-leaning backbenchers were stripped of their committee assignments by the GOP leadership. Adding insult to injury, the party establishment claimed that the rebuke wasn't ideological; that it had more to do with what Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) termed "the asshole factor."

Amash, seen as the ringleader of the House "liberty movement," responded by leading a failed coup against House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in what was supposed to be a rubber-stamped re-election as majority leader. Meanwhile, on a series of crucial votes -- the "fiscal cliff" tax hike in January and the March agreement to raise the debt ceiling -- Amash and several of his uppity libertarian colleagues voted against party leadership. If Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is the leading liberty-movement troublemaker in the United States Senate, Amash is shaping up to be his main counterpart in the House.

Endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus and Young Americans for Liberty, the 33-year-old Amash has made waves by explaining all of his votes on social media, a practice he began during his single term as a Michigan state legislator. He has earned a 100 percent rating from the fiscally conservative Club for Growth, and has taken up where Ron Paul left off on civil liberties.

The son of Syrian and Palestinian immigrants, Amash has made a name for himself as a non-interventionist. "It's very dangerous if we get in the habit of deciding who the good guys are and who the bad guys are," he says of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad and other unsavory characters. He's also a social conservative, describing himself as "100 percent pro-life," but opining that ultimately, "marriage is a private contract that has nothing to do with government."

In March, ReasonTV Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie interviewed Amash in his office, where the walls are adorned with likenesses of Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Carl Menger, Murray Rothbard, and Ayn Rand.

Runs about 38 minutes.

Produced by Todd Krainin. Camera by Meredith Bragg, Amanda Winkler, and Krainin.

[austinrogers]

What's this? An insane amount of sense being made by a politician? I like it.

[OP-gxfy]

Based Justin Amash. If only we could get him in the Whitehouse.

[Fuzzybeanerizer]

Oh-my-gosh is this guy better than Trump or Biden! Talks intelligently off the top of his head, has an adult-sized volcabulary, can remember his own name, and more!

[bachnrolla]

Stop using terms like host and parasite when the embryo is of the same species.

[BobbieStump]

So, because some people who say they are anti-abortion, also say they are religious, that means it's a religious issue? What about the national debt? Many Christians I know are opposed to debt because the Bible advises against having debt. So, with your logic, wouldn't that make our national debt (and therefore, our budget) a religious issue?

[SuperGregoryRoss]

Thoughtful answers and comments. Thumbs up for Rep. Amash. We need more representatives that understand how Federalism should work in these United States.

[BobbieStump]

I'm not sure when people will finally realize abortion isn't a religious issue. I think it's pretty clear it's an ethics issue.

[jadamian]

Justin Amash and his thinking is great. There is still some hope in rebuilding America after the currency collapses.

[neeltheother]

Damn he's got Menger, Bastiat, Mises, and Rothbard on his wall! That's what I like to see.

[red-baitingswine]

Good, comprehensive questions that allow one to get a somewhat accurate take on Amash. Good job!

[packratt]

I agree with a lot of what he has to say but we need to reel in our military intervention a LOT more. Also, Congress needs to vote for a war like the Constitution states, not this authorizing the president nonsense which is not following the Constitution.

[karthik]

"Aggression is only justified in self defense"

Wrong. Aggression is justified in retaliation for ANY transgression of property rights. INCLUDING trespassing.

[Metal_Auditor]

The two aren't mutually exclusive. I attend a conservative Baptist church, and I am a libertarian.

[rmc]

I think Carl Sagan was right to point out that uniquely human brain waves are generated at around 6 months and questions whether we can genuinely call a fetus before this time a person. His contemplation hits at the heart of what makes humans fundamentally different from other creatures and at what point does a fetus attain that separation.
The abortion debate cannot be settled solely on the basis of natural rights but must first deal with the issue of human-ness from which natural rights spring

[shanedrozdowski]

Rand Paul 2016/2020. Justin Amash 2024/2028.

[kurtjk]

I try not to degrade; but I do like to do my homework. Skeptical but open-minded is how I do my science and research. It is how I became a Libertarian in the first place.

[menschen]

This video is about to get a lot of new views.

[StaffordChristensen]

lol "More Austrians on the wall than the von Trapp family." Good one.

[revmysleds]

oh please, at the townhall I went to he told the religious conservatives to not use government to enforce their religion. He converted half of them to small l libertarians.
Abortion is more than a religious issue, defining life is very difficult. Evictionism by walter block is the best answer there is.

[panpiper]

Excuse me for not having enough room in a 500 character YouTube comment to write a textbook on medical ethics. Of course the issue is more involved that what can be summed up in just a few words. This issue has however been extensively pondered and debated over by ethicists and medical doctors and what they have come up with is the trimester approach. In the last 3 months of pregnancy, a baby is clearly human, in the first 3 months, it is clearly not. The debate is over the middle.