Johnson receives federal funds for 2012 run

>>> welcome news, johnson's campaign will receive 130,000 in new federal matching funds, that is on top of the 100,000 the campaign received in may after first becoming eligible for funding. where are those dollars coming from? you the taxpayer, courtesy of the $3 checkoff on your income tax return . joining me now, gary johnson . thank you for joining me.

>> alex, thank you for having me on.

>> i'm glad you're here. it's no doubt here this money will come in handy for you. when you compare this to the mitt romney vast sums of money, gop's $100 million take in june, you simply can't put up a real fight. is your goal here to act as a spoiler of sorts looking back to the ross perot era, 20 years ago and trying to take votes from president obama or mitt romney .

>> the goal is to actually win and offer a third choice and that third choice is the candidate who will promise to submit a balanced budget to congress. that would be me. look, i'm the guy when it comes to civil liberties , i'm the guy who wants to end our military interventions. i think that's a clear third choice. so alex, i'm in this to win and i'm heartened by the fact with our fractions of a penny relative to their dollars, you know what, this is turning out to be credible. i think it will turn out to be credible.

>> okay and i'm glad to hear you say that. it doesn't surprise me as i've gotten to know you over the past months talking about this. how disheartened are you that people like me come in and state what may be on the minds of many, that this is a third party candidate but that you don't have a shot at winning?

>> not disheartened at all. for you to say anything other than you have no shot at winning, you would be looking at history and what you think the reality is. but i do think that americans are hungry for a real live choice. we look at this jobs data report, i'm the guy --

>> which you call anemic.

>> you know what, i don't even want to label it. i think we need to throw out the income tax , corporate tax , replace it with a consumption tax , in this case the fair tax , which abolishes the irs. i think if in a zero corporate tax rate environment, the private sector doesn't create tens of millions of jobs, i don't know what it will take to create tens of million of jobs. there's a third choice and it's me. it's not a compromise and it's voting your conscience and real future for america. that's my pitch.

>> do you think president obama or any president really has the power to single handedly turn around the economy, or is that just election year noise?

>> no, i think the president of united states has the opportunity to lead. anything that the president leads with, of course, congress has to go along with. but in this case, i'm advocating throwing out the irs. i'm advocating throwing out income tax , corporate tax . no more tax withholdings from your payroll check . replace it with the fair tax . for those watching, check out fairtax.org. i think it reboots the american economy . i think what the president can and needs to provide is leadership, the whole notion that here are my beliefs and i'm running for president of the united states , elect me and you can count on somebody that's doggedly going to pursue this agenda i'm talking about. in this case, balance the federal budget , civil liberties , civil liberties are really important and let's stop with our military interventions.

>> how about health care ? you've not been on the show since the supreme court announced it was upholding the health care law . you called it an incredible blow to our bedrock principles of freedom and liberty. as you know -- this is a nation with millions of uninsured people, isn't it acknowledgement that something had to be done?

>> sure, these issues could have been addressed. i think they could have been addressed in a real free market way. i would like to point out, health care in this country is about as far removed from free market as it possibly can be. and who's the brunt of -- where's the brunt of this going to fall on, whose shoulders financially? i think it's going to be young people . the notion this is a plan that relies on healthy people, basically paying or subsidizing those who aren't so healthy, where does that burden fall? as a group it falls on young people and right now young people are also being given the burden of the fact that hey, i'm going to retire and i've got health care but by the way, you as a young person , you're never going to retire. you'll have to pay this back and never be able to stop working because you'll never be able to pay it back.

>> when we get to the individual mandate, there are those who will suggest if you pay into it, you're going to be more responsible of it. to that end i put this example. what about those who go to the emergency room at the hospital. they don't pay anything. emergency room and don't pay anything and now they're going to pay via their individual responsibility to it. doesn't that make sense?

>> that absolutely makes sense. this is in the whole notion of free market . and in a free market system for health care , i would not have insurance to cover myself for ongoing needs. i would pay as you go in a system that was really competitive, that had advertised spending. i would have insurance for catastrophic injury or illness. when you look forward at what can be done at this point, there are reforms to this legislation that could say -- mandate insurance , not what kind of insurance you have to have. and that would open this up, like i say, to me being able to have catastrophic injury and illness insurance as opposed to insurance that i haven't been to a doctor in five years, and yet i pay $600 a month for insurance .

>> well, let's hope that's because you're very healthy in terms of not going to a doctor.

>> it is. that's the reason.

>> very good. all right. i'll look forward to more conversations with you in the future. in the meantime, libertarian presidential kaent. good to see you.