by Kody Fairfield

In a recent interview with Jen Rogers of Yahoo! Finance, Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee Gov. Bill Weld was given the spotlight to speak about his campaign alongside former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. Gov. Weld made statements that will not sit well with many in his own party.

After discussing what makes the Libertarian ticket different from the Republican and Democrats, Rogers went on to ask Weld, “What scares you most nervous about a president Hillary Clinton?” To which Weld responded, “Fiscal policy. A difference in view there. As you say, I have known her for a long time, personally and favorably, so I am not throwing epithets around the way Mr. Trump does.”

Based on Weld’s description of his relationship with Clinton, it seems as if the problems with FBI investigations into her private email server use, her mishandling of the situation in Benghazi, and potential conflicts of interest at the Clinton Foundation during the time of her service as Secretary of State, still don’t seem to bother Weld’s favorable opinion of her… just her fiscal policy.

As their conversation continued on to the issues, Rogers asked Weld about Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Where Weld initially said he was for “much more competition in the market place.” Continuing on to say that he believes, “patients and doctors should be making more of the decisions in the system instead of the government and insurance companies. That’s maybe the worst thing about Obamacare.”

It was when the Governor began talking about the mandate in the ACA, that his statements began to be a bit perplexing for libertarians, and small government conservatives. Weld said, “I understand that if you want to cut costs, you’ve got to get more people in the system, so I always supported the mandatory feature there, unlike most Republicans, because I know that if you don’t do that, you’re not going to get the 28-year-old bartender who’s making $125,000 a year into the system and he’ll not insure and then when he breaks his leg skiing at Sugarbush, he’ll show up at the emergency room.”

So though Gov. Weld does not believe in the government and insurance companies having a role in the decision-making processes in healthcare, he is for the government forcing you into the system through a mandate in order to “cut costs.” It would appear then that his issue is not inherently with government involvement in healthcare system, rather it is with its efficiency and results.

This is a contradiction to liberty and small governance.

Ironically enough Weld’s position here, would align him with 1990’s pro-government Republicans like, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Dan Quayle and even a former proposal from the Heritage Foundation. Which shouldn’t be too shocking as Weld was the Governor of Massachusetts from 1991-1997.

While it’s especially true in this election cycle that Gov. Weld and the head of his ticket Gov. Johnson are far better than their opponents in terms of liberty mindedness, they continue to have had a tendency to be lackluster in certain areas of policy, leaving their base and even some small government conservatives wanting more.