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Congress focused on issues surrounding government
spending this week as talk of deficits, the national debt, and the debt limit
saturated the airwaves. This is a positive development. In years past, there
was very little concern over how much was spent here in Washington, how it
was spent, or how much of our gross domestic product was being consumed by
government. That blissful ignorance naturally resulted in decades of
government spending with impunity, bringing us to where we are today: trillions in debt with astronomical entitlement
obligations that will be impossible to fulfill in the not too distant future.
So it is a good thing that there is so much political pressure now on our
leaders to actually put the brakes on runaway spending.
However, even the most generous estimate of the
spending cut passed this week – $38.5 billion – is a paltry 3.5%
of the $1.05 trillion in spending through the next 5 months. This hardly
makes a dent in our government's mountain of debt. Even worse than that, the
non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) stripped away the accounting
sleights of hand and scored it as only $352 million in cuts, which works out
to less than half of one percent of spending. Still, the tiniest cut is
better than the massive increases we have become accustomed to in federal
budgets.
Of course, our disastrous wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq are not even included in this budget as they are considered emergency
spending. They constitute $3.3 billion in spending in the same period of
time, so they more than cancel out any small cuts the warmongers may crow
about.
I voted against the legislation funding government
for the remainder of this year, as well as next year's budget because, as in
years past, government spends far too much on unconstitutional programs. In
spite of any rhetoric about fiscal responsibility, a point three percent
(0.3%) cut does not suddenly make the rest of the spending constitutional or
responsible. And, if the American people do not continue to hold the
politicians' feet to the fire, you can be sure we will see massive spending
increases again in the future.
In addition to Congress' spending, many Americans
are finally paying attention to the spending done by unelected banking
cronies at the Federal Reserve. Recently the Fed was forced to reveal some
details of loans given out during the financial crisis of 2008 and they are
truly shocking. Matt Taibbi points out in a recent
Rolling Stone article that two very well-connected Wall Street wives got
together and formed a real estate investment company that garnered $220
million in so-called "loans" (free money) from the Fed. Compare
this number to the $352 million in spending cuts the CBO says are in the
current budget! A few months later, one of the wives bought a $13.5 million
personal residence with her husband, the CEO of Morgan Stanley.
The unelected, unaccountable Fed hands out as much
or more money this way as our federal government spends, and yet receives
hardly any attention. This is why I believe transparency of the Fed is a
critical step to regaining control of our financial situation in this
country. We can never get meaningful reforms if all eyes are on the $352
million so-called cuts, and transactions like the $220 million given to Wall
Street cronies are done in the shadows. This is why I have reintroduced my
Audit the Fed bill to this Congress. HR 1207 is now HR 459 and is essential
to true fiscal reform and responsibility.
Ron Paul
www.house.gov/paul
Copyright Dr. Ron
Paul
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