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Stop Runaway Federal Spending!

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Published : August 16th, 2011
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Category : Editorials

 

 

 

 

Politicians did not get much time to pat themselves on the back for supposedly rescuing the economy with the debt limit deal last week. The ink was barely dry when Standard & Poor’s downgraded the US debt ratings anyway, roiling world financial markets. Anyone who has taken an honest look at the government’s fiscal situation, taken into account how Washington works and the direction it is going would have a very difficult time arguing with S&P’s decision, although a strong case can be made that this was too incremental a downgrade and that it took far too long for S&P to admit the obvious.


Nonetheless, the administration nitpicked over a $2 trillion “mistake”. S&P rejoined with the fact that $2 trillion here or there hardly makes a difference in the time frame under discussion. That, if nothing else, should tell you the magnitude of the problem. $2 trillion has become a drop in the bucket.


S&P cited Congress’s inability to act like grownups and make necessary, meaningful cuts, which is true. I must take issue however, with their suggestion that tax increases are part of the answer. Taking capital out of the private sector, where it can create real value in the form of new jobs and products, and instead giving it to Washington to waste and squander is not the solution. Tax increases may seem penny-wise to some, but in reality they would be very pound-foolish. The government currently takes in $2.2 trillion in taxes per year, which is far too much already. It spends $3.7 trillion, which is ridiculous and criminal. The problem is runaway government spending, not the American people having too much money.


And yet we can’t even have a serious discussion about bringing our troops home and ending our expensive occupations around the world – things the president used to claim to favor!


Even without this downgrade, major investors are waking up to what lies down the road for the United States in fiscal terms. China is showing more signs of losing its taste for our debt. Others are following suit. What we are about to see is the end of the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. When that happens, we will no longer be in a position to have pretend debates about things we probably should spend a little bit less on – we will be forced to implement serious spending cuts as our sources of credit dry up. Of course, we can try to postpone the day of reckoning by printing more money but the resulting “inflation tax” will be far worse than a reduction in government benefits.


Hyperinflation devastates the middle class. After Weimar Germany hyper-inflated their currency in the 1920s, an entire life savings couldn’t buy a postage stamp. The bank wouldn’t even send customers a check for all the money they had saved their whole lives. It wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on or the stamp to send it. This is what is meant when it is said that the middle class gets wiped out. The pieces for this to happen here are all falling into place, and have been since 1971. The only way to avoid that sort of chaos now is for Congress to immediately reduce federal spending and take the Constitution seriously again. The welfare/warfare state will end either way, but winding it down responsibly is a far better way to do it.





 

 

 

 

 

 

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Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics today. Dr. Paul is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He is known among both his colleagues in Congress and his constituents for his consistent voting record in the House of Representatives: Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill.
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I wonder if Ron thinks that the Tenth Amendment applies to individuals as well as states?

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
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I spend a lot of time trying to expose the flakes and kooks on the left, the politicians and their supporters (Gore and Kunstler) but have to admit some of them are on the right -- like Ron Paul.

His above article sounds reasonable enough to conservatives but his other vocalized positions put him in the kook category as well. Here are just a few examples:

1) He would not have gone into Pakistan to kill Bin Laden. One does not play by the rules when going after a murderer -- and one who is plotting more murders. Paul said he would have consulted and worked with Pakistan on the matter. Really?

2) In the debate he said he respected State's rights and would not interfer if States coerced it's citizens into buying health care -- a la Obamacare. Paul believes that State rights trump individual rights. That's a socialist a position. So, in principle, he would not have interfered with a free State in the Civil War returning a fugitive slave to a slave State re Supreme Court Dred Scott decision. Same principle.

3) Also in the recent debate he said he would not stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons even though they have vowed to annilate Israel. He added that Iran was no threat to the U.S. ignoring their recent long range missile developments. And if the U.S. has been behind the virus attacks at the Iranian nuclear plants, Paul would not have approved had he been Prez.

Let not his 'correct' positions on economics blind us to his enormous irrationalities.
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Well im not American but let me tell you from the outside looking in that Ron Paul is the only sane choice for next USA President! Had you ever considered that its the USA thats the real "threat" here with heaven knows how much firepower and not the Iranians with as yet NO nukes.As Mr Paul said when he was in the airforce many years ago the Soviets had 30000 of them!!!! And I dont remember them dropping one on the US. The trouble with Americans is that your governments have made you all paronoid and you think everyone is plotting against you. As Senator Paul states "its time to mind our own business and bring the troops home" amen to that.
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Some Americans agree with you, phil. We have become a world menace. If not for the complicit corporate press, this would be more widely understood here.
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Phil:

Please provide your GPS coordinates to NORAD. This is a mandatory requirement.
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Some Americans agree with you, phil. We have become a world menace. If not for the complicit corporate press, this would be more widely understood here. Read more
pcanon - 8/16/2011 at 9:25 PM GMT
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