Posts Tagged ‘Ron Paul’

Last week at its regular policy-setting meeting, the Federal Reserve announced it would double down on the policies that have failed to produce anything but a stagnant economy. It was a disappointing, but not surprising, move.

The Fed affirmed that it is prepared to increase its monthly purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities if things don’t start looking up. But actually the Fed has already been buying more than the announced $85 billion per month. Between February and March, the Fed’s securities holdings increased $95 billion. From March to April, they increased $100 billion. In all, the Fed has pumped more than a half trillion dollars into the economy since announcing its latest round of “quantitative easing” (QE3) in September 2012.

–SNIP– It is not surprising the Fed has decided to hand the American people more of the same failed policies. But it is disappointing. We know what the real solution is: allow the marketplace to work. Allow entrepreneurs the chance to create instead of stifling innovation with arbitrary regulations. Allow interest rates to rise to equal the risks in the economy. Allow bad debts to be liquidated so we can build on a firm foundation. Stop printing money to benefit the government and big banks. Restore sound money to the economy and the American people. Sound money is the bedrock for prosperity and the best check on big government and crony capitalism.

Read more by Ron Paul at the-free-foundation.org

1. Rights belong to individuals, not groups; they derive from our nature and can neither be granted nor taken away by government.

2. All peaceful, voluntary economic and social associations are permitted; consent is the basis of the social and economic order.

3. Justly acquired property is privately owned by individuals and voluntary groups, and this ownership cannot be arbitrarily voided by governments.

4. Government may not redistribute private wealth or grant special privileges to any individual or group.

5. Individuals are responsible for their own actions; government cannot and should not protect us from ourselves.

Read more by Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com

While I oppose most gun control proposals, there is one group of Americans I do believe should be disarmed: federal agents. The use of force by federal agents to enforce unjust and unconstitutional laws is one of the major, albeit overlooked, threats to liberty. Too often Americans are victimized by government force simply for engaging in commercial transactions disproved of by Congress and the federal bureaucracy.

For example, the offices of Rawesome Foods in Venice, California, have been repeatedly raided by armed federal and state agents, and Rawesome’s founder, 65-year old James Stewart, has been imprisoned. What heinous crime justified this action? Rawesome sold unpasteurized (raw) milk and cheese to willing customers – in a state where raw milk is legal! You cannot even drink milk from a cow without a federal permit!

Read more by Ron Paul at the-free-foundation.org

As I prepare to retire from Congress I’d like to suggest a few New Year’s resolutions for my colleagues to consider. For the sake of liberty, peace and prosperity I certainly hope more members of Congress consider the strict libertarian-constitutional approach to government in 2013.

In just a few days, Congress will solemnly swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They should read Article 1 Section 8 and the Bill of Rights before taking such a serious oath. Most legislation violates key provisions of the Constitution in very basic ways, and if members can’t bring themselves to say “no” in the face of pressure from the special interests, they have broken trust with their constituents and violated their oath. Congress does not exist to serve the special interests. It exists to protect the rule of law.

Read more by Cong. Ron Paul (R-TX) at RonPaul.com

This is Congressman Ron Paul’s (R-TX) farewell speech to Congress, Wednesday November 14 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPz5ILqpetI

Pundits are pooh-poohing the plank in the GOP platform that calls for a commission to examine “possible ways to set a fixed value for the dollar,” declaring it a sop to Ron Paul supporters. And indeed this was a motivation of hard-core political calculators around Governor Romney. But these self-styled, world-weary cynical types didn’t put this item in of their own volition. They went along with it because it was pushed hard by Tea Party groups and several U.S. senators and representatives, as well as Ron Paul devotees.

Gold won’t be a sizzling issue this fall. The economy, entitlements and, possibly, war in the Middle East will dominate headlines. But the yellow metal will be a hot topic in the next 24 months. The commission is going to take on an importance that will astound today’s political punditry, besotted as they are with stale Keynesian quackeries about money, taxes and spending.

Read more by Steve Forbes at Forbes.com

Independent from Congress … or from the American People?

Congress will vote tomorrow on auditing the Federal Reserve. The House has approved an audit of the Federal Reserve.

The Federal Reserve says that an audit will interfere with it’s “independence”. For example, in Congressional testimony on 2009, the vice chair of the Fed used the “i” word 30 times.

–SNIP– What the Last Audit Showed

Let’s start by looking at what information was revealed in response to the previous, watered-down version of Ron Paul’s Fed audit bill:

Read more at WashingtonsBlog.com

Delegate Tracker from the Wall Street Journal

Delegate Tracker from the NY Times

1144 delegates needed to win nomination

Texas Primary Is Said to Give Ex-Governor Enough Delegates as General-Election Campaign Rolls On

According to a tally by the Associated Press, Tuesday’s win in Texas puts Mr. Romney over the threshold of 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.

“I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled to have won enough delegates” to be the GOP nominee, Mr. Romney said in a statement.

According to a tally by the Associated Press, Tuesday’s win in Texas puts Mr. Romney over the threshold of 1,144 delegates needed for the nomination.

With 99% of precincts reporting in Texas, Mr. Romney had 69% of the vote, compared with 12% for Rep. Ron Paul.

Read more By PATRICK O’CONNOR And LAURA MECKLER at Wall Street Journal

This month Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki announced the addition of some 1,900 mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers to its existing workforce of 20,590 mental health staff in attempt to get a handle on the epidemic of suicides among combat veterans. Unfortunately, when presidents misuse our military on an unprecedented scale – and Congress lets them get away with it – the resulting stress causes military suicides to increase dramatically, both among active duty and retired service members. In fact, military deaths from suicide far outnumber combat deaths. According to an article in the Air Force Times this month, suicides among airmen are up 40 percent over last year.

Considering the multiple deployments service members are forced to endure as the war in Afghanistan stretches into its second decade, these figures are sadly unsurprising.

Read more by Cong. Ron Paul

Rick Santorum, Confirmed Guest

Other invited guests include: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

at the Italian Community Center, Milwaukee

Join our Emcee Charlie Sykes, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, fellow conservatives and the Republican Party of Milwaukee County as we welcome Republican presidential candidates to Milwaukee.

VIP Reception 5 - 6 pm; General Reception 5-6 pm. Dinner at 6 pm. Seating will be limited to 350 seats.

It is with great sorrow to inform those who don’t already know, that RPMC-West Allis/West Milwaukee Chairman, Tony Bellanti, passed away yesterday, March 21, 2012. Unfortunately, Tony lost his month-long battle with cancer. He was a fervent supporter of Ron Paul. He will be missed.

Funeral Services for Tony will be held on Sunday, March 25, 2012 at Schaff Funeral Services, located at 5920 W. Lincoln Ave. in Milwaukee, WI. 53219. The visitation will go from 4pm – 7pm. There will be a service right after from 7pm-8pm. Everyone will be encouraged to speak about their experiences with Tony.

There will be a “Life Celebration Party” for Tony on his would-be 55th Birthday on April 1, 2012. Details regarding this event are soon to come.

Any cards or letters should be sent to Tony’s widow, Cindy Bellanti.

Cindy Bellanti
1925 S. 54th St.
West Allis, WI. 53219

Please keep Tony’s family in your prayers and thoughts at this time.

Very Respectfully,
Michael S. Murphy
Chair, RPMC-South Branch

8pm ET on CNN – Live Stream
Location: Mesa Arts Center in Mesa, Arizona
Sponsor: CNN and the Republican Party of Arizona
Participants: Romney, Santorum, Paul, Gingrich
http://www.2012presidentialelectionnews.com/2012-debate-schedule/2011-2012-primary-debate-schedule/

The Federal Reserve’s interest rate price-setting board, the FOMC, met last week. They will continue to set the federal funds rate at well below 1%, and plan to keep it low until the end of 2014. That’s a year and half longer than they planned when they met just last month. Chairman Bernanke says they are keeping interest rates so low for so long because the economic outlook warrants it.

The fallacies in their reasoning would be amusing if they weren’t so dangerous. The Fed wants to keep the price of money at essentially zero – in other words “free” – to boost the economy. But the boost they are attempting won’t get here for another three years. That’s not a recovery. And we’ve already tried this tactic. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place: with interest rates artificially low for a very long time. Free money doesn’t stimulate growth, as Japan’s two lost decades clearly show. Artificially low interest rates only serve to punish saving, distort market signals, and cause further malinvestment. They also do nothing to address the only real solution to our economic woes: liquidation of the bad debt that hangs around the neck of the world’s economy, preventing recovery. Artificially low interest rates merely ensure that we remain a debt-financed consumer economy guaranteed to end up with a weaker economy and higher prices.

Read more by Cong. Ron Paul at Texas Straight Talk

As I’ve written about before, America’s election season degrades mainstream political discourse even beyond its usual lowly state. The worst attributes of our political culture — obsession with trivialities, the dominance of horserace “reporting,” and mindless partisan loyalties — become more pronounced than ever. Meanwhile, the actually consequential acts of the U.S. Government and the permanent power factions that control it — covert endless wars, consolidation of unchecked power, the rapid growth of the Surveillance State and the secrecy regime, massive inequalities in the legal system, continuous transfers of wealth from the disappearing middle class to large corporate conglomerates — drone on with even less attention paid than usual.

Because most of those policies are fully bipartisan in nature, the election season — in which only issues that bestow partisan advantage receive attention — places them even further outside the realm of mainstream debate and scrutiny. For that reason, America’s elections ironically serve to obsfuscate political reality even more than it usually is.

This would all be bad enough if “election season” were confined to a few months the way it is in most civilized countries. But in America, the fixation on presidential elections takes hold at least eighteen months before the actual election occurs, which means that more than 1/3 of a President’s term is conducted in the midst of (and is obscured by) the petty circus distractions of The Campaign. Thus, an unauthorized, potentially devastating covert war — both hot and cold — against Iran can be waged with virtually no debate, just as government control over the Internet can be inexorably advanced, because TV political shows are busy chattering away about Michele Bachmann’s latest gaffe and minute changes in Rick Perry’s polling numbers.

Read more by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com