PoliticalAction.com Blog

Congressman Ron Paul
January 11, 2010

Dear Friend of Liberty,

Believe it or not, it is election time again. The Texas Republican Primary is only seven short weeks away and already both parties have turned their attack dogs loose on me . . . doing everything they can to make sure I am defeated.

Never mind all the good I have been able to accomplish for freedom and the American taxpayer in Congress, the enemies of freedom and the elites in Washington want me gone.

Together, we have brought to Congress a voice for Liberty, limited government and a sensible foreign policy. I am deeply grateful for all of your support.

Just look at a few of the things we have accomplished!

We have drawn 317 cosponsors and passed through the House Financial Services Committee a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. We have led the fight against bailouts, Obamacare and Cap and Trade. And, thanks to the national attention our efforts have generated, we have broadened the debate on foreign policy and are challenging the status quo idea that America must be the World’s policeman.

It is my desire to return to Congress for another term and have filed for re-election. I am hopeful that I can win, but I urgently need your help.

Seven candidates have filed to run against me. These candidates include three Republicans in my own primary on March 2, and they will stop at nothing to tear down and destroy all we have worked for.

Please read some of the quotes my opponents have been throwing at me:

“(Ron Paul) wants to cut spending on our military industrial complex because he believes in a weaker foreign policy.”

“Ron Paul has become a complete nutcase conspiratorialist quasi-Anti-Semitic leftwing American-hating nutball.”

“Ron Paul is out of touch with this district and it is time for him to move on…Dr. No Must Go!”

These quotes come directly from my opponents’ campaign literature and websites. We cannot let these attacks stand.

I plan to fight back and will mount an aggressive campaign. Carol, my family and my staff are already working very hard, but I need your immediate support.

Please consider making a contribution of $50, $100, $500, $1,000 or even the maximum legal gift of $2,400 to my campaign. Your generous support will allow me to mobilize and ensure we are victorious.

Please logon NOW to my website www.RonPaulforCongress.com and donate as much as you can to help me overcome my opponents and win reelection.

There is a tremendous anti-incumbent, anti-Washington sentiment in America. Politicians across the country face a sea change as outraged Americans threaten to vote them out. While I think this development is a good thing, I am going to have to work hard to ensure I am not caught up in the same wave and swept out of office before our job is done.

If I thought that it would help America, I would gladly step aside and return home to Texas. But the people who want my seat will not work for Liberty. They will instead vote for big spending, eroding our Liberties and policing the world, while ignoring our crooked monetary system.

We stand at a crucial crossroads. Our effort to Audit the Fed and expose the crooked banksters stands tantalizingly close to passage. It is my sincere desire to stay in Congress and press this fight.

But, the road to re-election will be bumpy. My opponents are digging up any and all ammunition they can muster to fire at me.

As many of you know, I represent Galveston, which was hit hard by Hurricane Ike last fall. My office has worked hard to help our constituents, and I am proud of the work we have done.

After the Hurricane, Congress rushed to pass a “relief” bill. Unfortunately, the bill was anything but that. It was loaded with over $6 billion dollars in pork and special interest money that had nothing to do with helping people in need. And, any actual benefits for the people hurt by the natural disaster were run, or should I say hijacked, by the Federal Emergency management Agency (FEMA.) We all remember how well FEMA did helping out in New Orleans.

I knew that voting against this supposed “hurricane relief” would be one of the most difficult political votes I ever cast. But, my vote was never in question. I stood by our principles and stood up for Taxpayers in Texas and across our country and voted against this monstrosity.

You and I may know this vote is a strength, but my opponents see it as an opportunity to attack, and they have been vicious. Forget the billions in pork spending, or the unmanageable big government bureaucracy contained in the legislation. Since I voted against the bill, they scream I must not care about poor people.

They will continue to beat this drum, and if we do not fight back, they may be successful. Think then how few politicians will be willing to take principled votes against big government in the future if they see me defeated because of my stand.

For thirty years, I have run on the belief that Liberty and free markets are the source of American prosperity. I will continue to fight for these principles regardless of the attacks and personal smears. But, I need your help to return to Washington.

Again, I hope you will consider contributing to my re-election campaign. Together, we can restore our freedoms and protect the American Dream.

In Liberty,
Ron Paul

P.S. Early voting in my primary begins on February 15th. Time is of the essence and I have already begun campaigning hard. Your timely support is truly needed. Please contribute to my campaign TODAY at www.RonPaulforCongress.com

Please support the Mad As Hell Money Bomb TODAY Jan 7th 2010.

LAKE JACKSON, Texas — Congressman Ron Paul today endorsed John Dennis in his Republican bid for United States Congress. Mr. Dennis, a successful entrepreneur and longtime liberty-minded GOP activist, is running to unseat Nancy Pelosi in California’s 8th district.

Said Dr. Paul, “John Dennis is truly committed to Liberty, personal freedom, fiscal discipline and a more sensible foreign policy. I am very happy that John has decided to run for Congress and wholeheartedly endorse him.”

For more information on John Dennis, please visit www.JohnDennis2010.com.

Congressman Paul’s endorsement comes through his Liberty PAC, a Republican leadership PAC committed to supporting Liberty minded candidates across the country.

Said Liberty PAC director Jesse Benton, “John Dennis is a terrific candidate who is going to ask tough questions like: ‘Why is Nancy Pelosi running up crushing budget deficits?’, “Why has she allowed President Obama to expand the war in Afghanistan?’, and, ‘Why has Nancy Pelosi refused to support transparency and accountability at the Federal Reserve.’ The constituents of California’s 8th district deserve answers to these questions. John Dennis will hold her accountable.”

FOXNews.com

The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves.

C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open “all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,” to televised coverage on his network.

“The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety,” he wrote.

In a Tuesday afternoon press conference on health legislation negotiations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to object to the premise behind the request.

“There has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone who’s served here’s experience,” she said.

However, Republican leaders sided with C-SPAN’s calls for transparency.

“As House Republican leader, I can confidently state that all House Republicans strongly endorse your proposal and stand ready to work with you to make it a reality,” Minority Leader John Boehner wrote in response to the letter. “Hard-working families won’t stand for having the future of their health care decided behind closed doors. These secret deliberations are a breeding ground for more of the kickbacks, shady deals and special-interest provisions that have become business as usual in Washington.”

Democratic leaders could bypass the traditional conference committee process, in which lawmakers from both parties and chambers meet to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions of a bill. Top Democrats in the House, Senate and White House were meeting Tuesday evening to figure out the final product in three-way talks before sending it back to both chambers for a final vote.

“We don’t even know yet whether there’s going to be a conference,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen said responding to a question about the C-SPAN request. “It’s not clear whether or not that’s going to happen yet.”

This format would seem ideal for closed-door meetings, which congressional Democrats have used many times to figure out sensitive provisions in the health care bill — though President Obama pledged during the campaign to open up health care talks to C-SPAN’s cameras.

“That’s what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are,” Obama said at a debate against Hillary Clinton in Los Angeles on Jan. 31, 2008.

Asked about the request to Congress, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he hadn’t seen the letter.

“I know the president is going to begin discussions today on health care to iron out differences between the House and Senate bills,” he said.

Lamb urged Congress in his letter to fling open the doors in the final stretch of the negotiations.

“President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system,” he wrote. “Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American.”

Lamb said his network would use “the latest technology” to be “as unobtrusive as possible” during the talks.

On January 7th, a mass fund-raising effort will take place to rally awareness and media attention around the John Dennis’ candidacy. The goal of this event is to raise as much money possible in a twenty-four hour period, shocking the nation with the plausibility of a legitimate challenge to Nancy’s reign.

With Speaker Pelosi’s dismal approval ratings, and John Dennis’ swelling support in the Bay Area and around the country, this event will be a huge success. Strong fund raising numbers will thrust John into the national spotlight and force Speaker Pelosi onto the defensive.

The elitists and special interests will do everything they can to keep us under their thumbs. It is up to US to make a stand. It is up to US to take our country back. It is up to US to tell this government, “We are mad as hell, and we are NOT going to take it anymore!”

Help us spread the word about John Dennis, the money bomb on January 7th, and this historic congressional race.

The January 7th “Mad As Hell” Money Bomb

Ron and others discuss terrorism, the TSA, and related issues.

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

This past week we celebrated the end of what most people agree was a decade best forgotten. New York Times columnist and leading Keynesian economist Paul Krugman called it the Big Zero in a recent column. He wrote that “there was a whole lot of nothing going on in measures of economic progress or success” which is true. However, Krugman continues to misleadingly blame the free market and supposed lack of regulation for the economic chaos.

It was encouraging that he admitted that blowing economic bubbles is a mistake, especially considering he himself advocated creating a housing bubble as a way to alleviate the hangover from the dotcom bust. But we can no longer afford to give prominent economists like Krugman a pass when they completely ignore the burden of taxation, monetary policy, and excessive regulation.

Afterall, Krugman is still scratching his head as to why “no” economists saw the housing bust coming. How in the world did they miss it? Actually many economists saw it coming a mile away, understood it perfectly, and explained it many times. Policy makers would have been wise to heed the warnings of the Austrian economists, and must start listening to their teachings if they want solid progress in the future. If not, the necessary correction is going to take a very long time.

The Austrian free-market economists use common sense principles. You cannot spend your way out of a recession. You cannot regulate the economy into oblivion and expect it to function. You cannot tax people and businesses to the point of near slavery and expect them to keep producing. You cannot create an abundance of money out of thin air without making all that paper worthless. The government cannot make up for rising unemployment by just hiring all the out of work people to be bureaucrats or send them unemployment checks forever. You cannot live beyond your means indefinitely. The economy must actually produce something others are willing to buy. Government growth is the opposite of all these things.

Bureaucrats are loathe to face these unpleasant, but obvious realities. It is much more appealing to wave their magic wand of regulation and public spending and divert blame elsewhere. It is time to be honest about our problems.

The tragic reality is that this fatally flawed, but widely accepted, economic school of thought called Keynesianism has made our country more socialist than capitalist. While the private sector in the last ten years has experienced a roller coaster of booms and busts and ended up, nominally, about where we started in 2000, government has been steadily growing, because Keynesians told politicians they could get away with a tax, spend and inflate policy. They even encouraged it! But we cannot survive much longer if government is our only growth industry.

As for a lack of regulation, the last decade saw the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the largest piece of financial regulatory legislation in years. This act failed to prevent abuses like those perpetrated by Bernie Madoff, and it is widely acknowledged that the new regulations contributed heavily not only to the lack of real growth, but also to many businesses going overseas.

Americans have been working hard, and Krugman rightly points out that they are getting nowhere. Government is expanding steadily and keeping us at less than zero growth when inflation is factored in. Krugman seems pretty disappointed with zero, but if we continue to listen to Keynesians in the next decade instead of those who tell us the truth, zero will start to look pretty good. The end result of destroying the currency is the wiping out of the middle class. Preventing that from happening should be our top economic priority.

Texas Straight Talk – A weekly column
Rep. Ron Paul (R) – TX 14

Last week on Christmas Eve, after many backroom deals were made, the Senate passed the healthcare reform bill with a strictly partisan vote. I was pleased that my colleagues in the GOP are on the right side of this bill. Although this vote was a major step in healthcare reform becoming reality, they still have to reconcile the Senate bill with the House-passed version in conference committee. This could prove even more difficult and costly than the Senate vote.

There was a little bit of controversy surrounding one particular Senator who was initially against the bill, but then, coincidentally, a large amount of Medicare funding specifically for his state was tucked inside and he ended up voting for it. One wonders how much more of that will have to go on to achieve final passage.

But this is how politicians in Washington deal with problems: they throw your money at them. Healthcare reform is no different. The Senate version of the bill, at last count, will cost $871 billion. The House version tops $1 trillion. But they tell us this is for the health of Americans, and how dare we count the cost?

Such is the arrogance of politicians. There seems to be no end to the problems they feel capable and duty-bound to solve through legislative proclamation and plenty of your money. To hear them talk, one might think that a few words spoken on Capitol Hill would make problems just disappear. All it takes it good intentions.

But no good can come from 2400 pages of Washington’s good intentions.

I have observed quite the opposite throughout my political career in the House of Representatives, and fear that with this immense legislation, our healthcare problems are only just beginning. Over the last few decades, I have seen healthcare subjected to more and more creeping red tape that only creates bottlenecks and increases costs as new bureaucratic hurdles are put in place.

Politicians cannot solve the problems created by ever-increasing intervention by exponentially increasing their intervention. Similarly, they cannot improve the quality of healthcare and expand access to it for all Americans simply by legislative decree. If only it were that simple! The reality is the free market, when allowed to function, naturally increases access and drives prices down through competition. The free market keeps service providers accountable by allowing people to take their business elsewhere.

This government intervention will eventually create a near monopoly of providers in health insurance as smaller companies are squeezed out and innovation comes to a grinding halt due to formidable barriers to entry. The government will determine prices and levels of service that will apply to everyone, regardless of want or individual circumstances. The true insurance model of healthcare cost management, meaning major medical coverage only, will basically become illegal. Opting out of the system will incur heavy tax penalties.

Expanding government reach so deeply into this very sensitive area of our personal lives and such a major part of our economy means more opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse of the system. One need only remember the recent bailouts for an example of how government handles systemic waste, fraud and abuse.

So while the Senate patted itself on the back last week for delivering a Christmas gift to Americans, time will prove it was instead a great big lump of coal.

Congressman Ron Paul | December 15, 2009
United States House of Representatives

I rise in strongest opposition to this new round of sanctions on Iran, which is another significant step toward a US war on that country. I find it shocking that legislation this serious and consequential is brought up in such a cavalier manner. Suspending the normal rules of the House to pass legislation is a process generally reserved for “non-controversial” business such as the naming of post offices. Are we to believe that this House takes matters of war and peace as lightly as naming post offices?

This legislation seeks to bar from doing business in the United States any foreign entity that sells refined petroleum to Iran or otherwise enhances Iran’s ability to import refined petroleum such as financing, brokering, underwriting, or providing ships for such. Such sanctions also apply to any entity that provides goods or services that enhance Iran’s ability to maintain or expand its domestic production of refined petroleum. This casts the sanctions net worldwide, with enormous international economic implications.

Recently, the Financial Times reported that, “[i]n recent months, Chinese companies have greatly expanded their presence in Iran’s oil sector. In the coming months, Sinopec, the state-owned Chinese oil company, is scheduled to complete the expansion of the Tabriz and Shazand refineries — adding 3.3 million gallons of gasoline per day.”

Are we to conclude, with this in mind, that China or its major state-owned corporations will be forbidden by this legislation from doing business with the United States? What of our other trading partners who currently do business in Iran’s petroleum sector or insure those who do so? Has anyone seen an estimate of how this sanctions act will affect the US economy if it is actually enforced?

As we have learned with US sanctions on Iraq, and indeed with US sanctions on Cuba and elsewhere, it is citizens rather than governments who suffer most. The purpose of these sanctions is to change the regime in Iran, but past practice has demonstrated time and again that sanctions only strengthen regimes they target and marginalize any opposition. As would be the case were we in the US targeted for regime change by a foreign government, people in Iran will tend to put aside political and other differences to oppose that threatening external force. Thus this legislation will likely serve to strengthen the popularity of the current Iranian government. Any opposition continuing to function in Iran would be seen as operating in concert with the foreign entity seeking to overthrow the regime.

This legislation seeks to bring Iran in line with international demands regarding its nuclear materials enrichment programs, but what is ironic is that Section 2 of HR 2194 itself violates the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which both the United States and Iran are signatories. This section states that “[i]t shall be the policy of the United States…to prevent Iran from achieving the capability to make nuclear weapons, including by supporting international diplomatic efforts to halt Iran’s uranium enrichment program.” Article V of the NPT states clearly that, “[n]othing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination and in conformity with articles I and II of this Treaty.” As Iran has never been found in violation of the NPT — has never been found to have diverted nuclear materials for non-peaceful purposes — this legislation seeking to deny Iran the right to enrichment even for peaceful purposes itself violates the NPT.

Mr. Speaker, I am concerned that many of my colleagues opposing war on Iran will vote in favor of this legislation, seeing it as a step short of war to bring Iran into line with US demands. I would remind them that sanctions and the blockades that are required to enforce them are themselves acts of war according to international law. I urge my colleagues to reject this saber-rattling but ultimately counterproductive legislation.

Next week, Congress will vote on President Obama’s plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan. These wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on almost a decade. There are first and second graders in this country who have never known an America at peace. To them, America is always at war.

President Obama inspired us in his run for President with his message of peace. He told Iowans about his courageous stance against the war in Iraq, “I opposed this war from the beginning. I opposed the war in 2002. I opposed the war in 2003. I opposed it in 2004 and 2005 and 2006.”

This is why Obama was elected: to bring peace and prosperity to our country.

Obama told the people in Illinois who elected him to the Senate, that “the consequences of war are dire, the sacrifices immeasurable. We may have occasion in our lifetime to once again rise up in defense of our freedom, and pay the wages of war. But we ought not – we will not – travel down that hellish path blindly.”

He told us that we should “not stay the course or take the conventional path because the other course is unknown.” These are the words of a man of peace, and I believe that we can remind the President that he can be that man of peace.

Help me remind the President of something very basic: Peace is good, and war is bad. I’ve set up a site at www.TiredOfWar.com where you can send the White House a message, written using his own words and some of your own, that peace is good.

We do not want to join a battle to occupy a foreign country indefinitely, no matter how much the military-industrial establishment may press for it. General Petraeus already said in May that Al Qaeda doesn’t even operate in Afghanistan any more, and President Karzai agreed.

But we do want to join the battles that President Obama told us about before he became President, the battles, he said, “against ignorance and intolerance, corruption and greed, poverty and despair.” Those are the battles that, “we willingly join.”

Click here to send your message to the White House now.

www.TiredOfWar.com

We will end these wars. It’s going to take time, but we will bring peace to America.

Mr. President, be the President that we voted for, the President that you promised to be. We agree with you that we should not “travel down this hellish path blindly.”  It is time to come home.

Regards,

Alan Grayson
Member of US Congress