Here is an interesting interview in which Congressman Ron Paul is asked about his notion that healthcare, as well as other goods and services are not rights. He explains this in detail and shows that making goods and services “rights” violates the rights of others; because the government has to take from somebody else in order to hand out goods and services to people who don’t have them. Taking of goods and services from one person to give to another is not the hallmark of a free society.
RT: “You’ve said before that you feel that healthcare is not a right. Can you justify that?”
Ron Paul: “I think very easily: you have a right to your life, you have a right to your liberty and you ought to have a right to keep what you earn in a free country; but you don’t have a right to ‘stuff’. You don’t have a right to services or things like a house or a job; because, in order to get that, the government would have to take it from somebody else.
If somebody claims you have the right to a car and they don’t have one and the government gives them a car; they have to take the money or the car from someone else, so it’s a contradiction in terms. If somebody claims that they have a right to something; they have to violate somebody else’s right.
So the most you can expect in a free society is for the government to make an attempt at protecting rights, not to try to redistribute wealth; if you do that, all people lose their rights.”
Ron Paul: “…What I’ve tried to do in the past is offer something that would replace government programs; because there’s lots of ways you can deliver services and good other than through government mandates and government spending; because inevitably that fails…”
Here is an interesting discussion between Congressman Ron Paul and Paul Volcker in which Dr. Paul starts by describing the blow-up of the global fiat credit bubble; he later inquires to former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s ideas on the reform of the international monetary system.
Among his concerns were:
the creation of supra-national powers for international financial institutions
moving away from the free market
international negotiations for the replacement of the dollar system
It is interesting, that during this discussion the idea of the IMF having an increased role in the world economy was brushed off; while in recent days there is new talk of the world returning to a new standard of IMF-issued SDR’s.
There is this popular idea, that earmark spending results in increased Federal Government spending; so it is thought that the government should be given the money to spend on whatever they please. As with most popular ideas, this one is wrong; it is likely propaganda from those who would be receiving the pork without accountability.
As Congressman Ron Paul describes, the amount of a particular budget is decided before any earmarks are put into place; so a particular earmark does not alter the amount of the overall budget. To remove earmarks would remove accountability and give them even more money in their slush funds; to do with as they please.
Earmarks seem to be the hot topic this week, and as a fiscal conservative I am dismayed so many people deliberately distort the earmarking process and grandstand to make political points. It is an easy thing to do with earmarks. It takes a little more time and patience to grasp the reality of what earmarks really are.
To be sure, if earmarks were the driving force behind explosive government spending as some have been led to believe, that would be a good reason for all the fuss. The misconception seems to be that members of Congress put together a bunch of requests for project funding, add them all together and come up with a budget. The truth is, it is not done that way. The total level of spending is determined by the Congressional leadership and the appropriators before any Member has a chance to offer any amendments. Members’ requests are simply recommendations to allocate parts of that spending for certain items in that members’ district or state. If funds are not designated, they revert to non-designated spending controlled by bureaucrats in the executive branch. In other words, when a designation request makes it into the budget, it subtracts funds out of what is available to the executive branch and bureaucrats in various departments, and targets it for projects that the people and their representatives request in their districts. If a congressman does not submit funding requests for his district the money is simply spent elsewhere. To eliminate all earmarks would be to further consolidate power in the already dominant executive branch and not save a penny.
Furthermore, designating how money is spent provides a level of transparency and accountability over taxpayer dollars that we don’t have with general funds. I argue that all spending should be decided by Congress so that we at least know where the money goes. This has been a major problem with TARP funding. The public and Congress are now trying to find out where all that money went.
The real issue is that the overall budget is too big, by far, which is why I always vote against it. But attacking the 1% that was earmarked solves nothing. The whole issue is a distraction from the real problems we face, which are that the Federal Government will absorb over 1/3 of our country’s GDP this year and taxpayers are forced to fork over more than half their income to fund government at all levels. On top of that, the national debt is $11 trillion, which is $36,000 per citizen. The recent increases in bailouts, government spending and money creation is going to hobble our economy for decades. We must curb the government’s appetite severely if this country is ever to thrive again. The noise over “earmarks” is a red herring and a distraction from the real issue of uncommitted spending.
It is time to attack the entirety of government spending. We especially need a full account of the activities of the Federal Reserve that spends and creates trillions of dollars with no meaningful oversight. This is a huge problem that needs immediate attention.
This week we witnessed the beginnings of the un-doing of the United States economy. On Thursday the Dow Jones plummeted over 350 points while gold vaulted up over 30 dollars. The glue that holds our fragile economy together is starting to come undone.
The useful idiots in congress are talking, more than ever, about preemptive warfare with the nation of Iran. This is the same sort of chatter that happened in the time leading up to the war with Iraq. The stupidity of the American public never ceases to amaze me.
There is no evidence that Iran is producing nuclear weaponry. They have been subject to surprise inspections and the inspectors have found nothing; yet Israel and United States wish to bomb them anyways.
The individuals who advocate this sort of behavior, pre-emptively destroying the lives of other people without even investigating why it is being done, are even worse than rapists and serial killers.
I don’t give a damn if you’re just ignorant, turning a blind eye, or whatever your excuse is.
Another war will impoverish the people even further. The price of energy will double or triple and the whole world will be brought into a massive depression.
Remember what happened when the economy of Germany was in shambles after WWI. They witnessed the Nazification of their nation, and we too shall witness the Nazification of the United States of America, if we just sit back and allow this slaughter to occur.
The American people have to get up off the couch, put the soda down, drop the TV controller, turn off the game console. Get up and do something about this before it is too late. We need fundamental changes in the lives of each and every one of us, if we are to hold off the forces of darkness.
If we fail here, then our children and grandchildren will live in a world that you wouldn’t wish on anyone.
What kind of a people are Americans? Are they the kind who would allow horrible things to happen to others for no good reason? Or do they have a spine and the will to stand up for something bigger than themselves.
Will they stop listening to McCain, Gore, Obama, Clinton and instead listen to their hearts? Are we going to fail the next generation or are we going to turn this situation around?
Our success or failure here will be looked at for generations…
When I see shit-bags like McCain and Romney winning elections, three things come to mind:
American’s have learned to love the, already exposed, traitors who are eating them for lunch.
The vote is rigged.
All of the above.
It really is sad to see it all happening again. It is as if we just don’t care about the fact that we are being used and made to go in circles wasting our limited time on this planet. Laugh at it all you want, ridicule it, but the plain and simple fact remains.
If we don’t do something meaningful, not just a symbolic gesture, we are going to lose all that our fore bearers have fought for. Isn’t that worth something to you?
The R3volution is Dead – Long Live the Revolution!!!
“This thing is bigger than both of us, baby.
We knew it all along.”
— “Bigger Than Both of Us,” Beier and Kane (2000)
My name is Edgar J. Steele. This is a Nickel Rant.
Here – let me be the first to say it: The Ron Paul R3volution is dead.
No, that isn’t the end of it. In fact, it is just the beginning. The real beginning. Let me also be the first to say, “Long Live the Revolution!” I have written before as to why it must be so.
I haven’t given up on Ron Paul, but I admit to having been convinced by him that he cannot become America’s President. It took a long time. I don’t know how often I’ve heard him tell reporters or interviewers that his followers “have cured (his) skepticism.” I wince each time, because I know he doesn’t mean it. Too bad.
Yesterday, Dr. Paul issued a statement that he would not challenge the obvious (my word, not his) vote fraud that took place in New Hampshire (and Iowa, for that matter). “I am convinced that vote fraud played no role in this result,” said Dr. Paul. I’d like to think that simply was his diplomacy talking. Problem is, this is no time for diplomacy.
A manipulation of 2 or 3 percentage points, which is all that statistical analysis shows is likely to have occurred, would make little difference to the outcome, putting Dr. Paul ahead of the execrable Rudy Giuliani but still trailing Huckabee, Romney and McCain (there is one web site with analysis suggesting Dr. Paul would finish third). However, demanding that the record be set right would have made all the difference in the world to those of us who knew it was coming. Knew it because we’ve seen it happen before – in Ohio last time, in Florida the time before that and in too many places to be counted, all places where the Diebold electronic voting machines hold sway. Read the rest of this entry »
Today’s Boston Tea Party 2007 has been a wild success. It looks like Ron Paul’s supporters will raise well over 5 million dollars today.
Today’s Americans realize that we need Ron Paul as our leader. Edgar J. Steele has done an excellent piece on the need for Ron Paul as President of the united States of America. He explains, quite eloquently, what America is all about and why we must act immediately in order to restore our republic, before a violent revolution happens. We must incite a revelation, so that we may avoid a revolution!
My name is Edgar J. Steele. This is a Nickel Rant.
On this date in 1773, a great many Americans were fed up with the tyranny of the ruling British government.
On this date in 1773, throngs massed in the colonies to protest the unfairness of taxes emplaced upon Americans to favor vested ruling interests.
On this date in 1773, a group of strong-minded Boston individuals, “the Sons of Liberty,” followed through and, in a coordinated act of disobedience, destroyed 45 tons of British-East-India-Company-owned tea in protest of unfair taxation and usurpation of American interests by arrogant British overlords.
The Boston Tea Party marked a turning point in the evolution of America, resting upon the rallying cry “No taxation without representation!”
A Fresh Call for Liberty
Today, we face a greater enemy than that confronting the Sons of Liberty over 200 years ago.
Today, we pay far greater taxes than our forebears, yet suffer far greater indignities at the hands of arrogant and unresponsive overlords, overlords chosen by others and placed in office through the charade of false elections.
Today, the call has come forth for a new Boston Tea Party, to protest our current outrageous taxation without representation. We must, if we are to survive as a nation, answer that call.
Some say that patriotism is old fashioned.
Some think that love of country is out of date.
Some consider the slightest show of sentiment toward one’s homeland to be naive.
But, God help us – and God help our country – if the cynics, the one worlders, the Neoconservative intellectual dilettantes ever persuade us that these things have passed us by.
Because, ladies and gentlemen, patriotism, loyalty, sentiment…THESE THINGS ARE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Our America
In my lifetime, I have seen America grow and change. I have seen her stand tall and I have seen her brought low.
I have seen the best that America can be and, in recent years, I have seen the worst that America can be.
But always, she has been my America …our America…and she will be our America, come what may…for better or for worse.
We have a habit here in America of forgetting what a grand and noble experiment she represented when our founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence and, then, the Constitution.
We forget the sacrifices they made…in property … in family … and, finally, in their own blood.
We forget that they merely lent us the destiny they created, to hold in trust for our children … their grandchildren, many generations removed.
We have been squandering that legacy with which we have been entrusted. It is high time that we rose up and recovered it.
The New Sons and Daughters of Liberty
Today, December 16, 2007, we all of us – every single one of us – must come together as the new Sons and Daughters of Liberty, to right the manifest wrongs done to America and to others in our name.
We have a standard bearer who has been set apart from all other Presidential candidates both by the overlords and by his own intractable demeanor.
Ron Paul is All of Us
We have a true champion, one who has answered our call for honesty, trustworthiness and intellectual rigor.
We have Ron Paul … and we need his honesty, his zeal, his vision for America, else we are lost, my countrymen.
Today we have a new, symbolic Boston Tea Party taking place, one in which we all can participate.
Unless we succeed in our new endeavor to rescue America from the forces of darkness and tyranny that are smothering us, I fear that we will have nothing left to us but violent revolution.
Yes, things are just that critical: Ron Paul or Revolution!
Yes, Ron Paul is just one man. But Ron Paul symbolizes all that we have left to hope for as a nation.
Ron Paul is you. Ron Paul is your neighbor. Ron Paul is your brother. Ron Paul is all of us.
Support Ron Paul and you support us all.
Times Make the Man
Men do not make the times. Times make the man. Today the times cry out for the common man – us – as represented in Ron Paul.
I asked you once before, on November 5th, to make a difference by contributing to Ron Paul’s campaign and you responded in a big way, one that forced the establishment to take note of Dr. Paul’s candidacy. I ask you once again, today, to make another contribution, even larger, if you possibly can afford it. We have an even more important message to deliver today.
A New Boston Tea Party
Today is yet another massive fundraising effort on behalf of us, in the name of Dr. Paul. Today truly is a new Boston Tea Party Day, fellow Americans. Help make a difference right now. Click over to https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate/ right now and make your donation in support of our future. Keep trying, as web contention for the site is furious today.
Then click over to http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ and watch for your name to join that of the other new Sons and Daughters of Liberty who have joined the Ron Paul Revolution.
If you already have pledged today, good for you. Now do it again!
We Have a Message to Deliver: Ron Paul or Revolution!
There are rumors swirling about the land today – rumors of plans afoot by the dark overlords of America to assassinate Dr. Paul, should he become the Republican Presidential nominee or, even, should he become likely to become the nominee.
We must send a message that it would be the gravest error to attempt to derail this train, which gathers momentum with each day that passes. Should tragedy strike and Dr. Paul be prevented from fulfilling our destiny, a hundred like him will rise up, then a thousand, then a hundred thousand, then a million and, on that day, the New American Revolution truly will begin!
Ron Paul or Revolution!
America Can Work Again
America worked once as a constitutional republic. It can work again.
Don’t despair at how difficult the road ahead might seem to be. The most important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. The only real failure in life is in giving up, you know.
Today, we have hope. Today we vest that hope in ourselves, in the form of Ron Paul.
I am glad you are with us. I am glad you risk so much to make a difference. I am glad so many are willing to give so much. I am proud to call you friend.
Be the Person You Know You Are
Now, listen closely to what I’m about to tell you…Don’t try to be better than anybody else. Just try to be better than yourself. Today, be the person you know you are and join us.
Do that, and they will never break our spirit.
They will never silence us.
They will never take our freedom.
Today, we can touch lives.
Today, we can make a difference.
Today, we can awaken America.
Today, we can take back America.
New America. An idea whose time has come.
My name is Edgar J. Steele. Thanks for listening. Please visit my web site, www.ConspiracyPenPal.com, for other messages just like this one.
It looks like Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul is beginning to receive the respect and admiration of mainstream America. Dr. Paul is even appearing in GQ magazine as one of the “Men of the Year.” Below is a wonderful interview by Neal Cavuto of Ron Paul. In the interview they discuss his campaign’s recent success, the governments Constitutional role in protecting the nation, and the need for confidence and trust in government.
Part I of the Recent Interview With Neal Cavuto
“At first he was just an internet curiosity, then he became an internet phenomena. 14 Bands have written songs about him. Rich and not-so rich fans raised more than four million dollars for him in one day. They love his IQ, his EQ and now apparently his GQ, because he is among that hit publication’s men of the year…” ~Neal Cavuto
Here is a fascinating CNBC interview with congressman Ron Paul and former IRS investigator Joe Bannister regarding the Unconstitutionality of the Income Tax.
Joe Bannister succinctly describes his position and the evidence he has gathered about the lack of legal authority to impose an “Income Tax.”
Congressman Paul explains the importance of political disobedience, in pushing for a real reform of the United States economic system.
The following is a discussion, by a die hard supporter of liberty and freedom, on the absolute necessity of liberty and the difficult road that lie ahead, for anyone who seeks to preserve liberty and freedom.
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