Libertarians for Ron Paul » 2007 » September
“…Sen. Clinton has learned little since the American people overwhelmingly rejected her last attempt to overhaul the U.S. health care system. Once again her plan, which would cost $110 billion per year in new taxes, calls for greater government control over American health care. If her plan were to pass this time, it would mean higher taxes, lost jobs, less patient choice, and poorer quality health care.
Michael Tanner’s full comment: http://www.cato.org/homepage_item.php?id=656
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his upcoming book, bashes President Bush for not responsibly handling the nation’s spending and racking up big budget deficits.
A self-described “libertarian Republican,” Greenspan takes his own party to task for forsaking conservative principles that favor small government.
The ex-Fed chief writes that he laments the loss of fiscal discipline.
“Congress and the president viewed budgetary restraint as inhibiting the legislation they wanted,’ he wrote. “`Deficits don’t matter,’ to my chagrin, became part of Republicans’ rhetoric.” continued @ http://tinyurl.com/2dg3sw
“Who would believe that a libertarian who is calling for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from not only Iraq but from all of the Middle East has a large following among younger voters?”
“Who would believe that a man calling for a return to the gold standard and who favors no entangling alliances would be raising a good deal of money on the Internet?”
“Why do people drive five hours to hear him speak as they did for his speech at Johns Hopkins and why do people hand him books on the gold standard to autograph?”
Congressman Paul says, “Young people like my non-intervention policy and they like my personal liberty views as well.”
Robert Guttman looks at Ron Paul’s campaign @ the Huffington Post http://tinyurl.com/2w9ev6
Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse.
An Associated Press review shows that the two departments’ financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned “disclaimer” opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.
“It means we really can’t put any faith in the numbers they use,” said Ross Rubenstein, who teaches public administration at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School.
read the rest here http://tinyurl.com/3ancdy
Ron Paul gave the September 11 foreign policy address at the Johns Hopkins’ Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. His talk was “A Traditional Non-Intervention Foreign Policy.” CPFR director Robert Guttman and Andrew Ward, the Financial Times White House correspondent, moderated the Q&A session following Paul’s remarks.
“Thursday, Huckabee called Texas Rep. Paul’s comments during the debate “ludicrous” and “unacceptable.” The former Arkansas governor conflated a previous debate comment with Wednesday’s debate to suggest that Paul blamed America for 9/11. ”
John Fout at TheStreet.com decided to fact-check Ron Paul’s statements and finds Paul’s arguments convincing here http://tinyurl.com/39cq6m
Ron Paul answers questions from Faux News anchors
Congressman Ron Paul became the first presidential candidate to sign the death tax repeal pledge today at an event preceding tonight’s New Hampshire presidential debate. The pledge, offered by the American Family Business Institute, has been offered to all presidential hopefuls and makes clear a candidates commitment to repealing the death tax in the their first term.The federal death tax is scheduled to expire in 2010 but returns to 55 percent in 2011. If kept in place, children and grandchildren of farmers and small family businesses will be hit with seven figure bill from the IRS when their loved ones pass away.
“After a lifetime of work, paying income tax, property tax and sales tax, it is preposterous to think that the IRS should then be able to take more than half of our money when we die,” said Dr. Paul after signing the repeal pledge. “Even worse, it slaps families with a tax just as their parents have died. I find that incredibly offensive.”
“A critical part of the American dream is that we can pass on part of our legacy to our kids and grandkids. The death tax stomps out that right and destroys family farms and businesses,” continued Dr. Paul. “If elected president, I will work tirelessly to insure we kill the death tax.”
Ron Paul won the first ever Presidential straw poll conducted by the Maryland Republican Party. The MD GOP website reports:
“Congressman Ron Paul came in first place with 263 votes, Mayor Rudy Giuliani was second with 220 votes, and Senator Fred Thompson received 188 votes, which garnered the third place spot. The rest of the votes were cast as follows: 89 votes for Governor Mitt Romney, 54 votes for Senator John McCain, 35 votes for Governor Mike Huckabee, 17 votes for Speaker Newt Gingrich (write-in), 16 votes for Congressman Tom Tancredo, 12 votes for Senator Sam Brownback, 3 votes for Congressman Duncan Hunter, and 3 votes for Governor Bob Ehrlich (write-in). ”
Maryland GOP Vice-Chair Chris Cavey commented: “The final vote showing Ron Paul won is a lesson for all campaigns of how grassroots politics can make all the difference. The Paul campaign repeatedly e-mailed their base of support to turn out at the State Fair to cast a vote for Dr. Paul, and in doing so, demonstrated that a small organized operation can beat the odds.”
Several years ago I watched a Canadian PM debate on TV. It bore no resemblance to an American Presidential “debate.” Two guys, a few feet from each other, actually debating — no moderator, no buzzers, just two guys arguing, vigorously. I remember a movie featuring the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Although I don’t know if it was historically accurate, a similar sight, two guys arguing about real issues with no real rules. I have seen similar clips in other countries, but rarely in the US.
The American version of Presidential debates resembles a game show or beauty pageant, where each contestant is called on to answer for a set two-minute response. Rarely any follow-up, and rarely any effort to actually confront real issues.
But last night’s Republican debate was different. Following Ron Paul’s response calling for complete US withdrawal from the Middle East, moderator Chris Wallace took off his journalist mask and revealed himself in full Bill O’Reilly costume:
So, Congressman Paul, and I’d like you to take 30 seconds to answer this, you’re basically saying that we should take our marching orders from al Qaeda? If they want us off the Arabian Peninsula, we should leave?
Ron hit back:
I’m saying we should take our marching orders from our Constitution. We should not go to war — (cheers, applause) — we should not go to war without a declaration. We should not go to war when it’s an aggressive war. This is an aggressive invasion. We’ve committed the invasion of this war, and it’s illegal under international law. That’s where I take my marching orders, not from any enemy. (Cheers, boos.)
Huckabee explained that we couldn’t leave Iraq because “we broke it and now we own it,” and turned to Ron Paul:
And on this issue, when he [McCain] says we can’t leave until we’ve left with honor, I 100 percent agree with him because, Congressman, whether or not we should have gone to Iraq is a discussion that historians can have, but we’re there. We bought it because we broke it. We’ve got a responsibility to the honor of this country and to the honor of every man and woman who has served in Iraq and ever served in our military to not leave them with anything less than the honor that they deserve.
Wallace then offered Ron Paul (who was standing to Huckabee’s immediate right) a chance to respond. This began a brief but awesome exchange between Paul and Mike Huckabee.
REP. PAUL: The American people didn’t go in. A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservative hijacked our foreign policy. They’re responsible, not the American people. They’re not responsible. We shouldn’t punish them. (Cheers, applause.)
MR. HUCKABEE: Congressman, we are one nation. We can’t be divided. We have to be one nation under God. That means if we make a mistake, we make it as a single country, the United States of America, not the divided states of America. (Cheers.)
REP. PAUL: No. When we make a mistake — (interrupted by applause) — when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake! (Cheers, applause.)
MR. HUCKABEE: And that’s what we do on the floor of the –
REP. PAUL: No! We’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we dug a hole for our party! We’re losing elections and we’re going down next year if we don’t change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy, and we have to wake up to this fact.
MR. HUCKABEE: Even if we lose elections, we should not lose our honor, and that is more important to the Republican Party.
REP. PAUL: We’re losing — we’ve lost over — (cheers, applause) — we have lost — we have lost 5,000 Americans killed in — we’ve lost over 5,000 Americans over there in Afghanistan and Iraq and plus the civilians killed. How many more do you want to lose? How long are we going to be there? How long — what do we have to pay to save face? That’s all we’re doing is saving face. It’s time we came home!
The Baltimore Sun’s Frank James has a great write-up of the exchange. You can watch all the Ron Paul clips of the debate on YouTube.