Libertarians for Ron Paul

“As the Olympics wind down, I am amazed at how things change every four years. Many Americans were glued to their televisions to watch the excitement from Beijing, and also heard announcers wax nostalgic with memories of times when the Soviet Union was the USA’s biggest competitor for Olympic gold. There was a time when it was unthinkable that a government as powerful as that of the Soviet Union’s could possibly crumble, yet crumble it did.”

“The irony is that the strength of the Soviet government was also its weakness, as no country, no economic system can remain strong under the crushing burden that is central planning.”

Ron Paul contrasts Freedom with Socialism @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003496.html

“In a famous 1979 television interview, Democratic presidential contender Ted Kennedy flubbed a softball question: “Why do you want to be president?” Mr. Kennedy’s sputtering answer did real damage to his campaign. At the recent Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, Senators Obama and McCain gave more coherent answers when Pastor Rick Warren asked the same question. But in an America with a saner perspective on the presidency, their answers would have been disqualifying as well.”

“What moved Barack Obama to seek the presidency was “the basic idea of empathy” and the notion that if “we see somebody down and out … we care for them.” Republican John McCain explained that he was running “to inspire a generation of Americans to serve a cause greater than their self-interest.” ”

“Noble sentiments, to be sure, but in the original constitutional scheme, the president was neither Empath-in-Chief nor a national life coach. His role was to faithfully execute the laws, defend the country from attack, and check Congress with the veto power whenever it exceeded its constitutional bounds.”

Gene Healy laments the popular demand for a Savior in the White House http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9615

“On tax policy, Alaska governor Sarah Palin has a rather uninspiring, albeit brief, record. The following is some information gleaned from State Tax Notes.”

“Palin supported and signed into law a $1.5 billion tax increase on oil companies in the form of higher severance taxes. One rule of thumb is that higher taxes cause less investment. Sure enough, State Tax Notes reported (January 7): “After ACES was passed, ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s most active oil exploration company and one of the top three producers, announced it was canceling plans to build a diesel fuel refinery at the Kuparuk oil field. ConocoPhillips blamed the cancellation on passage of ACES [the new tax]. The refinery would have allowed the company to produce low-sulfur diesel fuel onsite for its vehicles and other uses on the North Slope, rather than haul the fuel there from existing refineries.” ”

Brief comment by Chris Edwards of The Cato Institue http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/08/29/palin-uninspiring-tax-policy-record/

“Pennsylvania is poised to join 11 other states that have passed laws rejecting the federal Real ID Act. Many more have objected to it.”

“Passed by Congress in 2005 - without any debate - Real ID is nothing more than an attempt by Congress to strong-arm the states into accepting and funding a national ID scheme. It requires states to produce new, standardized driver’s licenses with machine-readable technology, and to create databases that hold copies of American citizens’ sensitive identity documents. The tab for all of this is expected to be nearly $17 billion, with the state governments forced to shoulder the majority of the financial burden.”

Full Column by Jim Harper of The Cato Institute http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9606

Former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has declined to endorse either John McCain or Barack Obama, and he told CNN’s Kiran Chetry on Thursday that he sees “no difference” between them because both espouse foreign policies that only create more threats to our national interests.

Chetry asked Paul, “Do you think it’s a valid argument … that a John McCain administration would be a four-year extension of the Bush administration?”

“Sure, but I think that’s what’s going to happen with Obama, too,” Paul replied. “There’s no difference.”

“Their foreign policies are identical,” Paul explained. “They want more troops in Afghanistan. They want to send more support to Georgia to protect the oil line there. Neither one says bring home the troops from Iraq from the bases — you know the bases are going to stay there, the embassy as big as the Vatican, that’s going to remain. So their foreign policies are exactly the same. They’re both very, very aggressive with Iran. So I would say there’s no difference.”

Full Story @ http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Ron_Paul_will_not_support_John_0828.html

David Weigel of Reason Magazine is from Delaware, and knows about Joe Biden. He exposes the Senator’s penchant for big government solutions, including his active commitment to the War on Drugs, his early advocacy of more power for the federal government to deal with terrorists, and more.

Full expose here http://reason.com/news/show/128237.html

“We’ve heard how the value of the dollar affects gas prices – and indeed the price of everything. I was pleased that my request for a hearing on such was granted by the Financial Services committee and we were able to hear some very informative testimony. Certainly domestic policies, regarding off-shore oil drilling bans, ethanol mandates, refining capacity, and CAFE standards are interventionist and harmful enough in the energy market.”

“But how does foreign policy affect gas prices? One important factor is that oil on the world market has been priced in dollars exclusively since 1973. Only two leaders have gone against this arrangement - Saddam Hussein in 2000 and more recently Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with the recently opened Iranian Oil Bourse which trades in non-dollar currencies. But since oil is otherwise exclusively traded in dollars, this means that oil producers have vast amounts of assets held in dollars. Especially since the War on Terror and the PATRIOT Act, many oil-producing nations and banks are concerned the US government may freeze assets based on flimsy pretexts. This fear contributes to dollar weakness, and therefore also high oil prices.”

Ron Paul on how warmongering leads to high prices at the pump http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003480.html

“Looking at the budget crisis, Governor Schwarzenegger has ordered a temporary reduction of the salaries of 200,000 state employees to the minimum wage. This gesture is largely symbolic, for it will probably not last very long. Meanwhile, the governor is scheming to borrow $9.3 billion more in the form of a water bond.”

“Some commentators have pointed out this disconnect, but Schwarzenegger has consistently championed bonds while claiming fiscal discipline. He campaigned in 2003 on a platform including large bonds, and within a month of election he was campaigning around the state for a $15 billion bond.”

“He’s supported bonds ever since, most notably in 2006 when he backed a bipartisan $42.7 billion bond package for transportation and education infrastructure, housing programs, and flood control.”

“California needs dramatic reforms. The budget crisis is very real, and with a recession kicking in nationwide, the reforms will have to amount to much more than a temporary cut in state employee pay.”

Full column by Anthony Gregory @ http://ca.lp.org/lp20080821.shtml 

“A major theme of John McCain’s campaign is that he has far more experience in foreign affairs than does Barack Obama. McCain has now escalated his attacks by targeting Obama’s judgment as well — especially the latter’s pessimism about the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq.”

“There is little doubt about McCain’s lengthier foreign policy experience. But it is not at all apparent that his judgment is superior to Obama’s. Indeed, the record indicates that McCain’s own judgment is alarmingly bad.”

“Even if one concedes that Obama was excessively negative about the surge’s prospects for success (and the jury may be out on that point for months or even years to come), McCain’s own prognostications on Iraq have repeatedly been off the mark. He was not prescient about the course of the war: As senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee prior to the invasion, McCain predicted Iraq would be a quick and easy victory, and even told MSNBC he had “no doubt” U.S. troops “will be welcomed as liberators.”

Full column by Ted Carpenter and Malou Innocent @ http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9595

“One problem with politicians is that when problems they create come to a head, they typically feel this irresistible urge to DO something, rather than to UN-do something, or to simply back off to avoid exacerbating the situation. Too often, that which they end up doing has very little connection to the cause of the crisis, but plays well in the press and superficially makes everyone feel better. Bills that are rushed through Congress under duress are never studied enough, providing too tempting an opportunity to quietly slip in unrelated provisions that erode freedoms in ways that would never pass as a stand-alone bill. We famously saw this with the PATRIOT Act, but Washington learned nothing from that.”

“The current housing crisis and the corresponding big government fix are another prime example. First of all, the so-called solution will actually make the problem worse. The problem stems from easy credit and a rush to flood the housing and mortgage markets with money. Relaxed or non-existent lending standards led many into mortgages and houses they could not afford. As more foreclosures hit, the lending institutions will continue collapsing like dominoes under the weight of all the bad paper they underwrote.”

Rep. Ron Paul critiques interventionism @ http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003456.html