Libertarians for Ron Paul » Economic Freedom
In the June issue of Reason, Rep. Ron Paul and six other commentators discuss the (sorry) state of the economy. Read it here http://reason.com/news/show/126021.html
- As Congress attempts to put together a farm bill stacked with subsidies and other expensive programs at the taxpayer’s expense, the Libertarian Party is calling for the bill to be scrapped completely.
“It’s absurd that we’re paying farmers billions of dollars during a time of soaring crop prices,” says Libertarian Party National Media Coordinator Andrew Davis. “Taxpayers should not be subsidizing farmers while paying higher prices at the grocery store. Congress has a unique opportunity to put farm subsidies out to pasture once and for all by not renewing the farm bill. Farming, like any other American industry, should be left to the forces of the market, and not to the influences of government intervention.”
Full release from The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/media/article_582.shtml
“Few policies have done more to destroy community and opportunity for minorities than eminent domain. Some 3 to 4 million Americans, most of them ethnic minorities, have been forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of urban renewal takings since World War II.”
“The fact is that eminent-domain abuse is a crucial constitutional rights issue. On Tuesday, the Alabama Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will hold a public forum at Birmingham’s historic Sixteenth Street Baptist church to address ongoing property seizures in the state. The church was not only a center of early civil rights action, but also, tragically, where four schoolgirls lost their lives in a bombing in 1963.”
David Beito & Ilya Somin look at this vital issue in the Kansas City Star http://www.kansascity.com/273/story/594562.html
“Yesterday, the trustees for Social Security and Medicare released a report saying that both will be completely depleted by 2041 and 2019 respectively. The “oxy-moronic” thing about this is that these programs are deemed “trust funds” in the first place. There’s certainly no trust in a fund that is slated to eventually be wiped out.”
“Throughout his campaign Ron Paul has repeatedly outlined a solution to the problem that gives both the Democrats and Republicans reason to smile. Paul proposes to utilize some of the massive amounts of money saved by switching to a non-intervention foreign policy to help those people currently dependent until the programs can be phased out over a long period of time. He would let the younger people immediately opt out of the program. The approach is a sensible and gradual approach.”
full column @ http://www.libertymaven.com/2008/03/26/ron-paul-has-a-bipartisan-plan-for-social-security/989/
“The Federal Reserve’s unprecedented bailout of Bear Stearns was crafted not at the White House or Treasury, but in secret by a New York central banker whose name is unknown to Washington power brokers and was a Clinton administration presidential appointee.”
“”It’s a new day,” commented an investor and longtime Fed watcher. Around the world, that day’s dawning is viewed with apprehension because of election-year rhetoric from America.”
“The plan pressed by Timothy F. Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, can effectively substitute the central bank for the market in determining financial outcomes. Nobody takes seriously the assertions by Fed spokesmen that the aid for Bear Stearns and its dictated bargain-price sale to J.P. Morgan was ”extraordinary.” So, in Washington and New York, the question is who will be next. Speculation turned to who else will qualify as ”too big to fail.””
Full column by Robert Novak http://www.suntimes.com/news/novak/852299,CST-EDT-novak20.article
Rep. Jeff Flake is an outstanding champion of Free Trade. He has been a leader in efforts to end the embargo on Cuba, which has only helped to strengthen Communist control of the island. Rep. Flake talks about U.S. policy toward Cuba on Reason TV http://reason.tv/video/show/336.html
“Most local governments covet the sound of coins chinking into tax coffers. And when the possibility of more revenue comes their way, they will do just about anything to grab citizens’ wallets or their private property.”
“Therein lies the problem. When developers want cheap land on which to build, they no longer are satisfied to do it the old-fashioned way—i.e., with their own money and resources. Instead, they genuflect in front of City Hall and expect to be showered with tax-funded goodies. They rarely are disappointed.”
“The power of eminent domain has created a marriage of commercial convenience. Most confiscations of private property nowadays have nothing to do with community projects such as schools, roads, or hospitals. Instead, city governments routinely seize homes and businesses and turn them over for private profit. According to the Institute for Justice, more than 5,000 property owners across the United States had their land seized in the last 10 years for private development.”
Full column by Larry Samuels @ http://ca.lp.org/lp20080218.shtml
Ron Paul’s Friday announcement that his presidential campaign will soon wind down removes from the race a quixotic figure whose doomed pursuit of the White House inspired libertarians and free-market purists, including many business owners who loved his message about a nation free from regulatory fetters.
“Imagine what it would be like if we had no income tax in the country?” says Donald Huffines, co-founder of Dallas residential development company Huffines Communities and a Ron Paul donor and fundraiser. “I don’t think anyone would do more for business - small or large - than Ron Paul. He would eliminate the role of government in our business lives, and the GDP growth of the country would skyrocket as a result.”
Paul’s groundswell played out in the grassroots. His average donation size was just $102, according to his campaign, but he led the GOP field in fundraising in 2007’s last quarter, bringing in $20 million. Paul plans to continue fundraising for a succeeding organization to his campaign, one that will continue pushing “the message of human liberty,” he said in a video message posted Friday on his website.
full story @ http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/07/smbusiness/ron_paul.fsb/?postversion=2008030719
Congressman Ron Paul has used his campaign to point out the connection between interventionist foreign policy and the monetary problems caused by current government actions. Steven Horwitz has an in-depth analysis of the link between money and foreign policy in the January-February issue of The Freeman: