Date: 07/14/2010
Event: Joint Economic Committee Hearing
Transcript
Ron Paul: I thank the Madam Chairman, and welcome Dr. Brummer[?]. I’m not very good at the partisan blame-game, but I am very interested in the business-cycle and why we have unemployment and actually I’m interested in the measurement of our problems. I think sometimes we deceive ourselves because following some free-market websites that measure unemployment somewhat differently than our government, they come up with a figure of 22% of unemployment. And also, even the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics measure it; they look at all the people who are not looking for work at the moment, that is 16%. So things are not very good. Also, the GDP is what we measure. If the GDP is going up, everybody is supposed to feel good. You know, if we spend a billion dollars on a missile and we blow it up, that’s counted as increase in the GDP, and it didn’t give us a house, and it didn’t give us a health care or education. So there is a big difference. And also the inflation rate is very important. If you go back and use the old CPI measurement of inflation, we have 6%, not 2%. So there is a lot of deception, and the people sense this. I think they’d rather here, you know, accurate information than to be bamboozled into believing things are just honkey dorey, when they know there is a lot of inflation out there.
The other thing that I have concerns about is in the measurement of the GDP. If you look at the GDP in a private way, if somebody had a $200,000 job and he lost his job and the family had 2 or 3 hundred thousand dollars of debt, for them to be told what they need is a million dollar loan and spend it, buy a house and buy a car and live high and their personal GDP goes up. But they never measured the debt. But when we go to the government we say the government’s in debt, they’re spending too much. What we need to do is spend, we need to borrow, and the GDP goes up. But if you measure the GDP that goes up because of borrowing, inflating and spending, and look at that with a better perspective, I would say that maybe the real GDP isn’t going up and maybe that’s why we’re not having real growth. There is a big difference between people working hard and paying their bills and actually saving some money. I think the biggest fallacy that we have because we don’t have a correction is we don’t understand how we got here. We had too much debt, too much mal-investment and we haven’t dealt with that. And when you get too much of it, you have to liquidate it. When you get in over your head and you can’t pay the bills, you either have to declare bankruptcy or work harder and take a new job. But we can see this as an individual or company, but evidently our economic theory now is the governments are exempt from those kinds of economic rules.
And I yield back the balance of my time.
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If Trump ends up running as a third party candidate, either on a Libertarian or “Tea Party” ticket, he could siphon away enough votes from a Republican to help Obama secure a second term in the White House. Otherwise, he could just be denigrated as a birther buffoon by the establishment media and used as a weapon through which to discredit Republicans in general, including Congressman Ron Paul, who as has been documented, is the GOP candidate that stands the best chance of defeating Obama.
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If Trump ends up running as a third party candidate, either on a Libertarian or “Tea Party” ticket, he could siphon away enough votes from a Republican to help Obama secure a second term in the White House. Otherwise, he could just be denigrated as a birther buffoon by the establishment media and used as a weapon through which to discredit Republicans in general, including Congressman Ron Paul, who as has been documented, is the GOP candidate that stands the best chance of defeating Obama.
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If Trump ends up running as a third party candidate, either on a Libertarian or “Tea Party” ticket, he could siphon away enough votes from a Republican to help Obama secure a second term in the White House. Otherwise, he could just be denigrated as a birther buffoon by the establishment media and used as a weapon through which to discredit Republicans in general, including Congressman Ron Paul, who as has been documented, is the GOP candidate that stands the best chance of defeating Obama.
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As CBS News reports, “Billionaire Donald J. Trump, an early presidential favorite among tea party activists, has a highly unusual history of political contributions for a prospective Republican candidate: He has given most of his money to the other side.”
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As CBS News reports, “Billionaire Donald J. Trump, an early presidential favorite among tea party activists, has a highly unusual history of political contributions for a prospective Republican candidate: He has given most of his money to the other side.”
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As CBS News reports, “Billionaire Donald J. Trump, an early presidential favorite among tea party activists, has a highly unusual history of political contributions for a prospective Republican candidate: He has given most of his money to the other side.”
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Is the Obama administration deliberately fanning the flames of the controversy so that Donald Trump — who has come to represent the birther movement and is coincidentally a massive donor to the Democratic Party — can be used as a spoiler to ensure an Obama victory in 2012?
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Is the Obama administration deliberately fanning the flames of the controversy so that Donald Trump — who has come to represent the birther movement and is coincidentally a massive donor to the Democratic Party — can be used as a spoiler to ensure an Obama victory in 2012?
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Is the Obama administration deliberately fanning the flames of the controversy so that Donald Trump – who has come to represent the birther movement and is coincidentally a massive donor to the Democratic Party – can be used as a spoiler to ensure an Obama victory in 2012?
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Is Obama playing the role of Brer Rabbit, begging not to be thrown into the briar patch of birtherism, while all the while knowing that’s precisely what he wants to happen?
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Is Obama playing the role of Brer Rabbit, begging not to be thrown into the briar patch of birtherism, while all the while knowing that’s precisely what he wants to happen?
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Is Obama playing the role of Brer Rabbit, begging not to be thrown into the briar patch of birtherism, while all the while knowing that’s precisely what he wants to happen?
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Although the fact that they’re likely to field a raft of candidates to choose from who are almost as loathed as Obama himself won’t help, Republicans know they can defeat the president merely on his record alone.
Is it possible therefore that the Obama administration has chosen to make the birther issue the key election battleground because it’s a fight they know they can win?
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The fact is that Obama already has been President for the past 2 and a half years and it’s his record during that time which we should be focusing on as the election nears.
Obama’s popularity has been steadily plunging ever since he took office, and the 2012 election is the Republican’s to lose.
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While we’re busy debating which parts of the birth certificate have been altered, whether Kenya was actually called Kenya in 1963, or whether Obama’s father being Kenyan proves Obama’s not a natural born citizen and therefore ineligible to be President, the dollar continues to crumble, the national debt grows, the jobs are shipped overseas, and the wars continue to rage.
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Whether or not the birth certificate is a forgery is ultimately beside the point, because whatever the truth, Americans will eagerly jump headlong into another left-right punch-and-judy sideshow that will be enflamed by talking heads from both sides of the phony political paradigm while their attention is taken away from issues of national and global significance.
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If Obama’s decision to release what purports to be his long form birth certificate was designed to kill the “birther movement,” it’s likely to have the opposite effect. This is already starting to look like a massive shot in the arm for a topic that has gone from the fringes of political discourse to the center of national attention.
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The White House’s decision to wade into the contentious echo chamber of the so-called “birther” issue just months before the campaign trail for 2012 begins, by releasing a dubious document that has only intensified the firestorm of interest surrounding the issue, is either political suicide or part of a well thought out ploy aimed at securing Obama a second term in the Oval Office.
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Ron Paul is a genius
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Every once in a while, some… let’s say misguided, individual says that wars are good for the economy. They should watch this video from 0:40-0:55.
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ron paul for president! 2012
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If this country were a business it would have been bankrupt long ago. We need to elect some very business savy people to run this country. We need to take a long hard look at defense spending and govenment sponsored programs. I feel that is what Ron Paul is all about, making the hard financial choices for the good of the country.
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Check out my video, Ron Paul vs Lincoln!
youtube.com/watch?v=oiH_XnqnyHU
“Lincoln fully endorsed Sheridan’s burning of the Shenandoah Valley, Sherman’s brutal March to the Sea through Georgia, and the … destructive raids across Alabama.” – Stephen B. Oates [The context of this quote is that Oates is defending General Sherman by saying it wasn’t his fault, Lincoln ordered him to do it. Just like the Nazis, eh there Oates?]
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Where’s the reply?
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This man should be president!
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Drop this libertarian garbage, its just a way for the rich to prosper even more. Move left, vote for progressives who will fight for average americans not the super rich. Ron Paul is a great guy but his politics would be disastrous. He can’t even seem to figure out why we are in this mess.. The fed? NO. wall street put us in this mess! Hopefully the people who vote conservative will soon die off and this country can finally move forward with an agenda that’s good for the majority.
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One of the few politicians that does talk sense.
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Americans made a huge mistake invading Iraq, and an even biger mistake by not listening to this man, Ron Paul.
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I don’t know if Ron Paul is running for President in 2012, but there are other libertarian-minded candidates that are getting some spotlight right now:
Gary Johnson
Sharron Angle
Rand Paul
Peter Schiff
For now I’m just gonna end with LIBERTY 2012!!!
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The People can also handle the truth about why our monetary system is destroying our freedoms and prosperity. The video WHY WE ARE IN SO MUCH DEBT provides the simplest, clearest explanation yet. It’s a must watch.
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I believe that this country is hopeless. I really wish Ron Paul could win, but there are too many jackasses on both sides that will prevent that from happening. America is quickly becoming an Idiocracy. Soon, our grass will be fertilized with Gatorade and a pornstar/pro-wrestler will get nominated for the presidency. It sounds ridiculous, but if Bush can get elected twice, and people applaud Guiliani every time he mentions 9/11, then there is no limit to this nations stupidity.
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inflation is a secret tax
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ron paul 2012 money bomb! google runronpaul.
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“I am not very good at the partisan blame game” — God I love that man
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All the Socialist filth talking about the evils of free market health care (which was a strawman anyway since it was corporatist and now Obama’s making it Socialist) would have done well to realise that every penny spent on Keynesian stimulus was one taking out of the people’s pockets that could ave paid for their healthcare-and if they so needed help from the government then no Keynesian can say that their propensity to spend it would have been low. Not that private thrift needs to be offset!
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I pray that Ron Paul or someone with the same mind-set will run for President and actually get elected. Since JFK, we have truly had subpar individual get elected as president. What angers me is that the vast majority of people can’t even to begin to understand what Ron Paul stands for. The one bright spot in all of this is that a movement seems to be forming and people like Ron Paul are our voice
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Ron Paul for life!
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I don’t agree with everything that Ron Paul would do as president. However, I give this man immense credit for standing up for what he believes in. I hope he runs for 2012 since we need someone like him.
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RON PAUL = FREEDOM NWO = SLAVERY We have a huge vote in November,we better get it right !! Please WAKE up PEOPLE time is getting short. This could be our last vote !! Oh Canada the NWO has a firm grip on your country as well. LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC !!!!
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We need to spread this guy’s information so he will get in on 2012.
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ron paul is like awesome.
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we NEED to Learn his message, spread it, and carry it on- He is a great role model- and when I see people from all over the world supporting him and hoping for US that he can lead us to a Better place in truthful light- that’s pretty awesome
He OWNS on every1 because he seeks and demands accountability, and we need to back THAT up. We must not be afraid in our journey to good, and unity as people will bring strength and confidence and expose the dark that keeps us blind.
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soulfeltart on Ron Paul: “we NEED to Learn his message, spread it, and carry it on” “he can lead us to a Better place in truthful light”
Proselytize much? He is a freaking two-faced politician, just like all of the others (well, Ron Pauls hysterical track record is a bit more rac ist than the others), not a saint.
No wonder people think Paulians are cultish, unreasonable, followers.
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Ron Paul and the people v NWO…Let’s go get em!
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Ron you have the attention of the young and educated. The type of people who don’t enjoy having issues glossed over and the wool pulled over their eyes. You are one of the few politicians I really like, looking forward to seeing you back in the race in 2012.
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of course the people understand unimployment. They’re living it. They migh just want to know why, without all the lies this ragbag government continues to foist.
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im a canadian as well, and trust me, we are no better off!
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Paul is a fake. 911 was done by the federal govt. If you disagree watch Building 7 fall down. Don’t be a fake patriot yourself. Get informed.
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Reading some of these comments on here is a perfect example on how little people know of Ron Paul, No reading or listening or researching his back ground and what he has been fighting for all his life, but it doesn’t stop anyone from spewing out what ever nonsense just happens to pop into their little shallow minds in their little shallow worlds remaining sheep till death never understanding the system, the FED, and the Elites role. Our country is asleep.
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Ron Paul a straight shooter no bull politician a very rare thing in these New world order times.
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Thanks for not attacking me like a ron paultard bro.lol
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