Date: 09/18/2010
Show: The Tom Sullivan Show
Host: Tom Sullivan
Transcript
Tom Sullivan: Joining us is Congressman Ron Paul of the great state of Texas, and Congressman, we got a lot to cover. Thanks for joining us.
Ron Paul: Thank you.
Tom Sullivan: Lets start with the Republican revolution that everybody is talking about since Christine O’Donnell won in Delaware. You’ve been kind of a revolutionary guy within the Republican Party, what do you make of it?
Ron Paul: Well, I don’t give a lot of credit to the Republican Party for this. I think they’re aware of what’s happening in the country. There’s a revolution going on at the grassroots, and that’s the Tea Party movement. And they want less government, so Republicans are saying, “Hey, that’s what we’ve been talking about, let’s join them”. So I see the Republicans joining the Tea Party movement more than the Republicans leading the Tea Party movement.
Tom Sullivan: Well, you know, a couple of years ago when you were running for president, when you first came on to the national stage, a lot of people called you a gadfly. But now, they’re taking you much more seriously. You were kind of the first voice of a lot of these protests, if you will, but you were protesting from withing the halls of Congress. Are you going to run again for president?
Ron Paul: Oh, I don’t know. I get asked that question a lot and I think about it a lot, and I haven’t ruled it out. But I’m far from ruling it in, too. I think depends on what’s going on next year. I may do it, I may not.
Tom Sullivan: Okay. Well, you got a lot more people listening to you now than you did two years ago. The economy: I mean, jobs and jobs and jobs. And people are looking to Washington and saying, “First of all, there’s nothing that you can really do other than set the stage.” But is it really top priority? People on Washington are working on everything but jobs. They’re talking about it.
Ron Paul: Yeah, and I think they have a confused understanding of economics, because somehow or other, they think that more debt and more inflation and more government spending and keeping the printing press running, will solve the problems. But that’s what has gotten us into the mess. But what they don’t understand is that you have to have the liquidation, the elimination of all the mistakes, all the excessive debt and all the malinvestment, which we’re prohibiting, just as we did in the Depression. Rather than following the 1920/21 depression which lasted one year, the GDP went down rapidly, people went back to work again. So the majority here in Washington certainly do not understand this and they won’t allow the correction because it’s too painful. They don’t want the operation, they’d rather die with their disease than have the operation. Because you have to cut back, you have to cut spending, you have to deregulate, you have to cut taxes massively, and you have to understand where capital comes from. Capital comes from savings, it can’t come out of a printing press. And until we understand that, we’re not going to have jobs, just government spending money on some work project. That takes away from productive investments, that’s why we’re not building car plants and we’re not having productive effort, because the money and the resources are being drained into temporary job making, which is not lasting.
Tom Sullivan: Well, you know, in Congress you’re supposed to represent us, you’re supposed to reflect us, you’re supposed to reflect your congressional district. With all these new names – and there are a whole bunch of new names this past Tuesday that I’ve never heard of before. If you get a crop of all-new people, a bunch of new people in Washington, in Congress, do you think that will change business as usual in Congress?
Ron Paul: Not necessarily. It depends on what they think about on economics. I think it definitely is going to change, because they’re challenging the status quo of big government spending and centralized controls. And what the grassroots are actually rejecting, whether they know it or not, they’re rejecting Keynesian economics. Now that is a revolution. But you have to replace it with something, and for me, it’s replacing it with free market economics of the Austrian school: sound money, getting rid of the Fed, audid the Fed. All these things are important. I think if there is a big takeover, a big change, if they’re not going to have more surveillance and transparency of the government and more invasion of our privacy, the Constitution should protect our privacy and government should be totally open. Today government is totally closed, everything is done secretly, you can’t even evaluate, you don’t even know what’s going on. And the people are being watched; cameras are everywhere. Every financial transaction, 1099s for $600 transactions. I mean, that is the revolution that has to come and the seeds have been planted, it still needs some guiding.
Tom Sullivan: Alright. So, the seeds get planted, and a bunch of people elect a brand new member of Congress, and they can run in. Now, you’ve been there a while, you’ve seen freshmen roll in every two years. And yet, I had a member of Congress that was in a leadership position, tell me years ago that the only way you can be in a leadership position in Washington is if you have a safe seat, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time in your district. You spend a lot of time basically managing your leadership position. So unless the leadership changes, does it really matter if we change half the Congress?
Ron Paul: Well, the leadership changes and the Congress changes only when the people change and the attitudes of the people change. The Congress and governments, whether they’re dictatorships or democracies, they reflect the people. When the people get fed up, they throw them out. The Soviet Union ended because the people finally got fed up and didn’t work any longer. And this is what we have to concentrate on: the attitudes of the people are changing and eventually it will be transmitted to the Congress. I mean, they’re already recognizing that the grassroots movement known as the Tea Party movement is very significant. So many are saying, “Hey, what are they saying, what are they saying? How do I stay in office?” and that’s the way it always works. Very rarely do you come up with truly new ideas and true changes from the politicians who’ve been around for a long time. It comes from the grassroots, it comes from an understanding of economics and the purpose of liberty. You know, right now, I think, one of the neatest things happening is that you don’t win elections now by saying, “I brought the bacon home. I’m going up there and I’m going to get more stuff”. Nobody believes that anymore. So there is a revolution going on. It’s the people who say, “Enough is enough. You can’t trust the government, we want to return it to the people, we want you to have jobs with a better economic system, and we want you to spend your own money.” Now that is quite a bit different than sending the errand boy to Washington. And that changes when the people change, and I believe the people are changing.
Tom Sullivan: I think so, too. I think there is a change going on. You know, you’re a baby doctor, you’re a medical doctor.
Ron Paul: Right.
Tom Sullivan: How did you get so much… I mean, you really know every chapter and verse of history of the Federal Reserve and the gold standard. How did you get involved and how did you learn your economics?
Ron Paul: Well, it was in parallel with medicine. I loved medicine, I delivered 4,000 babies over the years. But in a parallel way, even in the 1950s and 1960s I started studying economics. I came across Hayek’s book, “The Road to Serfdom” and I read all of Ayn Rand’s stuff and von Mises and Murray Rothbard. I found economics fascinating and I was particularly interested in the monetary standard. Then I related the monetary issue to big government, because if you can’t have a Federal Reserve, a central bank that monetizes debt, you can’t have all this mess because you can’t tax and you can’t borrow that much money. And today, though, it is coming to and end, and I just think it’s great.
Tom Sullivan: So what do you think of the economy? When are we going to turn? We know it will turn someday, somehow. What’s your prediction?
Ron Paul: It’s going to get a lot worse. I think we’re barely in 1932, during the Great Depression, and they call this one the Great Recession. But this is much bigger than anything in the monetary history of the world. Never has a world economy been run on a total fiat currency, controlled by us, of course, by the dollar. And it has horrendous malinvestment and debt that has to be liquidated. And so far, nobody wants to do that. They want to continue the process, so it’s going to go wild. We’re going to continue to make our mistakes. We will survive it, but when we do, we’ll have to return to sound money and say, “We turned off the printing presses, we’re going to allow the people to keep what they earn and take the jobs that they can get at the salary that they can find.” When that attitude changes, we can go back to work rather quickly and get back on our feet.
Tom Sullivan: We’ll be watching. Congressman Ron Paul, thank you very much.
Ron Paul: Thank you.
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Oh man if he’s right about the economy, and he probably is, hold on to your hats!
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What would the big banks do if we refused to loan them our money? Removed our money from their system, took our savings out of their hands.
We never should have bailed out GM or Chrysler, they are private firms,they should have been left to liquidate their assets and curve their spending and bonuses. The banks should have been left to colapse with wall street, instead the government puts the burden of the tax payers to bail the big bankers out. Will they be made to pay the so called bail out loans back? I wouldn’t bet on that one.
Than our young men and women are sent around the world to protect the big bankers interest, such as oil pipe line in Georgia, oil wells in Iraq, the opium fields in Afganistan. The war on drugs oh yes. But who are the true drugs lords? The government who is instructed by the big bankers on what to do to control the people. What better way for them to control us than with drugs and to make a profit from it while they control us. How many times has it been proven that the Drug cartels were part of the CIA? And when not if will the government use their cronies to start riots to install marshall law upon our nation, to try and turn us against each other. And to tax our wages with a direct tax called income tax is un constitutional. Income is derived from profit or gains, last I knew of wage was and is a compensation for our labor, not an income. Than if you check our Government buildings and our courts you will find that they fly an American military flag, which gives them the right to fall under military jurist prudence, you will find under the military flag your constitutional rights are and will be violated. The bureocrats and judges will lie and state it is an indoor flag. They are not lying on that fact though. The American flag with the gold or yellow trim on it is infact an indoor military flag. Request for the judge or bureocrat to remove the Amaerican Military flag and replace it with an American flag so your constitutional rights will not be violated not to say so they will not violate their oath of office to uphold the American constitution. We need a man like Ron Paul in office to protect our constitution. We the people need to take back our contry from the corrupt officials in office.
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I switched to a small, local credit union with 3 branches. I also converted a large portion of my savings to gold/silver. I know the price of gold/silver could go down, but I feel good about doing my part starve the beast.
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Political economic favoritism is not good when gov. interferes in this regard. However, If the gov. doesn’t regulate things like derivatives, loans etc. that’s not good either. So Ron Paul has many good ideas, like audit the fed, privacy rights, transparency of government & following the constitution. But deregulation is a bad idea as far as the finical system.What we need to regulate is fraud & protect the people. Other than that the government should have little to no role in economics.
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I like Ron Paul but the only thing that concern me with Ron Paul is he probably subscribes to Ayn Rands line of thinking which Alan Green Span put in practice for his entire career in the fed and got the United States into a huge financial mess, by not even regulating things like fraud. He prevented CFTC from doing its job. which in Ayn raid line of thinking is not necessary because the “market” will regulate its self. Ayn raid thinking is dangerous because it doesn’t factor in human nature.
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Ron Paul sums it all up rather neatly; when will we wake up and take the tough medicine to correct our economic mistakes . . .
Sound money or fiat currency — which one do you have?
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is it just my imagination, or is it getting harder for dr. paul to speak? i hope he stays in good health for 2012.
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This would make a brilliant introductory video for Ron Paul. In a nutshell he explains his standings, his background, his goals, and his thoughts on the current state of things, all in one video. Anyone agree?
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casander… agreed that efficiency would be better… however we have to take into consid profit margin and greed… it is a more difficult issue than you present.. the way i see it is gov place is to regulate the banks strongly and invest in serious infrastructure to lay groundwork for production. paul is right… real economy comes from savings and production, but production grows from real infrastructure such as the TVA…
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smart guy
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Never truer words were spoken.Another modern view is cease creating cyber money and let the people keep what they earn.The banksters are really depraved and disgusting. It is legalised theft!
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BlackOp is right. Things will not cost as much in the free market of a true libertarian philosophy. Whatever the government puts its hands into, it makes it cost more to the consumer because of the decreased efficiency at getting it to the consumer. Political favoritism towards some companies also makes things cost more such as the pharmacological companies. A bottle of vitamin C (1k pills) costs pocket change, but, if it were prescription, it would cost 100 fold more. Ron Paul 2012!!!!!
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Retained earnings is the best form of working capital.
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Capital comes out of savings. Right.
And banks don’t pay spit for money deposited as savings. You can have $100,000 and put it into an FDIC insured bank. They’ll pay you max 1.43%. You might as well bury it in your back yard.
If the Fed loans banks money at 0.25%, why do they need any money from me?
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Remember when Fox used to interview this guy, with dismisive/insulting questions, the sarcasm dripping from the barely held contempt in their voices? Boy how times have changed. Fox is now licking his boots.
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I LOVE Ron Paul!!! He oozes awesomeness!!!
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Not his son, but him I still got questions about his son..so no, not Rand Paul but Ron Paul for now.
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Ron Paul is much better than Thomas Jefferson. He is no slave holder.
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at 4:17 Ron Paul hits the nail on the head. The grassroots (whether they know it or not) are rejecting Keynesian economics. Too bad others in congress do not grasp this yet…..especially the NEOs, but they are coming around many of them.
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Hold on here just a minute.
We have to protect big pharma. Can’t let a natural medicine interfere with their profits.
and what about big oil. What would they do, how would they survive if we were allowed to grow our own fuel and be independent of foreign oil in 10 years.
Lets not forget all the government bureaucrats who sacrifice themselves for a fat retirement after 30 years, then go back to work as a high payed consultant for the very agency they retired from.
what would happen to the military industrial complex if we were to stop the wars. I guess those poor bastards would have to find something better to do.
and lastly let’s not forget we just have to spend billions a year of the tax payers money to keep the drug war going. How else can we save society from one of the most medicinal plants on earth.
Oh freedom, where have you gone?
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The rediculous idea is that if we spend, spend, spend things will get better and jobs will be created! Baloney! Ron Paul knows it and we know it too!
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Murray Rothbard got his name plugged on Fox Business.
lawl
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RON PAUL IS OUR HERO…..
RUN FOR PRESIDENT!!!
MAKE JEFFERSON PROUD!!!
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I’d vote for him. I can’t believe any sane person would call him a “gadfly” (I think that is what I heard in the video). A gadfly is a pest that livestock must endure. When I listen to him speak, all I hear is an honorable man trying to do the right thing.
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Socrates was the “gadfly” of Athens. It simply means being annoying for speaking truth, most often to power. In the 2008 election cycle he was the gadfly the media tried to ignore. Now they wish he was just the gadfly because he is turning into something much more. Ron Paul, against his very nature, is one of those few men who will greatness thrust upon him because his conscience won’t let him do otherwise.
So don’t worry. In history the gadfly is just a metaphor for truth speaker. They will need something else to call him soon however because whether intended or not (and I’m quite sure not) he has become the leader of the younger generation and a voice for liberty lovers everywhere.
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make it lergal to hire people.
get rid of 941,940,944 payroll confusions.
or at least make it so the worker is responsible to comply with the confusions, take it off the back of the employer
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I ♥ Ron Paul
LibertyPoet
website
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“Three months to go and we don’t know what our tax rates are going to be”.
Governments create chaos!
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Ron Paul is not afraid to tell the truth to voters. Today the O-bomb-a administration announces the recession is over (i guess their heads are up their butts) ….Ron Paul says the DEPRESSION is only beginning. I believe Ron Paul….in the meanwhile go back to sleep America.
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Ron Paul is a political genius, unlike Obama he would bring about real change and put this country back on the path to greatness. Ron Paul 2012!
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15,000,000 Americans unemployed? Isn’t that about what the government reports is the number of illegal aliens in this country? Coincidence?
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I remember when I heard that fraud in the White House state something to the effect that “credit is the lifeblood of our economy”. No, it’s not, you nitwit!! It’s capital–and the fact that that jerk either doesn’t know the difference or does but puts forth that propaganda tells you just the kind of gangster government we’ve got. I’m kinda looking forward to a total collapse so that we will have to end our military presence around the world and stop killing innocent people.
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Ron Paul 2012.
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I’m Norwegian, but I’ll spend all my spare time campaigning for this man online if he ever decides to run again.
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Revenue for the government would be from tarrifs charged
on trade with the world and the trade I mean is REAL TRADE
not the bogus trade policies we have now that also have a deficit
approaching 1 Trillion dollars.
Oh YES the government survives without the Federal Income tax
and the money making machines that are backed by nothing
but yours and mine livelihood.
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Increasing my credit line doesn’t make me wealthy, increasing my savings does. Brilliant !
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Actually a pretty good interview by FOX news.
Ron Paul 2012! Bringing sanity back to government…
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