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.
Processing your request, Please wait....
you can have them PROTECT OUR BORDERS, build up our infrastructure, clean up pollution, and help with natural disasters just to name a few.
4. how does he underestimate the chinese?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
1. age doesnt matter. we elected JFK and he was young (relatively). ron paul is a ten term senator and has plenty of experience plus a perfect voting record.
2. the military donates more money to him then any of the other canidates including obama. he raises millions of dollars in single days. he may not have the same as the corporate sell outs but if we keep doing our part shant be a problem.
3. if the troops are brought home they can be used for many things:
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
HERE ARE REASONS WHY RON PAUL WILL NEVER BECOME US PRESIDENT;
1) AGE. (TOO OLD TO BE A PRESIDENT OF THE MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD)
2)DOESNT HAVE ENOUGH FUNDS( SELLS HIS BOOK AND USES WORDS CONSTITUTION AND LIBERTY), THAT WILL NOT PUT FOOD ON A TABLE FOR AMERICAN PEOPLE
3)DOESNT HAVE A REAL STRATEGY ON EXACTLY HOW HE IS GOING TO CREATE JOBS(OK, LETS SAY WE WILL BRING ALL TROOPS HOME, THEN WHAT?) THEY ARE GOING TO BECOME UNEMPLOYED AND COLECT WELFARE?
4) UNDERESTIMATES CHINESE POPULATION
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
I have got a great pass time for my holidays. Earn money through the method posted at ez-casino(dot)com.:p
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
no, you keep in mind what’s best for you…. if you’re too stupid to look out for your own best interest you are always going to be fucked over and no system is every going to change that.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
soooo instead we should trust corporations to keep whats best for the consumer over profit in mind, ya great ideaaaa
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I can’t figure out why people like this person, are you just guys hiding in your basement from the nwo in tin foil hats taking a break from posing conspiracy theories on tupac videos? yaaa lets go back to laissez faire economics that was so awesomeee…. oh wait no that sucked ass for anyone who wasn’t super rich
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
WOW! – Ron Paul rules!
I’ll help start The Tea Party in Australia =]
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
First 3mins, awesome, then he changed the topic, WTF!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Only Ron Paul! I wish i was american only so i could vote for him!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
NOBODY CAN SAY FREEDOM IS A BAD IDEA, GO RON PAUL! FREEDOM!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Americans are ignorant of thier own ignorance. It is as if America is about to eat a shit- sandwich and they are the last ones to know about it.
Welcome to Fascism.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
thank you
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
this is how an interview should be conducted instead of the interviewer rushing through it like a monkey and cutting off the person being interviewed just to get to whip up sensationalism.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
this is how an interview should be conducted instead of the interviewer rushing through it like a monkey and cutting off the person being interviewed just to get to whip up sensationalism.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
von Mises i believe
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
The government has no incentive to kickstart the economy because it cannot generate ” profit” nor suffer “loss” like the markets entrepreneurs. Their investments are purely political and inefficient. This has been proved historically! Let’s the market do its work and reduce the government.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
END THE FED! END THE NWO!
END THE UN! END THe WORLD GOVERNMENT!
LET US RUN OUT LIFE!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
END THE FED! END THE NWO!
END THE UN! END THe WORLD GOVERNMENT!
LET US RUN OUT LIFE!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
END THE FED! END THE NWO!
END THE UN! END THe WORLD GOVERNMENT!
LET US RUN OUT LIFE!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
END THE FED! END THE NWO!
END THE UN! END THe WORLD GOVERNMENT!
LET US RUN OUT LIFE!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
RUN RON RUN!! 2012!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
As I have described, the fatal fault of the imposed monetary system is interest; and all further faults merely result from further failure to solve inflation and deflation. The Austrians, and Mr. Paul in particular, not only advocate interest; they advocate ELEVATED RATES OF INTEREST.
Effectively, what they want is to remove the embossed letters which now say “Federal Reserve Bank,” and replace them with “Ron Paul’s ‘COMPETING’ Bank(s)” — a principle which he refuses to debate, further define, or justify. Of course, any ostensible “competition” would ostensibly, on the contrary, drive interest rates down. But Mr. Paul tells us that we wouldn’t have borrowed ourselves into this debt mess if higher rates of interest had discouraged excessive/reckless borrowing.
Mr. Paul has never done the math: he tells you that all of you are going to benefit somehow therefore — oh and we so willingly believe this preposterous notion, don’t we? — he tells us we will benefit paying perhaps 17% interest on our homes than 5%. Sounds really like a good idea, doesn’t it? Especially since the rate of interest is the rate of multiplication of artificial indebtedness — higher rates of which instead necessitate greater rates of borrowing to maintain a vital circulation.
Unfortunately, most people who exalt Austrian “economics” hardly know the first thing about it. They reject math — most of which is little more than counting — as if you could understand otherwise; and they could have possibly determined solution otherwise. In no legitimate discipline or walk of life does such reckless abandonment of principle hold.
But Mr. Hayek, God of the Austrians tells us why they advocate interest and the current banking model — which are our very problem. See Hayek’s article at Mises org: “A Free Market Monetary System,” I think it’s called. Anyway, he thus justifies interest, that it makes banking “an extremely profitable business.”
That’s right. There IS no justification, just an outright confession of the motive.
perfecteconomy dot com
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
1
Your pretended reform has not yet made yourself fit to discuss (or evidently even perceive) solution, for obviously, if “inflation” and “deflation” are defined respectively as increases or decreases in circulation per represented wealth, therefore there is one and one only solution of inflation and deflation, which is to maintain a circulation which at all times is equal to the remaining value of represented wealth. This solution itself requires eradication of interest and a schedule of payment which retires principal (only) at the rate of consumption or depreciation of the related property.
It’s impossible to solve inflation OR deflation with a gold standard. If represented wealth is less than the representative reserves, still, no precept prevents you from suffering a circulation exceeding the reserves, particularly if you further subject debts to interest. But this objection is largely only hypothetical, because generally, on the contrary, the real danger is suffering a restricted circulation (deflation). As industry and production tend to grow, you are deprived of the further circulation which you need to sustain that industry, if and when it exceeds the monetary reserves. So the more real (practical) fault is it cannot solve deflation. But even worse, is its further fault, that if it coexists with interest, it can’t solve terminal failure, or perpetual subversion of the *disposition* of the currency (Mike´s original term), that as interest inherently and irreversibly dedicates ever more of every unit of the circulation to servicing falsified, artificial debts, versus sustaining the desired industry. It means nothing to pretend solution then, unless you have answered for all three faults: inflation, deflation, and disposition.
Mathematically perfected economy is a currency not subject to interest, comprising a debt financing all permissible enterprise, paid by each and every debtor exactly as they consume of the associated production.
There is no inflation or deflation, as the currency in circulation is always equal to the current value of existent production across however much of the economy is supported by a circulation.
Neither the value of money or assets are altered by changing proportions of circulation to indebted assets or services. The value of the money is always consistent in quantity — both in earnability and spendability — with the remaining value of the indebted assets which exist, for which it was issued, and which constitute its immutable value.
The remaining circulation is always sufficient to pay off debt. Further production therefore is not impeded by a deficient circulation, deplenished by paying more than what circulation was introduced to finance the production.
Debt is not multiplied beyond the circulation or remaining value of indebted assets. To pay debt obligations exceeding the remaining value of indebted assets sets off a perpetual cycle of re-borrowing and multiplication of debt. Merely to maintain a circulation, we must borrow again so much as we have paid beyond the original circulation which was equal only to the unmultiplied debt.
Neither production or consumption are impeded by imposition of extrinsic cost. In every transaction, production is traded for equal production.
So long as we make such a circulation available to production, no impediment, limitation, or inequity whatever are imposed upon production or commerce. Production and commerce are fully expedited only by a completely liquid and effectual currency.
Mathematically perfected economy is no more than a singular prescription, dissolving unjust intervention.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
1
Jack
Are you serious?
Do you have a clue what it is you just wasted all that time and space writing about? I don’t.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I can tell you guys one thing. If a genie was to appear and offer me 3 wishes, one of those wishes I would choose would be to have Ron Paul as our President. Plain & simple.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I can tell you guys one thing. If a genie was to appear and offer me 3 wishes, one of those wishes I would choose would be to have Ron Paul as our President. Plain & simple.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I can tell you guys one thing. If a genie was to appear and offer me 3 wishes, one of those wishes I would choose would be to have Ron Paul as our President. Plain & simple.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
So does Rand!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
So does Rand!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“Anyone familiar with CCMRF? Or CBRNE? Based in Ft. Stewart, Georgia and numerous other locations in the US – supposed to focus primarily on logistics and support for local police and rescue personnel, the Army says. The key words everyone seems to have missed with these units is they are trained in situations such as “civil unrest” – so are our military troops being permanently deployed in various location within US borders? Is Obama perhaps understanding that we the people are not happy?”
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
corporate america is moving to China. What jobs are going to be here?How will the Americans pay off what the goverment has stoled from us?How will all our disabled solders make a living when they come home?I am worried about all of this.Ron Paul can you tell me how?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yeah, Ron Paul has all the answers! He wants the US dollar to stay high in value so the Chinese can continue to siphon away our jobs. He is, and long has been their biggest asset in our government. He voted for Communist China to have “most favored nation” trading status. He wants to help the Chinese be able to keep their currency value as artificially low against the dollar as possible, again to help them steal as much of our nations wealth and industrial might as possible. Go ahead and ask Ron Paul what his plan is for helping us against the Communist Chinese. Let me know if you get a straight answer.
By the way, you may have realized by now that you won’t find any of Ron Paul’s positions on “free trade” on his Texas Straight Talk website anymore. Surely he is not hiding from his own postion on “free trade” for his sake and the sake of Rand’s campaign. No, he would never do that. Funny though, how all of the sudden that one whole section of his website doesn’t work anymore. Really odd, if you ask me.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
4 
2
I’m a New Zealander and have been a big fan of Ron Paul’s politics for a while now ever since he debated in that fox GOP when he was running as a rebublican candidate for the presidency a few years ago. He debated valiantly, and came accross so genuine that made the others look like used car salesman. However, his political idealist views sound good in theory but in the real world it remains to be seen, as he will be fighting the very heart of corporate america which refuses to die
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
if the gov investment is a comprehensive infrastructure program that kick starts a productive economy while at the same time employing us out of this depression… gov expansion would be positive
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
it’s all too true, noone should trust these cowards.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Yes, USA, you are going down just like the USSR!!! down into bits n pieces!!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0