Transcript
Lori Rothman (Fox News): And hello everybody. Welcome. I’m Lori Rothman, sitting in tonight for David Asman. Stocks are tumbling today. Wall Street may be waking up to the idea that a deal to raise the debt ceiling (especially one with tax hikes) is exactly the last thing a huge majority of Americans want right now. The fact that Americans don’t want a deal is hanging over the White House talks like a giant elephant. A recent CBS News poll finds that just 24% of Americans support lifting the debt limit, but 69% say the debt ceiling should not be raised. Americans are aware of the consequences, too. Fully, 72% believe it is at least somewhat likely the economy will take a severe downturn if the debt ceiling is not raised. Americans clearly do not want more spending, no matter what. The President is not listening.
[Video clip: President Barack Obama: I’d rather be talking about stuff that everybody welcomes, like new programs, or the NFL season getting resolved. Unfortunately, this is what’s on our plate.]
Lori Rothman: Republican Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) says, “Everybody does not welcome new programs.” He is running for President and he has his own solution to the debt problem. Welcome, Congressman.
Ron Paul: Thank you. Good to be with you.
Lori Rothman: Great to have you. You famously said that we should not raise the debt ceiling, and you have an idea to save 1.6 trillion with one swipe at the Fed’s balance sheet. Explain the idea.
Ron Paul: Right. We’re over the debt limit and they’re worrying about it. And I said, one solution — if we wanted to get serious and get down to business in the next year, do all the work we should do — we could get a reprieve, because we owe $1.6 trillion to the Federal Reserve. But where did they get the money to buy our debt? Well, they created it out of thin air. So taxpayers keep working hard to pay the interest to the Federal Reserve, as well as to finance these bonds if the Fed wants to take the monies. So I would say that is not a real debt. It’s a fictitious debt. It’s a dishonest debt, and that we’re not obligated. So if you don’t want pay interest for a while to the Fed, or just quit paying, then we can meet all our other obligations, and people shouldn’t be panicking that we’re going to default on our debt.
Lori Rothman: But it isn’t fictitious debt, Congressman, if you consider that that liquidity is in the financial markets. And so, if you wipe off the bonds and other assets off the Fed’s balance sheet, you still have all that money — right — that’s being hoarded by the banks, and at some point it’s going to be lended [sic: loaned] out. And then you have a big problem with inflation, don’t you?
Ron Paul: Well, this doesn’t change it. It stays the same. The Fed is not about to call that money back in. They’ve said, “Oh, when are we going to end QE2 and when are we going to downsize our balance sheet?” They’re not going to do that! The market—
Lori Rothman: But the Fed needs to have those to maintain those bonds, so that if it does call that liquidity out, in inflationary times, it can do that, to sell those bonds back into the financial marketplace.
Ron Paul: Well, all they have to do is raise Reserve requirements, and they would accomplish the same thing. So no, you don’t have to do that. But what I’m exposing is the fiction of the Federal Reserve on how they buy bonds, and what do they do with the interest, and why we owe them money, and why they contribute to the total debt of the country. And it’s not real debt in the sense that, if you owned a Treasury Bill, that’s a lot different. Or if we owe — if a Chinese owns a Treasure Bill, yes, if we default on that, that’s going to raise some eyebrows, but the Federal Reserve is quite different. I mean, this is debt that they were able to buy out of thin air. But they’ve already monetized that debt; that money is in the economy. Now, if you expect next month the Fed is also about ready to shrink the money supply, well, that would provide a problem. But that isn’t likely. That isn’t going to happen. They’re not in any mood to do that. And they’re going to continue buying debt, as they always have, so they can — they have plenty of room for manipulation, believe me! They manipulated trillions of dollars during the bailout and took care of their friends. They’re not handicapped. The only thing that’s handicapping the Fed now is people want transparency. Before, they did it in the dark of night and nobody knew what was going on. Now that we’ve exposed them, we have to see the Federal Reserve Board Chairman having press conferences, and—
Lori Rothman: I know that you are notable for — you’ve written a book about wanting to get rid of the Fed. Would you at the very least, though, be satisfied, Congressman, if the Fed just ditched its dual mandate – right — just got rid of the jobs mandate and just focused on price control? Because really the Fed, Bernanke was right when he said fuel prices, energy prices and food prices were transitory. We’ve gotten a bit of a lift off the gas price.
Ron Paul: Well, I think that’s a good suggestion, because they’ve had a dual mandate — one, stable prices and one for employment. We have no stable prices and no full employment. So I would take both mandates away from them and let them have a check-clearing outfit there, or something like that. But no.
Lori Rothman: So you must love this idea for an infrastructure bank. The jobs report — the June jobs report — was horrible. And now there’s a talk — they’re not calling it “stimulus,” but by any other name it would amount to that. What does this country need for job creation?
Ron Paul: Yeah. Well, what you need to do is change everything that we’ve been doing. We have too much spending and too much taxes, too much regulation, too weak of a currency, and we’re doing all the things wrong. But the most important thing that we’re doing wrong – and devastating thing – is we don’t allow the correction to occur. We don’t allow the liquidation of debt. We prop up all the mistakes. We buy the bad debt, where the banks that held this bad debt and these derivatives, they should have all gone bankrupt. Instead, the taxpayers got stuck with them. So we bailed out the financial institutions — the banks and the corporations and Wall Street — and they’re doing quite well. And yet, they said there would be a depression, of course, if we didn’t bail them out. We still had the depression! We still—
Lori Rothman: So do you think Americans don’t want a deal on the debt ceiling? Sorry to interrupt you.
Ron Paul: Let me still fin — let me—
Lori Rothman: Go on.
Ron Paul: Let me finish. We still ended up with the depression, because the People lost their jobs and lost their houses. Go ahead.
Lori Rothman: No, I just wanted to put to you — I mean, fine. Leave the debt ceiling; deal with the economic consequences; we hear you. So, I mean, do people just not want a deal in the end? I mean, how are we going to sort out and deal with the ramifications here?
Ron Paul: The ramifications of what is going on now and how we get back to full employment? Is that the kind of thing you’re talking about?
Lori Rothman: Absolutely.
Ron Paul: Yeah. Well, you have to do what I said. You have to change policies. We do have to cut, but we have to cut a lot! But we have to change the philosophy of government. We can’t maintain an empire. As long as we think we can do that, we’re on the way — I mean, we are literally and technically bankrupt; we can’t pay our bills, and we don’t have enough income. The only thing that keeps us going is counterfeiting our money. And the people — even today — people were buying dollars, because there’s nothing else out there other than gold. So yes, the dollar is still providing funds, but we’re counterfeiting the money. But we’re defaulting because the dollar’s going down in value when you look at your prices. The government — our government — defaults all the time. And we’re going to continue to default. But the way we’re going now, though, it’s going to be much much worse than — if we raise the debt limit, it’s going to be much worse than us biting the bullet and saying, “We need to change our attitude. We have to look at this. We have to change our way.”
Lori Rothman: We’ll have to leave it there. Thanks for engaging us, Congressman Ron Paul. Appreciate your time.
Ron Paul: Thank you.
Processing your request, Please wait....
Vote out that corporate/bank owned monkey and get a real man in the office… a man like Dr. Ron Paul.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Ron Paul works this chick
Chick: “They need to sell bonds in case of inflation”
Ron: “No no, listen here bitch, motherfuckin Fed just raise reserve requirements and we reduce inflation and we don’t let motherfuckin Fed board run debt debates muzzafuckuh”
Ron’s quote is paraphrased of course
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Such a pretty girl, but such a Fascist Corporate mind. This is why I have no interest in watching television other then to see Dr. Paul speak. She refuses to hear the answers, anyone else catch that?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
There is another theory that some historians attribute to Thomas Jefferson, the theory of generational obligations. The short version is that you can not make obligations that would put a financial burden on future generations. the debt would have to be within a range that could be paid within a 20 year span.
It makes sense and would be a simple solution.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
To all the people who say Mr. Ron Paul cannot win 2012; All You hear is, he has great ideas, he’s consistent, principled, has forecasted much of the economic problems years ago and wins many of the straw polls. But he’s unelectable. WHY! He’s the best man for the job and he’s got my vote!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
7 
0
obama is such a dumbass he says he rather be talking about the nfl season getting resolved, never in american history has there been a more unfit president and that is saying a lot.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
very surprised this was broadcasted on a fox news network.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Don’t forget black market labor it has put a lot of us laborers out of work and we don’t Qualify for the Rich man or Poor mans Welfare. Own a piece of land or certain assets and we are screwed.
Then some rich welfare case wants to give you penny for your assets this crap ain’t right.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
2 
0
This is the first time someone with authority openly stated that the fed is printing funny money and that there really is no debt that the government owes to it. Good going, Ron!!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Look at how this news personality is acting loyal to the Federal Reserve. I wonder what’s in it for her? Instead of being unbiased, she is squirming at the idea of Federal Reserve being terminated. Why?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Wow, Fox News anchor is bodaciously smoking hot.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
He never ceases to amaze me. Dr. Paul is so intelligent.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
does obama really think we like the idea of “new programs” which just means more govt spending?
WE WANT TO CUT PROGRAMS!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Ron’s got major grapes!!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Ron paul is the only politician who has not sold out.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
its weird fox news is treating ron paul decent somethings up. i think fox finally jumped on the ron paul wagon
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
END THE FED!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Yeah,It was the people that lost their jobs and homes,they didn’t get bailed out,wall street trash boys and big banks are the winners of the bail outs.And don’t forget their BIG BONUS! OH Yeah,there is a depression out here for the people, not the big fat cats….They got bailed out ,so life goes on as usual for them.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
moxnews .com????? anyone else catch that?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Heck yeah! Go Ron Paul!!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
FTF!!!
RP 2012!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
This lady is smart though it says fox news I’m confused
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Ron Paul has good plan BUT does he know how to get there? I hope this works
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
He’s not that serious about that proposal. If you listen he says the proposal just brings to the forefront the absurdity of the fed. He’s learning to sensationalize some of his positions. Think of it this way. The treasury issues pink paper (treasury bills and bonds), these are debts, and your labour (taxes) are the backing for these debts ( ie you’ve been sold into debt slavery). in exchange for your debt slavery, the fed prints green pieces of paper and exchanges the pink paper for green paper. Has ANY wealth been created? Has ANY productive activity taken place? NO and NO. See how absurd the situation is. The government doesn’t create anything. It only TAKES from the productive members and gives it to unproductive members who vote for those benefits.
Remember Marx said “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. That is socialism. That is the USA today.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
“I Would Rather be Talking About Stuff That Everyone Welcomes, Like New Programs or the NFL Season Getting Resolved”
What kind greedy moron dose Obama think I am?
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Ron Paul, no double speak, no spin, no bullshit. Just common sense and solid policy that is governed by the CONSTITUTION. Please America, make this man your next president.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
If America fails to elect Ron Paul, not only is the US fucked, the entire free world is fucked.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
Actually, if the electoral college fails to vote him in then ‘what you said’. The only thing our (regular citizens) vote does is sway the opinion of the electoral college.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
LOL……people think Paul will get to fix things. If he gets in power and tries to change the way the FED steals Americans money they will give him a motorcade and a grassy knoll. It’s the one lead that was never followed when JFK was shot. Coincidentally a month after he started printing real gold backed greenbacks.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I’m European and I wish Ron Paul would PERSONALLY hang Obama and his NWO/Bilderberg/Bank cartel masters. They won’t be able to hold up this farce forever. Even the most brainwashed of American sheeple are waking up now.
Your days are counted you monsters!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
by 2;39 run paul rules and shows why we need to end this monsterous phony ass fed! god i live this man! lol ron paul 2012
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
Screw the Fed, we don’t owe them a dime!!
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
wOW PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO WAKE UP ABOUT TIME! THE FED IS A JOKE!
=SCAM
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
I can’t stop looking at her titties…..
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
2
Also, when foreigners refer to the American people, they are living in a fantasy land. The American people were wiped out in the 60s and 70s. There is no core group of American people. Go to NYC, LA, DC, and you will not recognize “America” due to all of the refugees and illegals. So, when you talk about our “population”, just realize that it doesn’t really exist. The USA is Babylon. multi-cultural, multi-ethic, multi-orientation. Different languages and flags. Not united at all. Marxist state
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
That stupid reported needs to stop interrupting Ron midway during his sentence.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
1 
0
I love Rons ideas and the fact that he takes his time to answer questions fully, but he just talks for too long some times. Making his answers just a little bit shorter, would make them SO much more interesting.
Report this comment
Like or Dislike:
0 
0