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Ron Paul is America's leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, sound money, and a pro-American foreign policy.
Poll: Who Should Ron Paul Endorse?
386 Responses
Who should Ron Paul endorse if he doesn't run for President as an Independent or Third Party candidate this year?
- Gary Johnson (41%, 8,057 Votes)
- Nobody (27%, 5,255 Votes)
- Mitt Romney (18%, 3,518 Votes)
- Barack Obama (8%, 1,634 Votes)
- Someone else (2%, 424 Votes)
- Virgil Goode (2%, 367 Votes)
- Jill Stein (2%, 284 Votes)
Total Voters: 19,539
Loading ...Disclaimer: This is a non-binding poll by and for Ron Paul’s supporters to express our opinions and make our voices heard. Obviously, the poll’s outcome has no binding effect on Ron Paul’s eventual decision.
Ron Paul: Real Unemployment Is at 22.8%
306 Responses
Ron Paul
Last week, supporters of the current administration rejoiced over job numbers released by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS). For the first time since the administration came to power, the official unemployment number fell below 8%. Keynesian cheerleaders all claimed the numbers meant we are surely on the road to economic recovery, just in time for Christmas, and also, the election. Others saw through this ruse.
The situation on the ground looks nothing like a recovery. 23 million people are still out of work or chronically underemployed. This number is expected to rise dramatically next year. The situation in Washington should not give anyone cause for optimism. Politicians refuse to look honestly and intelligently at the cause of our economic malaise, and so real solutions are not taken seriously or acted upon. It is much easier and less painful to simply recalculate the numbers and redefine the terms until a rosier picture is presented. There is only blind hope that at some point, for some reason, things might change. But nothing will change for the better if we only stay the course.
The truth is the long term solutions to our economic quagmire involve some short term pain. Re-evaluating the economic role of an institution as insidious and behemoth as the Federal Reserve will inconvenience some people, and those people happen to have a lot of power. Similarly, the idea of ending government programs and closing down superfluous departments will always upset someone because it means someone will stop getting a government check.
No one wants to upset the apple cart, even if all the apples are rotten.
Not all of the unemployed are counted in the BLS unemployment numbers. This is no secret. In 1994 government statisticians came up with the term “discouraged worker” to remove entire swaths of people from the unemployment statistic. Now all the government has to do to improve the unemployment numbers is discourage people from looking for a job.
Far more unintended consequences are created in Washington than jobs.
Ideally, the business sector should be able to depend on sound numbers from the BLS, but smart business leaders know that trust in these numbers leads to bad decisions and failure. In regards to the recent jobs numbers, investor Jim Rogers recently stated “I have learned not to take advice from the government, especially the US government, which frequently misleads its citizens.” He also noted the election just around the corner, suggesting timing as an extra incentive to keep fudging the statistics.
The real drivers of the productive economy can’t afford to take risks based on false numbers. This is why economist John Williams created Shadow Government Statistics, utilizing more traditional methodologies and definitions to show business decision makers the real economic picture, warts and all. He shows the real unemployment rate to be a staggering 22.8%.
This is a difficult figure to accept as the actual truth. Perhaps if the politicians did, the people would finally demand real change and real solutions. Perhaps they would consider that all of the so-called stimulus spending, quantitative easing and mountains of regulation from Washington has only crippled the economy. Perhaps people would come to understand that fewer checks handed out from the public sector would mean more checks available in the private sector, and a return to real prosperity instead of just the appearance of it.
Ron Paul: We Must Fiscally Restrain Our Government
177 Responses
by Ron Paul
The media insists on characterizing statements about dependency on government handouts as controversial, but in truth such statements are absolutely correct. It’s not that nearly half of Americans are dependent on government; it’s actually more than half. If one includes not just people on food stamps and welfare, but also seniors on Medicare, Social Security and people employed by the government directly, the number is more like 165 million out of 308 million, which is 53%.
Some argue that Social Security and Medicare benefits are a right because people pay into these programs their whole lives, or that we need a government safety net in place for people who fall on hard times. However, this all becomes a moot point when the funds people depend on become worthless due to government default or rampant inflation.
This is less an issue of dignity or dependence on government, and more about the deceitfulness of government promises.
The Fed recently announced that it plans to keep interest rates near zero and keep buying near worthless assets from banks indefinitely. This enables Congress to spend without having to take deficits or the debt seriously and there is every indication they intend to spend with impunity until the system collapses. There are no brakes on the runaway train. The federal debt ceiling law does nothing to limit spending. The ceiling will have to be raised yet again perhaps before the year is out. What is happening in Greece with austerity measures and riots in the street will happen here within a decade according to some realistic estimates if we do not find some way to fiscally restrain our government.
There is little point in a debate about being entitled to healthcare or food or shelter from fellow taxpayers if the whole system has collapsed. And, with the way our politicians have taken over and mismanaged vast amounts of resources, collapse seems almost unavoidable. Yet the number of Americans who have significant dependency on government is dangerously high, and I honestly fear for them.
Worse, corporate welfare is also at an all time high with no signs of diminishing. Though it is hard to quantify, Tad Dehaven at Cato has estimated that the government spends nearly twice as much on corporate welfare than on social welfare. Both parties are equally guilty. More and more, the business sector is learning to rely on taxpayer largesse in one form or another. They used to be solely concerned with providing a better product to the consumer at a better price. Now, success on Wall Street depends entirely too much on having the best lobbyists on K Street. If one includes the employees of “private” businesses who depend on government contracts, grants or bailouts, there are even more people dependent on government in some way.
Government does not create resources when it taxes people and prints money; it merely redistributes the wealth, while supporting a massive, wasteful bureaucracy along the way. Government is a giant, blood-sucking parasite on our otherwise healthy economy. For too long we have entrusted too much economic power and influence to irresponsible politicians in Washington. It’s the chaos that ensues after they run the system into the ground that will be so painful for so many people. But realigning our economy with the free market and away from government mandates and handouts must happen in order for it to thrive again.
The answer is not to keep asking government to do more. The answer is to extricate our economy and ourselves from the grasp of Washington DC as much as possible now, before our dependency becomes our downfall.
Ron Paul: The Campaign Continues! We Must Stop the Enemies of Liberty!
321 Responses
Transcript
Ron Paul: Thank you very much. It’s so nice to see you, I thought you would be all worn out from the campaign, but it’s great to see you here. The campaign continues, the campaigning for liberty will last a long time. Somebody that campaigns with me, and has for a long time, is my wife, Carol, sitting over here. But it is a delight to see an enthusiastic crowd, I’m delighted you’re here tonight, and this week, and are being involved in the Campaign for Liberty. Because, in many ways, that’s what all of us are doing and what I’ve done for a few years. And since we started this organization 4 or 5 years ago, I got to name it, and I thought, “Well, why don’t we call it something that I’ve been doing: ‘Campaign for Liberty’, that’s what we’ll call it, that is it. So that type of campaign goes on for a long time until we win, and since the world is imperfect, we’ll never have perfect liberty. But if we don’t campaign for liberty, the other side is going to keep campaigning for stateism and big government, and they are our enemy and we must stop them. Probably the best success we’ve had with the Campaign for Liberty has been the grassroots effort the Campaign for Liberty has done on making sure that we got the bill to audit the Federal Reserve System at least passed in the House of Representatives. But not only about getting the legislation passed in House, and who knows, we might still get the rest of it done in the Senate, but we don’t know. But the more important thing is calling attention to the American people to the issue of monetary policy. They’re never going to put that back in the bottle, let me tell you. The people now know the importance of the monetary policy and the Federal Reserve, thank you for all your hard work and effort on that.
Ron Paul: Really, liberty is the issue, because if you understand liberty, you can apply it to everything, whether it’s civil liberty, foreign policy, monetary policy, or economic policy, it’s all very much the same. But, in order to understand how the system works, you have to understand the monetary system, because big government can’t exist without a Federal Reserve, it just wouldn’t happen. Because Congress would have to pay their bills, and with the Federal Reserve, they’re able to deceive the people, pretend that they’re not being harmful and delay their payment, and that’s what this is all about. Now, Bernanke, this weekend as usual – and as all the Federal Reserve Chairmen that I have met always say when they get into trouble and they can’t seem to get out – said, “Well, Congress has to do more”. Of course, they shouldn’t do more, they should do a lot less, that’s what they need to do. But it isn’t the Fed against the Congress, or the Congress against the Fed. The Congress created the Fed, and you know what, they can get rid of the Fed if they want to, and they should. But if there are special interest groups, as there certainly are in this country, that support the warmongering going on and the military-industrial complex, and if they had to tax the American people to pay all the bills for all the wars, just think in the last ten years, the national debt went up over 4 trillion dollars just for the wars that we have been fighting in the Middle East. And just look at the disaster in the Middle East today, 11 country embassies being demonstrated against with violence against Americans because, for some reason, they don’t like us dropping drone missiles on their countries. But this expenditure couldn’t happen, and wars couldn’t be fought if we had honest money, because the people would have to be that taxed and they would rebel and say it’s a bad investment. But it is so deceitful, and they can delay the inevitable for a long time, but that long time is coming to an end, and that’s why our work is so important right now. We have to keep plugging ahead.
Continue reading “Ron Paul: The Campaign Continues! We Must Stop the Enemies of Liberty!”
20,000+ Supporters to Ron Paul: Please Run as an Independent or Libertarian!
88 Responses
Dear Ron Paul,
You are at the right place and at the right time not only to educate Americans about the principles of personal liberty, sound money, free markets and a sensible pro-America foreign policy, but also to continue the Revolution and lead us to victory.
We the undersigned don’t want to change the GOP — we want to change America. We pledge to “write in” your name on the presidential ballot this November 6th no matter what happens until then. Please consider quitting the GOP and officially announcing your candidacy as an Independent. We pledge to assist you in every way we can.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
