Ron Paul .com

This Wednesday afternoon, Ron Paul joined Tom Woods, Nick Gillespie, David Boaz, Bob Shultz, John Dennis and Judge Andrew Napolitano to discuss the latest political and economic developments.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IauMaI_khHk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Osopde4z7w
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXEoh80izT8
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxrs8hALGFY
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6blOtnHZ8kU (Ron Paul)
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe7OYOWUUP0 (Ron Paul)

Audio only:

Download the show as an MP3 file here (54:44 min).

Channel: Fox News Strategy Room
Show: Freedom Watch
Host: Judge Andrew Napolitano
Date: 8/12/2009

Transcript of Ron Paul’s appearance (Part 1 (skip to 3:49) | Part 2)

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Thank you. Joining me now is Congressman Ron Paul, Republican of Texas and, of course, a regular on our show. Congressman Paul, I know it’s vacation week for you guys. I deeply appreciate your time. Welcome back to Freedom Watch.

Ron Paul: Thank you. It’s good to be with you again.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Thank you. Are you surprised, I’m sure you’ve seen this, it’s been everywhere, with the manner in which some of your colleagues have been received by their constituents, Senator Arlen Specter practically having to get in the middle of a fist fight and being aggressively booed, Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee being booed by her folks, Senator Ben Cardin being booed by his folks and every time one of the people in the audience asks a specific question about the healthcare program, these folks are admitting they didn’t read it and don’t understand it. Does any of these surprise you?

Ron Paul: Not really. I guess to the extent of it being so broad-based, that impresses me. But I’ve sensed over the last couple of years being out of Washington on a few occasions that the people are very, very annoyed, and they’re willing to express it.

But I think what is great is that they’re targeting the right place, the government, the federal government, the congressmen, the senators, and this is healthy. Even though I worry a little bit about, you know, the shouting and thinking that that’s really going to accomplish a whole lot, so I’m very pleased with it, a little bit surprised as to the extent of it, but it should have been expected. People finally get fed up and I think it’s going to get a lot worse because this economy is going to get worse.

But what I think it’s telling us is that the people are realizing no matter how many things and stuff the government can promise us, eventually the government fails, so this to me is an example of a failure of government.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: A couple of months ago, the Department of Homeland Security came out with an absolutely crazy report, which basically said that it was going to monitor people who are pro-life, returning veterans, people who are concerned about the volume and amount of taxes, people who are concerned about the size and scope of the federal government, and people who believe in the right to keep and bear arms because they are right-wing extremists who would present a danger to the country.

As a result of several Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the Department of Homeland Security including one by Fox News, we now learned that this infamous report was culled from public information and from websites that are all over the place. Are you surprised that Janet what’s her name [Napolitano], the Secretary of the Department Homeland Security would still be pushing this report on us and would still be saying, “We’re going to have to monitor you people,” at the same time that Nancy Pelosi and Stanley Hoyer is saying “dissent is unpatriotic”?

Ron Paul: I imagine they will and I think it’s going to get worse when you think about their motivations. They want to know what we’re doing, whether it’s for tax purposes or what. So I think with the additional database that they’ve just added for the medical programs, the database has already been introduced, so they want to know everything about everybody, so I’m not a bit surprised.

I mean, in the last, well, I guess, eight years, the psychology of this nation changed to where they were too willing to accept this idea that the government needs to do that because that’s what they have to know in order to keep us safe. So they’ve given up their liberties for their safety and yet there’s a growing number of us and others and the people that you’ve talked to over this last several years, they’re resenting it and hopefully we wake up before we have nothing left.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: I mean, just this morning, Secretary Napolitano, whom I kiddingly called Janet what’s her name, obviously no relation to your Fox News analyst here, stated that there has been a rise in right-wing militias across the country. She doesn’t point to anything to support that, but she said that on national television this morning. Do you have any idea what the devil she is talking about?

Ron Paul: No, but I think you recall when they sort of named some of us on that list, too. Remember out in Missouri.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Yes.

Ron Paul: We were placed on that list that we could be subversive.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Yes.

Ron Paul: I mean, and this whole idea, “people who concentrate and talk about and emphasize the Constitution are a threat to the country,” that’s what it has come to. So it’s scary stuff, but it’s also an incentive for us to do something about it just like the failure of government is an incentive for the people to rise up and scream out and say enough is enough.

But one of these days, people are going to realize that it’s even in worse shape than they think. They think that they’re just going to mess up medical care. What if they destroy the economy completely or destroy the dollar, can you imagine what’s going to happen on both sides? How the people are going to react as well as what the government might do in order to maintain order?

Judge Andrew Napolitano: I shudder to think of what would happen. Last Friday afternoon, after the House of Representatives had been off for the first week of its summer break and after the Senate had left town, Secretary Geithner filed a document. I’m not even sure with whom he filed that, perhaps Congressman Barney Frank, I don’t know, seeling permission to borrow another $400 billion dollars for the Treasury. Does that surprise you?

Ron Paul: Not the way they’re spending, they have to borrow it. They think if they borrow, they might not have to print it as fast but they’re going to have do both because their revenue collections aren’t doing all that well and I think I saw that they’re down by about 18 percent and they’d like to raise taxes.

Well, they’ll never be able to keep up, so they’re going to work it to the hilt. They’re going borrow as much as they can and they’re still going to come up short and they’re going to have to resort to go to the Fed and they’re going to print this money. So yes, Geithner is going to go out and try to borrow it, but that won’t cover the bills.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: No.

Ron Paul: We don’t even know that the bills are you going to be.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Right.

Ron Paul: Costs are going up are going up automatically. Revenues are going down systematically. The deficit is exploding and what do they talk about in Washington? Another new program, a trillion dollars! And you know what really gets to me is when you bring it up to him and might even bring it up themselves and say, “Well, now, go on with all these wonderful things you’re going to do and expand the board and all of these something.” They said, “We do know this is going to raise the deficit and we do have to deal with it. It’s an important problem, but we’ll handle that in a year or two.”

Just like Bernanke who says, “You know, we did double the money supply and we do understand that that could cause prices to go up, but we’re smart enough now. We’ll know exactly when to withdraw that money and keep the inflation from coming.” They are so arrogant and unbelieving.

I, at times, think maybe they’ve deceived themselves into thinking that they’re geniuses at managing the people and managing the economy, but they don’t understand the people or they wouldn’t be so surprised about what’s going on with the people right now.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Are they going to have trouble borrowing $400 billion, unless they start making noises about raising taxes because the people to whom they will sell those bonds have serious concerns about whether or not they’re going to get their money back?

Ron Paul: I think it’s going to get tougher. My best understanding about what’s happening is that the Chinese, having quit lo­aning money back to us, but they quit buying long-term Treasuries, you know, long-term bonds. They don’t buy those anymore. So maybe they are… you know, they don’t have any places to go as all the countries that are holding these dollars and they’re willing to park them in short-term Treasuries, but I don’t think they’re going to be buying 10-years and 30-years for much longer. They’re still buying some tens, but thirties, the foreigners aren’t buying those.

But then the Fed comes in. You know, they made the announcement today. The last time Bernanke was before the Committee, he had made a statement, which I thought was rather absurd. He said that “we will not monetize the debt.” I said, “You’re in the midst of buying $300 billion of government debt and you have the nerve.” I didn’t say that, but I meant that.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Right.

Ron Paul: “You have the nerve to say you’re not going to monetize debt.” Today, they announced they’re going to buy that debt a little slower. But if next month, if they have another financial crisis or the next financial crisis appears, they’re not going to hesitate for a minute to do exactly what they believe in and that is print the money as necessary. So they’re going to try to borrow. Who knows when the people around the world will give up on our dollar, but all I know is from looking at monetary history, the end stages come rapidly.

Right now, there’s still a decent amount of trust in what we’re doing, believe it or not, mainly because other countries are now better off than we are. You know, who wants to go to socialized Europe and invest in Europe and invest in their currency? So they’re sticking with the dollar. We’re the powerhouse. We have still a lot of wealth and we still have our military, so they’re still trusting us to a degree. But there’s always a limit and I think we’re approaching that limit very quickly.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Do you think there are elements in the government that are intentionally trying to run the economy into the ground that they violate almost the laws of nature in such a casual counter-intuitive way that maybe if they can bring about an even greater crisis, they can grab more power and suppress more liberty with the acceptance of the American public?

Ron Paul: I think about that and there are some persuasive arguments because what they’re doing seems so absurd. If they’re not doing it deliberately, they can’t such idiots. I think it’s hard for me to believe they do, so I sort of go to the side of things that they’re economically ignorant. They’re arrogant. They think they are the world’s planners. They get themselves into trouble and then they follow the advice of Rahm Emanuel, “Don’t miss the opportunity. There is a crisis. Let’s take advantage of it.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Right.

Ron Paul: They always believed in big government anyway, but you know, the fact that they would sit around… I think they like the system the way it was working. They were making a lot of money and then they… it finally got out of control, but you know, the big guys got taken care of. The Goldman Sachs company isn’t, you know, suffering all that much.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Right.

Ron Paul: You know, I imagine they’ll survive for a while longer.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: Congressman Ron Paul. Thanks very much. Until next week on Freedom Watch. Thanks for joining us.

Ron Paul: Thank you, Judge.

Judge Andrew Napolitano: And to all of you out there, until next week on Freedom Watch. My friends, stay free.