The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Ron Paul had the most donors in the last three months of last year in Washington.Campaign finance reports show that Obama had 2,600 donors -- more than three times the number backing Hillary Clinton -- and Paul had more than 1,000.
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Monday, February 4, 2008
Ron Paul Gains Endorsements from Montana's Conservative Legi
KALISPELL, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has announced endorsements from the most consistent conservatives in the Montana Legislator leading up to the Republican Presidential Caucus on February 5. They include:State Senator Aubyn Curtiss of FortineState Senator Jerry O' Neil of Columbia FallsState Representative Rick Jore of RonanState Representative Roger Koopman of BozemanState Representative Tom McGillvray of BillingsState Representative Diane Rice of HarrisonState Representative of Jack Wells of BozemanPublic Service Commissioner Brad Molnar of BillingsMontana Ron Paul State coordinator David Hart said these endorsements show the large base of support the ten term congressman has gained in the state.Additionally, Ron Paul has been endorsed as being the strongest Presidential candidate in support of the 2nd Amendment by the Montana Shooting Sports Association.“This strong show of support for Ron Paul’s message of liberty, prosperity and peace has resonated with Montanans of all demographics,” Hart said. “They know that Ron Paul has never voted for a tax increase, never voted for an unbalanced budget, and has never voted to increase the size of government.”
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Q4FECReports:Ron Paul Receives The Most Military Donations.
Q4 FEC Reports: Ron Paul Receives More Military Donations Than All Other Republicans Combined. ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to newly released FEC reports, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has received more military donations than the other three remaining Republican candidates combined.
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ChristianBusinessDaily.com Endorses Ron Paul for President
We recognize that it is only in a free society that we, as Christians and as businesspeople, will be able to live out our God-given individual purposes without ungodly restraint of over-intrusive government, without having our values and freedoms trampled upon, and without theft of our families' resources.
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Ron Paul Dominates Montana's Campaign Contributions
KALISPELL, Mont.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a report just released by the Federal Election Commission showing Presidential campaign finance for 2007, Montanans have clearly voted for Ron Paul with their wallets.Ron Paul received more campaign contributions from Montana in 2007 than any other Presidential candidate.
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Ron Paul Beats McCain in Maine Caucus
ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--While most reports about this past weekend’s Maine Caucus focused on the purely symbolic presidential preference poll, in the meaningful race to secure delegates to the state convention Ron Paul is primed to finish second with likely 35 percent of the total Delegates to the Republican National Convention
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
Ron Paul Unveils a REAL Economic Stimulus Plan
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has unveiled a comprehensive economic revitalization package. The four-pronged plan is designed to stem the current economic slide and address the unsound governmental policies that are harming Americans’ pocketbooks.
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Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Constitutional Responses to Terrorism
Texas Straight Talk by Ron Paul
It has been over 6 years since the atrocities of September 11 were committed and there are still some very basic measures that need to be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice and make
My legislation entitled The Marque and Reprisal Act of 2007 (HR 3216) makes the surgical strike option available to the President in our mission to capture Bin Laden. Our military has been pursuing him without result for far too long now, and it is high time ALL constitutional tools were utilized in the hunt for this dangerous madman. As an American it sickens me to know that Bin Laden and top leaders of al Qaeda remain at large and thumbing their noses at us, while we unravel the sacred fabric of our constitution out of fear. It is Osama Bin Laden and the perpetrators of terrorist attacks that ought to be afraid of us, not the other way around. The answers are found in the Constitution. We should boldly root out the perpetrators and not let them get away with their crimes against us. As the home of the brave we should use Letters of Marque and Reprisal to bring Bin Laden to justice.
Also, we need to take serious steps to prevent terrorists from gaining easy access to targets on our soil. Quite alarmingly, even with the knowledge that the 19 terrorist hijackers entered our country legally, and that 15 of them were from
A lot has been done to fight the War on Terror and much of it has been misdirected, but there are some tools still needed and more progress to be made. My bills The Marque and Reprisal Act of 2007 and The Terror Immigration Elimination Act are logical steps in the right direction.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
USA Rights and Sovereignty Getting Trumped
Read about how there is an agenda to merge the 3 countries of Canada, United States, and Mexico. Then donate or canvass door to door to make others aware. http://thenewamerican.com/tnadonate
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Saturday, January 19, 2008
THE CORE RATE
This article covers the difference between the "official" CPI put out by the government/media and the actual rate of inflation as it used to be calculated. As has been noted by Ron Paul, Presidential candidate, the actual rate of inflation is running around 10%.The DisconnectA caller into a Washington D.C. talk show asked a very pertinent question regarding the business of living. “Have they changed the way they measure the rate of inflation? The CPI report in May was zero percent, excluding food and energy. If you take those things out, that is what is primarily driving up everything. What would be the real inflation rate, if you add back everything they take out?" The host of the show turned to his guest, a financial reporter from The New York Times. The host of the show and the Times reporter were caught flatfooted. The Times reporter couldn’t answer the question. The host then went on to say, "The inflation rate as it is reported has been quite low over the last few years. Next caller." http://www.financialsense.com/stormwatch/2005/0624.html
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Inflation: Alive and Well
For years, the central planners at the Federal Reserve have assured us that inflation is dormant, if not dead. Fed Governor Ben Bernanke, during a recent speech in Washington, took pains to emphasize that inflation is “Under very good control.” But considering the relentless increase in the money supply engineered by the Fed over the last decade, one wonders whether Messrs. Bernanke, Greenspan, and company protest too much.
The most widely used measurement of inflation is the CPI, an index that many economists believe grossly understates true inflation. The most glaring problem is that CPI excludes housing prices, instead tracking rents. The Fed’s easy credit policies have created an artificial mortgage boom, with many Americans who would not have met credit standards 30 years ago now buying houses. With more demand for houses, demand for rentals has diminished, causing rental prices to drop- distorting the CPI downward. However, everyone knows that housing prices have risen dramatically over the last decade in most parts of the country. So the single biggest expense for most Americans- their mortgage- certainly has inflated!
But not only housing prices are on the rise. London economist Sean Corrigan reports that the prices of many other goods and services, including medical care and energy, have also increased substantially. Commodity prices in particular have risen recently. In fact, the Journal of Commerce index for widely traded commodities has risen 49% since last spring! Fed Chairman Greenspan may dismiss commodities as mere “physical” assets in his vision of an increasingly “conceptual” economy, but average Americans should understand how these dramatic increases in commodity prices will affect our pocketbooks:
-gold is around $400, near its 14-year high; platinum is at a 25-year high;
-steel prices are up 160%; aluminum 50%; copper 120%;
-lumber has soared 93% in less than a year;
-coal prices are up 50% over one year ago;
-lead is at a 17-year high; nickel is at a 13-year high;
-beans, corn, rice, and soy have all risen at least 40%.
With all due respect to Mr. Greenspan and his colleagues, real inflation as measured by an increase in the money supply is not so easy to disguise. As Mr. Corrigan deftly defines it, inflation is ultimately “A perceived surfeit of money compared to all the other goods (and the other kinds of money) into which it thus becomes ever more eagerly exchanged.” The surfeit of U.S. dollars created by the Fed can only cause consumer prices to rise, no matter what our government officials tell us.
Ron Paul, March 3rd, 2004
Congressman Paul Introduces "The Tax Free Tips Act"
The Tax Free Tips Act of 2007 H.R. 3664 would exempt tips and gratuities from federal income and payroll taxes. Tips often compose a substantial portion of the earnings of waiters, waitresses, and other service-sector employees. However, unlike regular wages, a service-sector employee usually has no guarantee of, or legal right to, a tip. Instead, the amount of a tip usually depends on how well an employee satisfies a client. Since the amount of taxes one pays increases along with the size of tip, taxing tips punishes workers for doing a superior job!
Not only that, but the IRS estimates how much in tips an employee should have received and taxes them based on that, whether they actually received that amount or not. This should stop.
“Many service-sector employers are young people trying to make money to pay for their education, or single parents struggling to provide for their children. Oftentimes, these workers work two jobs in hopes of making a better life for themselves and their families. The Tax Free Tips Act gives these hard-working Americans an immediate pay raise. People may use this pay raise to devote more resources to their children’s, or their own, education, or to save for a home, retirement, or to start their own businesses,” stated Congressman Paul.
Legislative Forecast for 2008
Congress is re-convening this coming week and I would like to take this opportunity to give my legislative forecast for the coming year. Here are a few things we can expect to see from
First and foremost, we will see ramped up spending for the warfare/welfare state. There is no resolution or end in sight on the
This leads me to my next forecast of more federal bailouts for the housing sector. Efforts by the Federal Reserve to stave off recession will have the net effect of only blowing the bubble bigger, making the crash that much more painful when it inevitably comes. The malinvestments caused by easy credit in the housing industry will be prolonged by more easy credit. New programs and laws will be enacted to prop up housing, all with a falling dollar, devalued by continued foreign interventions. The crisis in the housing market will spread and I’m afraid we are in for some rough economic times.
Moreover, the government will require more money than ever this year, and as funding options run out, taxes will go up. Expect stealth tax increases on consumer goods, perhaps airline tickets or cigarettes, and increased government fees here and there. Ironically total revenues will probably fall due to a weakened economy. The new programs started to “help” the country will require extra money wherever the government can squeeze it out of you, unfortunately it will be at exactly the moment you can least afford it. Since the Democrats enacted “pay-as-you-go” rules for new legislation, cutting taxes to give relief during recession will be bureaucratically next to impossible. In spite of that, I will continue the uphill battle for tax relief.
Last, I expect, in spite of rhetoric to the contrary, we will see more federal control of education as Congress prepares to reauthorize No Child Left Behind.
If this is indeed the agenda of Congress, let us hope that there is not nearly enough time to accomplish it all this year.
Ron Paul
Monday, January 14, 2008
House Says Paul Again Set to Return Thousands to Treasury
House Says Paul Again Set to Return Thousands to Treasury
January 11, 2008
For immediate release
“Since my first year in Congress representing the 14th district I have managed my office in a frugal manner, instructing staff to provide the greatest possible service to the people of the 14th district at the least possible cost to taxpayers,” said Paul.
Paul’s Chief of Staff, Tom Lizardo, said “It is customary that several thousand dollars of expenditures are not calculated until after this year ends, but I am confident that tens of thousands will remain to be given back once the books finally close on 2007, just as Congressman Paul always instructs us to do.”
Lizardo said that the purchase of new equipment, staff changes and postal rate increases made it especially difficult to restrain spending this year. “Considering Congressman Paul’s efforts helped to land nearly $50,000,000 in appropriations for crucial projects in this part ofThe REAL ID Act
Dr. Paul’s Writings › HR 418- A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform
Summary:
I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 418, the REAL ID Act. This bill purports to make us safer from terrorists who may sneak into the United States, and from other illegal immigrants. While I agree that these issues are of vital importance, this bill will do very little to make us more secure. It will not address our real vulnerabilities. It will, however, make us much less free. In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our constitutionally protected liberty.
Mr. Speaker:
I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 418, the REAL ID Act. This bill purports to make us safer from terrorists who may sneak into the United States, and from other illegal immigrants. While I agree that these issues are of vital importance, this bill will do very little to make us more secure. It will not address our real vulnerabilities. It will, however, make us much less free. In reality, this bill is a Trojan horse. It pretends to offer desperately needed border control in order to stampede Americans into sacrificing what is uniquely American: our constitutionally protected liberty.
What is wrong with this bill?
The REAL ID Act establishes a national ID card by mandating that states include certain minimum identification standards on driver’s licenses. It contains no limits on the government’s power to impose additional standards. Indeed, it gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to unilaterally add requirements as he sees fit.
Supporters claim it is not a national ID because it is voluntary. However, any state that opts out will automatically make non-persons out of its citizens. The citizens of that state will be unable to have any dealings with the federal government because their ID will not be accepted. They will not be able to fly or to take a train. In essence, in the eyes of the federal government they will cease to exist. It is absurd to call this voluntary.
Republican Party talking points on this bill, which claim that this is not a national ID card, nevertheless endorse the idea that “the federal government should set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification such as driver’s licenses.” So they admit that they want a national ID, but at the same time pretend that this is not a national ID.
This bill establishes a massive, centrally-coordinated database of highly personal information about American citizens: at a minimum their name, date of birth, place of residence, Social Security number, and physical and possibly other characteristics. What is even more disturbing is that, by mandating that states participate in the “Drivers License Agreement,” this bill creates a massive database of sensitive information on American citizens that will be shared with Canada and Mexico!
This bill could have a chilling effect on the exercise of our constitutionally guaranteed rights. It re-defines "terrorism" in broad new terms that could well include members of firearms rights and anti-abortion groups, or other such groups as determined by whoever is in power at the time. There are no prohibitions against including such information in the database as information about a person’s exercise of First Amendment rights or about a person’s appearance on a registry of firearms owners.
This legislation gives authority to the Secretary of Homeland Security to expand required information on driver’s licenses, potentially including such biometric information as retina scans, finger prints, DNA information, and even Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) radio tracking technology. Including such technology as RFID would mean that the federal government, as well as the governments of Canada and Mexico, would know where Americans are at all time of the day and night.
There are no limits on what happens to the database of sensitive information on Americans once it leaves the United States for Canada and Mexico - or perhaps other countries. Who is to stop a corrupt foreign government official from selling or giving this information to human traffickers or even terrorists? Will this uncertainty make us feel safer?
What will all of this mean for us? When this new program is implemented, every time we are required to show our driver’s license we will, in fact, be showing a national identification card. We will be handing over a card that includes our personal and likely biometric information, information which is connected to a national and international database.
H.R. 418 does nothing to solve the growing threat to national security posed by people who are already in the U.S. illegally. Instead, H.R. 418 states what we already know: that certain people here illegally are "deportable." But it does nothing to mandate deportation.
Although Congress funded an additional 2,000 border guards last year, the administration has announced that it will only ask for an additional 210 guards. Why are we not pursuing these avenues as a way of safeguarding our country? Why are we punishing Americans by taking away their freedoms instead of making life more difficult for those who would enter our country illegally?
H.R. 418 does what legislation restricting firearm ownership does. It punishes law-abiding citizens. Criminals will ignore it. H.R. 418 offers us a false sense of greater security at the cost of taking a gigantic step toward making America a police state.
I urge my colleagues to vote “NO” on the REAL ID Act of 2005.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Social Security: House of Cards
Summary:
The Social Security crisis is a spending crisis. The program could be saved tomorrow if Congress simply would stop spending so much money, apply even 10% of the bloated federal budget to a real trust fund, and begin saving your contributions to earn simple interest. That this simple approach seems impossible speaks volumes about the inability of Congress to cut spending no matter what the circumstances.
November 8, 2004
President Bush should be commended for promising to address the looming Social Security crisis during his second term, a crisis that Congress and successive presidents have ignored for decades. Hopefully Americans will realize that the notion of Social Security as an insurance program is a lie, and that Congress has not put their Social Security contributions into any trust fund.
Most Americans already know that Social Security is in trouble. Demographic shifts and an aging population have undermined the unspoken foundation of the system, which is the practice of taxing younger generations to pay benefits for current retirees. Younger generations, however, simply aren’t big enough to pay for the millions of baby boomers who will begin retiring in the next decade. When Social Security began in the 1930s, many Americans never reached age 65. Today, however, millions of retirees live well into their eighties and nineties. These realities mean the current system could collapse in as little as twenty to thirty years.
Seniors hope the system will hold together for the remainder of their lives, while younger working people hope government will somehow fix things before they retire. Not surprisingly, Congress has chosen to ignore the problem until it becomes acute. It’s hard to sell voters on austerity today to avoid a relatively distant crisis. Politicians usually operate on the opposite principle, by promising great things now and leaving the bills for others to pay later.
The greatest threat to your Social Security retirement funds is Congress itself. Congress has never required that Social Security tax dollars be kept separate from general revenues. In fact, the Social Security “trust fund” is not a trust fund at all. The dollars taken out of your paycheck are not deposited into an account to be paid to you later. On the contrary, they are spent immediately to pay current benefits, and to fund completely unrelated federal programs. Your Social Security administration “account” is nothing more than an IOU, a hopeful promise that enough younger taxpayers will be around to pay your benefits later. Decades of spendthrift congresses have turned the Social Security system into a giant Ponzi scheme, always dependent on new generations. The size and longevity of the Baby Boom generation, however, will finally collapse the house of cards.
We’ve all heard proposals for “privatizing” the Social Security system. The best private solution, of course, is simply to allow the American people to keep more of their paychecks and invest for retirement as they see fit. But putting Social Security funds into government-approved investments could have dangerous consequences. Private companies would become a partner of sorts with the government. Individuals still would not truly own their invested Social Security funds. Payroll taxes likely would be raised to cover payments to current beneficiaries, as the President alluded to when warning us that fixing Social Security would be “costly.”
Furthermore, who would decide what stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or other investment vehicles deserve government approval? Which politicians would you trust to build an investment portfolio with billions of your Social Security dollars? The federal government has proven itself incapable of good money management, and permitting politicians and bureaucrats to make investment decisions would result in unscrupulous lobbying for venture capital. Large campaign contributors and private interests of every conceivable type would seek to have their favored investments approved by the government. In a free market, an underperforming or troubled company suffers a decrease in its stock price, forcing it either to improve or lose value. Wary investors hesitate to buy its stock after the price falls. If a company successfully lobbied Congress, however, it would enjoy a large investment of your tax dollars. This investment would cause an artificial increase in its stock price, deceiving private investors and unfairly harming the company's honest competition. Government-managed investment of tax dollars in the private market is a recipe for corruption and fiscal irresponsibility.
The Social Security crisis is a spending crisis. The program could be saved tomorrow if Congress simply would stop spending so much money, apply even 10% of the bloated federal budget to a real trust fund, and begin saving your contributions to earn simple interest. That this simple approach seems impossible speaks volumes about the inability of Congress to cut spending no matter what the circumstances.
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About Ron Paul
About Ron Paul
Congressman Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation’s capital. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He is known among his congressional colleagues and his constituents for his consistent voting record. Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the “one exception to the Gang of 535” on Capitol Hill.
Ron Paul was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, before proudly serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. He and his wife Carol moved to Texas in 1968, where he began his medical practice in Brazoria County. As a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology, Dr. Paul has delivered more than 4,000 babies. He and Carol, who reside in Lake Jackson, Texas, are the proud parents of five children and have 17 grandchildren.
While serving in Congress during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dr. Paul’s limited-government ideals were not popular in Washington. In 1976, he was one of only four Republican congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president.
During that time, Congressman Paul served on the House Banking committee, where he was a strong advocate for sound monetary policy and an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary measures. He was an unwavering advocate of pro-life and pro-family values. Dr. Paul consistently voted to lower or abolish federal taxes, spending and regulation, and used his House seat to actively promote the return of government to its proper constitutional levels. In 1984, he voluntarily relinquished his House seat and returned to his medical practice.
Dr. Paul returned to Congress in 1997 to represent the 14th congressional district of Texas. He presently serves on the House Committee on Financial Services and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He continues to advocate a dramatic reduction in the size of the federal government and a return to constitutional principles.
Congressman Paul’s consistent voting record prompted one of his congressional colleagues to say, “Ron Paul personifies the Founding Fathers’ ideal of the citizen-statesman. He makes it clear that his principles will never be compromised, and they never are.” Another colleague observed, “There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles. Ron Paul is one of those few.”
Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record:
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
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