Liberty Maven

Leave it to Ron Paul to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, and focus attention on what’s really important.  It’s clear that all the ruckus regarding the AIG bonuses is nothing more than a misdirection from the critical issues.  It reminds me of the debates last fall, when Obama and McCain argued over $18 million in earmarks when neither had a negative word to say about the $700 billion bailout bill being bandied about Congress.

So in today’s Texas Straight Talk, Ron Paul’s weekly column, he is right on target:

The distraction on Capitol Hill this week has to do with the jackpot bonuses that executives at AIG recently received. The argument is over a relative drop in the bucket. The total amount of bonuses given out was $165 million. The government has put $170 billion into AIG so far. Many now are demanding we get this money back. We ought to be spending our time and effort doing something more worthwhile, like figuring out how the Federal Reserve is handling the trillions of dollars they are creating and pumping into the economy, and how that is affecting the purchasing power of dollars in your pocket.

The big mistake was appropriating the TARP funds in the first place. A Johnny-come-lately bill of attainder won’t stop the spending epidemic. This whole situation is a perfect demonstration of why “doing nothing” and letting failing companies fail would have been much better than sinking valuable money and resources into them. [Continue]