Liberty Maven

Remarkable that in the 1160 words of this L.A. Times article there are only 28 words of direct, complete quotation from Paul. D.L.

Ron Paul’s ideas no longer fringe
Los Angeles Times, 1/02/10
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ron-paul2-2010jan02,0,6923745.story

With the economy still struggling, the lawmaker’s libertarian views are getting serious attention.

By Don Lee
January 2, 2010

Reporting from Washington – For three decades, Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul’s extreme brand of libertarian economics consigned him to the far fringes even among conservatives. Not a few times, his views put him on the losing end of 434-1 votes on Capitol Hill.

No longer. With the economy still struggling and political divisions deepening, Paul’s ideas not only are gaining a wider audience but also are helping to shape a potentially historic battle over economic policy — a struggle that will affect everything including jobs, growth and the nation’s place in the global economy.

Already, Paul’s long-derided proposal to give Congress supervisory power over the traditionally independent Federal Reserve appears to be on its way to becoming law.

His warnings on deficits and inflation are now Republican mantras.

And with this year’s congressional election campaign looming, the Texas congressman’s deep-seated distrust of activist government has helped fuel protests such as the tea-party movement, harden partisan divisions in Washington and stoke public fears about federal spending and the deficit.

“People are wondering what went wrong. And they’re not happy with what the government is offering up,” said James Grant, editor of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, offering an explanation for why seemingly wonkish arguments over interest rate policy and the money supply are spilling over onto ordinary Americans.

Some of Paul’s most extreme views are still beyond the pale for most economists. Despite the eroding value of the dollar, no one expects the U.S. to return to the gold standard, as Paul advocates; most economists think that could wreck the economy.

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Ron Paul is coming out swinging again following his “dust up” on Larry King last week when he was accused of making anti-semitic remarks by Ben Stein. In a newly released video from the Campaign For Liberty Paul speaks a bit about the altercation and ends by officially challenging Ben Stein to a debate on foreign policy.

It’s obvious Paul is trying to get his foreign policy argument back in the public eye after Obama seems to be following the Bush doctrine in Afghanistan. The question now becomes: Will Ben Stein agree to a moderated debate on foreign policy with Ron Paul? I’d love to see it. If you’d like to see it too then feel free to use the contact information for his agent on his site to make a request.

Incidentally, I do wish Paul would pronounce Yemen correctly. He says YAY-men. It should be YEH-men. Then again I don’t support him for his speaking ability, I support him because he fights for liberty.

“We can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not without arms.  One cannot shoot with butter, but with guns.” - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Germany’s Reichminister of Propaganda

Originally published January 1, 2010 at http://towneforcongress.com/economy/guns-or-health-care-1

Throughout time, governments have strong tendencies to simultaneously splurge on both domestic spending and the more sinister business of warfare. This is referred to as the “guns versus butter” economic model. “Butter” is synonymous with domestic spending, while “guns” is synonymous with military spending. As with any economic goods or services, there is alwaysscarcity of labor, machines, raw materials, land, et cetera. Individuals find it very easy to understand that if you want to spend 100% of one’s resources on “butter,” no “guns” can be purchased or vice versa; there is always a trade-off.  Steel can be formed into a refrigerator or tank; it can not be used for both.

Now, by their very nature, GOVERNMENTS HAVE NOTHING; they must tax, expropriate and leech from either its citizens or tributaries in order to perform any action whatsoever. However, governments have locked onto two monopolies that are the key to their powers. In addition to the monopoly on the use of force, modern governments, through central banking, have monopolized control over the production of money. While, theoretically, governments can create and then spend whatever amount of currency to obtain as much “butter” and “guns” as they wish, practically-speaking they must still obey economic law since scarcity exists.

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