*******

Senator Brogdon is a featured speaker at Nullify Now! in Fort Worth – on September 4th
click here to get your tickets today! (or call 888-71-TICKETS)

*******

The only solution to our nation’s economic woes is freedom’s expansion. Washington politicians, whom many have spent the majority of their career working for the government, have become self-appointed experts on the economy. Their ideas and policies have bolstered increased debt and financial devastation for millions of Americans.

President Obama’s budget teeters upon sophomoric folly. His $4 trillion dollar budget has set a course of financial ruin for many families. Free market principles are being replaced with socialism and government control of business. Capitalism, which made America great and the envy of the world, is now at risk.

I dare say most junior high school students understand a simple principle; “borrowed” money cannot be used to pay off a debt. Borrowing money to pay off a debt only creates double indebtedness. It is a mystery how politicians cannot understand a simple principled fact of Economics 101.

As Washington insiders, bureaucrats, and politicians continue to “pickpocket” the taxpayers, it’s more than our money that is lost; our freedom is in jeopardy. Every legislative policy that transfers wealth from the people to the politicians will be listed on the negative side of the balance sheet of liberty. It is impossible to multiply wealth by dividing, and giving to others.

Washington politicians continue to trick people by lulling them into a false sense of security. They have created an atmosphere of entitlements by promising “a chicken in every pot” without regard for the future. Most politicians’ vision of the future is determined by reading yesterday’s headlines. It is easier for them to be a Monday morning quarterback than an inspirational leader and visionary.

President Obama presented the “club” in Washington a budget that will raise taxes, slow the economy, and devastate the family budget for future generations to come. Priorities have been shunned; pork barrel spending and earmarks have set a new disgraceful high and the politicians are stumbling over themselves in an effort to “bring home the bacon”.

Elected officials, who neither respect the Constitution nor understand its basic tenets, should be expelled from Washington and sent home to live under the conditions and mandates they have created. Sound judgment and wisdom should be the minimum benchmark for public servants; rather than, the perpetual aggrandizing and pontificating of one’s attributes and authority. Washington politicians rarely have all the answers, but today, they are the source of most of our problems.

I have a much different vision. I believe that freedom is the welcome mat at the door of America. When individuals exercise their freedom, atrophy is negated and our nation becomes stronger. A policy that empowers the people and binds the politician is favored. Ideas that support private sector profits are superior to government bailouts. Individual liberty and personal responsibility must always take presidents over government intrusion.

Given the choice of bailouts or freedom, I choose freedom.

Senator Randy Brogdon was elected to his first term in the Oklahoma Senate in 2002. Randy Brogdon is also the author of SJR 10, otherwise known as the 10th Amendment Resolution. This resolution is designed to protect states rights and prevent the federal government from overexerting its legislative power. His efforts on the 10th Amendment Initiative have brought him national attention from several media outlets across the country. In March of 2009, Senator Brogdon was invited to speak to members of the Pennsylvania State Legislature about his work on the 10th Amendment Initiative.

This week the bailout of the Big Three automakers was under heavy consideration in Congress’s lame duck session.  I have always opposed government bailouts of private organizations.  Back in 1979 Congress had hearings about bailing out Chrysler and I was on record pointing out that these types of policies are foolish and very damaging to the long term economic health of our country.  They still are.

There was also renewed pressure this week to bailout homeowners and send another round of stimulus checks to “Main Street” to balance out all the handouts to big business.  It seems that eventually the entire economy is going to be blanketed over with Federal Reserve notes.  Most in Washington are completely oblivious as to why this model of money creation and spending is so dangerous.

We must remember that governments do not produce anything.  Their only resources come from producers in the economy through such means as inflation and taxation.   The government has an obligation to be good stewards of these resources.  In bailing out failing companies, they are confiscating money from productive members of the economy and giving it to failing ones.

By sustaining companies with obsolete or unsustainable business models, the government prevents their resources from being liquidated and made available to other companies that can put them to better, more productive use.  An essential element of a healthy free market, is that both success and failure must be permitted to happen when they are earned.  But instead with a bailout, the rewards are reversed – the proceeds from successful entities are given to failing ones.

How this is supposed to be good for our economy is beyond me.

With each bailout we hear rhetoric that this is the mother of all bailouts.  This will fix the problem once and for all, and that this is absolutely necessary to avert disaster.  This sense of panic squeezes astonishing amounts of dollars out of reluctant but hopeful legislators, who hate the position they are being put in, but are relieved that it will be the last time.  It is never the last time, and again and again we are faced with the same scenarios and the same fears.

We are already in the bailout business for such a staggering amount that admitting it was wrong in the first place would be too embarrassing.  So the commitment to this course of action is only irrationally escalated, in the hopes that somehow, someway eventually it will work and those in power won’t have to admit they were wrong.

It won’t work.  It can’t work.  We need to cut our losses and get back on course.  There is too much at stake for too many people to continue down this road.  The bailouts thus far to AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, and TARP funds amount to around $1.5 trillion. Considering our GDP is $14 trillion, and our Federal budget is already $3 trillion, this additional amount will significantly eat into our future lifestyles.  That amounts to an extra $5,000 that every person in the country needs to somehow produce just to keep up.

It is obvious to most Americans that we need to reject corporate cronyism, and allow the natural regulations and incentives of the free market to pick the winners and losers in our economy, not the whims of bureaucrats and politicians.

Ron Paul is a republican member of congress from Texas.

With news this week that Congress is poised to consider a new stimulus package, I am forced to again ask a question that seems silly in Washington:  How will we pay for this?

While a few Members of Congress have raised the issue, it certainly was not the primary concern of the House Budget Committee when they interviewed Ben Bernanke on Monday.  And, when they did direct this question to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, his answer was the standard rhetoric about how Congress needed to make tough choices.  Needless to say, not many specifics were discussed.

One of the most liberal members of the House, Barney Frank, has at least volunteered something of a suggestion: “We can let Iraq take care of itself.”  This, of course, goes in the right direction, but hardly far enough.

We need to declare the facts and their obvious consequences.  The deficit of the United States is now spiraling out of control, and the recent bailout package has only made it worse.  Our crushing federal debt is one key reason behind our current economic turbulence.

As Congress begins to consider the third “stimulus package” of the year, we need to realize it is time to start setting priorities.  Priority number one should be cutting spending in foreign countries. This does not simply mean Iraq, but everywhere.

The next stimulus package is likely to include money for infrastructure.  While these investments are, constitutionally speaking, supposed to be made by state and local governments, it is not likely that Congress will suddenly begin to pay heed to the document we are all sworn to uphold.  Still, we need to acknowledge the fact that the current Congress and Administration are rushing the nation toward bankruptcy.

This being the case, we could hope they would at least come to their senses regarding our debt and foreign spending sprees.  Our nation’s foreign-held debt is at record highs and moving ever higher.  Continuing to borrow money from Red China and others in order to pay “dues” to the United Nations and run “Plan Colombia” makes no sense at all.

Our whole carrot-and-stick approach to foreign policy makes no sense.  The US government simultaneously gives money to Israel, and to Egypt.  We send AIDS money to Africa while AIDS clinics in America shut down.  “Millennium challenge” funding goes to countries which enact “market based reforms” as we push our own country further and further into a centrally planned economy.

Economic recovery will only come through financial prudence, savings and getting back to producing things of value again.  But it seems to be a foregone conclusion that we are about to enact another government initiative to “stimulate the economy.”   Instead, there should be some serious talk about cutting all of these foreign giveaway programs.  But, alas and again, we should not hold our breath.  Congress is still not close to being serious about ending its addiction to debt and spending, and is again faced with the deadly temptation to attempt to spend us out of a recession.  We should not forget that in the 1930’s those types of efforts gave us the Great Depression.

Ron Paul is a republican member of congress from Texas.

One problem with politicians is that when problems they create come to a head, they typically feel this irresistible urge to DO something, rather than to UN-do something, or to simply back off to avoid exacerbating the situation.

Too often, that which they end up doing has very little connection to the cause of the crisis, but plays well in the press and superficially makes everyone feel better.  Bills that are rushed through Congress under duress are never studied enough, providing too tempting an opportunity to quietly slip in unrelated provisions that erode freedoms in ways that would never pass as a stand-alone bill.

We famously saw this with the PATRIOT Act, but Washington learned nothing from that.

The current housing crisis and the corresponding big government fix are another prime example.  First of all, the so-called solution will actually make the problem worse.  The problem stems from easy credit and a rush to flood the housing and mortgage markets with money. Relaxed or non-existent lending standards led many into mortgages and houses they could not afford.  As more foreclosures hit, the lending institutions will continue collapsing like dominoes under the weight of all the bad paper they underwrote.  Some are reacting and reintroducing lending standards.

Thus the number of buyers in the market for homes is beginning to shrink back to its natural size, and hyper-inflated prices are falling back down to earth.  In these ways, the market is trying to correct itself in the wake of the mistakes government intervention encouraged them to make through easy credit.

However, this correction is causing pain, especially to Wall Street investors and those who bought homes at the top of the market bubble, never expecting it to crash, always assuming they would easily be able to refinance.

Some mistakenly identify the falling home prices as the disease instead of merely a symptom – which they plan to fix with more easy credit and more liquidity to push more unqualified buyers back into the market for homes they still cannot afford.

This is akin to the drug addict identifying withdrawal symptoms as his problem and searching for another fix as his solution.  The cycle continues and the problems compound themselves.  The addiction deepens.

Addicts are told the first step to recovery is to admit their problem.  To cure this addiction to intervention we have to honestly admit the problem and once and for all, kick the habit.  That will involve some pain, without a doubt.  There is no easy, painless solution to the mess the disastrous economic interventions of the past have wrought.

The question is – do we allow some lending institutions to collapse, or do we allow the dollar to collapse?  To extend the metaphor, do we endure the temporary discomfort of withdrawal, or do we continue on until there is a fatal overdose?  We can delay the agony, but only for a little while, and then we will all end up paying the price for the mistakes of a few.

With the final passage of the Housing Bailout Bill quietly on a Saturday in the Senate, and the President’s signature, our government has unfortunately chosen the latter…

Ron Paul is a republican member of Congress from Texas.

Statement before the US House of Representatives on HR 3221 July 24, 2008

Madam Speaker,

For several years, followers of the Austrian school of economics have warned that unless Congress moved to end the implicit government guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and took other steps to disengage the US Government from the housing market, America would face a crisis in housing.

This crisis would force Congress to choose between authorizing a taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie, and other measures increasing government’s involvement in housing, or restoring a free-market in housing by ending government support for Fannie and Freddie and repealing all laws that interfere in housing. The bursting of the housing bubble, and the recent near-collapse in investor support for Fannie and Freddie has proven my fellow Austrians correct.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, instead of ending the prior interventions in the housing market that are responsible for the current crisis, Congress is increasing the level of government intervention in the housing market. This is the equivalent of giving a drug addict another fix, which will only make the necessary withdrawal more painful.

The provision giving the Treasury Secretary a blank check to purchase Fannie and Freddie stock not only makes the implicit government guarantee of Fannie and Freddie explicit, it represents another unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ Constitutional authority to control the allocation of taxpayer dollars. While the Treasury Secretary has to file a report with Congress, the lack of any effective standards for the expenditure of funds makes it impossible for Congress to perform effective oversight on Treasury’s expenditures.

HR 3221 also takes another troubling step toward the creation of surveillance state by creating a Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry. This federal database will contain personal information about anyone wishing to work as a “loan originator.”

“Loan originator” is defined broadly as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” According to some analysts, this definition is so broad as to cover part-time clerks and real estate agents who receive even minimal compensation from “originators.” Additionally, this database forced on industry will be funded by fees paid to the federal banking agencies, yet another costly burden to the American taxpayers.

Among the information that will be collected from loan originators for inclusion in the federal database are fingerprints. Madam Speaker, giving the federal government the power to force Americans who wish to work in real estate to submit their fingerprints to a federal database opens the door to numerous abuses of privacy and civil liberties and establishes a dangerous precedent. Fingerprint databases and background checks have been no deterrent to espionage and fraud among governmental agencies, and will likewise fail to prevent fraud in the real estate market.

I am amazed to see some members who are usually outspoken advocates of civil liberties and defenders of the Fourth Amendment support this new threat to privacy.

Finally, HR 3221 increases the federal debt limit by $800 billion. We are told that CBO has scored this bill at a cost of $25 billion, but this debt limit increase belies that. The Federal Reserve has already propped up the housing and financial markets to the tune of over $300 billion, and this raising of the debt limit indicates that the cost of this newest bailout will likely be even more costly.

I am dismayed that my colleagues have not learned the lessons of the Patriot Act and Sarbanes-Oxley. Massive bills passed in knee-jerk reaction to crisis events will always be poorly written, burdensome and expensive to taxpayers, and destructive of liberty.

Ron Paul is a republican member of Congress from Texas.

When looking at the constitutionality of government programs, it’s not necessary to be a law student, or an “expert” of any kind.  The founding fathers wrote the Constitution in plain English – so that ordinary people would be able to understand the law…that governs the government.

First, we need to understand just what the federal government is authorized to do.  John Munchmeyer put it quite well:

Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution specifically lists or enumerates the powers of the federal government.  They include a military, federal courts, etc.  The 10th Amendment clearly says that unless a function is specifically listed in the Constitution, it is left to the states or the people.  The founders set up a system where there was competition among the states for the best ideas.

On any given topic, some states would perform well, some would pass imprudent laws, and some would stay out of it completely (which is my particular favorite option).  But there was competition, and competition breeds excellence.

Yes, you would have a couple bad apples, but these would soon reform under the pressure of that competition.  It is better than focusing all of the power in Washington and having one huge rotten apple.  The top-down, centralized government model is a failure, just like it was in the former Soviet Union.

The guiding principle under which the founders drew up the Constitution was this little thing called “positive grant.”

What this means is quite simple. The federal government is authorized to exercise only those powers which are positively granted to it by the Constitution. If a power is specifically listed in the Constitution, the federal government can do it. And, vice versa.

This principle was so important to the founding fathers that they codified it in law as the 10th Amendment:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Simple, right? Well, you’d think so, but it’s in the nature of government – and politicians – to ignore any rules that limit their power. And that’s why we see both the 10th Amendment, and the entire Constitution, becoming more and more irrelevant in political discussions in Washington D.C.

In short, the 10th Amendment specifically limits the federal government to just those powers and functions named in the Constitution. And the 9th Amendment makes it clear that the people also have many other rights the government must respect, extending far beyond those actually named in the Bill of Rights:

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

A quick glance at most federal legislation would make virtually any honest person see that almost everything the federal government does is in direct violation of the Constitution.

This holds quite true for Freddie and Fannie – and for taking your money to keep these failing organizations in business.

Steve Austin chimes in as well:

I know this is going to be a shock to some, but the Federal Gov’t under the Constitution has absolutely no reason or excuse to involve itself in housing for the poor or to help people who got themselves into troubled mortgage loans.

They may have a tort, they certainly merit our concern, and perhaps the several states may wish to help them out depending of the gullibility of their citizenry and the political weakness of their legislatures, but, NO – there is no room for such as Title 8, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, or any of the literally dozens of housing program piglets suckling off the sow known as the U.S. Treasury. Not in this universe.

Any leader evn talking positively about this intervention would be a stranger to the Founding Fathers.

So, while many would argue that jobs will be saved, or that it’s “essential” to the economy – it doesn’t really matter if those positions are right or wrong.

Under the system of government that the founders enshrined in the US Constitution – the very existence of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (as anything other than a purely private business) is a violation of the Constitution.

Thus, taking more of your money to pay for its failures a far more in line with something that would’ve fit far better in a government under Joe Stalin than that of Jefferson, Washington and the rest.