The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs.
BIGGERT). Under the Speaker’s announced
policy of January 6, 1999, the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee
of the majority leader.
1999 Ron Paul 4:1 Mr. PAUL.
Madam Speaker, I have
great concern for the future of the
American Republic. Many Americans
argue that we are now enjoying the
best of times. Others concern themselves
with problems less visible but
smouldering beneath the surface.
Those who are content point out that
the economy is booming, we are not at
war, crime rates are down, and the majority
of Americans feel safe and secure
in their homes and community. Others
point out that economic booms, when
brought about artificially with credit
creation, are destined to end with a
bang. The absence of overt war does
not negate the fact that tens of thousands
of American troops are scattered
around the world in the middle of ancient
fights not likely to be settled by
our meddling and may escalate at any
time.
1999 Ron Paul 4:2 Madam Speaker, the relinquishing of
the power to wage war by Congress to
the President, although ignored or endorsed
by many, raises serious questions
regarding the status of our Republic,
and although many Americans
are content with their routine activities,
much evidence demonstrating
that our personal privacy is routinely
being threatened. Crime still remains a
concern for many with questions raised
as to whether or not violent crimes are
accurately reported, and ironically
there are many Americans who now
fear that dreaded Federal bureaucrat
and possible illegal seizure of their
property by the government more than
they do the thugs in the street. I remain
concerned about the economy,
our militarism and internationalism,
and the systemic invasion of our privacy
in every aspect of our lives by
nameless bureaucrats. I am convinced
that if these problems are not dealt
with. The republic for for which we
have all sworn an oath to protect will
not survive.
1999 Ron Paul 4:3 Madam Speaker, all Members should
be concerned about the war powers now
illegitimately assumed by the President,
the financial bubble that will
play havoc with the standard of living
of most Americans when it bursts and
the systemic undermining of our privacy
even in this age of relative contentment.
1999 Ron Paul 4:4 The Founders of this great Nation
abhorred tyranny and loved liberty.
The power of the king to wage war, tax
and abuse the personal rights of the
American colonists drove them to
rebel, win a revolution and codify their
convictions in a new Constitution. It
was serious business, and every issue
was thoroughly debated and explained
most prominently in the Federalist Papers.
Debate about trade among the
States and with other countries, sound
money and the constraints on presidential
power occupied a major portion
of their time.
1999 Ron Paul 4:5 Initially the Articles of Confederation
spoke clearly of just who would
be responsible for waging war. It gave
the constitutional Congress, quote,
sole and exclusive right and power of
determining on peace and war. In the
debate at the Constitutional Convention
it was clear that this position was
maintained as the power of the British
king was not to be, quote, a proper
guide in defining executive war powers,
close quote, for the newly formed republic.
The result was a Constitution
that gave Congress the power to declare
war, issue letters of mark and reprisal,
call up the militia, raise and
train an Army and Navy and regulate
foreign commerce, a tool often used in
international conflict. The President
was also required to share power with
the Senate in ratifying treaties and appointing
ambassadors.
1999 Ron Paul 4:6 Let there be no doubt. The President,
according to the Constitution, has no
power to wage war. However it has
been recognized throughout our history
that certain circumstances might require
the President to act in self-defense
if Congress is not readily available
to act if the United States is attacked.
1999 Ron Paul 4:7 Recent flagrant abuse of the power to
wage war by modern-day Presidents,
including the most recent episodes in
Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, should
prompt this Congress to revisit this entire
issue of war powers. Certain abuses
of power are obviously more injurious
than others. The use of the FBI and the
IRS to illegally monitor and intimidate
citizens is a power that should be
easy to condemn, and yet it continues
to thrive. The illegal and immoral
power to create money out of thin air
for the purpose of financing a welfare-warfare
state serving certain financial
interests while causing the harmful
business cycle is a process that most in
Washington do not understand nor care
about. These are ominous powers of
great magnitude that were never
meant to be permitted under the Constitution.
1999 Ron Paul 4:8 But as bad as these abuses are, the
power of a single person, the President,
to wage war is the most egregious of
all presidential powers, and Congress
deserves the blame for allowing such
power to gravitate into the hands of
the President. The fact that nary a
complaint was made in Congress for
the recent aggressive military behavior
of our President in Iraq for reasons
that had nothing to do with national
security should not be ignored. Instead,
Congress unwisely and quickly rubber
stamped this military operation. We
should analyze this closely and decide
whether or not we in the Congress
should promote a war powers policy
that conforms to the Constitution or
continue to allow our Presidents ever
greater leverage to wage war any time,
any place and for any reason.
1999 Ron Paul 4:9 This policy of allowing our Presidents
unlimited authority to wage war
has been in place since the end of
World War II, although abuse to a lesser
degree has occurred since the beginning
of the 20th century. Specifically,
since joining the United Nations congressional
authority to determine
when and if our troops will fight
abroad has been seriously undermined.
From Truman’s sending of troops to
Korea to Bush’s Persian Gulf War, we
have seen big wars fought, tens of
thousands killed, hundreds of thousands
wounded and hundreds of billions
of dollars wasted. U.S. security, never
at risk, has been needlessly jeopardized
by the so-called peacekeeping missions
and police exercises while constitutional
law has been seriously and dangerously
undermined.
1999 Ron Paul 4:10 Madam Speaker, something must be
done. The cost of this policy has been
great in terms of life and dollars and
our constitutional system of law. Nearly
100,000 deaths occurred in the Vietnam
and Korean wars, and if we continue
to allow our Presidents to casually
pursue war for the flimsiest of
reasons, we may well be looking at another
major conflict somewhere in the
world in which we have no business or
need to be involved.
1999 Ron Paul 4:11 The correction of this problem requires
a concerted effort on the part of
Congress to reclaim and reassert its responsibility
under the Constitution
with respect to war powers, and efforts
were made to do exactly that after
Vietnam in 1973 and more recently in
1995. Neither efforts were successful,
and ironically the President emerged
with more power, with each effort
being undermined by supporters in the
Congress of presidential
authoritarianism and internationalism.
Few objected to the Truman-ordered
U.N. police actions in Korea in
the 1950s, but they should have. This illegal
and major war encouraged all
subsequent Presidents to assume greater
authority to wage war than was ever
intended by the Constitution or assumed
by all the Presidents prior to
World War II. It is precisely because of
the way we have entered in each military
action since the 1940s without declaring
war that their purposes have
been vague and victory elusive, yet
pain, suffering and long term negative
consequences have resulted. The road
on which this country embarked 50
years ago has led to the sacrifice of a
lot of congressional prerogatives and
citizen control over the excessive
power that have fallen into the hands
of Presidents quite willing to abuse
this authority. No one person, if our society
is to remain free, should be allowed
to provoke war with aggressive
military acts. Congress and the people
are obligated to rein in this flagrant
abuse of presidential power.
1999 Ron Paul 4:12 Not only did we suffer greatly from
the unwise and illegal Korean and Vietnam
wars, Congress has allowed a continuous
abuse of military power by our
Presidents in an ever increasing frequency.
We have seen troops needlessly
die in Lebanon, Grenada, invaded for
questionable reasons, Libya bombed
with innocent civilians killed, persistent
naval operations in the Persian
Gulf, Panama invaded, Iraq bombed on
numerous occasions, Somalia invaded,
a secret and illegal war fought in Nicaragua,
Haiti occupied, and troops stationed
in Bosnia and now possibly soon
in Kosovo.
1999 Ron Paul 4:13 Even the Congressional permission to
pursue the Persian Gulf War was an
afterthought, since President Bush emphatically
stated that it was unnecessary,
as he received his authority from
the United Nations.
1999 Ron Paul 4:14 Without an actual declaration of war
and support from the American people,
victory is unachievable. This has been
the case with the ongoing war against
Iraq. Without a legitimate concern for
our national security, the willingness
to declare war and achieve victory is
difficult. The war effort becomes narrowly
political, serving special interests,
and not fought for the defense of
the United States against a serious
military threat. If we can win a Cold
War against the Soviets, we hardly
need a hot war with a third world nation,
unable to defend itself, Iraq.
1999 Ron Paul 4:15 Great concern in the 1960’s over the
excessive presidential war powers was
expressed by the American people, and,
thus, the interests of the U.S. Congress
after Vietnam in the early 1970’s. The
War Powers Resolution of 1973 resulted,
but due to shrewd manipulation and
political chicanery, the effort resulted
in giving the President more authority,
allowing him to wage war for 60 to 90
days without Congressional approval.
1999 Ron Paul 4:16 Prior to the Korean War, when the
Constitution and historic precedent
had been followed, the President could
not and for the most part did not engage
in any military effort not directly
defensive in nature without explicit
Congressional approval.
1999 Ron Paul 4:17 The result of the passage of the War
Powers Resolution was exactly opposite
to its authors’ intentions. More
power is granted to the president to
send troops hither and yon, with the
various Presidents sometimes reporting
to the Congress and sometimes not.
But Congress has unwisely and rarely
objected, and has not in recent years
demanded its proper role in decisions
of war, nor hesitated to continue the
funding that the various presidents
have demanded.
1999 Ron Paul 4:18 Approval of presidential-directed aggression,
disguised as “support for the
troops,” comes routinely, and if any
member does not obediently endorse
every action a President might take,
for whatever reason, it is implied the
member lacks patriotism and wisdom.
It is amazing how we have drifted from
the responsibility of the Founders,
imagine, the Congress and the people
would jealously protect.
1999 Ron Paul 4:19 It is too often and foolishly argued
that we must permit great flexibility
for the President to retaliate when
American troops are in danger. But
this is only after the President has invaded
and placed our troops in harm’s
way.
1999 Ron Paul 4:20 By what stretch of the imagination
can one say that these military actions
can be considered defensive in nature?
The best way we can promote support
for our troops is employ them in a
manner that is the least provocative.
They must be given a mission confined
to defending the United States, not policing
the world or taking orders from
the United Nations or serving the special
commercial interests of U.S. corporations
around the world.
1999 Ron Paul 4:21 The 1995 effort to repeal the War
Powers Resolution failed because it
was not a clean repeal, but one still requiring
consultation and reporting to
the Congress. This led to enough confusion
to prevent its passage.
1999 Ron Paul 4:22 What is needed is a return to the
Constitution as a strict guide as to who
has the authority to exert the war powers
and, as has been scrupulously followed
in the 19th century by essentially
all political parties and presidents.
1999 Ron Paul 4:23 The effort to curtail presidential
powers while requiring consultation
and reporting to the Congress implies
that that is all that is needed to avoid
the strict rules laid out by the Constitution.
1999 Ron Paul 4:24 It was admitted in the House debate
by the House leadership that the repeal
actually gave the President more
power to use troops overseas and therefore
urged passage of the measure. This
accurate assessment prompted antiwar
pro-peace Republicans and Democrats
to narrowly reject the proposal.
1999 Ron Paul 4:25 The message here is that clarification
of the War Powers Resolution and
a return to constitutional law are the
only way presidential authority to
wage war can be curtailed. If our presidents
do not act accordingly, Congress
must quickly and forcefully meet its
responsibility by denying funds for foreign
intervention and aggression initiated
by the President.
1999 Ron Paul 4:26 The basic problem here is that there
are still too many Members of Congress
who endorse a presidency armed with
the authority of a tyrant to wage war.
But if this assumption of power by the
President with Congress’ approval is
not reversed, the republic cannot be
maintained.
1999 Ron Paul 4:27 Putting the power in the hands of a
single person, the president, to wage
war, is dangerous and costly, and it destroys
the notion that the people
through their Congressional representatives
decide when military action
should start and when war should take
place.
1999 Ron Paul 4:28 The sacrifice of this constitutional
principle, guarded diligently for 175
years and now severely eroded in the
past 50, must be restored if we hope to
protect our liberties and avoid yet another
unnecessary and, heaven-forbid,
major world conflict, and merely
changing the law will not be enough to
guarantee that future presidents will
not violate their trust.
1999 Ron Paul 4:29 A moral commitment to the principle
of limited presidential war powers
in the spirit of the republic is required.
Even with the clearest constitutional
restriction on the President to wage
undeclared wars, buffered by precise
legislation, if the sentiment of the Congress,
the courts and the people or the
President is to ignore these restraints,
they will.
1999 Ron Paul 4:30 The best of all situations is when the
spirit of the republic is one and the
same, as the law itself, and honorable
men are in positions of responsibility
to carry out the law. Even though we
cannot guarantee the future Congress’
or our president’s moral commitment
to the principles of liberty by changing
the law, we still must make every effort
possible to make the law and the
Constitution as morally sound as possible.
1999 Ron Paul 4:31 Our responsibility here in the Congress
is to protect liberty and do our
best to ensure peace and trade with all
who do not aggress against us. But
peace is more easily achieved when we
reject the notion that some Americans
must subsidize foreign nations for a
benefit that is intended to flow back to
a select few Americans. Maintaining an
empire or striving for a world government
while allowing excessive war
powers to accrue to an imperial president
will surely lead to needless military
conflicts, loss of life and liberty,
and a complete undermining of our
constitutional republic.
1999 Ron Paul 4:32 On another issue, privacy, privacy is
the essence of liberty. Without it, individual
rights cannot exist. Privacy and
property are interlocked and if both
are protected, little would need to be
said about other civil liberties. If one’s
home, church or business is one’s castle,
and the privacy of one’s person, papers
and effects are rigidly protected,
all rights desired in a free society will
be guaranteed. Diligently protecting
the right to privacy and property guarantees
religious, journalistic and political
experience, as well as a free market
economy and sound money. Once a
careless attitude emerges with respect
to privacy, all other rights are jeopardized.
1999 Ron Paul 4:33 Today we find a systematic and pervasive
attack on the privacy of all
American citizens, which undermines
the principle of private property ownership.
Understanding why the attack
on privacy is rapidly expanding and
recognizing a need to reverse this trend
is necessary if our republic is to survive.
1999 Ron Paul 4:34 Lack of respect for the privacy and
property of the American colonists by
the British throne was a powerful motivation
for the American revolution
and resulted in the strongly worded
and crystal clear Fourth Amendment.
1999 Ron Paul 4:35 Emphatically, searches and seizures
are prohibited except when warrants
are issued upon probable cause supported
by oath or affirmation, with details
listed given as to place, person
and things to be seized.
1999 Ron Paul 4:36 This is a far cry from the routine seizure
by the Federal Government and
forfeiture of property which occurs
today. Our papers are no longer considered
personal and their confidentiality
has been eliminated. Private property
is searched by Federal agents without
announcement, and huge fines are levied
when Federal regulations appear to
have been violated, and proof of innocence
is demanded if one chooses to
fight the abuse in court and avoid the
heavy fines.
1999 Ron Paul 4:37 Eighty thousand armed Federal bureaucrats
and law enforcement officers
now patrol our land and business establishments.
Suspicious religious groups
are monitored and sometimes destroyed
without due process of law,
with little or no evidence of wrongdoing.
Local and state jurisdiction is
rarely recognized once the feds move
in.
1999 Ron Paul 4:38 Today, it is routine for government
to illegally seize property, requiring
the victims to prove their innocence in
order to retrieve their property, and
many times this fails due to the expense
and legal roadblocks placed in
the victim’s way.
1999 Ron Paul 4:39 Although the voters in the 1990’s
have cried out for a change in direction
and demanded a smaller, less intrusive
government, the attack on privacy by
the Congress, the administration and
the courts has, nevertheless, accelerated.
Plans have now been laid or implemented
for a national I.D. card, a
national medical data bank, a data
bank on individual MDs, deadbeat dads,
intrusive programs monitoring our
every financial transaction, while the
Social Security number has been established
as the universal identifier.
1999 Ron Paul 4:40 The Social Security number is now
commonly used for just about everything,
getting a birth certificate, buying
a car, seeing an MD, getting a job,
opening up a bank account, getting a
driver’s license, making many routine
purchases, and, of course, a death certificate.
Cradle-to-the-grave government
surveillance is here and daily
getting more pervasive.
1999 Ron Paul 4:41 The attack on privacy is not a coincidence
or an event that arises for no explainable
reason. It results from a philosophy
that justifies it and requires it.
A government not dedicated to preserving
liberty must by its very nature
allow this precious right to erode.
1999 Ron Paul 4:42 A political system designed as ours
was to protect life and liberty and
property would vigorously protect all
citizens’ rights to privacy, and this
cannot occur unless the property and
the fruits of one’s labor, of every citizen,
is protected from confiscation by
thugs in the street as well as in our
legislative bodies.
1999 Ron Paul 4:43 The promoters of government instruction
into our privacy characteristically
use worn out cliches to defend
what they do. The most common argument
is that if you have nothing to
hide, why worry about it?
1999 Ron Paul 4:44 This is ludicrous. We have nothing to
hide in our homes or our bedrooms, but
that is no reason why big brother
should be permitted to monitor us with
a surveillance camera.
1999 Ron Paul 4:45 The same can be argued about our
churches, our businesses or any peaceful
action we may pursue. Our personal
activities are no one else’s business. We
may have nothing to hide, but, if we
are not careful, we have plenty to lose,
our right to be left alone.
1999 Ron Paul 4:46 Others argue that to operate government
programs efficiently and without
fraud, close monitoring is best
achieved with an universal identifier,
the Social Security number.
1999 Ron Paul 4:47 Efficiency and protection from fraud
may well be enhanced with the use of a
universal identifier, but this contradicts
the whole notion of the proper
role for government in a free society.
1999 Ron Paul 4:48 Most of the Federal programs are unconstitutional
to begin with, so eliminating
waste and fraud and promoting
efficiency for a program that requires a
violation of someone else’s rights
should not be a high priority of the
Congress. But the temptation is too
great, even for those who question the
wisdom of the government programs,
and compromise of the Fourth Amendment
becomes acceptable.
1999 Ron Paul 4:49 I have never heard of a proposal to
promote the national I.D. card or anything
short of this for any reasons
other than a good purpose. Essentially
all those who vote to allow the continual
erosion of our privacy and other
constitutional rights never do it because
they consciously support a tyrannical
government; it is always done
with good intentions.
1999 Ron Paul 4:50 Believe me, most of the evil done by
elected congresses and parliaments
throughout all of history has been justified
by good intentions. But that does
not change anything. It just makes it
harder to stop.
1999 Ron Paul 4:51 Therefore, we cannot ignore the motivations
behind those who promote
the welfare state. Bad ideas, if implemented,
whether promoted by men of
bad intentions or good, will result in
bad results.
1999 Ron Paul 4:52 Well-intentioned people, men of
goodwill, should, however, respond to a
persuasive argument. Ignorance is the
enemy of sound policy, every bit as
much as political corruption.
1999 Ron Paul 4:53 Various management problems in
support for welfarism motivates those
who argue for only a little sacrifice of
freedom to achieve a greater good for
society. Each effort to undermine our
privacy is easily justified.
1999 Ron Paul 4:54 The national I.D. card is needed, it is
said, to detect illegal aliens, yet all
Americans will need it to open up a
bank account, get a job, fly on an airplane,
see a doctor, go to school or
drive a car.
1999 Ron Paul 4:55 Financial privacy must be sacrificed,
it is argued, in order to catch money
launderers, drug dealers, mobsters and
tax cheats. Privacy for privacy’s sake,
unfortunately for many, is a nonissue.
1999 Ron Paul 4:56 The recent
know-your-customer plan
was designed by Richard Small, Assistant
Director of the Division of Banking
Supervision Regulation at the Federal
Reserve. He is not happy with all of the
complaints that he has received regarding
this proposal. His program will require
that every bank keep a detailed
profile on every customer, as to how
much is deposited, where it comes
from, and when and how the money is
spent. If there is any deviation from
the profile on record, the bank is required
to report this to a half dozen
government agencies, which will require
the customer to do a lot of explaining.
This program will catch few
drug dealers, but will surely infringe
on the liberty of every law-abiding citizen.
1999 Ron Paul 4:57 After thousands of complaints were
registered at the Federal Reserve and
the other agencies, Richard Small was
quoted as saying that in essence, the
complaints were coming from these
strange people who are overly concerned
about the Constitution and privacy.
Legal justification for the program,
Small explained, comes from a
court case that states that our personal
papers, when in the hands of a
third party like a bank, do not qualify
for protection under the Fourth
Amendment.
1999 Ron Paul 4:58 He is accurate in quoting the court
case, but that does not make it right.
Courts do not have the authority to repeal
a fundamental right as important
as that guaranteed by the Fourth
Amendment. Under this reasoning,
when applied to our medical records,
all confidentiality between the doctor
and the patient is destroyed.
1999 Ron Paul 4:59 For this reason, the proposal for a
national medical data bank to assure
us there will be no waste or fraud, that
doctors are practicing good medicine,
that the exchange of medical records
between the HMOs will be facilitated
and statistical research is made easier,
should be strenuously opposed. The
more the government is involved in
medicine or anything, the greater the
odds that personal privacy will be
abused.
1999 Ron Paul 4:60 The IRS and the DEA, with powers illegally
given them by the Congress and
the courts, have prompted a flood of
seizures and forfeitures in the last several
decades without due process and
frequently without search warrants or
probable cause. Victims then are required
to prove themselves innocent to
recover the goods seized.
1999 Ron Paul 4:61 This flagrant and systematic abuse of
privacy may well turn out to be a
blessing in disguise. Like the public
schools, it may provide the incentive
for Americans finally to do something
about the system.
1999 Ron Paul 4:62 The disaster state of the public
school system has prompted millions of
parents to provide private or home
schooling for their children. The worse
the government schools get, the more
the people resort to a private option,
even without tax relief from the politicians.
This is only possible as long as
some remnant of our freedom remains,
and these options are permitted. We
cannot become complacent.
1999 Ron Paul 4:63 Hopefully, a similar reaction will
occur in the area of privacy, but overcoming
the intrusiveness of government
into our privacy in nearly every
aspect of our lives will be difficult.
Home schooling is a relatively simple
solution compared to avoiding the roving
and snooping high of big brother.
Solving the privacy problem requires
an awakening by the American people
with a strong message being sent to
the U.S. Congress that we have had
enough.
1999 Ron Paul 4:64 Eventually, stopping this systematic
intrusion into our privacy will require
challenging the entire welfare state.
Socialism and welfarism self-destruct
after a prolonged period of time due to
their natural inefficiencies and national
bankruptcy. As the system ages,
more and more efforts are made to
delay its demise by borrowing, inflating
and coercion. The degree of violation
of our privacy is a measurement of
the coercion thought necessary by the
proponents of authoritarianism to continue
the process.
1999 Ron Paul 4:65 The privacy issue invites a serious
discussion between those who seriously
believe welfare redistribution helps the
poor and does not violate anyone’s
rights, and others who promote policies
that undermine privacy in an effort to
reduce fraud and waste to make the
programs work efficiently, even if they
disagree with the programs themselves.
This opportunity will actually increase
as it becomes more evident that our
country is poorer than most believe
and sustaining the welfare state at current
levels will prove impossible. An
ever-increasing invasion of our privacy
will force everyone eventually to reconsider
the efficiency of the welfare
state, if the welfare of the people is
getting worse and their privacy invaded.
1999 Ron Paul 4:66 Our job is to make a principled,
moral, constitutional and practical
case for respecting everyone’s privacy,
even if it is suspected some private activities,
barring violence, do not conform
to our own private moral standards.
We could go a long way to guaranteeing
privacy for all Americans if
we, as Members of Congress, would
take our oath of office more seriously
and do exactly what the Constitution
says.
On a third item, the financial bubble,
a huge financial bubble engulfs the
world financial markets. This bubble
has been developing for a long time but
has gotten much larger the last couple
of years. Understanding this issue is
critical to the economic security of all
Americans that we all strive to protect.
1999 Ron Paul 4:68 Credit expansion is the root cause of
all financial bubbles. Fiat monetary
systems inevitably cause unsustainable
economic expansion that results in a
recession and/or depression. A correction
always results, with the degree
and duration being determined by government
fiscal policy and central bank
monetary policy. If wages and prices
are not allowed to adjust and the correction
is thwarted by invigorated
monetary expansion, new and sustained
economic growth will be delayed
or prevented. Financial dislocation
caused by central banks in the various
countries will differ from one to another
due to political perceptions, military
considerations, and reserve currency
status.
1999 Ron Paul 4:69 The U.S.’s ability to inflate has been
dramatically enhanced by other countries’
willingness to absorb our inflated
currency, our dollar being the reserve
currency of the world. Foreign central
banks now hold in reserve over $600 billion,
an amount significantly greater
than that even held by our own Federal
Reserve System. Our economic and
military power gives us additional license
to inflate our currency, thus delaying
the inevitable correction inherent
in a paper money system. But this
only allows for a larger bubble to develop,
further jeopardizing our future
economy.
1999 Ron Paul 4:70 Because of the significance of the
dollar to the world economy, our inflation
and the dollar-generated bubble is
much more dangerous than single currency
inflation such as Mexico, Brazil,
South Korea, Japan and others. The
significance of these inflations, however,
cannot be dismissed.
1999 Ron Paul 4:71 The Federal Reserve Board Chairman
Alan Greenspan, when the Dow was at
approximately 6,500, cautioned the Nation
about irrational exuberance and
for a day or two the markets were subdued.
But while openly worrying about
an unsustained stock market boom, he
nevertheless accelerated the very credit
expansion that threatened the market
and created the irrational exuberance.
1999 Ron Paul 4:72 From December 1996, at the time
that Greenspan made this statement,
to December 1998, the money supply
soared. Over $1 trillion of new money,
as measured by M3, was created by the
Federal Reserve. MZM, another monetary
measurement, is currently expanding
at a rate greater than 20 percent.
This generous dose of credit has
sparked even more irrational exuberance,
which has taken the Dow to
over 9,000 for a 30 percent increase in
just two years.
1999 Ron Paul 4:73 When the foreign registered corporation
long term capital management
was threatened in 1998, that is, the
market demanding a logical correction
to its own exuberance with its massive
$1 trillion speculative investment in
the derivatives market, Greenspan and
company quickly came to its rescue
with an even greater acceleration of
credit expansion.
1999 Ron Paul 4:74 The pain of market discipline is
never acceptable when compared to the
pleasure of postponing hard decisions
and enjoying for a while longer the
short-term benefits gained by keeping
the financial bubble inflated. But the
day is fast approaching when the markets
and Congress will have to deal
with the attack on the dollar, once it is
realized that exporting our inflation is
not without limits.
1999 Ron Paul 4:75 A hint of what can happen when the
world gets tired of holding too many of
our dollars was experienced in the dollar
crisis of 1979 and 1980, and we saw at
that time interest rates over 21 percent.
There is abundant evidence
around warning us of the impending
danger. According to Federal Reserve
statistics, household debt reached 81
percent of personal income in the second
quarter of 1998. For 20 years prior
to 1985, household debt averaged
around 50 percent of personal income.
Between 1985 and 1998, due to generous
Federal Reserve credit, competent
American consumers increased this to
81 percent and now it is even higher. At
the same time, our savings rate has
dropped to zero percent.
1999 Ron Paul 4:76 The conviction that stock prices will
continue to provide extra cash and confidence
in the economy has fueled wild
consumer spending and personal debt
expansion. The home refinance index
between 1997 and 1999 increased 700 percent.
Secondary mortgages are now offered
up to 120 percent of a home’s equity,
with many of these funds finding
their way into the stock market. Generous
credit and quasi-government
agencies make these mortgage markets
robust, but a correction will come
when it is realized that the builders
and the lenders have gotten ahead of
themselves.
1999 Ron Paul 4:77 The willingness of foreign entities to
take and hold our dollars has generated
a huge current account deficit for the
United States. It is expected a $200 billion
annual deficit that we are running
now will accelerate to over $300 billion
in 1999, unless the financial bubble
bursts.
1999 Ron Paul 4:78 This trend has made us the greatest
international debtor in the world, with
a negative net international asset position
of more than $1.7 trillion. A significantly
weakened dollar will play
havoc when this bill comes due and foreign
debt holders demand payment.
1999 Ron Paul 4:79 Contributing to the bubble and the
dollar strength has been the fact that
even though the dollar has problems,
other currencies are even weaker and
thus make the dollar look strong in
comparison. Budgetary figures are frequently
stated in a falsely optimistic
manner. In 1969 when there was a surplus
of approximately $3 billion, the
national debt went down approximately
the same amount. In 1998, however,
with a so-called surplus of $70 billion,
the national debt went up $113 billion,
and instead of the surpluses which
are not really surpluses running forever,
the deficits will rise with a weaker
economy and current congressional
plans to increase welfare and warfare
spending.
1999 Ron Paul 4:80 Government propaganda promotes
the false notion that inflation is no
longer a problem. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The dangerous financial
bubble, a result of the Federal
Reserve’s deliberate policy of inflation
and the Fed’s argument that there is
no inflation according to government-concocted
CPI figures, is made to justify
a continuous policy of monetary
inflation because they are terrified of
the consequence of deflation. The Federal
Reserve may sincerely believe
maintaining the status quo, preventing
price inflation and delaying deflation
is possible, but it really is not.
1999 Ron Paul 4:81 The most astute money manager cannot
balance inflation against deflation
as long as there is continued credit expansion.
The system inevitably collapses,
as it finally did in Japan in the
1990s. Even the lack of the CPI inflation
as reported by the Federal Reserve
is suspect.
1999 Ron Paul 4:82 A CPI of all consumer items measured
by the private source shows approximately
a 400 percent increase in
prices since 1970. Most Americans realize
their dollars are buying less each
year and no chance exists for the purchasing
power of the dollar to go up.
Just because prices of TVs and computers
may go down, the cost of medicine,
food, stocks and entertainment, and of
course, government, certainly can rise
rapidly.
1999 Ron Paul 4:83 One characteristic of an economy
that suffers from a constantly debased
currency is sluggish or diminished
growth in real income. In spite of our
so-called great economic recovery,
two-thirds of U.S. workers for the past
25 years have had stagnant or falling
wages. The demands for poverty relief
from government agencies continue to
increase. Last year alone, 678,000 jobs
were lost due to downsizing. The new
service sector jobs found by many of
those laid off are rarely as good paying.
1999 Ron Paul 4:84 In the last 1 1/2 years, various countries
have been hit hard with deflationary
pressures. In spite of the IMF-led
bailouts of nearly $200 billion, the danger
of a worldwide depression remains.
Many countries, even with the extra
dollars sent to them courtesy of the
American taxpayer, suffer devaluation
and significant price inflation in their
home currency.
1999 Ron Paul 4:85 But this, although helpful to banks
lending overseas, has clearly failed, has
cost a lot of money, and prevents the
true market correction of liquidation
of debt that must eventually come. The
longer the delay and the more dollars
used, the greater the threat to the dollar
in the future.
1999 Ron Paul 4:86 There is good reason why we in the
Congress should be concerned. A dollar
crisis is an economic crisis that will
threaten the standard of living of many
Americans. Economic crises frequently
lead to political crises, as is occurring
in Indonesia.
1999 Ron Paul 4:87 Congress is responsible for the value
of the dollar. Yet, as we have done too
often in other areas, we have passed
this responsibility on to someone else;
in this case, to the Federal Reserve.
1999 Ron Paul 4:88 The Constitution is clear that the
Congress has responsibility for guaranteeing
the value of the currency, and
no authority has ever been given to
create a central bank. Creating money
out of thin air is counterfeiting, even
when done by a bank that the Congress
tolerates.
1999 Ron Paul 4:89 It is easy to see why Congress, with
its own insatiable desire to spend
money and perpetuate a welfare and
military state, cooperates with such a
system. A national debt of $5.6 trillion
could not have developed without a
willing Federal Reserve to monetize
this debt and provide for artificially
low interest rates. But when the dollar
crisis hits and it is clearly evident that
the short-term benefits were not worth
it, we will be forced to consider monetary
reform.
1999 Ron Paul 4:90 Reconsidering the directives given us
in the Constitution with regard to
money would go a long way towards developing
a sound monetary system that
best protects our economy and guides
us away from casually going to war.
Monetary reform is something that we
ought to be thinking about now.
1999 Ron Paul 4:91 Mr. Speaker, let me summarize. We
in the Congress, along with the President,
will soon have to make a decision
that will determine whether or not the
American republic survives. Allowing
our presidents to wage war without the
consent of Congress, ignoring the obvious
significance of fiat money to a
healthy economy, and perpetuating
pervasive government intrusion into
the privacy of all Americans will surely
end the American experiment with
maximum liberty for all unless we reverse
this trend.
1999 Ron Paul 4:92 Too often the American people have
chosen security over liberty. Allowing
the President a little authority to deal
with world problems under a U.N. banner
has been easier than reversing the
trend of the past 50 years. Accepting
the financial bubble when on the short
run, it helps everyone’s portfolio, helps
to finance government spending, is
easy, even if it only delays the day of
reckoning when the bills come due, as
they already have in so many other
countries in the world.
1999 Ron Paul 4:93 Giving up a little privacy seems a
small price to pay for the many who receive
the generous benefits of big government,
but when the prosperity
comes to an end and the right to privacy
has been squandered, it will be
most difficult to restore the principles
of a free society.
1999 Ron Paul 4:94 Materialistic concerns and complacency
toward the principles of liberty
will undo much of what has been built
in America over the past 200 years, unless
there is a renewed belief that our
God-given rights to life and liberty are
worth working for. False economic security
is no substitute for productive
effort in a free society, where the citizens
are self-reliant, generous, and
nonviolent. Insisting on a limited government
designed to protect life and
property, as is found in a republic,
must be our legislative goal.
Notes:
1999 Ron Paul 4:2
much evidence demonstrating that our personal privacy is routinely being threatened
probably should be much evidence demonstrates that our personal privacy is routinely being threatened.
1999 Ron Paul 4:2
I am convinced that if these problems are not dealt with. The republic for for which we have all sworn an oath to protect will not survive.
probably should be one sentence with a comma:
I am convinced that if these problems are not dealt with, the republic for for which we have all sworn an oath to protect will not survive.
1999 Ron Paul 4:5
letters of mark and reprisal probably should be
letters of marque and reprisal.
1999 Ron Paul 4:8
presidential powers probably should be capitalized:
Presidential powers.
1999 Ron Paul 4:8
rubber stamped probably should be hyphenated:rubber-stamped.
1999 Ron Paul 4:9
congressional authority probably should be capitalized: Congressional authority.
1999 Ron Paul 4:9
constitutional law probably should be capitalized:
Constitutional law.
1999 Ron Paul 4:10
our constitutional system of law possibly should be capitalized:
our Constitutional system of law. Possibly constitutional is used in the general sense and not requiring capitalization.
1999 Ron Paul 4:11
presidential authoritarianism probably should be capitalized:
Presidential authoritarianism.
1999 Ron Paul 4:11
long term negative consequences probably should be hyphenated:
long-term negative consequences.
1999 Ron Paul 4:11
congressional prerogatives probably should be capitalized:
Congressional prerogatives.
1999 Ron Paul 4:11
presidential power probably should be capitalized:
Presidential power.
1999 Ron Paul 4:12
in an ever increasing frequency probably should be hyphenated:
with an ever-increasing frequency.
1999 Ron Paul 4:14
a third world nation probably should be capitalized:
a Third World nation.
1999 Ron Paul 4:15
presidential war powers probably should be capitalized:
Presidential war powers.
1999 Ron Paul 4:18
Approval of presidential-directed aggression probably should be
Approval of presidentially directed aggression.
1999 Ron Paul 4:18
the responsibility of the Founders, imagine, the Congress and the people would jealously protect.
probably should be something like
the responsibility that, the Founders imagined, the Congress and the people would jealously protect.
1999 Ron Paul 4:23
The effort to curtail presidential powers probably should be capitalized:
The effort to curtail Presidential powers.
1999 Ron Paul 4:25
constitutional law probably should be capitalized:
Constitutional law.
1999 Ron Paul 4:26
presidency probably should be capitalized: Presidency.
1999 Ron Paul 4:27
the president probably should be capitalized: the President.
1999 Ron Paul 4:28
constitutional principle probably should be capitalized:
Constitutional principle.
1999 Ron Paul 4:28
heaven-forbid probably should be capitalized and not hyphenated:
Heaven forbid.
1999 Ron Paul 4:29
limited presidential war powers probably should be capitalized:
limited Presidential war powers.
1999 Ron Paul 4:29
constitutional restriction probably should be capitalized:
Constitutional restriction.
1999 Ron Paul 4:30
our president’s moral commitment probably should be capitalized:
our President’s moral commitment.
1999 Ron Paul 4:31
an imperial president probably should be capitalized:
an imperial President.
1999 Ron Paul 4:34
the American revolution probably should be capitalized,
the American Revolution.
1999 Ron Paul 4:43
government instruction into our privacy
probably should be government intrusion into our privacy.
1999 Ron Paul 4:44
big brother probably should be capitalized: Big Brother.
1999 Ron Paul 4:63
high of big brother probably should be capitalized and be:
eye of Big Brother.
1999 Ron Paul 4:66
constitutional probably should be capitalized: Constitutional.
1999 Ron Paul 4:73
the foreign registered corporation long term capital management probably should be
capitalized and hyphenated:
the foreign-registered corporation Long Term Capital Management.
1999 Ron Paul 4:79
congressional probably should be capitalized: Congressional.
1999 Ron Paul 4:83
ungrammatical good paying probably should be well-paying.
