Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional Website.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a
previous order of the House, the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. PAUL) is recognized
for 5 minutes.
2009 Ron Paul 54:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, today we
passed the supplemental bill. And I’m
deeply disappointed about that. I was
disappointed also that I wasn’t able to
get any time to enter into the debate
because the time was rather limited
and it was a closed rule. But I did want
to make a couple of comments and the
concerns that I have had about this
supplemental.
2009 Ron Paul 54:2
When the President sent the supplemental
over, it was $84.9 billion. And
there were some of us that were hoping
that we wouldn’t be funding the war
through supplementals, but it looks
like that hasn’t changed, the process
would continue, even though there
were some that believed there would be
a change in the way we funded these
wars. When that bill came to the
House, there was a lot of expression
about concern about spending too
much money. But by the time it got to
the floor, it was $96.7 billion. And
things were added, for instance, $2 billion
for the flu epidemic that didn’t
occur, but still, we are going to spend
$2 billion trying to figure out whether
we are ever going to have an epidemic.
2009 Ron Paul 54:3
It was very disappointing that even
though it was a closed rule, the minority
had one chance to do something
about it and maybe reduce some of the
spending. But lo and behold, when that
amendment was offered, it was offered
to increase the spending by $2.9 billion.
There was a lot of expression of the
outcry about this spending and the
deficits we have and the deficits exploding
and the Social Security, Medicare,
Medicaid underfunded, and we are
in the midst of a crisis. But it doesn’t
seem to bother anybody about spending.
But the truth is, the Treasury is
bare. The Treasury is empty. And yet
we continue to spend all this money.
2009 Ron Paul 54:4
So where do they think they are
going to get this money? Well, we can’t
tax the people any more. The people
are broke. And yet still we resort to
more borrowing and more printing of
money which will not last forever. It
will eventually come to an end. And I
think that is what we are witnessing.
2009 Ron Paul 54:5
This process bothers me a whole lot
that we come to the floor with the
supplementals. We rush them through.
We talk about this excessive spending.
And lo and behold, when we finally
vote, we get a total of 60 people who
would say, Enough is enough. And besides,
what are we doing? Where are we
spending this money? I thought we
were supposed to, with this change in
administration, that we would be fighting
less wars. But no. The war in Iraq
continues. We expand the war in Afghanistan.
We spread the war into
Pakistan. And we always have on the
table the potential danger of Iran.
2009 Ron Paul 54:6
So when will it ever end? We can’t
even define the enemy. Who exactly is
the enemy over there? Is it the al
Qaeda? The Taliban? Is it the Government
of Pakistan? If you can’t define
the enemy, how do you know when the
war is over? If we are in war, which we
are, how can this be anything other
than war? When was this war declared?
Oh, well, we got this authority 5 or 10
years ago. Who knows when? Perpetual
war. This is what we are involved with.
Perpetual spending. And then we say,
well, we have to do that to be safe.
That is what is preposterous. It is the
very policy that makes us unsafe. We
pursue this policy, and the more we do,
the less safe we are. There is a big argument
now about whether we are
safer now with the new administration
or is it making us less safe?
2009 Ron Paul 54:7
The truth is the policies of the last
10, 15, 20 years have made us less safe.
And as long as we occupy countries, as
long as we kill other people and civilians
are being killed, we are going to
build enemies. And as long as we are
known throughout the world that we
torture people, we will incite people to
hate us and want to come here to kill
us. So we aren’t more safe. We are less
safe by this foreign policy. And some
day we have to wise up, change our
ways and not be the policeman of the
world, not to pretend that we can be
the nation builder of the world, swear
off and make sure we don’t torture, because
you don’t get worthwhile information
from torture. All it does is incite
people against us. And the occupations
can never be of any benefit to us.
2009 Ron Paul 54:8
What about the financial calamity
that is coming? I’m afraid this is the
way this will end, through another financial
crisis much bigger than the one
we currently have, because you can’t
create $2 trillion of new money every
year and expect this system to continue.
2009 Ron Paul 54:9
The Soviet system collapsed because
they couldn’t afford it. Their economic
system was a total failure. We did not
have to fight the Soviets. Even though
they were a nuclear power, they collapsed
and disintegrated. And that is
what we have to be concerned about,
because we cannot continue to finance
this system and pursue a policy which
endangers us.
2009 Ron Paul 54:10
So if we care about the American
people and care about our liberties and
care about our Constitution, we ought
to look seriously at our foreign policy
and not continue to pursue the supplemental
appropriations where we continue
to spend money that we don’t
have.
