The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. PAUL) for 5 minutes.
1998 Ron Paul 59:1
Mr. PAUL.
Thank you, Mr. SPEAKER. I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks.
1998 Ron Paul 59:2
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, so ordered.
1998 Ron Paul 59:3
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, campaign finance
reform has been a major topic
for months on the House floor and, I
understand, will continue to be a major
debate. The last time the Congress has
passed any major reforms dealing with
campaigning was in the 1970s, and
every problem that we had back then
we have today, only it’s much worse. Today, in order to comply with the
law, we fill out tens of thousands of
pages of forms, there is total misunderstanding
of what the rules and regulations
are, there are numerous fines
being levied against many Members
and many candidates, there are many
inaccuracies put into the record mainly
because a lot of people can’t even
understand the rules and regulations,
and I would not be surprised if just
about everybody who ever filled out a
financial reform at one time or the
other inadvertently had some inaccuracies. All the challenges to these records have always been done by opponents
and usually politicized, and it has not
been motivated for the best of reasons.
1998 Ron Paul 59:4
New reforms are now being proposed,
and I predict they will be no more successful
than the numerous rules and
regulations that we imposed on candidates
in the 1970s. The reason I say
this is that we are treating a symptom
and not the cause. The symptom, of
course, is very prevalent. Everybody
knows there is a lot of big money that
influences politics. I understand that
there is $100 million a month spent by
the lobbyists trying to influence our
votes on the House floor and hundreds
of millions of dollars trying to influence
our elections. So some would conclude,
therefore, that’s the case, we
have to regulate the money, the money
is the problem.
1998 Ron Paul 59:5
But I disagree. Money isn’t the
problem. The basic problem is that
there is so much to be gained by coming
to Washington, lobbying Congress
and influencing legislation. The problem
isn’t that we have too much freedom. The problem is that we have too
much government, and if we think that
just more regulations and more government
will get rid of the problem, we’re kidding ourselves. What we need is
smaller government, less influence of
the government on everything that we
do in our personal lives as well as our
economic lives. The Congress is always
being involved.
1998 Ron Paul 59:6
Not only domestically, but Congress
is endlessly involved in many affairs
overseas. We’re involved by passing
out foreign aid, getting involved in programs
like the IMF and World Bank.
1998 Ron Paul 59:7
We’re interfering in internal affairs
militarily in over a hundred countries
at the present time. So there’s a tremendous
motivation for people to come
here and try to influence us. They see
it as a good investment.
1998 Ron Paul 59:8
More rules and regulations, I believe,
will do one thing if the size of government
is not reduced. What we will do is
drive the influence under ground. That
is a natural consequence as long as
there is an incentive to invest.
1998 Ron Paul 59:9
Under the conditions that we have
today the only way we can avoid the
influence is not ourselves, we, the
Members of Congress, being a good investment. We should be independent,
courageous and do the things that are
right rather than being influenced by
the money. But the rules and the regulations
will not do very much to help
solve this problem. Attacking basic
fundamental rights would certainly be
the wrong thing to do, and that’s what
so much of this legislation is doing. It’s attacking the fundamental right to
speak out to petition the government
to spend one’s money the way he sees
fit, and this will only make the problems
much worse.
1998 Ron Paul 59:10
Government’s too big,
our freedoms are being infringed upon,
and then we come along and say those
individuals who might want to change
even for the better, they will have
their rights infringed upon.
1998 Ron Paul 59:11
There are many groups who come to
Washington who do not come to buy influence,
but they come to try to influence
their government, which is a very
legitimate thing. Think of the groups
that come here who want to defend the
Second Amendment. Think of the
groups that want to defend right to
life. Think of the groups that want to
defend the principles of the American
Civil Liberties Union and the First
Amendment. And then there are groups
who would defend property rights, and
there will be groups who will come who
will be lobbyist types and influential
groups, and they want to influence
elections, and they may be adamantly
opposed to the United Nations and interference
in foreign policies overseas. They have a legitimate right to come
here.
1998 Ron Paul 59:12
Sometimes I wonder if those individuals
who are now motivated to put
more regulations on us might even fear
the fact that some of the good guys,
some of the good groups who are coming
here to influence Washington to reduce
the size of government are no
longer able to.
Notes:
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 59
Ron Paul also discusses campaign finance reform in
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 64.
1998 Ron Paul 59:3
When Ron Paul said, everybody who ever filled out a financial reform perhaps he meant to say,
everybody who ever filled out a financial report.
