2001 Ron Paul 41:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I move to
strike the requisite number of words.
(Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission
to revise and extend his remarks.)
2001 Ron Paul 41:2
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Chairman, I rise in
opposition to this amendment, mainly
because I do not think it is a good
move to have the SEC internationalized
to begin with, and to further internationalize
it does not seem to make a
whole lot of sense.
2001 Ron Paul 41:3
For one thing, cracking down more
on foreign oil companies that are doing
business in Sudan will not necessarily
prohibit the benefits that may flow to
the American oil companies if there is
a change in government. We should not
ignore that. We go to war over oil. We
went to war over oil in the Persian
Gulf, and certainly we had oil as an influence
to send in many dollars and
much equipment down into Colombia.
2001 Ron Paul 41:4
But just let me read from the bill. It
says the Secretary of State will report
back on a description of the sources
and the current status of Sudan’s financing
and construction of infrastructure
and pipelines for oil exploitation;
the effects of such financing and construction
of the inhabitants of the region.
It goes on, which in a way does a
lot of research and benefit for our oil
companies that may benefit. So I think
oil is involved, but in quite a different
way than I think we should be involved
in dealing with the foreign oil companies
today. So I am not going to support
this amendment.
2001 Ron Paul 41:5
I would like to take another moment
to mention something which is considered
an esoteric point, but I consider
very important, and that has to do
with the authority to do these kinds of
things that we are doing today, no
matter how well intended. The committee
report explains the authority,
and the supporters of the bill says the
authority comes from article one, section
8, clause 18. And they look to the
right place. Article one, section 8 gives
us our 18 enumerated powers that we
are permitted to do. The clause 18 is
the necessary and proper clause: to
make all laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into execution
the foregoing powers.
2001 Ron Paul 41:6
The foregoing powers were those 18
issued. To use this in a generalized
sense means there is no constitution
left. That means any power we want,
we can do whatever we want. That was
specifically designed to pass laws to
enforce those 18 enumerated powers. So
this bill, in spite of all the good intentions
that we hope it will do, really undermines
the whole concept of the Doctrine
of Enumerated Powers.
2001 Ron Paul 41:7
And we should not take that lightly,
although this generally is not of much
interest to so many people because we
do so much and we have such great
hopes that it will always do so much
good. From just observing history, recent
history, the last 20, 30, 40 years
since World War II, so often when we
get involved and we send money to help
the good guys, it is not infrequent the
good things that we send in, goods and
services and weapons, end up in the
hands of the opposition and the enemy.
So that is always a possibility once
again. These commodities and services
and the things that we send and the
money may well end up literally being
used against the people we are trying
to help.
2001 Ron Paul 41:8
The other thing that we tend to ignore
here is we concentrate on the
good things that we are going to accomplish.
Miraculously, we are going
to solve this problem by putting $10
million in today and $100 million in the
next 5 years, and everything is going to
be solved. We do not think about it
failing, because that would be a negative,
and we do not want to think
about that. We do not think about the
Constitution, and we do not think
about who pays. Somebody always has
to pay. This is token. Who cares about
$10 million? When we take $10 million
out of the economy, there is somebody
who suffered; somebody did not get a
house or somebody lost a job. But they
are not identifiable. They do not have
a lobbyist. They are lost. But they are
penalized. There is always a cost.
2001 Ron Paul 41:9
And even if we assume we have a surplus
and the money is already in the
budget, we still should be concerned because
we are making a choice. We are
saying that we are going to take this
money and take the risk of sending it
over there. Maybe it will help. Maybe I
am right, maybe it will not do quite as
much good as we think, but we make a
trade-off. We say today that we will
send this money with the hope that it
will do good at the expense of a domestic
program. Do my colleagues think
every poor person in this country has
been taken care of, their medical care
needs or housing? So we do make
choices continuously, but we forget
about that.
2001 Ron Paul 41:10
We never really think about the
choices that we make, and there is always
a trade-off. And we generally always
forget about finding the point in
the Constitution that gives us authority.
In this case, this is the wrong authority,
and it is not a proper interpretation
of the Constitution as described
in the committee report.
