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 24:1
Mr. PAUL. I would like to address
the subject of earmarks today. I think
there’s a lot of misunderstanding here
among the Members as to exactly what
it means to vote against an earmark.
It’s very popular today to condemn
earmarks, and even hold up legislation
because of this.
2009 Ron Paul 24:2
The truth is that if you removed all
the earmarks from the budget, you
would remove 1 percent of the budget.
So there’s not a lot of savings. But,
even if you voted against all the earmarks
actually, you don’t even save
the 1 percent because you don’t save
any money.
2009 Ron Paul 24:3
What is done is, those earmarks are
removed, and some of them are very
wasteful and unnecessary, but that
money then goes to the executive
branch. So, in many ways, what we are
doing here in the Congress is reneging
on our responsibilities, because it is
the responsibility of the Congress to
earmark. That is our job. We are supposed
to tell the people how we are
spending the money, not to just deliver
it in a lump sum to the executive
branch and let them deal with it, and
then it’s dealt with behind the scenes.
2009 Ron Paul 24:4
Actually, if you voted against all the
earmarks, there would be less transparency.
Earmarks really allow transparency,
and we know exactly where
the money is being spent.
2009 Ron Paul 24:5
The big issue is the spending. If you
don’t like the spending, vote against
the bill. But the principle of earmarking
is something that we have to
think about, because we are just further
undermining the responsibilities
that we have here in the Congress.
2009 Ron Paul 24:6
If we want to get things under control,
it won’t be because we vote
against an earmark and make a big
deal of attacking earmarks because it
doesn’t address the subject. In reality,
what we need are more earmarks.
2009 Ron Paul 24:7
Just think of the $350 billion that we
recently appropriated and gave to the
Treasury Department. Now
everybody’s running around and saying,
Well, we don’t know where the
money went. We just gave it to them in
a lump sum. We should have earmarked
everything. It should have been designated
where the money is going.
2009 Ron Paul 24:8
So, instead of too many earmarks, we
don’t have enough earmarks. Transparency
is the only way we can get to
the bottom of this. And if you make everything
earmarked, it would be much
better.
2009 Ron Paul 24:9
The definition of an earmark is very,
very confusing. If you would vote to
support the embassy, which came up to
nearly $1 billion in Baghdad, that is
not called an earmark. But if you have
an earmark for a highway or a building
here in the United States, that is
called an earmark. If you vote for a
weapons system, it would support and
help a certain district, and that’s not
considered an earmark.
2009 Ron Paul 24:10
When people are yelling and screaming
about getting rid of earmarks,
they’re not talking about getting rid of
weapons systems or building buildings
and bridges and highways in foreign
countries. They are only talking about
when it’s designated that certain
money would be spent a certain way in
this country.
2009 Ron Paul 24:11
Ultimately, where we really need
some supervision and some earmarks
are the trillions of dollars spent by the
Federal Reserve. They get to create
their money out of thin air, and spend
it. They have no responsibility to tell
us anything. Under the law, they are
excluded from telling us where and
what they do.
2009 Ron Paul 24:12
So, we neglect telling the Treasury
how to spend TARP money, and then
we complain about how they do it. But
just think literally; the Treasury is
miniscule compared to what the Federal
Reserve does.
2009 Ron Paul 24:13
The Treasury gets hundreds of billions,
which is huge, of course, and
then we neglect to talk about the Federal
Reserve, where they are creating
money out of thin air, and supporting
all their friends and taking care of certain
banks and certain corporations.
This, to me, has to be addressed.
2009 Ron Paul 24:14
I have introduced a bill, it’s called
H.R. 1207, and this would remove the
restriction on us to find out what the
Federal Reserve is doing. Today, the
Federal Reserve under the law is not
required to tell us anything. So all my
bill does is remove this restriction and
say, Look, Federal Reserve, you have a
lot of power. You have too much power.
You’re spending a lot of money. You’re
taking care of people that we have no
idea what you’re doing. We, in the Congress,
have a responsibility to know exactly
what you’re doing.
2009 Ron Paul 24:15
This bill, H.R. 1207, will allow us for
once and for all to have some supervision
of the Federal Reserve. They are
exempt from telling us anything, and
they have stiffed us already. There
have been lawsuits filed over the Freedom
of Information Act. Believe me,
they are not going to work, because
the law protects the Federal Reserve.
2009 Ron Paul 24:16
The Constitution doesn’t protect the
Federal Reserve. The Constitution protects
the people to know exactly what
is going on. We should enforce the Constitution.
We should not enforce these
laws that protect a secret bank that
gets to create this money out of thin
air.
2009 Ron Paul 24:17
So, the sooner we in the Congress
wake up to our responsibilities, understand
what earmarks are all about, and
understand why we need a lot more
earmarks, then we will come to our
senses, because we might then have a
more sensible monetary and banking
system, the system that has brought us
to this calamity. So, the sooner we realize
that, I think it would be better
for the taxpayer.
