As the Presidential primaries loom ever closer, it is important to keep in mind the most important aspect of government, but the one least talked about on the political stage.’ Americans have enjoyed their role as a world power over the last half century or so.’ Politicians enjoy policing the world and spreading ‘American and democratic idealism’ to the governments of foreign nations.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Unfortunately, this attitude towards foreign policy comes with a heavy cost.’ Here’s an example of what type of money we’re talking about: $500 billion for the Iraq war so far with a request of an addition $150bn on the table for 2008 and $43.5bn for intelligence in 2007.’ We have to ask ourselves, no matter how much we may happen to like imposing democracy on sovereign nations, is it economically responsible?
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Recently the national debt just passed the $9 trillion mark.’ Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I cannot even begin to fathom such a large amount of money.’ Where is this money coming from?’ It’s being taken from social security, other tax sources and we are borrowing heavily from the Chinese.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ If anyone doubts that we can’t support this type of spending, then you only need to look at the state of the economy to see differently.’ The Federal Reserve is printing more money in response to the spending, creating inflation that devalues the dollar and slowly erodes the middle class.’ Nowhere in sight is a plan to reduce the national debt; Democrats in congress are poised to approve increasing the national debt ceiling, and budget proposals foresee us spending $3 trillion on the national budget in 2008.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ About one third of this money is marked for entitlement programs and a significant portion is going overseas.’ But what do we have to show for it?
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Troops are dying in Iraq while the military-industrial complex is profiting.’ The citizens are looking to democratic presidential candidates to save us.’ But, this savior is not to be found in the democratic camp.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Hillary Clinton has taken a disappointingly soft position on bringing our troops home from this fiscally unsupportable war.’ She claims to be against Bush’s war, but agrees that we should leave troops in Iraq in the foreseeable future.’ I don’t doubt that she will spend less money in Iraq than the current administration, should she be elected, but don’t forget she would also increase domestic spending to previously unseen amounts.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ There is one candidate who supports a balanced budget, and has voted for that consistently since he entered office.’ Ron Paul, a 10th congressman from Texas, is the only republican vocally against the Iraq war.’ He realizes that current foreign and domestic spending is at unsustainable levels and only a drastic reduction in the size of government can save our economy.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Paul writes in this weekly column; ‘The federal government has a spending problem. Each year our current accounts balance gets worse and worse, and the amount of foreign held government debt has skyrocketed. Both Republicans and Democrats; conservatives, liberals and moderates, indeed nearly every single-member of the Washington political establishment, is addicted to one form of federal spending or another.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ And who is going to have to deal with this problem?’ The politicians spend our tax dollars and, unless Ron Paul is elected, the runaway spending in government will only continue, both overseas and for entitlements and earmarks at home.’ How long will it take before these policies fail and our economy collapses?
‘ The politicians continue to raise taxes and waste our money, so that they can stay in power.’ They violate our liberties by taking our income, redistributing wealth and artificially regulating the economy through the Federal Reserve to make money for Wall Street.’ They spend it to secure oil rights and political puppets in the Middle East, and to insure that the special interests have a steady flow of cash through Middle Eastern oil wells.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ This spending, whether it’s domestic or foreign, is wrapped up in a neat American flag package and sold to the citizen as patriotism, compassion and liberty.’ But, the only real way to insure liberty is a return to Constitutional dogma, in which the power of the federal government is drastically reduced from the present day.’ Letting our government control its citizens and people in sovereign nations is not compassion; it’s statism and imperialism.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ While the mainstream media continues to ignore these ever worsening problems, only one man continues to gather the support that is needed to challenge what is, unfortunately considered, the traditional indoctrination of large government.’ I agree with Ron Paul; we don’t need government to control us or wage far off wars for allusive reasons.’ In the 2008 election, we need to send a message to our politicians.’ We will no longer quietly stand by while the government takes money out of our paychecks in order to exercise even more unjust authority.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Ron Paul’s ideals, of gradually but significantly reducing the size and scope of the federal government, is the only policy that will reduce spending to a sustainable level while returning liberty to its citizens.’ And I am not alone on this libertarian viewpoint.’ Paul’s large grassroots campaign, focused through the Internet, demonstrates that this message is gaining a following.’
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ But in this free society, you don’t have to take my word for it.’ Go to Youtube.com, search for ‘Ron Paul’ and learn about the only sane economic policy that remains for this country.