{"id":17233,"date":"2012-11-17T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=17233"},"modified":"2012-11-16T23:23:11","modified_gmt":"2012-11-17T05:23:11","slug":"ron-paul-asks-31-tough-questions-that-our-politicians-wont-answer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=17233","title":{"rendered":"Ron Paul asks 31 tough questions that our politicians won’t answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As I slowly lost all respect for elected politicians over the years, I never lost respect for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul. As I came to the conclusion that the coercive state is irredeemably immoral and unsalvageable, I parted way with Paul on how to change the world. But I never lost my respect for him, even though I opposed electing anybody president, even him.<\/p>\n

After spending 23 years in Congress (over a 36-year period), Paul is retiring this year. He declined to run for his House seat in order to focus his attention on his presidential campaign. Now that his last term is ending, he delivered a speech on Wednesday that might be his most important one to Congress.<\/p>\n

In his 48-minute farewell speech, Paul asks tough and blunt questions. He lays out a case that you and I know well, and it’s filled with a kind of intellectual honesty that’s rarely heard in Congress. I think the core of what he has to say is a section in which he asks a series of 31 questions. The members of Congress who heard him aren’t trying to answer those questions, but they’re questions that deserve an answer in any sane world.<\/p>\n

Since Paul chose to try to fix the problems of the state from inside the coercive state, I saw him as trying to redeem the irredeemable. I saw him as trying to tinker with something so evil that it was a very misguided approach. But if he’s been a statist, he’s been my favorite statist. And he makes a cogent and moral case for individual freedom — one which his congressional hearers can’t bring themselves to truly hear.<\/p>\n

I urge you to read the entire speech. It’s worth your time. And if you haven’t watched it, I’ve linked the video at the end of the text.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul — Farewell to Congress
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor.\u00a0 At the end of the year I\u2019ll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period.\u00a0 My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today:\u00a0 promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty.<\/p>\n

It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security.<\/p>\n

To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire.<\/p>\n

The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.<\/p>\n

How Much Did I Accomplish?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little.\u00a0 No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways\u2014thank goodness.\u00a0 In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues.\u00a0 Wars are constant and pursued without Congressional declaration, deficits rise to the sky, poverty is rampant and dependency on the federal government is now worse than any time in our history.<\/p>\n

All this with minimal concerns for the deficits and unfunded liabilities that common sense tells us cannot go on much longer.\u00a0 A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going.\u00a0 One side doesn\u2019t give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn\u2019t give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and\u00a0 corporate elite.\u00a0 And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues.\u00a0\u00a0 As the government continues fiddling around, our liberties and our wealth burn in the flames of a foreign policy that makes us less safe.<\/p>\n

The major stumbling block to real change in Washington is the total resistance to admitting that the country is broke. This has made compromising, just to agree to increase spending, inevitable since neither side has any intention of cutting spending.<\/p>\n

The country and the Congress will remain divisive since there\u2019s no \u201cloot left to divvy up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without this recognition the spenders in Washington will continue the march toward a fiscal cliff much bigger than the one anticipated this coming January.<\/p>\n

I have thought a lot about why those of us who believe in liberty, as a solution, have done so poorly in convincing others of its benefits.\u00a0 If liberty is what we claim it is- the principle that protects all personal, social and economic decisions necessary for maximum prosperity and the best chance for peace- it should be an easy sell.\u00a0 Yet, history has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled.<\/p>\n

Authoritarianism vs. Liberty<\/strong><\/p>\n

If authoritarianism leads to poverty and war and less freedom for all individuals and is controlled by rich special interests, the people should be begging for liberty.\u00a0 There certainly was a strong enough sentiment for more freedom at the time of our founding that motivated those who were willing to fight in the revolution against the powerful British government.<\/p>\n

During my time in Congress the appetite for liberty has been quite weak; the understanding of its significance negligible.\u00a0 Yet the good news is that compared to 1976 when I first came to Congress, the desire for more freedom and less government in 2012 is much greater and growing, especially in grassroots America. Tens of thousands of teenagers and college age students are, with great enthusiasm, welcoming the message of liberty.<\/p>\n

I have a few thoughts as to why the people of a country like ours, once the freest and most prosperous, allowed the conditions to deteriorate to the degree that they have.<\/p>\n

Freedom, private property, and enforceable voluntary contracts, generate wealth.\u00a0 In our early history we were very much aware of this.\u00a0 But in the early part of the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century our politicians promoted the notion that the tax and monetary systems had to change if we were to involve ourselves in excessive domestic and military spending. That is why Congress gave us the Federal Reserve and the income tax. \u00a0The majority of Americans and many government officials agreed that sacrificing some liberty was necessary to carry out what some claimed to be \u201cprogressive\u201d ideas. Pure democracy became acceptable.<\/p>\n

They failed to recognized that what they were doing was exactly opposite of what the colonists were seeking when they broke away from the British.<\/p>\n

Some complain that my arguments makes no sense, since great wealth and the standard of living improved \u00a0for many Americans over the last 100 years, even with these new policies.<\/p>\n

But the damage to the market economy, and the currency, has been insidious and steady.\u00a0 It took a long time to consume our wealth, destroy the currency and undermine productivity and get our financial obligations to a point of no return. Confidence sometimes lasts longer than deserved. Most of our wealth today depends on debt.<\/p>\n

The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected.\u00a0 As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary.<\/p>\n

The Age of Redistribution<\/strong><\/p>\n

This neglect ushered in an age of redistribution of wealth by government kowtowing to any and all special interests, except for those who just wanted to left alone.\u00a0 That is why today money in politics far surpasses money currently going into research and development and productive entrepreneurial efforts.<\/p>\n

The material benefits became more important than the understanding and promoting the principles of liberty and a free market.\u00a0 It is good that material abundance is a result of liberty but if materialism is all that we care about, problems are guaranteed.<\/p>\n

The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail.\u00a0 We have ended up with a system that doesn\u2019t produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends.<\/p>\n

If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time.\u00a0 Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue.<\/p>\n

We Need an Intellectual Awakening<\/strong><\/p>\n

Without an intellectual awakening, the turning point will be driven by economic law.\u00a0 A dollar crisis will bring the current out-of-control system to its knees.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties.\u00a0 Prosperity for a large middle class though will become an abstract dream.<\/p>\n

This continuous move is no different than what we have seen in how our financial crisis of 2008 was handled.\u00a0 Congress first directed, with bipartisan support, bailouts for the wealthy.\u00a0 Then it was the Federal Reserve with its endless quantitative easing. If at first it doesn\u2019t succeed try again; QE1, QE2, and QE3 and with no results we try QE indefinitely\u2014that is until it too fails.\u00a0 There\u2019s a cost to all of this and let me assure you delaying the payment is no longer an option.\u00a0 The rules of the market will extract its pound of flesh and it won\u2019t be pretty.<\/p>\n

The current crisis elicits a lot of pessimism.\u00a0 And the pessimism adds to less confidence in the future.\u00a0 The two feed on themselves, making our situation worse.<\/p>\n

If the underlying cause of the crisis is not understood we cannot solve our problems. The issues of warfare, welfare, deficits, inflationism, corporatism, bailouts and authoritarianism cannot be ignored.\u00a0 By only expanding these policies we cannot expect good results.<\/p>\n

Everyone claims support for freedom.\u00a0 But too often it\u2019s for one\u2019s own freedom and not for others.\u00a0 Too many believe that there must be limits on freedom. They argue that freedom must be directed and managed to achieve fairness and equality thus making it acceptable to curtail, through force, certain liberties.<\/p>\n

Some decide what and whose freedoms are to be limited.\u00a0 These are the politicians whose goal in life is power. Their success depends on gaining support from special interests.<\/p>\n

No More \u2018isms\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

The great news is the answer is not to be found in more \u201cisms.\u201d\u00a0 The answers are to be found in more liberty which cost so much less.\u00a0 Under these circumstances spending goes down, wealth production goes up, and the quality of life improves.<\/p>\n

Just this recognition\u2014especially if we move in this direction\u2014increases optimism which in itself is beneficial.\u00a0 The follow through with sound policies are required which must be understood and supported by the people.<\/p>\n

But there is good evidence that the generation coming of age at the present time is supportive of moving in the direction of more liberty and self-reliance. The more this change in direction and the solutions become known, the quicker will be the return of optimism.<\/p>\n

Our job, for those of us who believe that a different system than the \u00a0one that we have\u00a0 had for the \u00a0last 100 years, has driven us to this unsustainable crisis, is to be more convincing that there is a wonderful, uncomplicated, and moral system that provides the answers.\u00a0 We had a taste of it in our early history. We need not give up on the notion of advancing this cause.<\/p>\n

It worked, but we allowed our leaders to concentrate on the material abundance that freedom generates, while ignoring freedom itself.\u00a0 Now we have neither, but the door is open, out of necessity, for an answer.\u00a0 The answer available is based on the Constitution, individual liberty and prohibiting the use of government force to provide privileges and benefits to all special interests.<\/p>\n

After over 100 years we face a society quite different from the one that was intended by the Founders.\u00a0 In many ways their efforts to protect future generations with the Constitution from this danger has failed.\u00a0 Skeptics, at the time the Constitution was written in 1787, warned us of today\u2019s possible outcome.\u00a0 The insidious nature of the erosion of our liberties and the reassurance our great abundance gave us, allowed the process to evolve into the dangerous period in which we now live.<\/p>\n

Dependency on Government Largesse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today we face a dependency on government largesse for almost every need.\u00a0 Our liberties are restricted and government operates outside the rule of law, protecting and rewarding those who buy or coerce government into satisfying their demands. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n