Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) went on the House floor yesterday to deliver his farewell remarks. He is retiring after 23 years in the House.
Rep. Paul is one of my political heroes, and there is no doubt that he is one of the strongest defenders of liberty. His legacy will last for years to come in Congress. I only wish more people would have listened to his arguments on ending the Federal Reserve and reasons to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Below are his remarks, and you can read the transcript here.
Check out Ron Paul’s recent appearance on Bloomberg regarding the economy. Ron Paul did a good job making everyone’s favorite Keynesian hack, Paul Krugman, look bad.
Granted, I am a Steelers fan, but I really like Peyton Hillis. Hillis has not been having a really great season for the Cleveland Browns (he did last season…and even made it on the cover of Madden 2012), but I like his politics, as he supports Ron Paul. Just listen to the clip below.
Ron Paul 2012. We need a President, who will stand on principle and one who will get us out of the economic mess we are in.
Bloomberg has been reporting that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was recently appointed to serve as chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve. Paul will become chairman when the 112th Congress resumes.
For once, the Republicans do something right by appointing Paul to chair this powerful committee. There is no doubt that Paul will hold the Federal Reserve accountable for their actions through extensive hearings and audits. After all, Paul authored the book, “End the Fed,” and is a prolific expert in the corruption surrounding the Federal Reserve.
I received this release from the Republican Liberty Caucus on TSA violating the passenger’s right to privacy before boarding a flight.
AUSTIN, TX — The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) denounces the recent changes in the airport passenger screening practices of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
RLC Chairman Dave Nalle said the intrusive nature of new TSA procedures draws attention to the fundamental flaws in the government’s strategy of attempting to address the threat of terrorism through increasingly draconian domestic security measures.
“In the name of public safety, government agencies have been given more and more power at great cost to our civil liberties and in violation of the Bill of Rights,” Nalle said. “The emergence of an unaccountable state security apparatus in America is a reminder of Ben Franklin’s maxim that ‘they who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety’.”
“The new TSA procedures of giving randomly selected passengers a choice between a full body, backscatter x-ray scan and an intrusive, hands-on body search are unacceptable,” Nalle contends. “These searches are a clear violation of our 4th Amendment rights, because they are not reasonable and are carried out with no probable cause. The increase in security at airports with more technology and more violation of the privacy rights of passengers cannot be justified on the basis of any increase in the threat of terrorism, because there has been no such increase,” Nalle explained.
The Republican Liberty Caucus believes that Americans have seen enough abuses of the Constitution and calls on the federal government to curb abuses by the TSA and other agencies. We recommend putting control of passenger security in the hands of the airlines, which have a vested interest in making sure that flights are safe. We also support Representative Ron Paul’s “American Traveler Dignity Act” (H.R. 6416), which would make TSA employees accountable for their actions.
Nalle observed, “With the increasing level of government intrusion into our lives in the name of security, America reminds me too much of what I saw in the Soviet Union, where I lived as a teenager. How long will it be before police will be stopping us in the street at random to ask for our identity papers?”
The Republican Liberty Caucus, founded in 1991, exists to promote individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise within the Republican Party.
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One thing particularly interesting is how Congress is addressing this issue. Many of our elected officials are just as outraged. Recently, Rep. Ron Paul introduced H.R. 6416: American Traveler Dignity Act. This bill will ensure that certain Federal employees would be subject to the same screenings as everyone else.
During a recent floor speech introducing the bill, Paul said:
In one recent well-publicized case, a TSA official is recorded during an attempted body search saying, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” I strongly disagree and am sure I am not alone in believing that we Americans should never give up our rights in order to travel. As our Declaration of Independence states, our rights are inalienable. This TSA version of our rights looks more like the “rights” granted in the old Soviet Constitutions, where freedoms were granted to Soviet citizens — right up to the moment the state decided to remove those freedoms.
The incident of the so-called “underwear bomber” last Christmas is given as justification for the billions of dollars the federal government is spending on the new full-body imaging machines, but a Government Accountability Office study earlier this year concluded that had these scanners been in use they may not have detected the explosive material that was allegedly brought onto the airplane. Additionally, there have been recent press reports calling into question the accuracy and adequacy of these potentially dangerous machines.
Hasn’t this gone on for far too long? Hopefully, Congress will end this treatment, but it looks highly unlikely at this point with the Democrats applauding the assaults.
This morning, I was reading the Wall Street Journal, when I came across an op-ed written by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) that I found particularly interesting. You see, I have been quite outspoken about my desire to see the Federal Reserve eliminated (hopefully, in my lifetime, I will see this agency gone), because the agency was supposed to protect the value of our currency, yet the dollar has lost nearly 95% of its value. Full transparency is needed at the Federal Reserve level (and I believe transparency is needed with all branches of government, with the exception being anything that compromises our national security), and both Paul and DeMint argue this point eloquently in their op-ed.
Another good point that this op-ed brings up is how the Federal Reserve Chairman, when testifying before Congress often provides vague answers, instead of addressing the questions about how Federal Reserve is complying with mandates of prices and employment. Both Paul and DeMint call for an audit of the Federal Reserve by saying that there is a need to find out where the money is going, the numbers and types of securities purchased, and the amount paid for those securities.
In coming weeks we plan to offer companion amendments to legislation already before the House and Senate that will open the Fed up to a complete audit. The amendments set a six-month time lag on the publication of previously unreleased audit data to address the Fed’s concerns that actions undertaken in support of monetary policy would immediately be politicized. The transcripts and minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee meetings would continue to be made public at the Fed’s discretion, with unpublicized details of meetings not subject to any additional scrutiny. Finally, the amendments make clear that the purpose of the audits is not to interfere with or dictate monetary policy.
As strong opponents of government intervention into the economy, we do not want to see Congress directly dictate monetary policy. But while the Fed is involved so heavily in monetary policy and its actions so heavily influence the future of our economy, it is necessary that it be fully transparent. Interventions into the economy on the order of trillions of dollars cannot continue to escape public scrutiny. American taxpayers deserve better.
Exactly, both Paul and DeMint hit it on the nail. American taxpayers deserve better, and we deserve to see exactly what is happening with our currency. This is the type of transparency that is needed at the Federal level, and it is one step closer to an open, more efficient government.
Virginia Conservative reports that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has endorsed Ken Cuccinelli for Attorney General. Cuccinelli has always been an advocate of life, liberty, and property. This is why I endorsed Cuccinelli from the beginning. Virginia Conservative has the letter up on his website.
We need more leaders in Congress like Rep. Ron Paul, and we definitely need more leaders in Virginia, like Ken Cuccinelli.
Adam Bitely of NetRightNation featured an interview with Congressman Ron Paul, who talked about his bill to audit the Fed, H.R. 1207. One thing is for certain that this will be holding those within the Federal Reserve accountable for their actions.
