Ron Paul is a generally a pretty smart guy. I agree with a lot of the things he says. I like the idea of limited federal government. Fiscal conservatism. Free-market capitalism. These are all great things that I generally agree with Ron Paul on. So now I have a question for him. Why in the world do you put your name next to so many earmarks?
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3 Republican Senators have agreed to vote with the Democrats on the government stimulus package. Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania have all agreed to cross party lines and vote with the Democrats on the stimulus bill. With RINOs like these, the Democrats don’t need 60 in the Senate to avoid filibusters.
In this video Ron Paul discusses the stimulus package and the dollar.
Now, I really wish that those Senators would not go along with this spending bill. However, as Congressman Paul points out in the video, where were all the budget hawk fiscal conservatives for the last eight years when they actually could have done something. Keep in mind that our huge national debt has skyrocketed under a Republican Congress and White House. While the Democrats took control of Congress 2 years ago, there was still a Republican in the White House for the huge bailouts of the banking and auto industries.
The Republicans in the Senate are going to have to grow some backbone or the spending that occurs in the next four years could cripple our nation for a long time. This bill is just the start.
Ron Paul exceeded my expectations in The Revolution: A Manifesto. In it he covers a wide range of important topics that our country is currently facing including an assault on our Constitution, the foreign policy of our Founding Fathers, civil liberties, monetary policy, and economic freedom.
Ron Paul effectively argues for freedom and liberty throughout the book. In the preface he states:
There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion-dollar wars, and a government that draws ever more parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It’s called freedom.
That pretty much sums up the message of the book. He shows that freedom and liberty is not something to be taken lightly, but it is something that we must fight for. Freedoms and liberties are things that the Founding Fathers wanted us to have, but we continue let them be chipped away. With each passing bailout and each new country we send troops to, we get closer to ruining the dollar.
He shows that he isn’t a crazy isolationist as his opponents and many in the media would have had you believe, but rather he is a non-interventionist. He has no desire for us to have our military in so many countries all around the world. It is costing us incredible amounts of money and it is doing very little to increase our national security. He has no problem with the United States responding to genuine threats with military force; he does however have a problem with sacrificing freedom, liberty, and prosperity to expand our vast overseas empire.
This non-interventionist thinking is not new. Paul shows that many of our Founding Fathers had very similar views. Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address said, “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” John Quincy Adams said that “[America] goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Henry Clay added, “Thus we should strive to lead by example rather than force, and provide a model for the world that other peoples will wish to follow. We do no one any good by bankrupting ourselves.” Very prophetic if you ask me.
Our empire around the world costs about a trillion dollars a year to maintain. It seems to me we could use that here on some of the 10 trillion dollars in debt we have. America is currently spending 1.4 billion dollars a day on interest on that debt. That is where many of your tax dollars are going.
Ron Paul also discusses the massive debt and entitlement programs that weigh down our country. He notes, “With a $9 trillion debt, perhaps $50 trillion in entitlement liabilities, and the dollar in free fall, how much longer can we afford this unnecessary and counterproductive extravagance” in reference to our current military spending. Note that the national debt has passed $10 trillion since the book was published. Really though, $50 trillion dollars on the Ponzi schemes that are social security and medicare. They were not designed as such, but that is basically what they have turned into at this point.
Congressman Paul also spends a lot of time discussing the Constitution and how it applies today, even if our leaders don’t want it to. He gives many specific examples of our government ignoring and violating the constitution. From military conscription, to abortion, to foreign policy, to state’s rights, Dr. Paul eloquently argues in defense of the Constitution. Many problems we have today have been caused because we ignored the Constitution and it’s core principles for too long.
As he concluded his section on the Constitution, he added this:
If our government were scrupulously faithful to the Constitution, we would not need to be especially concerned when a person who represents a philosophy different from our own takes political office. Our Constitution delegates relatively few tasks to the federal government, so it should almost be a matter of indifference who is elected.
Unfortunately that is not the case. Paul goes on to say that the Constitution, while not perfect, is a good definition of the limits and scope of government. Bending and interpreting it in such a way as to allow the government to do as it pleases is something that is done with a high cost. We are paying it in many different ways.
Ron Paul also exposes much of the joke that is our current economic policy. He gives a great argument against the way our government has recently (the last 80 years or so) been causing rampant inflation, completely devaluing the dollar. Our Founding Fathers never intended for the government to issues “bills of credit” but for us to have a dollar that was actually worth something, i.e. gold and silver. Lately, our government has been particularly guilty of simply printing money. Each time they print more money it devalues the money in your wallet.
Paul finishes with a blueprint for “The Revolution.” He lays the groundwork for things that we can do to get our freedom and liberties back. He shows what needs to be done, and what could be accomplished if we work together to take back our nation.
I must say that I really enjoyed this book. As a student of history, I really liked the way he brought together knowledge from the Founding Fathers and the Constitution to show how to fix the real problems we are facing today. He also tells a lot of secrets that many people probably wish were left untold. All in all, this is a great book for any student of history, anybody who is interested in Ron Paul and his ideas, and anybody who wants to keep the freedoms and liberties we have and take back the ones we’ve lost. I hope that you enjoy The Revolution: A Manifesto
For other great books check out the rest of the must read conservative book list.
I have 5 books to give away thanks to the generosity of Hachette Book Group. They gave me a copy of The Revolution to review and also 5 copies to offer in a giveaway. The contest is going to be a random draw from the entries. To enter simply answer the following question in the comments below.
What is the most important issue facing conservatives and/or libertarians in 2009?
The contest will run through the end of January. At that point I will do a random drawing for 5 winners out of the comments below. Limit one entry per person. Subscribe to our feed to stay tuned for my review of the book for our conservative book list and for the announcement of the winners. I will email the winners to get their addresses, and Hachette will mail the book directly to them.
Update: Winners have been announced. You can also check out my review of The Revolution: A Manifesto.
1. Ron Paul has been elected to Congress 3 times as the non-incumbent. That is really impressive since the incumbent wins re-election to Congress 95% of the time. He has served from 1976–1977, 1979–1985, and 1997 – present.
2. He was the first member of Congress to propose term limits legislation in the House. Term limits are badly needed, but they are going to be nearly impossible impossible to enact. How do you get the majority of Congress to fire themselves?
3. He was the Libertarian candidate for President in the 1988 election. He came in a distant third behind Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush.
4. On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon implemented the U.S. dollar’s complete departure from the gold standard. That was the day Ron Paul decided to enter politics. He later said, “After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded.”
5. Ron Paul said this in his farewell address to Congress in 1985, “Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders had for general welfare. Vote trading is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It’s difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic.”
6. This is a quote from his column at Ron Paul.com, “Politicians may not have any real idea about how to build a car, run a bank, educate a child, heal the sick or build a road, but they are quite adept at using carrots and sticks to manipulate and threaten those who do.”
7. His latest book, The Revolution: A Manifesto
8. Ron Paul spends extra time in his district to compensate, as he puts it, for “violating almost every rule of political survival you can think of.”
9. He was one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution. Ok, you probably knew that.
10. In 1996, Nolan Ryan gave his support to Ron Paul and became his honorary campaign chair. He was an ad spokesman and was a big part of the reason Paul was elected.
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