Posted on 09/15/2005 9:30:59 PM PDT by anymouse
Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations For 2005
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this ill-considered 51.8 billion dollar disaster relief appropriation. Many have come to the floor today to discuss how we must help the victims of this terrible disaster and its aftermath. But why do they think that the best way to do so is simply to write a huge check to the very government agency that failed so spectacularly? This does not make sense. We have all seen the numerous articles detailing the seemingly inexcusable mistakes FEMA made - before and after the hurricane. Yet, in typical fashion, Congress seems to think that the best way to fix the mess is to throw money at the very government agency that failed. Mr. Speaker, considering the demonstrated ineptitude of government on both the federal and state level in this disaster, the people affected by the hurricane and subsequent flood would no doubt be better off if relief money was simply sent directly to them or to community organizations dedicated to clean-up and reconstruction. Indeed, we have seen numerous examples of private organizations and individuals attempting to help their fellow Americans in so many ways over the last ten days, only to be turned back by FEMA or held up for days by government red tape. We have seen in previous disasters how individuals and non-governmental organizations were often among the first to pitch in and help their neighbors and fellow citizens. Now, FEMA is sending these good Samaritans a troubling message: stay away, let us handle it.
In several disasters that have befallen my Gulf Coast district, my constituents have over and over again told me that they prefer to rebuild and recover without the "help" of federal agencies like FEMA, which so often impose their own bureaucratic solutions on the owners of private property.
Mr. Speaker, we see here once again the federal government attempting to impose a top-down solution to the disaster. No one is questioning from where this 52 billion dollars will come. The answer, of course, is that the federal government is going to simply print the money up. There are no reductions in federal spending elsewhere to free up this disaster aid. Rather, the money will come from a printing press. The economic devastation created by such a reckless approach may well be even more wide-reaching than the disaster this bill is meant to repair.
I ask my colleagues to consider more constructive ways to help New Orleans and the other affected areas recover from this tragedy. There are numerous approaches, such as the creation of no-tax enterprise zones, that would attract private enterprise and capital to the area and would result in a much quicker and more responsive recovery. The citizens of the affected area and the rest of the country deserve a more sustainable and financially rational approach than simply printing and spending money.
Always remember - the politics are far more important than the people. Always.
He is quite correct and will be, of course, totally ignored.
In reality the money is raised by selling bonds.
If I had a choice between FEMA and the dim bulbs that are the government of Louisiana-----believe me, I'd choose FEMA! No doubt. That said, I'm with the Congressman. There are much better ways to take care of this situation than just "cranking up the presses"!
This one time Congressman Paul is wrong. They 'government' isn't going to just print up the money. They're going to 'borrow' it from our children and grandchildren at the point of a gun.
They spend it now, and our kids will be paying it back for the rest of their lives without their knowledge or consent. And if they object, well there's a nice little prison cell waiting for them.
Great system, eh?
L
Economics isn't Ron Pauls strong suit.
bookmarked\
Ron Paul is the modern congressional version of Don Quixote. He is forever tilting at windmills.
The Dollar is doomed.
The debt piles up.
Got gold?
Where do you find error in his thinking?
L
I think history may judge Bush to be the worst president in history. He and congress are wrecklessly spending us into oblivion, not defending the borders, and inflating the heck out of asset markets (housing, commodities, bonds, stocks). We can't just continue to borrow and spend at ever increasing rates forever, both publicly and privately.
When the excrement hits the fan, it ain't gonna be pretty. Bush and his socialist allies in congress are going to cause a worldwide depression that'll be worst than the last.
Ron Paul or Tom Tancredo for 2008!!!
He calls a lot of attention to himself without getting much done. It should be no surprise that he used to be a Libertarian.
Bullmanure! Not unless you can erase Jimmy Carter from history, for starters. And FDR as well. He turned a depression into "The Great Depression," and made it last 12 years. It took a kick-ass from the Japanese to finally end it.
Ten of his colleagues voted with him against this monumental waste, among them Mr. Tancredo, I believe.
Not Yours To Give
Col. David Crockett
US Representative from Tennessee
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:
"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.
"We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I never heard that the government was in arrears to him.
"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."
Excerpt. Read more here:http://www.house.gov/paul/nytg.htm
Ron Paul is a doom and gloom, gold standard touting, trade agreement hating, tin foil hatter. He is well loved by the Rothbard following Rockwellites.
Last December he wrote:
One year ago I wrote about the precipitous decline in the value of the U.S. dollar against other world currencies, a decline that continues unabated today. A Euro note worth only 89 cents shortly after its introduction was worth about $1.16 at the end of 2003. Today it’s worth $1.33. In fact, the dollar has fallen to an all-time low against the Euro, and a 12-year low against the British pound. Since 2000, the dollar has lost 30% of its value.
"Gold, by contrast, has surged 70% in the same period. The New York Times last week acknowledged that gold “was now a more favored currency than the U.S. dollar.” As analyst Harry Schultz points out, when gold prices are low the financial press calls gold a commodity. When prices are high, they call it a currency. Investors cannot afford to sit idly by while their dollar accounts lose another 30% in value, so the rise in demand for gold is hardly surprising."
Hope he bet his money against the dollas as Soros did.
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