Asterisk-Free Libertarianism--The Constitution For Dummies (i.e. Ron Paul Supporters)

Asterisk Free Libertarianism (The Solution Ron Paul Missed)

http://www.libertyreborn.com/2007/08/24/asterisk-free-libertarianism-the-solution-ron-paul-missed/

Well, it was predictable. The talking points used by supporters of Ron Paul (i.e. Paulbots, Paulites, etc.) have now changed.

You can always tell when the marching orders are given to a group by the sudden shift in the common language they use to refer to a certain situation. It’s like when Rush Limbaugh compiles montages of several media types from different organizations all using the exact same (and often obscure) term or description for an event. You know there was a memo sent out somewhere.

Well the same thing has happened among members of the Paul Collective.

Prior to Mr. Paul’s propensity for unconstitutional spending becoming widely known, the talking points were that Mr. Paul was the only “true Constitutionalist” running for President and that anyone who supported the Constitution had to support Mr. Paul based on that. Now that his status as a “true” believer in the Constitution has been utterly shattered, the new line in almost every email sent to me by a rabid, foaming at the mouth Paulbot is that Mr. Paul is still the man because he is the “most” Constitutional of all the candidates.

For the Paulbots, trying to defend his use of the Constitution as toilet paper simply has not flown as well as they would have liked. So now they are now trying to convince conservatives and libertarians that the liberaltarian ways of Ron Paul are still best because they are “more” Constitutional than other candidates. Call me skeptical of that.
I don’t see how anyone can say that Mr. Paul is “more” Constitutional than other candidates when he has violated the Constitution the same as others have. Sure he might have done it for different pet programs that spend federal money on shrimp and trolleys rather than Social Security and Medicare, but it is still a violation of Constitution. This defense is like saying that a man who robs a 7-11 for $50 and gives it to his mother to pay for her hospital bills is less guilty of theft than a man who holds up the bank, takes $1,000,000 and flees to the Bahamas.

A duck is a duck no matter how it quacks. And I reiterate that no true libertarian would defend Ron Paul’s actions and those that are simply are showing their own fatal flaws and blind loyalty. However to the credit of some within the Ron Paul camp they are admitting that this is a problem their candidate will need to overcome and correct.

Saying that Paul is “more” Constitutional than other candidates however puts me in mind of the old George Carlin bit about preheating the oven:

“[P]re this, pre that….. place the turkey in a preheated oven…. it’s ridiculous… there are only two states an oven can possibly exist in, heated or unheated…. preheated is a meaningless ****ing term!”
Maybe Ron Paul is a “pre-Constitutionalist”? Does he exist in a state of believing in the Constitution while not believing in it just like the “preheated” oven exists in a mysterious state between being heated and unheated?
Much like the oven, there are only two states in which you can exist with regards to the Constitution; for it or against it. There is no “mostly”. Yes, you can certainly disagree with parts of it, but you still have to abide by it. It’s the law of the land so deal with it.

On a side note, this is about the time in my articles when the Paulbots are rushing to their keyboards to pound out inane emails full of slurs like “neo-con” and “fascist” simply because this is too much truth for them to handle. So for all you members of the Paul Collective that haven’t done so yet, get to typing!

Of course I predicted they would stand by him and defend his indefensible acts in my article The Constitution For Dummies (i.e. Ron Paul Supporters) even though he was not what he or they claimed he was. See, it doesn’t matter … Ron Paul is “the one”. He could go on live television and shoot a cute little puppy in the head and the Paulbots would still worship at his feet.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again. I like Ron Paul on a lot of issues. However that does not mean I think he is the most qualified candidate to be Commander in Chief of our military and Chief Executive of the United States. I don’t think he is strong enough on taking the fight to any enemy that threatens America and I’ve known about his unconstitutional funding requests for some time as well as his dubious (at best) libertarianism which has more asterisks than Barry Bond’s home run record.

If you want to spend money on studying shrimp then use the amendment process to make such idiotic spending constitutional. Otherwise you are just a hack like any other politician would be who espoused certain beliefs while acting contradictory to them.

Paul supporters like to claim that his requests for spending for a variety of illegitimate reasons were ok, and I am not saying that every single request he made does not or could not pass Constitutional muster. Although most, if not all, are of dubious merit at best I am afraid.
But there is a true libertarian solution Ron Paul could have embraced and hopefully will consider next time he ponders violating the Constitution. That is, if he is serious about being a true Constitutionalist. See, I’m also about ideas and solutions, not just complaining which is something Paulbots have also accused me of in order to remove the spotlight from their candidate.

Instead of taking taxpayer dollars and redistributing them to others in the form of unconstitutional spending, what Ron Paul should have done was use an actual power granted to Congress in the Constitution to “serve his constituents” which is a typical canard Paulbots use to defend his actions. That power? The power of taxation of course.

Congress is unquestionably granted this power. It takes no reading between the lines or mental gymnastics to discover.

So, since Congress has the power to levy taxes and set the rates of such taxes here is what Ron Paul should have done.

First he should have compiled a list of every earmark and the amount of each earmark requested by each of the members of Congress for pet projects in their districts. Then he should have divided each by the number of constituents each member of Congress serves to find out who was getting the most dollars per person. Then he should have taken the maximum amount per person and multiplied it by the number of constituents in his district.
He then should have appended language to the yearly budget requesting this amount of money be set aside in the form of a tax rebate for members of Texas’s 14th congressional district and to be refunded to those who paid income taxes based on how much they paid. In other words, someone that paid $500 in federal income tax would obviously receive less of a rebate than someone that paid $15,000. To do otherwise would of course violate libertarian principles against wealth redistribution.

After all, if the members of Joe Blow’s district are entitled to a certain number of tax dollars per person, then so should Mr. Paul’s. His office would then issue a check to every resident of the district that qualified, by paying taxes, for this rebate of monies he prevented the federal government from spending on unconstitutional programs and which was over collected. And it does not have to just be limited to income taxes either. He could refund the money to anyone that paid any sort of federal tax such as federal gas taxes, etc. although income taxes would certainly be the easiest to go back and verify and track year to year.

Now, of course no one would be able to get back more money than they paid to the federal government. That would amount to some sort of Welfare program which also be very un-libertarian and we just cannot have that either. So we would have to cap the refund at the maximum dollars in taxes paid by each constituent.

But then again, this solution would actually be constitutional and amount to actually serving one’s constituents by upholding the Constitution, returning over collected tax dollars back to them and not lining the pockets of local governments and private industry. And it would be truly libertarian.

What do you say Ron Paul? How about all you Paulbots? Want to be true libertarians in the future?

The Constitution For Dummies (i.e. Ron Paul Supporters)

I will freely admit that I did a bad, bad thing last week. Well, it wasn’t a really “bad” thing unless you were one of those that fell for it I guess. What did I do that was so bad? I set up the Paulbots. Yes, evil rotten me, I know.

When I wrote “Earmarking Our Way to Oblivion” I purposefully left out any mention of Ron Paul even though I knew he was just as dirty as all the rest. See, Mr. Paul’s own earmark fetish was certainly no real secret to anyone paying attention and with enough desire to dig a little. But the Paulbots were quick to comment about how because of the corruption that earmarks bring and how that they many times violate the Constitutional powers of Congress that this is exactly the reason why we needed Ron Paul.

Not a day goes by that supporters of Ron Paul aren’t out in droves proclaiming any conservative that does not support their candidate is an evil neo-con, trumpeting how Mr. Paul is a true “constitutionalist” and is the only man qualified to be President. Well, I guess we now see how accurate their description of their own golden boy really is considering news that has really taken off in the last couple days about his own requests for earmarks.

It is no secret to those of us that are out there everyday taking fire from the Paulbots that when Ron Paul commands them to jump they not only ask how high, but also at what angle, what flavor of Kool Aid Mr. Paul would desire they bring him after they land, how many ice cubes he would like in said drink, what color he would like his house painted, how many gallons of gas he needs them to put in his car, what time he would like his wakeup call for the following morning, how he desires his eggs cooked and whether or not he wants them to polish his fine silver clockwise or counterclockwise. The answer to that last one is that Ron Paul demands they first polish it six times clockwise followed by a single counterclockwise finishing polish. Their loyalty to the illusion of their candidate as a savior of us all and as someone that actually holds the Constitution dear is admirable if not highly misguided and naive.

Now the Wall Street Journal and other sources have what Paulbots are robotically and predictably calling a “hit pieces” on their candidate. Of course I still question whether or not Ron Paul really can be considered a “candidate” when he barely cracks one percent in the polls. But that is another topic for another day. Anyway these “hit pieces” detail how Mr. Paul, supposedly a libertarian, has requested millions of taxpayer dollars for roles not delegated to the federal government by we the people. Hardly a “libertarian” stance. Hardly “hit pieces”. Simply the truth.

Oh … well … uh … Ron Paul 2008! He’s still the man! Right Paulbots?

Last week the Paulbots were flooding me with comments about how we needed Ron Paul and about how I was right about the earmark problem. But this week I have particularly loved the responses by these same hacks to these new revelations and that have again flooded into my mailbox on cue since I blogged about Paul’s own earmarks on Tuesday. They say things like, “Well the money was going to be spent anyway!” and, “It’s ok because he is just serving his constituents like he is supposed to,” or boldly proclaim, “there is nothing unconstitutional about Paul’s earmarks!” or my personal favorite, “Well, yeah he requested the earmarks but he voted against them!”

That last one makes me chuckle. It’s a pathetic having your cake and eating it too argument that no true libertarian would embrace. Anyone with half a brain sees through this tactic as nothing but style over substance worthy of the staunchest liberals. Mr. Paul certainly understands that in the current corrupt Washington culture his earmark requests would pass even as he votes against them. He knows all he has to do is attach them to the spending bill in order to reap the benefits. A true libertarian would not even request them in the first place.

But rather than calling for his impeachment for violating the constitution, something I have done time and again for all politicians, regardless of party, that violate the Constitution, the Paulbots rush out to defend the man they have deemed as “the one.” Truth be damned! He really is a TRUE libertarian! Full ludicrous speed ahead!

It doesn’t matter that they were out there in mass decrying earmarks just a week before. It doesn’t matter that the Constitution is clear in Article I, Section 8 when it limits the powers of Congress to tax and spend on a concise list of things defined as the “general Welfare.” It doesn’t mater if Ron Paul has requested federal money to deal with issues found nowhere in these federal powers from funding for shrimp to building hospitals to maintaining trolleys. None of that matters because … well … Ron Paul is da man! Praise the Savior of our Republic! Hallelujah! And how dare I and others take his name in vain!

Blind loyalty is never attractive. And it is often deadly.

The Constitution is simple. It allows for laws and spending on the only a short list of topics which are clearly stated and any libertarian worth their salt knows of James Madison’s discussion of this in Federalist 41. The list that is there is the list. That’s it Mr. Paul. That’s it Paulbots. Nothing about shrimp. Nothing about trolleys. Nothing about most of what Paul’s earmarks are spending money on. No amount of whining about Ron Paul getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar will change the facts. No amount of hurling slurs like “neo-con” or “fascist” or “globalist” at those that exposed Mr. Paul will make a difference in the truth. Such tactics don’t work for liberals and they will not work for you.

I’m sorry I entrapped you last week. But it is something you are going to learn from as you progress on in life. Principles are only principles if you are willing to put your money where your mouth is and always watch your own glass house before you cast the first stone.

It’s so simple even a Paulbot can understand it. And I call on Ron Paul to be a true libertarian and draw up articles of impeachment against himself, convince his fellow Congressmen to approve the action and finally vote in favor of the action when the time comes to pay the piper.

But he won’t. He won’t because the fact is there are few true libertarians out here in the real world. We are a lonely bunch for sure. Even though lots of people envision themselves as such, when push comes to show they are at best nothing more than a bastard cousin; the liberaltarian. And that is why we are in trouble.

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Earmarking Our Way To Oblivion

http://www.libertyreborn.com/2007/08/03/earmarking-our-way-to-oblivion/

James Madison once remarked, “with respect to the two words ‘general welfare,’ I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” In writing that letter to James Robertson, he reiterated the sentiments he shared with the nation in Federalist 41 where he denounced objections by the anti-Federalists to the term “general Welfare” being included in the Constitution because of it’s presumption of an unlimited and open ended scope as without “color”.

The fear of federally elected politicians being able to curry favor with their constituents by bringing home the bacon in the sense of tax dollars was why under the Constitution our government was given only limited powers to tax and spend. The founders knew that what have become known as “earmarks” would not serve this nation well and would corrupt the intent of limited government.

Why did Madison and the vast majority of Federalists say that the “general Welfare” clause was limited to the set conditions that followed? So that leaders of our government couldn’t buy votes!

Over the years since however we have basically amended the Constitution through court orders and legislation (neither of which are means by which such action can be achieved mind you) to say to heck with all that nonsense! And we see where it is now getting us. “General Welfare” has come to mean anything and everything some politico in Washington can dream up.

What do we have today? We have Republican Congressmen from Alaska like Senator Ted Stevens and Representative Don Young that are kings of pork barrel spending and who year after year take money home to their state for pet projects such as the affectionately called “bridge to nowhere” among many, many others.

We have people like Rep. Sam Farr, Democrat, CA who pushed for $25 million to benefit spinach growers to be added to an “emergency” supplemental spending bill. Must be some spinach “emergency” we are not aware of!

Then there is House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, Democrat, Minnesota who continues to send taxpayer dollars each year to mega-farms and giving 50% of the money for unconstitutional subsidies to just 4% of America’s farmers.

Perhaps we should ask Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota under what authority of Article I, Section 8 he sought fit to secure over two million dollars in federal loans for the Dakota, Minnesota, and Eastern Railroad because they weren’t making enough money on their own to pay for improvements and expansions?

Oh, but let’s not forget Democrat Senator Robert Byrd who, if the truth be known, has more than his share of buildings in the state of West Virginia named after him because of all the money he has brought back to help build them. Not to mention that he has secured money for such unconstitutional projects like the “the Wood Education and Resource Center”. $2.7 million of our tax dollars went to that to teach you and I about wood.

Thank God for government! I do not know how I would have learned anything about wood without this great organization! Honestly, the average American probably knows more about wood than anyone at that ridiculous place though. And those that have taken this money are no doubt busy studying the contents of Mr. Byrd’s head apparently; a perfect specimen of wood.

And while we’re in West Virginia, let’s not forget about Byrd’s partner in crime, Representative Allan Mollohan, who funneled $250 million dollars to non-profits which he himself set up. Conflict of interest?
Or what about John Murtha? Ah yes, good old John … the man has more money going to his district, which includes Johnstown, PA for “defense” projects that it is amazing there aren’t aircraft carriers sitting in Laurel Ridge State Park!

And all the while, the people who these Congressmen represent as well as those of countless others with their hands in the proverbial “cookie jar” cheer. “What great things they are doing for our region!” they cry as they fawn over the money. And they empower our elected officials to continue to push for these monies year after year. And year after year we spend more and more on these earmarks at huge cost to the tax payers.

But that’s ok right? Because the evil “rich” pay those taxes. And we know they are not paying their “fair share” right? And then we wonder why we are paying so much more for the goods and services we buy as these costs are passed on to us.

Meanwhile? These politicians are laughing all the way to the bank. Because they know you will keep voting for them as long as they bring home the pork and train you to salivate on cue. Yes, they’ve got us right where they want us.

Funny that elhombrelibre brings up Carter. I think it points to a fundamental issue...

The problem is, Ron Paul is a Reagan Republican (remember, Ron Paul led the Texas Delegation to nominate Ronald Reagan for President)...believing in the individual and not in the government. I know that view is rather passé these days, with even most Republicans wanting a big government Nanny State, but some of us still want the government to shrink, not grow...no matter how nice these "conservative" federal programs sound, etc. Many conservatives forget what it was to be a True Believer in the individual, limited government, and America...the Bush-Clinton-Bush years have squeezed that out of America, I believe.

His comments at Ronald Reagan's passing (Congressional Record, Wed June 9, 2004) are interesting (and I honestly believe, relevant! :-):

Remembering Ronald Reagan
Representative Ron Paul

Mr. Speaker, all Americans mourn the death of President Ronald Reagan, but those of us who had the opportunity to know him are especially saddened. I got to know President Reagan in 1976 when, as a freshman congressman, I was one of only four members of that body to endorse then-Governor Reagan’s primary challenge to President Gerald Ford. I had the privilege of serving as the leader of President Reagan’s Texas delegation at the Republican convention of 1976, where Ronald Reagan almost defeated an incumbent president for his party’s nomination.

I was one of the millions attracted to Ronald Reagan by his strong support for limited government and the free-market. I felt affinity for a politician who based his conservative philosophy on “… a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom…” I wish more of today’s conservative leaders based their philosophy on a desire for less government and more freedom.

Ronald Reagan was one of the most eloquent exponents of the freedom philosophy in modern American politics. One of his greatest achievements was converting millions of Americans to the freedom philosophy; many he inspired became active in the freedom movement. One of the best examples of President Reagan’s rhetorical powers was his first major national political address, “A Time for Choosing.” Delivered in 1964 in support of the Goldwater presidential campaign, this speech launched Ronald Reagan’s career as both a politician and a leader of the conservative movement. The following excerpt from that speech illustrates the power of Ronald Reagan’s words and message. Unfortunately, these words are as relevant to our current situation as they were when he delivered them in 1964:

It's time we asked ourselves if we still know the freedoms intended for us by the Founding Fathers. James Madison said, "We base all our experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government."

This idea - that government was beholden to the people, that it had no other source of power - is still the newest, most unique idea in all the long history of man's relation to man. This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream - the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order, or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.

Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government set out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

One of the most direct expressions of Ronald Reagan’s disdain for big government came during a private conversation I shared with him when flying from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base. As the helicopter passed over the monuments, we looked down and he said, “Isn’t that beautiful? It’s amazing how much terrible stuff comes out of this city when it’s that beautiful.”

While many associate Ronald Reagan with unbridled militarism, he was a lifelong opponent of the draft. It is hardly surprising that many of the most persuasive and powerful arguments against conscription came from President Reagan. One of my favorite Reagan quotes comes from a 1979 article he wrote for the conservative publication Human Events regarding the draft and related “national service” proposals:

“...it [conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state- not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers- to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”

I extend my deepest sympathies to Ronald Reagan’s family and friends, especially his beloved wife Nancy and his children. I also urge my colleagues and all Americans to honor Ronald Reagan by dedicating themselves to the principles of limited government and individual liberty.

(Ron Paul, Jack Fields, and Ronald Reagan on Air Force One)

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