Posted on 09/13/2007 9:02:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Last week the Republicans had another debate, this one on FOX News. Not much has changed in the last few months; Rudy Giuliani is still in the lead in the polls and Fred Thompson is still in second despite the fact he didn't announce his intentions to run until a few days ago. What has changed, and changed for the worse, is the surging popularity of a Texas Congressman by the name of Ron Paul. I've been running into normal, intelligent people who support Paul, and it really scares me.
The reason Paul is as popular as he is has to do largely with his sudden support from Democrats and I have to admit, when I didn't know much about him I thought he sounded like a good candidate. He wants to end the Iraq war, have tighter borders, lower taxes and decrease spending, what's not to like? The problem doesn't lie with his policies and ideas, but rather his execution of said policies. How to end the war in Iraq: immediate pullout not only from Iraq, but from the whole of the Middle East. Never mind the slaughter that will occur with our exit. Paul, by the way, denies that this will happen, as the people saying it will are the same that said it would be an easy win. It was a mistake and we never should have been there.
He has more than one unworkable policy. Who else here wants to abolish the FDA? Dr. Paul is your man. His case against the FDA is that they take taxpayer money and are supposed to regulate the food and drugs coming into the country and those produced here, but there are still cases that get by them. Obviously, he claims, we would be better off with no Federal regulation. Corporations should police themselves. Paul is a big fan of the free market and wants to see an end of just about every federal agency that does anything useful or helpful. DEA? Gone. Medicare/Medicaid? History. IRS? The government has no right to take your money.
Paul is such a fan of the free market and letting businesses do whatever they want that during a recent session of Congress he was the one dissenting vote when Congress decided to stop giving tax money to corporations profiting from the genocide in Sudan. It seems pretty cut and dry, companies are making money off of a genocide. Why would you give them money to keep doing that? Paul's answer: We shouldn't tie the hands of corporations by limiting their business dealings. That pretty much covers foreign policy for Paul.
Paul doesn't like the federal tax system and actually signed a document circulated by the National Libertarian Organization a few years ago affirming this belief. Lower taxes is one of the tried and true methods of getting people to vote for you. The problem with Paul saying he'll get lower taxes is that it's not entirely true. Yes, your income will be less taxed, but Paul wants to raise the sales tax to 23 percent at the least. Have fun being poor, because you won't be able to afford anything under Paul's administration. What would be really interesting is seeing how much price gouging we would see with no regulatory bodies, but I'd rather not think about it.
More interesting is Paul's absolute belief in the free market. He wants to see an end of public service agencies and governmental controls. Private post offices, for example, would be bought up by companies and if you're not served by the same post office as say, the people sending you bills, you might never get the bill. Or you might incur a fee when you get the bill. Imagine all roads in the country being up for sale: Paul sees a future where this has happened and thousands of toll booths are being constructed across the country.
We wouldn't have a nutcase presidential candidate without him being a racist, not these days anyways. Paul luckily fits that bill. He's made his case against the African American community known very well, starting with this comment back in 1992, "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be." Later he would say the age to be prosecuted as an adult should be lowered to 13 because "black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." It's no wonder White Supremacist Website and forum Stormfront.org has come out in support of Paul, as has former Ku Klux Klan member and politician David Duke.
Here's a list of things Paul wants to end because they have had failures in the past, or he sees them as useless: CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, FDA, IRS, Medicare, FBI, DEA, UN, NATO, NAFTA and CAFTA. That's the short list. This is my biggest problem with Ron Paul. He offers no constructive thoughts, only destructive ones. He doesn't think a single thing can be made to work if it failed even once. Bad intelligence? Cut it out completely, don't try to reform it.
Overall, Paul has no workable ideas. He wants to return to a gold standard, which would destroy the US economy. He wants to cut nearly every government department and build a giant wall (not a fence) on our border with Mexico. I honestly don't understand how people can think he would make a good president.
You really don’t know how things work. Just watch television for a while and you will see some lawyer trying to get a class action suit against drug companies for drugs that got through the FDA approval process.
Private companies can and do evolve to rate products without the huge cost of government doing it. E.g., when electrical products were first hitting the market, a private group sprung up to rate the products safety. I forget the name, but it is still in business, rating the safety of electrical products.
The rate of industrial injures was actually decreasing faster prior to OSHA than after OSHA. The reason being that government rules caused money to be spent in one area when it would have been much more effective being spent in another area of safety.
Of course you didn't. You said that the Fed has many powers now that are not specified in the Constitution. Many are not needed, but many are; - like controlling education.
There are dozens of functions the Fed has now that are not specified in the Constitution. Many are not needed, but many are. It is not 1789...
And our Constitution has been Amended 27 times since 1798. -- No amendment has given the feds powers not specified.
If you guys want to chuck them all, go for it, hell I'll stand out of they way. But beware the back lash and long term costs. You may be gravely disappointed. The real world can be a harsh mistress...
It will be especially harsh to those, like you, who agree that the feds can use powers "- that are not specified in the Constitution -"..
I could care less about this from a “we are the world” bleeding heart issue. I look at economics. If a state does not come out of the gate just right, the market will still take time to correct. What about those who were in school during the “correction”
I would whether not pay for their jail time or what have you.
If you can pitch me a transitional system that moves this out to the states, and guaranties that we remain competitive internationally, as a country, not as 50 individual entities, I am all ears.
BTW, leaving it to the states, which is fine, really is not going to do much for the “market” idea of making things better. You now are involving 50 bureaucracies, few of which do well trying to respond to market forces. It is going to take a lot of effort. maybe even privatization, but that is going to be a long tough battle there.
My fear is that without a steady hand and a reasoned slow approach, this will be a disaster that we will take years to overcome.
Saying Education Sucks is easy and is a great campaign slogan, but I want a fix that will work. I want it to cost less, not more, in the long run. I think that is a pretty conservative approach, don’t you?
I could care less about this from a “we are the world” bleeding heart issue. I look at economics. If a state does not come out of the gate just right, the market will still take time to correct. What about those who were in school during the “correction”
I would whether not pay for their jail time or what have you.
If you can pitch me a transitional system that moves this out to the states, and guaranties that we remain competitive internationally, as a country, not as 50 individual entities, I am all ears.
BTW, leaving it to the states, which is fine, really is not going to do much for the “market” idea of making things better. You now are involving 50 bureaucracies, few of which do well trying to respond to market forces. It is going to take a lot of effort. maybe even privatization, but that is going to be a long tough battle there.
My fear is that without a steady hand and a reasoned slow approach, this will be a disaster that we will take years to overcome.
Saying Education Sucks is easy and is a great campaign slogan, but I want a fix that will work. I want it to cost less, not more, in the long run. I think that is a pretty conservative approach, don’t you?
There are oil fields all over the world that haven’t been developed. The Caspian Sea area, supposedly, has more oil reserves than the middle east. There is also a huge amount of oil along our coasts that is not available because of the greens. Same thing in Alaska.
Communism is not that big of a threat today as both Russia and China have moved to a more market oriented economy.
The Islam movement will be dealt with by the nations most affected. Do you really think the Buddhists and Hindus in India are going to let Islam run over their country? China will stop Islam advances in its area of the world as will Russia.
Totalitarian regimes, be they economic or religious, do not last.
You want to take up the constitutionality of where we are now, you need to build a time machine and go back a century plus or minus a few years. I am looking at what we have now, today in 21st century America. I play the hand dealt, not the hand I wish I had.
Get me a plan to transition back that will not wreck the economy, open us up to outside attack and keep the union whole, you know “conserve’ the nation, I am sold. Hell I'll push the damn thing, because I don't disagree with anything you say, within reason and adjusted for 200 years of change. Even that can be dealt with via amendments if needed to satisfy the need.
I have yet to see much in that regard, just a bunch of best wishes, pipe dreams and hyperbole...
“Overall, Paul has no workable ideas.”
Especially, if you are a leftist college student or a big government republican.
That Constitution thingy is so icky and it really gets in the way of a big federal government
“This reads more like the conservative case FOR Ron Paul.”
Agreed. Odd, since I’m not one of his supporters, this article gave me a little warm fuzzy when I saw all the programs he wants to slash. Reminds me of PJ O’Rourke.
I don’t hate Ron Paul. Some of his groupies I could live without of course.
As for the rest of your crap. You read way too much into things. Did you miss my part about replacing the Dept. of Ed. with a small agency that will provide guidelines and guidance in keeping out education system competitive as a nation? Of course you did. The states will run things, but there must be some uniformity. Does that require 26-28000 employees, of course not. 50-100 maybe. Hell privatize it for all I care, make a national accrediting body whatever, but as an employer I expect that the guy from Minnesota has the same basic skills as the guy that just move from Oregon.
Whatever you do, give me a plan, not some stump speech, and make sure it damn well covers the bases and does not cost me more in the long run. Also have an exit plan if it screws up. Being a Conservative, I want things to be done right and costs less. Silly I know.
As far as being a liberal, you know so little about me. I make some of you guys look like hippies (ok, not hard). But I am not in favor of recklessness and I will not stand down from modern threats because it’s cool or whatever.
As far as your Mississippi quip, some of the hardest working people I have ever known live here. For them, and for me, I say kiss my ass...
Getting about 1 out of every 5 votes in a 3-man race is way better than the usual 1% most third-party and independent presidential candidates get.
Do you think you could get 20% of the popular vote in the presidential election? The standard people seem to use here is "Paul stands the same chance as Perot and Buchanan, and my grandma could get as many votes as those three."
*snicker* THAT was funny. Erudite, well-thought-out responses, followed by flipping the bird. Reminds me of my wife.
*snicker* THAT was funny. Erudite, well-thought-out responses, followed by flipping the bird. Reminds me of my wife.
My guess is that vouchers and parental choice would be strong initial steps. Establishing a transition plan that ends Federal involvement and transfers those responsibilities (limited in scope) to the states over say a 5 year time frame would be another step...but it could only come (and this is the essential 1st step) as the will of the people in this regard was firmly established through the election process because you will have to have elected officials overturn and replace years of accumlated "Acts of Congress" geared towards the current failing policies and in favor of these policies and principles.
It is likely, that although I could see the process being accomplished in far less time than we have experienced the "Great Society" policies from the 60s on (50 years to get where we are at), it is still likely to take 20 years of concerted effort to turn it around.
Having said that, withou discourse such as this all over this nation (and it is occurring), we will not get the momentum necessary to effect that first step...we may get the initial vouchers before that because I believe there is already a "fed-up" sense with the current system that would allow that to get enacted sooner..
Spoken like a true Dem. Guess what Extremely Marxist Marxist, this is a free Country for both sides of the aisle.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Wow... my flag's at half-mast just reading that list.
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