Posted on 09/17/2002 7:14:29 AM PDT by Red Jones
Bill to eliminate the Fed introduced Rep. Paul: Legislation seeks to 'restore financial stability' to U.S.
By Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
A Republican lawmaker has introduced legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve as a way to "restore financial stability" to the country and re-establish the once-used gold standard.
"Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary policy," said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, in a speech to colleagues on the House floor.
"In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve's inflationary policies. This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people," he said last week while introducing the bill.
The Texas Republican went on to blame each economic downturn from the Great Depression of the 1930s to 2001's "dot-com bubble" on Fed policies.
"The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial 'boom' followed by a recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts," said Paul.
On the gold standard, however, which the congressman described as "stable currency," U.S. "exporters will no longer be held hostage to an erratic monetary policy.
"Stabilizing the currency will also give Americans new incentives to save as they will no longer have to fear inflation eroding their savings," he added.
"Those members concerned about increasing America's exports or the low rate of savings should be enthusiastic supporters of this legislation," he said.
Paul's office did not return phone calls before press time.
The libertarian lawmaker also introduced into the congressional record a column by Llewellyn Rockwell, a former WND columnist and current president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a libertarian economic policy think tank based in Auburn, Ala.
Entitled, "Why Gold?" Rockwell writes, "The Fed has been inflating the dollar as never before, driving interest rates down to absurdly low levels, even as the federal government has been pushing a mercantile trade policy, and New York City, the hub of the world economy, continues to be threatened by terrorism. ..."
"The government is failing to prevent more successful attacks by not backing down from foreign-policy disasters and by not allowing planes to arm themselves. These are all conditions that make gold particularly attractive," he said.
But, he continued, "there is no stash of gold held by the Fed or the Treasury that backs our currency system. The government owns gold, but not as a monetary asset. It owns it the same way it owns national parks and fighter planes. It's just another asset the government keeps to itself."
Rockwell said the dollar, which has not been based on gold for nearly three decades, is virtually worthless or, at most, whatever the Fed says it's worth.
"The dollar, and all our money, is nothing more and nothing less than what it looks like: a cut piece of linen paper with fancy printing on it," he wrote.
Paul said he believed the system was inherently unfair to ordinary Americans.
"Though the Federal Reserve policy harms the average American, it benefits those in a position to take advantage of the cycles in monetary policy," he said. "The main beneficiaries are those who receive access to artificially inflated money and/or credit before the inflationary effects of the policy impact the entire economy."
He also said most politicians used the Fed's "inflated currency" to hide the "true costs of the welfare state."
"It is time for Congress to put the interests of the American people ahead of the special interests and their own appetite for big government," said Paul. "Abolishing the Federal Reserve will allow Congress to reassert its constitutional authority over monetary policy."
Case in point, indeed.
If Saddam Hussein had abided by the UN agreement imposed after the Gulf War (after he had been thrown out of Kuwait), the sanctions would have been lifted.
Iraqis suffered and died (to the extent they actually did) because of SADDAM HUSSEIN.
The West ain't going on your guilt trip, nor should it.
OK, skinky. Time for a truth test.
1. Is it true that the publicly-stated reason for the sanctions, as well as the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, was to put pressure on the Iraqi people to overthrow the villainous, ruthless tyrant who George Bush the Elder compared to Adolph Hitler? (I never heard the words, "regime change" until recently, but that was what they had in mind from the start.)
2. Is it true that the embargo on food, medicine and armaments merely allowed Saddam Hussein to use his foreign exchange dollars on palaces and other luxuries, since his former military suppliers in the old Soviet Union had by then gone out of business?
3. Is it true that, in spite of worsening conditions for the people of Iraq, no viable opposition to Hussein has surfaced since the end of the Gulf War?
4. Is it true that, despite incontrovertible evidence and damning testimony from those directly involved, it proved impossible to effect a regime change right here in the good old US of A against a known liar and philanderer? One who, allegedly, kept secret files on his opponents?
Would you have favored UN intervention to save the country from Clinton?
You're right and I don't know the answer to that question. I also still don't know exactly how a gold standard would work. I only know I don't like the federal reserve.
This differs none from the standard leftist line.
Don't you know that?
Saying the US contibuted to the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis passes the line by far. It is so far out any way it is cut that it completely destroys any credibility Ron Paul might have.
And, BTW, latching on to contributing vs caused is weaseling. Paul uses weasel words like any other pol.
BTW you are completely missing his entire point of that speech which was to stop being the world's policeman.
At that point they say debt "unwinds" meaning that with each bankruptcy more and more lenders are unable to pay THEIR debts causing a cascade of bankruptcies, and ultimately failure of the financial system. That failure is what the Fed is supposed to prevent, therefore, eliminating the Fed as Ron Paul proposes will guarantee the collapse of the entire US economy and the rest of the world attached to it. It is not a pretty picture (and not a good proposal from Ron Paul).
I'd say blaming the US for 911 is a pretty good litmus test. I'd say spreading leftist propaganda is a good one. But most of all it is that he is so stupid as to believe these over 1 million death stats in the first place. Obviously anyone believing this lacks some brain cells or has other agendas. It's like believing the Jenin massacre happened (but Ron Paul probably believes that as well).
---most people have more important litmus tests like domestic affairs (taxes, abortion, corruption, etc)
Yes, what do the dems call them Kitchen issues or something like that.
Dems want to focus on Kitchen-table issues too.
As Terry McAulife said, "People are going to vote on the kitchen table issues we've talked about for 18 months."
Correction:
Boom/Bust is an inescapable attribute of bank credit expansion; the Fed enhances this ability.
The boom is created by too much credit creation; the bust is the inevitable cure. To believe that the Fed plays a positive role is to mis-diagnose the cure as the disease. It is precisely analagous to giving a drug addict heroin to "cure" him of the effects of cold turkey withdrawal.
Yes, by all means. Let's stand the central thesis of capitalism on its head and prop up hopelessly unsound, insolvent banks because, after all, they have a right to succeed and we will be helpless without them.
How about NO monetary policy other than leave the free market to decide.
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