-- Congressman Ron Paul of Texas
Last week in the wake of another uptick in the official unemployment rate the administration continued to claim that their economic policies were working just not fast enough. 40 million currently on food stamps. Nearly 1 in 6 Americans depend on those and other government anti-poverty programs such as Medicaid and unemployment benefits. As more Americans are added to the unemployment rolls the tax base from which to hand out their benefits is shrinking. Still businesses are being taxed and regulated out of the market adding to the problem. What solutions are put forth? More government spending - even as each citizens portion of the public debt is over $43000 and expected to increase by $250000 over the next 40 years. No this economy is not working for these people. But current economic policy does work" for some people. For example it has worked out very well for certain bankers and large corporations who took on too much risk and got themselves in hot water and were declared too big to fail" which is really a euphemism for friends in high places". It works well for large well-connected military industrial corporations who can always count on perpetual war and conflict to keep them in business. It also works for those on the governments payroll which is increasing as the tax base is decreasing. So where does the government get all this money even as its most obvious stream of revenue dries up? How can it keep spending seemingly indefinitely? Once it steals as much from you as it can get away with through taxation it steals even more from you through what central bankers like to call quantitative easing which is more or less the same thing as counterfeiting. When increasing pressure is put upon them by irresponsible politicians it is predictable that out of thin air more money will be created to satisfy the insatiable appetites of those on political spending sprees. As money becomes more plentiful it becomes less valuable and the average citizen suffers again as the value of their savings evaporates. It has happened over and over in history and what usually follows is the total debasement of the currency hyperinflation and chaos. Sound economic policy would be to take our foot off the gas and apply the brakes to government spending as the economic cliff approaches. We must get back to where our economy produces actual wealth rather than mere paper wealth. The road back to fiscal sanity and a strong economy is simple: Congress just needs to get back to following the Constitution. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas enjoys a national reputation as the premier advocate for liberty in politics & is the leading spokesman in Washington for limited constitutional government low taxes free markets and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency.