Ron Paul's Address To Cpac 2009

A publicationof the Foundationfor RationalEconomicsand Education. VOLUME12.NO.3 MARCH2OO9

Friday, February 27, 2009

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like to make someamendments;I would like to remove two of them,the 16thandthe l7thAmendment. Though we've certainlygottenourselvesinto a mess Paulb Address Congressman becausethe Conservativemovementthat was designedto to CPA€2009 bring usbackto ourroots-like limited government,smaller govemment,moreindividual[berty-it hasn'thappened. And I give a lot of speechesover on the now, sincewe did not do thejob we were supposedto do, onthe floor, hill,I give a lot of speeches andlo andbehold,I don't getthat kind of applause,because the opposition has taken over, and guesswhat, they're criticizing the Republicansandthe Conservativesfor not I don't think they're on the samewavelengthasyou andI having balancedthe budget.But doesthat meanthey're are on. I think there's a disconnect,and of coursethat's going to do that?No! They're going to makeus look like what this struggleis all about. I think in many ways the piken; they're goingto doubleandtriple and Conservativemovementhashad a struggle defining a Conservative. TheConservative quadruplethe spending.I meanit is endless. Believeme, we're in serioustrouble. We finally got the Conservatives in That is why I talk a lot to young people. charge.We havebeenstruggling ever since movementthat Theyoungpeoplearevery interestedin what Barry Goldwater,and Ronald Reagan,the was designedto I talk about,andthe young in sprit arealso Revolution tn l994,and the continuationin interestedin what I talk about.But theyoung the year 2000; we finally got the Houseand bring us back to peopleespeciallyareinterestedbecausethey the Senateandthe Presidency.And what did know what they're getting. They know we do? We doubled the size of the our roots-like they're gettinga bad deal;they're getting Deparffnentof Education.I thoughtwe were Iimited govnothingbutdebt. supposedto get rid of the Departmentof -fuion. ernment,smnller In the past 12+nonthsour national debf up 1.5trillion dollars,andnext yearit's on how you SoI havea few suggestions more went going to be more.They're hoping it will be canidentiff aConservative.Firstof all, they Sovernment, 1.7this yeartotal,but thenit couldbe 2 or tt haveto be devotedto andwilling to standby individual libertycouldbe 3: the numbersareirrelevant.Anc and defendthe Constitution.And of course it hasnt happened. we'rc in anatrnospherenow whereif we can there'sanotherpositionthey oughtto take; acceptthe idea that the taxpayerscan pay many have,many in this room will takethat position,but it is absolutelynecessary, a goodConservative that bailout, everybodyon Wall Street,bailout the banks onwhy wehavetoget and big business-thereis nothing that can't be fundedwill starttalkingaboutandpreaching nothing that can't be appropriated;everythingwill be rid of theFederalReserveSystem. And thenwe could.we're devotedto theConstitution, appropriated.Therewill be no cuts;therewill only be one limitationon whatwehavegoingon todayandthatlimitation rule of law is very, very important:You can't ignore the Constitutionwhenyou don't like something;whatyou have will be the value of the dollar. Todaywe are still privileged to print dollars, and the to do is if vou don't like it, you haveto amendit. I would

world is still unbelievablytaking thosedollars,but that is going to end; and when that ends,the party is over.Most peoplethinktheparfy'salreadyoverbut it's only half over. The financial systemthat we havebuilt andhavelived with startedinl97l It was the dollar standard,the fiat dollar standard.The financial systemhasbeentotally built on that systemandit was doomedto fail. As a matterof fact, it was thatvery day in Augustof 1971,on August 15th,whenthe BrettonWoodsagreementfinally cameundoneandthe last link to gold was removed. Then I knew that we had embarkedon the coursethat we areon todayandthat systemhasbuilt this monstrosity of a financial systemworldwide neverseenin thehistory of the world; We arethe biggestdebtornation in the world, andit's notjustUnitedStatesthat'sinffouble,it's thewhole world. That financialsystemhascomeunglued,but thenext shoeto drop will be the disintegrationof the doilar.So we asConservativesandbelieversin limited governmentand believersin theConstitution,we havea toughraceto resfain the big spendersbeforethat happens.When that happens what is threatenedis our liberty. The main purposeof a governmentin a free societyshouldbe the preservationof libetty. Fortunately,we live inacountry thatknew something aboutthat and emphasizedthat in our early years,but we haveforgottenit, we havelost our confidence.We arenot determinedto presentthe casefor liberty, we havechopped liberty up into pieces:We haveeconomicliberty,we have socialliberty and we havea foreign policy that's built on just total fallacies.So we haveto put this all backtogether again,and fortunatelywe have somethingthat canpull it backtogether,andthat is theunderstandingof theFounding Fathersthatput it into our Constitution.This meansthat if we would follow themles anddo thejob right, we wouldn't have a welfare state. Thejob that we have,we asbelieversandthosethat spreadthis message,thejob we haveis to presentthis case and still prove that we arethe humanitarians.The liberal do-gooders,the big spenderswho saythat we're going to give a free house to everybody, free medical care to everybody,free education;that's preposterous.But they still won the last election-hadsomethingto do with that. Everythingis goingtobeforfree,andyettheproofis,ifyou careaboutyour fellow man thereis oniy oneway you can maximize prosperityand maximize freedom,and that is through the rule of law and making surethat everybody understandsthat liberty is an individual thing and not a collectiveright. If wewantto getourHoirseinorder,wehavetoaddress

the subject of foreign policy. There was a time when Conservatives hada completelydifferentforeignpolicy.Back in the older days,when we had a Robert Taft and others, they had a different understandingaboutwhat our foreign policy oughtto be.Theyweresoold-fashionedtheybelieved we had to follow the Constitution and it was designedto defendthis country; nothing more thanthat.Not the giving away of our sovereignty,not to listen to the UN and the World Bank and the IMF and the WTO; we don't need any ofthose. Today,in themidst of theturmoil that we havethereis a strongbehind-the-scenes movementtowardanevengreater presenceof world govemment.They want to solve this problem by internationalizingttrefinancial system-thelast 20,30 years it's been internationalized,but we had a privilege; we got to print the gold so we had an advantage. We livedoffothers, butthat's comingto anend.We'rethe biggestdebtorandsoonthat debtwill be called.But, they're trying now to put this together, and they're going to internationalize it; it is going to be more of the same intemationalism,WTO andregulationsandbankingsystem. It is impossibleforthat systemto lastandto work, because you cannothavea fiat system,whetherit's a singlecountry or anintemationalgovemment,to makepapermoneyworkandthat is the only thing that we havegoing for us, That is why the moneyissueis so important.In a free societyyou have to have honest money; honest money is what the Foundersdescribedandsaidthatonly gold andsilver should belegal tender. But we oughtto addressthe subjectof foreign policy. Part of the reasonswhy we lost this last election was the foreign policy issue.Generallyspeaking,the presidential candidatewho arguesthecaseforlesswarmongeringwill win theelection,andof course,Obamatook advantageof it. He said"I'm going to endthe war in Iraq andI'm going to bring thoseffoopshomeandsolveall theproblems,"and he won the election.So this generallyis the case;but the truth is, foreignpolicy hasn'tchanged. We shouldbelookingmoreto what GeorgeBush said in the year 2000. He was strongly critical of the Clinton yean-of nationbuildingandbeingttrepolicemanof theworld, what we were doing in Bosnia and Somalia-andhe won the election.He saidsomevery,very goodthingsbut after that he againjoined the internationalists.Joinedthis idea thattheAmericantaxpayers,you, haveanobligationto take careof everybodyandpotce theworld, andput our military out thereandbe exposedto all this danger.It doesn'tmake any sense;this is literally what bankruptsthe country.You seeinternationalexpenditures,it costus a trillion dollars a

yearto takecareof our foreign policy, andthat cannotlast. It is comingto anend. As a matterof fact, the personmost pleasedwith our foreignpolicyis OsamaBin Laden,becausehehas written aboutthis; "I am goingto getyou to comeoverhereand we'll fightyou on our sandandwe will do whatwe didto the Soviets."Of course,we helpedhim do what he did to the Sovietsbecausewe subsidizedand supportedhim to drainthe Soviets,andhe saidhe will do the samething. He will eventuallybanlcupt this country,and 1oand behold we are weaker for it, our military personnelarefatigued.I wasvery proud of what happenedlastyear in the campaign,becauseI talked aboutthe old Conservative Republican noninterventionistconstitutionalforeign policy and, we and our campaign,got the most money of any candidatefrom themilitary. But historically, greatnationsend when they overextend themselvesoverseas whetherit's backto the Romandays,orthe Sovietsor whatever.The country feels so involvedthattheygo andthink of themselves asbeingover$ wonderfrrl,thatwearegoing to spreadour message.It actually startedin World War I; the truth is there was no need for us to be involved in World War I. but who wasn't?But thereit was:WoodrowWilson saidwe have to do it becausewe haveto make the word safefor democracy,which led to this millions, hundredsof millions of peoplebeing killed in the 20th Century. So we're back at the samething; we haveto go and spreadour goodnessin theMiddle East.So,yeah,we want to get rid of a bad guy in Iraq, we did; but it cost,it took lives.Another million Iraqis got killed. Believeme, they wtrentallte-nbriStgSomepeopieticln-tp-rticu|aray1iF that,but neverttreless itpleasedOsamaBin Iadenbecause we were there.We werebankruptingour country andright now,today,we geta new Presidentwhosayshe didn't like the war that was going on. So what are we going to do? We're going to draganother17,000Americansandpop themintoAfghanistan. Don't we know anlthing abouthistory?It is bankupting our country It will end,whetherthe peopleagreewith me or not; it will endbecausewe can't afford it. That's where it's alwaysendedthroughouthistory that'swhatthefinancial crisis is telling us.The welfare statewill endbecausethe moneywill quitworking andwe will no longerbe ableto afford to promotewhat we're doing aroundthe world. The

soonerwe rcalizethatthebetter.Todayit's only financed becausewe havethis monetarysystembecausewe can't possiblytax the people,we can'tborrow much more,so we're still relying on theFederalReserve.So what hasthe FederalReservedonein this lastyearor so? Congresshasspenthundredsof billions trying to bail out the system.Republicansare now voting againstthis, which is good,I'm delightedwittr that,but it's a little bit late, butthey'revotingagainstit. But whatabout.. . What is the FederalReservedoing?We talk about800 billion dollarsandit's a big deal; theFederalReservedoesit in trillions. We're up to a commitment of 9 trillion dollars.We in Congressandyou ascitizenshaveno idea what's going on, andit's governmenttotally out of control and it's to take care of their buddies.They pumpedthis money into the industriesand what happens?They get out, they gethuge,billions andbillions of dollars worth of bonuses,andthentheygo andbuy treasurybills to keepthedollarfrom crashing, becausethey will leave the treasurybills eventually,sothey bail out their friends and the bonusesare paid, and the American peoplesuffer,becausein the ageof inflation the middle class gets wiped out. The characteristicof inflation is thewiping out of the middle class and enhancingthe wealthy. So it's an economicandpolitical systemthat is hereto desffoyus,and here to destroy our freedom unlesswe understandwhat freedomis all about. Freedomcomesto us in a naturalway; it's in a Godgiven way.It is not given to usbecausewe belongto a group. Therc'sno suchthingasWomen'sRightsandMinority Rights andGay Rightsandall thesethings.There'sonly onetype ofrighl+hat-is an in-dividualilghtthatlas cometo us from God. To defendthat right is like defendingFreedomof the Press.Freedomof the Pressgivespeopletheright to write conffoversialthingsandengagein conffoversialdiscussions. Otherwiseyou would havepriorrestraintandthegovemment would come in and tell newspapersand radio what they could sayand do. Nobody wantsthat. But everysingleday,we havepriorresnainton everything we do in the marketplace.Every market transaction,every labor transaction,everydollar transaction,everyproperty transaction is done only with the permission of the government. Sowe now havemoveda major stepin thedirectionof

Thewelfarestate will endbecause themoneywill quit workingand we will no longer be able to afford to promotewhat we'redoing aroundthe world.

socialism,andtheyalk aboutnationalismandnationalizing thebanks.The nameisn't asimportantastheconffol.We're closerto a fascistsystemwherethe governmenthastotal control of our lives andour economy,andthat is what has to be stopped. But if we understandwhat freedommeansforFreedom of the Pressand no prior restraint. We also cannot ask conservativesto saythat we haveto havepriorrestraint on individuals on their socialbehavioror that we canregulate socialbehavior. Wehavesomepeopledefendingeconomicliberty rather well, andothersdefendingsocialliberty, andyet it's all one and the same;the Foundersunderstoodthat. And if we could only put that together,peoplewould havefreedomof choicein their economicand socialendeavors.The only thing is, underthat systemyou haveto be responsiblefor yourself; if you do harm to yourseif or don't take careof yourself economically,you can't go crawling to the govemmentandbeggingandpleadinganddemanding.We getinvolved too much in sociallegislationbecausesomeof the stateswant to do the right thing, whetherit hasto do with marriageandothersocialissues,andthe statesunder the Constitutionhavea right to do this. But they've been deniedthis right becauseit goesto a FederalCourt, the SupremeCourt and they rule and throw out theselaws; they shouldnot evenhearthesecases. That is why my approachto dealingwith the marriage issue,the abortion issue, any social issue is that the jurisdiction is removed.It's takenout of the FederalCourts andwe could do a lot more in what we want to do. whether it's rightto life, ratherthanwaitinguntil wehaveconffolof the SupremeCourt rule or waiting until you amendthe Constitution.This bill canbepassedandit shouldhavebeen passedwhen we had the majority. Unfortunately therewas very little interestin it. The WeThe PeopleActthat I haveis onebill that could pass,and it could have savedmillions andmillions of lives by preventingabortionby statelaw. I've inffoduceda few piecesof legislationdealingwith theFederalReserve.Oneis to getrid of ttreFederalReserve. By all practicalities,we cannotdo thatright awaybecause it would be chaotic.My real position is that you legalize competition,legalizethe Constitution;that would be a bold step.Allowing competition would take careof it, but there is onepieceof legislationthat'sgettinga lot of attentionand supporton both sidesof the aisle,somethingthat would be greatif you getbehindit. It wasjust introducedyesterday andthe number is 1207, andwhat it is going to do, andcan do, is to audit the FederalReserve.At leastwe can find out whatthey'redoing.

The law saysthat the GAO hasthe right to audit the FederalReserve,exceptforA, B, C, D andE, andthat's everythingthattheydo. Soby law they areprohibited,we're prohibited from auditing or getting any answersfrom the Fed,yet they havemoremoneyandmorecontrol overour lives andyour dollars andyour future.They havecontrol over the foreign policy and the domesticpolicy, and you don't haveany right to know anythingaboutit. I can't even get the information. It hasto comeaboutby the passageof legislation like this, that demandsthat they are not independentand totally secretand that they can rule this country through the power of creating money. It's a monstrousfraud: It hasexistedthroughouthistory where the king getsconfol ofthemoney andinflatesthecurrency and dilutes the metalsand prints the money and whatever, but it hasto stop;andif we don't, believeme, this thing will get much worse. So this to me is a major stepin the right direction. I want to go aheadand closeand saythat I am strongly encouraged,especiallyby the youngpeopleI've talkedto in the lastyear.They're enthusiasticaboutliberty,defending it consistently,defendingthe Constitutionandrealizingthat the situation we have today is unworkable; the Social Security Systemis unworkable.And that we candefendall this by defendingourConstitution,defendtheruleof law, understandingwhereourrights comefrom and say"Yes, we want our freedom back. and we will assume the responsibilityfor ourselves."

Nothing in this publication is intended to aid or hinder the passage of legislation before Congress.

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