By Ron Paul
Just before leaving town for Christmas break, the US House gave Americans a last-minute holiday gift: a nearly trillion dollar military spending bill filled with lots of goodies for the special interests and the military-industrial complex. Unfortunately, the rest of America got nothing but coal in its stockings. With Constitutionalists like Rep. Thomas Massie on the House Rules Committee, Speaker Johnson made the unusual move of bringing the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) under suspension of the rules, which bypasses the Rules Committee but requires two-thirds of the House to pass the bill. Considering that Speaker Johnson tossed into the “must-pass” bill yet another extension of Section702 of the FISA Act, it’s unsurprising that he wanted to rush the bill through without the possibility of amendment. Section 702 allows the government to intercept and retain without a warrant the communications of any American who is in contact with a non-US citizen. It is clearly a violation of the Fourth Amendment which is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures. Section 702 was “legalized” under President George W. Bush during the “War on Terror” after it was revealed that Bush was using the National Security Agency to illegally spy on Americans. We were told at the time that government must be granted these authorities because we were under threat from terrorists. It would just be a temporary measure, we were promised, and then the authority would expire. That was fifteen years ago and here we are re-authorizing the government to continue to violate our liberties. As with the rest of the violations of our civil liberties after 9/11, like the PATRIOT Act and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and the TSA, the federal government soon turned its terrorism-fighting tools inward, targeting Americans rather than foreigners who we were told wanted to harm Americans. That’s why the FBI’s so-called domestic terrorism watchlist continues to expand to include Christians and those skeptical of big government. So rather than debating whether we want a government more like East Germany than the one our Founders imagined, Section 702 was tossed into the military spending bill. The NDAA also contained a $600 million gift to the corrupt government of Ukraine. As opposition to further spending on Ukraine’s failed war with Russia increases in the House, Republican leadership decided to add what may be the last parting gift to the military-industrial complex. As with most foreign assistance, however, Ukraine will likely see very little of this money. Most of it will be laundered through the military contractors and lobbyists who line every corner of the Beltway. The NDAA also pushes us further toward confrontation with China, authorizing more than $100 million to train Taiwan’s military and a further nine billion dollars to continue sending US military ships to harass China in its backyard. I believe Speaker Johnson is intelligent, with a bright future in House leadership. He has inherited a broken system and a legislative body that operates without any guiding principles. I sincerely hope he will begin to listen to the increasing voices in the House who are questioning the warfare-welfare state. We are more than 33 trillion dollars in debt, with interest payments on that debt dwarfing all other government spending. A crash is coming. There is no time for more “business as usual.”
GOP Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has lit up what would otherwise have been mind-numbingly boring Republican presidential debates by hitting the candidates HARD on their support for the warfare-welfare state. Is Vivek the future of the GOP?
Thanks to a FOIA request, an internal document from the Federal Reserve, known as the "Doomsday Book" has been released. The purpose of it is to guide The Fed's actions during emergencies. Emre Kuvvet, professor of finance at Nova Southeastern University says "the central bank—or at least the legal team at its dominant member bank—apparently believes it can rely on precedent to justify virtually any emergency action." Do laws lose their purpose when virtually anything can be justified? Perhaps Tacitus was right: "The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
The US House this morning joined the Senate in approving the massive, trillion dollar National Defense Authorization Act where Congressional leadership snuck in authorization for the government to continue to illegally spy on US citizens not suspected or accused of any crime! In the House, Speaker Johnson only passed the bill with the assistance of Democrats - a move that cost his predecessor his job. Will Johnson suffer a backlash for betraying his promises?
In a surprise move, "first son" Hunter Biden took to the media on the day he was supposed to appear before Congress. Hunter assured the American people that his dad, President Biden, had nothing at all to do with Hunter's extremely shady business successes while his dad was VP. Will America believe him? Also today: US Intel claims Russia lost 90 percent of its military. So...why was Zelensky in town begging for more aid?
On another desperation begging trip to the US, Ukraine president Zelensky tears into Senate Republicans hesitant to send over another $60 billion to what is widely accepted to be a lost cause. Such Republicans are "inspiring Putin" barked Zelensky. Also today who's greenlighting Gaza mayhem? And finally: 'Woke' Canada cancels Christmas.
By Ron Paul
President Biden recently repeated the claim that high prices are caused by greedy businesses. Biden is not alone in trying to gaslight the people into thinking price inflation is rooted in the actions of private individuals and not the fiat money system Americans have lived under since 1971. In the media we see excessive consumer spending on luxury items, for example, being blamed for continued price inflation. The fact is that increased consumer demand can only cause prices to rise in those sectors of the economy subject to the increased demand. Prices increasing across the economy are always the result of the Federal Reserve’s conduct of monetary policy. Trying to minimize the harm of inflation, some people in government and media will insist that, while many prices for goods are higher than they were pre-lockdown, they are still lower than were prices in the 1990s when you consider that the quality of these goods has increased. The argument is that buyers are getting higher value today than 30 years ago. Of course, any increased quality is because of market-driven innovation. If America had a free-market monetary system, instead of central bank-controlled fiat currency, prices would drop as quality increases. It is also important not to ignore the fact that the Federal Reserve’s devaluation of the dollar’s purchasing power creates an incentive for individuals to spend money as soon as they receive it and a disincentive for them to save. This is because the dollar will have less value a year from now than today. Therefore, high levels of spending are a rational response to an irrational fiat money system. High prices and supply shortages were inevitable after the lockdowns. However, prices would have adjusted back more if the Federal Reserve had not pushed interest rates to zero. While the Fed has raised interest rates, it has not raised rates to anywhere near where they would likely be in a free market. In fact, rates are not at historically high levels, yet many worry the Fed’s rate increases are pushing the economy toward a recession. This shows how addicted Americans are to the Fed’s “easy money,” When the dollar’s purchasing power erodes, workers will seek higher wages. This is why periods of high price inflation are accompanied by strikes and other types of union activity aimed at increasing wages. This has made unions another popular scapegoat for price inflation when the truth is that Fed-caused price increases are the real reasons behind labor unrest. Sadly, the increase in nominal wages gained by the recent series of strikes is unlikely to keep up with the declining real wages resulting from the Federal Reserve’s assault on the dollar’s value. This is why, contrary to the claims of many progressives, working people are the victims, not the beneficiaries, of price inflation. As a Texas union official once told me, “gold has always been the friend of the worker.” This makes sense because gold is money whose value cannot be manipulated by the central bank. Inflation is the act of money creation by the Fed, and high prices are a symptom of inflation, not a cause, and not the fault of greedy business, consumers, and unions. The Federal Reserve is also the engine of the welfare-warfare state. Therefore, to restore a system of limited government, individual liberty, and free markets, Congress must cut spending and audit then end the Fed.
Universities have been in the news over the past week with the grilling of Ivy League university presidents over an alleged outbreak of "hate speech" about Israel. Is the new move against "hate speech" a continuation of wokeism or a return to free speech?
Empires grow and expand on lies. The bigger the empires, the bigger the mountains of lies have to be in order to sustain them. Ultimately, when enough time passes, even the lies start to lose their potency. They keep coming at rapid fire, but the number of believers start to dwindle. Empires require concentrated and centralized "narratives," along with censorship. Therefore, decentralized information, the freedom to choose where you get your information, and free speech are the only way forward.
With 'Russiagate" dead and buried (for now), President Biden is looking for new scares to warn voters off Trump. "He'll be a dictator," is the new mantra. Meanwhile the reality is that all presidents rule as dictators. Also today: how about that Republican debate? Finally: MTG lets loose on the evil NDAA and limp Republican dealmakers.
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