Letters to the Editor
-
To the Ron Paul supporters, if Ron wins and his policies take effect
With the gold standard you will have a currency which will present you with a much harder market. Your exports will be weakened by having your currency tied to a limited resource, as opposed to being tied as it currently is, to the free market.
With your exports weakening you will find that imports will be cheaper, your competitors will, due to the full free market proposed by Ron Paul, push American businesses under leading to the mass of Americans going broke.
This was the effect noted back when you were on the gold standard, the only real difference is that where then you had an essentially protectionist government, under Paul you would have a government offering you zilch.
Further, as the market becomes more hostile your businesses will be driven to cutting more corners of safety, health and environmental protections. Without a strong government there to prevent the worst of those excesses, expect the quality of your goods to plummet to standards that make the Chinese look prissy.
Further, what little federal government you will have left, will be rendered ineffective in part by its sudden loss of authority, but also by the massive corruption that a Ron Paul government will bring in.
With the emphasis being placed on smaller government you will get less oversight, job security will no longer prove a deterrent to corruption, and those you have in government will tend towards being more corruptable, seen as they see "Personal responsibility" as being the defining trait of America. You have already had a taste of this from the current crop of very conservative Republicans you have in office now.
Changing the tax code over to a flat tax and eliminating the IRS will breed a period of chaos in which government's tax collection will drop dramatically, to the point where for the first five years you may as well ignore tax as a source of revenue. This is universal to all major tax system changes.
The new system will inhibit new businesses. This is due to the fact that while businesses only get taxed on taxable profits under the current system (The definitions of what expenses you can claim and what income you don't have to form the bulk of your tax code,) under a sales tax system all businesses will be taxed. Most new businesses take two years to start making profits.
Ron Paul will further weaken America's public education system by allowing it to revert to the states. This will lead to the North-Eastern states widening their current lead on the South when it comes to education, and the South being religated to being a third world hellhole.
Oh yeah and you guys from the South who moan and groan about taxes? Well, under Ron Paul those taxes will go away and your economy will collapse. Why? Because it is the wealthy North-East that actually is contributing the most towards America's federal budget, and you guys who are taking the most.
Thankfully, I am not running for president so I am allowed to point out that of the red states, only four aren't bums and stiffs on a federal level. You guys are reliant on the Fed dollar.
On foreign policy, America will improve a whole lot when it comes to war, but your withdrawal from the UN, coupled with your new trade policies will prove detrimental to your ability to promote your trade interests.
As a major upshot of a Ron Paul presidency the bulk of your comparitively worthless foreign bases in nations which do not need nor want them, will be shut down saving you a fortune in your military expenditure for very little loss in terms of real power.
Terrorism will remain stable, as though you will have "Less" military might, it will likely be better focussed. Frankly, the question of whether you need bases in Japan and Germany has been unasked for too long. South Korea may suffer but then, no foreign policy is perfect.
Your presence in hornet hive states like Israel will be toned back, reducing anti-American sentiment.
Unfortunately, your domestic economic crisis, and general collapse, will mean that the fruits of such change will go unnoticed, as America will cease to be a super-power.
-
A great start!
"In the course of the day, however, he encountered no more than a few hundred local residents..."
A great start!
-
Iowa Polls
Michael Scherer needs to learn how to cite poll statistics correctly. According to the most recent Iowa Poll, Ron Paul is tied with John McCain at 7%.
-
The insanity continues...
"Philosophy is something that Paul speaks of often."
Of course it is, philosophy is one of the major tenents of the libertarian movement, not facts, just some pipe dream utopia based on philosophy, not facts. I too can wish for it to rain $100 bills, but it ain't gonna happen anytime soon. Libertarianism is as flawed, (if not MORE flawed), than what we currently have in place, & will lead to my country being gobbled up by big corporations even faster than it is now.
Taliesan hit every nail on the head in the comments in his/her post, as did hubcap halo, & several others here.
I'm not one of those in favor of either Guliani OR Clinton, (I prefer Obama myself), but I do know that as disasterous are a presidency by them might be, (especially Guliani), it is still preferable to having the "lunatic asylum" that the myriad different beliefs & philosophies, (there's that word again), that Ron Paul's strident followers have.
Being the loudest, most obnoxious, & most annoying doesn't garner votes,prove facts, or make your insane candidate any more appealing to the average voter, & you Paul supporters need to keep that in mind.
-
Ron Paul only wants gold to be legal tender
Watch the following:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hZsZ0_OLer4
He wants a competing monetary system against the current one. It is pure genius - let free market forces give you the best of both worlds - gold backed and fiat. Ron Paul talks a lot of sense.
-
CNN and Ron Paul
Take a GOOD look at Huckabee and the FairTax - why is the FairTax studies only evaluate incomes up to $200,000? Because the effective tax rate for billionaires under the FairTax is less than 1%. You can buy things of great value all day long without ever buying a new one. Think mansions, land, yachts, valuable coins, stamps, bullion, stocks and bonds - all of which increase his wealth and none of which is taxed. The things that are NEW that the super rich require will be provided them as perquisites by the businesses they control. Think company car, company house, company jet - all of which use our infrastructure and none of which is paid for by the entity using them. Why should Walmart pay for roads and bridges when they can get you to pay for free? This is another attempt by the liberal media to face ANYONE but Dr. Ron Paul. Much as we'd like politics to be positive, it is in fact ruled almost entirely by negatives. For instance, what's the biggest negative the Republican Party is facing in 2008? Iraq - a staggering 70% of people favor IMMEDIATE withdrawl from Iraq. Who is the only candidate that doesn't have that negative? Dr. Paul, who advocates using those trillions of dollars to secure our border (perhaps against Saudis who were 20 of the 24 terrorists in 9/11) and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure which is far more worrying than the loss of Social Security. Hm, full employment, withdrawl from Iraq and a huge boost to our economy from rebuilding our infrastructure - what Democrat wants to run against that. Hence the behavior of known liberal biased network CNN, who wants us to nominate either Guiliani or Romney - both of whose negatives are so high the copy practically writes itself!