Congressman Too Truthful (Ron Paul)



Congressman Too Truthful

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> By: Congressman Ron Paul - House of Representatives

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> 203 Cannon - Washington D.C. 20515

>

> The other day, I made a huge "gaffe" on national TV: I told the

truth about the crimes of the U.S. government.

>

> As you can imagine, the ceiling fell in, and a couple of walls

too. Congressman are supposed to support the government, I was

told. Oh, it's okay to criticize around the edges, but there are

certain subjects a member of the House of Representatives is not

supposed to bring up. But I touched the real "third-rail" of

American politics, and the sparks sure flew.

>

> I was interviewed on C-SPAN's morning "Washington

Journal," and I used the opportunity, as I do all such media

appearances, to point out how many of our liberties have been

stolen by the federal government. We must take them back. The

Constitution, after all, has a very limited role for Washington,

D.C.

>

> If we stuck to the Constitution as written, we would have: no

federal meddling in our schools; no Federal Reserve; no U.S.

membership in the UN; no gun control; and no foreign aid. We

would have no welfare for big corporations, or the "poor"; no

American troops in 100 foreign countries; no Nafta, Gatt, or

"fast-track"; no arrogant federal judges usurping states rights; no

attacks on private property; and no income tax. We could get rid

of most of the cabinet departments, most of the agencies, and

most of the budget. The government would be small, frugal, and

limited.

>

> That system is called liberty. It's what the Founding Fathers

gave us. Under liberty, we built the greatest, freest, most

prosperous, most decent country on earth. It's no coincidence that

the monstrous growth of the federal government has been

accompanied by a sickening decline in living standards and

moral standards. The feds want us to be hamsters on a

treadmill--working hard, all day long, to pay high taxes, but

otherwise entirely docile and controlled. The huge, expensive,

and out-of-control leviathan that we call the federal government

wants to run every single aspect of our lives.

>

> Well, I'm sorry, but that's not America. It's not what the

Founders gave us. It's not the country you believe in. It's not the

country I believe in. So, on that TV interview, I emphasized not

only the attacks on our property, but also the decline of our civil

liberties, at the hands of the federal police. There are not

supposed to be any federal police, according to the Constitution.

>

> Then I really went over the line. I talked about the Waco

massacre. Bill Clinton and Janet Reno claim those 81 church

members, including 19 children, burned down their own church

and killed themselves, and good riddance. So they put few

survivors on trial, and threw them in prison for 40 years.

>

> We're not supposed to remember that the Bureau of Alcohol,

Tobacco, and Firearms--talk about an unconstitutional

agency--rather than arrest David Koresh on his regular morning

jog, called in the TV stations for big publicity bonanza, and sent

a swat team in black masks and black uniforms to break down his

front door, guns blazing. They also sent in a helicopter gunship,

to shoot at the roof of a church full of innocents.

>

> The Branch Davidians resisted, and after a heartless siege of

almost two months, and after cutting off food, water, and

electricity, and playing horrible rock and roll through huge

speakers 24 hours a day, the feds sent in the tanks to crush the

walls of the church, and inject poisonous CS gas.

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> Now, CS gas is banned under the Paris Convention on

Chemical Warfare. The U.S. could not use it in a war. But it

could and did use it against American civilians.

>

> After the tanks did their work on the church, the place burst

into flame, and all 81 people--men, women, children, and babies -

were incinerated in a screaming horror. Did some feds set the

fire? Did the flammable CS gas ignite, since without electricity,

the parishioners were using lanterns? Did a tank knock over a

lantern, striking one of the bales of hay being used against the

thin walls as a "defense" against bullets? Or did the Davidians, as

Clinton and Reno claim, kill themselves?

>

> A new documentary- -Waco: The Rules of Engagement- may

show, through FLIR infrared photography, FBI snipers killing

the Davidians by shooting through the back of the church, where

no media cameras were allowed. This film won a prize at the

famed Sundance Film Festival. It was made by people who took

the government's side, until they investigated.

>

> Whatever the truth, there's no question that an irresponsible

federal government has innocent blood on its hands, and not only

from Waco. And the refusal of corrupt and perverse liberals to

admit it means nothing.

>

> In my r~interview, in answer to a caller's question, I pointed out

that Waco, and the federal murders at Ruby Ridge- especially the

FBI sniper's shot that blasted apart the head of a young mother

holding her baby- caused many Americans to live in fear of

federal power. Then I uttered the sentiment that caused the media

hysteria: I said that a lot of Americans fear that they too might be

attacked by federal swat teams for exercising their constitutional

rights, or merely for wanting to be left alone.

>

> Whoa! You've never seen anything like it. For days, in an

all-out assault, I was attacked by Democrats, unions, big business,

establishment Republicans, and- of course- the media, in

Washington and my home state of Texas. Newspapers foamed at

the mouth, calling me a "right-wing extremist." (Say, isn't that

what George III called Thomas Jefferson?)

>

> I was even blamed for the Oklahoma City bombing! And by the

way, I don't believe we've gotten the full truth on that either. All

my many opponents were outraged that a Congressman would

criticize big government. "If you don't like Washington, resign!"

said a typical big-city newspaper editorial.

>

> But the media, as usual, were all wet. (Do they ever get

anything right?) The average Congressman may go to

Washington to wallow in power, and line his pockets with a big

lobbying job for a special interest (so he can keep ripping-off the

taxpayers). But that's not why I'm in Congress. It's not why I left

my medical practice as a physician. It's not why I put up with all

the abuse. It's not why I refuse a plush Congressional pension.

>

> I'm in this fight for a reason. I want to hand on to my children

and grandchildren, and to you and your family, a great and free

America, an America true to her Constitution, an America worthy

of her history. I will not let the crooks and clowns and criminals

have their way. I'm in Congress to represent the ideas of liberty,

the ideas that you and I share, for the people of my district, for the

people of Texas, for the people of America. That's why I'm

working to stop federal abuses, and to cut the government: its

taxes, its bureaucrats, its paramilitary police, its spending, its

meddling overseas, and every single unconstitutional action it

takes. And not with a pair of nail scissors, but with a hammer and

chisel. Won't you help me do this work?

>

> Not much of the federal leviathan would be left, if I had my

way. But you'd be able to keep the money you earn, your privacy

would be secure, your dollar would be sound, your local school

would be tops, and your kids wouldn't be sent off to some useless

or vicious foreign war to fight for the UN. But Jefferson and the

other Founders would recognize our government, and our

descendants would bless us. By the way, when I say cut taxes, I

don't mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax

and the IRS, and replace them with nothing.

>

> Recently, I asked a famous Republican committee chairman-

who's always talking about getting rid of IRS- why he engineered

a secret $580 million raise for the tax collectors. "They need it for

their computers," this guy told me. So the IRS can't extract

enough from us as it is! The National Taxpayers Union says I

have the highest pro-taxpayer rating in Congressional history,

that I am the top "Taxpayer's Best Friend." You know I won't

play the Capitol Hill games with the Capitol Hill gang,

denouncing the IRS while giving the Gestapo more of your

money. Or figuring out some other federal tax for them to

squeeze out of you. I also want to abolish the Federal Reserve,

and send Alan Greenspan out to get a job.

>

> The value of our dollar and the level of our interest rates are not

supposed to be manipulated by a few members of the power elite

meeting secretly in a marble palace. The Federal Reserve is

unconstitutional, pure and simple. The only Constitutional

money is gold and silver, not notes redeemable in them. Not fed

funny money. Without the Federal Reserve, our money could not

be inflated at the behest of big government or big banks. Your

income and savings would not lose their value. Just as important,

we wouldn't have this endless string of booms and busts,

recessions and depressions, with each bust getting worse. They

aren't natural to the free market; they're caused by the schemers at

the Fed. President Andrew Jackson called the 19th-century Fed

"The Monster" because it was a vehicle for inflation and all sorts

of special-interest corruption. Let me tell you, things haven't

changed a bit. I also work to save our schools from D.C.

interference. Thanks to the feds, new curriculums not only smear

the Founders as "racist, slave-owning elitists," they seek to dumb

down our students so they will all be equal. "Look-say" reading

and the abolition of phonics has the same purpose, and so does

the new "fuzzy" math, in which there are no right and no wrong

answers. That must be what they use in the U.S. Treasury! It's

certainly what they use in the U.S. Congress.

>

> But ever since the beginning of federal aid to education and

accelerating with the establishment of the rotten Department of

Education, SAT scores have been dropping. Schools, with few

exceptions, are getting worse every year. To save our kids, we

must get the sticky fingers of the feds off our local schools, and

let parents rule. That's what the Constitution says, and the Bible

too.

>

> And then there's my least favorite topic, the UN. World

government is obviously unconstitutional. It undermines our

country's sovereignty in the worst way possible. That's why I

want us out of the UN, and the UN itself taking a hike. After all,

the UN is socialist and corrupt (many votes can be bought with a

"blonde and a case of scotch," one UN ambassador once said). It

costs many billions, and it puts our soldiers in UN uniforms

under foreign commanders, and sends them off to

unconstitutional, undeclared wars. When Michael New, one of

the finest young men I've ever met, objected to wearing UN blue,

he was kicked out of the American Army. What an outrage! Not

one dime for the UN, and not one American soldier! Not in Haiti,

not in Bosnia, not in Somalia, not in Rwanda. I know its radical,

but how about devoting American military efforts to defending

America, and only America?

>

> Such ideas, said one newspaper reporter, make me a maverick

who will never go far because he won't go along to get along.

Darn right! What does "go far" mean? Get a big government job?

To heck with that. And I won't sell my vote for pork either. When

I walked through the U.S. Capitol this morning, I got angry. The

building is filled with statues and painting of Jefferson, Madison,

and the other Founders. Those great men sacrificed everything to

give us a free country, and a Constitution to keep it that way.

When I was first elected, I placed my hand on the Bible and

swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. That's exactly what I'm

fighting for. But such ideas drive the liberals crazy. That's why I

badly need your help. I've been targeted nationally for defeat. The

Democrats, the AFL-CIO, the teachers union, big business PACs,

the trial lawyers, the big bankers, the foreign-aid lobbyists, the

big media, and the establishment Republicans want to dance on

my political grave. The Fed, the Education Department, and the

UN are anxious to join in. They can't stand even one person

telling the truth. And they're terrified when that truth gains the

people's support.

>

> Right now, four well-funded Democrats are competing to try to

beat me, and a Republican is rumored to have been offered

money at a secret meeting in Mexico(!) if he would try to knock

me off in a primary. Won't you help me stay up here to fight?

Frankly, I am in trouble if you don't. My Texas district has

22,000 square miles (not a misprint). I've got to travel all over it,

set up small offices to be manned by volunteers, advertise, pay

phone bills, and distribute video and audio tapes to the people to

get around the big-media lies. As I know from my last election,

which I won by the skin of my teeth, the media will carry any

smear, repeat any libel, throw any piece of mud, no matter how

untrue. In fact, the less true, the more they like it. They are

determined to silence me. But you can help me overcome all this.

Together, we can beat the bad guys arrayed against our country

and our freedom. We can support the Constitution. We can win.

Your generous contribution of $25 or $50 would be great...

$100, $250, or even $500 or $1,000 would be magnificent. Of

course, any amount would help, and in return, I will keep you

up-to-date on this fight as a member of my "kitchen cabinet."

What great men founded this country! What great people have

carried on their fight! That fight is not lost, not if you will join it.

Washington, D.C. is a loser, but among the people, our ideas are

gaining every single day.

>

> Keep the tide turning in our direction. Please make your most

generous contribution. Join this fight for the Constitution, and

stop those who want to rip it up, and throw it in the Potomac.

Together, we can join the Founders' fight. Together, we can make

history.

>

> Sincerely, Ron Paul U. S. Congressman 203 Cannon,

Washington D.C. 20515

>

> Committee to Re-elect Ron Paul - 837 W. Plantation - Clute,

Texas 77531

>

The problem with politicians and their bootlicking bureaucrats is that they are too stupid to do real productive work or be an enterpreneur. The rest of us have to work to support them, and they are out of control. They want to control us and force us to pay them, just like a robber, because they are too lazy and stupid to do it on their own. And they keep hiring more bootlickers and getting in more and more places where they shouldn't be (just like a good Nazi) and steal our kids, our land, our paychecks, our cars - because they are greedy and out of control crooks! Let's make them do real work (such as farmer, logger, rancher, truckdriver, coalminer, etc.) r like a Bill Gates - someone that actually producers something, instead of starting wars, using their cops to shoot us, and putting us in jail for drugs that they bring into the country! WHen will the human race wake up to these con artists, criminals that we have accepted as the way it is! KICK THEM ALL OUT! MAKE THEM GET A REAL JOB!

Bill Gates is the epitome of privitization.

He purchases companies, polishes and markets their software under the MS brand, stomps out the competition, and then sets prices.

The rest of the world now had to follow his lead.

That's not competitive. That's verging on totalitarian.

Some of the propaganda on microsoft.com is offensive to any freedom loving person.

The EULA is a horror, and curtails your freedom of speech.

That's not to say his competition isn't seeking to dominate human culture in the same way. The issue is that Bill Gates' megalomania is backed up by revenuues rivaling a small nation's.

Capitalist Libertarians need to get real. Worship of property is the OPPOSITE of freedom.

I almost find myself tearfully nodding in agreement once in a while at Ron Paul's rant. It's good to see a red blooded, meat-and-potatoes rightwing Texan denouncing US imperial adventurism, and defending old fashioned civil liberties. Good for him. But it's too bad that the Libertarians like him are so painfully blind to the marriage of corporate and government power. Hint to Ron: Forget the UN and black helicopters. The New World Order is American as apple pie. And the "free market" is smoke-and-mirrors -- has been for as long as capitalism and large scale industry held sway in this country.

And about those "Founding Fathers." Well, they WERE slave holders and racists, and they did merrily exterminate the natives in an orgy of ethnic cleansing that makes Slobodan Milosevic look like a boy scout. Truth is hard sometimes. Recognizing these honest facts doesn't mean we should go hunt down and burn the collected works of Thomas Jefferson. It doesn't mean we should have no appreciation for the distance we've come and the victories for liberty that have been won: We kicked the British imperialists out, we ended slavery, women won the right to vote, black Americans won civil rights -- de jure if not always de facto -- and so on. But the point is, the real American revolution is still a work in progress, and there's a WHOLE LOT of unfinished business left. We're arguably not even half done. It's too bad people like Ron Paul only seem to want to protect some illusory vision of an idyllic past, and not fight for a better future for everyone.

Worst of all, it's too bad that the rightwing spinmeisters have successfully constructed a fatuous, Manichaean ideological universe, populated by twin straw men of Big Bad Government and Noble Free Enterprise. Sadly, people like Ron Paul and his fellow Libertarians eat this shit up -- they're always trying to shoehorn the complexities of the modern capitalist government-corporate structure into this simplistic rightwing paradigm.

The results are often nonsensical: Paul denounces US military "interventionism," but never fails to notice the interests that the military is protecting, principally the auto, oil, petrochemical and allied-industrial complexes and their soulmates, the military industrial complex. So Paul and his fellow Libertarians, transfixed by the siren song of their rightwing Manichaean ideology, spend their time railing against modest taxes on things like gasoline or big, polluting cars, money that could be directed towards developing public transportation that could help start to free us from the current corporate-government oligarchy. I'm sure I could easily multiply the examples of the blunders that his cockeyed ideological blinders make him stumble into.

Maybe, just maybe, with a freer media system and open public debate unshackled from the straitjacket imposed by current elites, we could all have more honest discussions and shed some light on our real common problems. Honest, if often wrongheaded, people like Ron Paul would be worthy partners with progressives on the left in such a freewheeling debate. I think eventually, people on both sides might really discover that there's more that unites than divides us.