by Ron Paul
In addition, the budgets of every federal cabinet department should at the very least be immediately frozen, a policy that all responsible people can surely embrace. Everyone should be forced to live within his or her means--all the more so when we are speaking of federal agencies for which the Constitution makes no provision. Most departments, with the exception of State, Defense, and Justice, deal with matters that our Constitution properly leaves to the states or to the people, and the people should no longer be exploited to support them. For too long, swarms of Washington bureaucrats have grown fat with wealth and power--all in the name of the "common good," they assure us--at the expense of the beleaguered American people. That must come to an end.
Forget all the protests we'll hear about how indispensable these departments are--departments Americans got by very well without for more than 80 percent of our history, I might add. We do not have the resources for them. That is the point. And more forced labor to fund them is neither morally acceptable nor economically wise.
It is only our intellectual inertia and lack of imagination that make us think these departments necessary in the first place. A federal Department of Education, for example, is an insult to the American people, who are more than capable of running their own schools without being looted to support a national education bureaucracy. We would get by just fine without it, as indeed Americans did for most of the twentieth century, a period when--by just a coincidence?--the population was far better educated than it is now. In fact, given the Department of Education's sorry record, if I truly opposed learning and knowledge I would propose tripling its budget.
If we adopted a sensible policy like this, the very announcement would restore strength to the dollar. And the more we lived within our means, the less inflation we would have and the less the poor and middle class would suffer, since there would be less pressure on the Fed to monetize debt.
We also need to begin to restore monetary freedom, which means that Americans should be free, if they wish, to engage in transactions and contracts denominated in gold and silver. It is essential that Americans be able to protect themselves in this way against any coming monetary disaster that would leave them holding valueless dollar bills. No one in politics or the media even talks about the issue, so you know it must be important.
There is much that the president cannot do on his own and that requires the approval of Congress. He may earnestly recommend certain courses of action, and try to rally the public behind them, but the initiative rests with Congress. Everything we have described in this chapter thus far falls into this category. At the same time, in areas critical to the health of our republic the president holds tremendous power for good in his own hands.
For one thing, every president sets priorities in the enforcement of laws and how he directs the attorney general. Just because the federal government has been given a power does not mean it must be exercised. The president could simply declare that the executive branch will direct no resources to the prosecution of medical marijuana patients. He could refuse to violate habeas corpus. He could refuse to detain people forever without legal counsel and without even knowing the charges against them. He can take these and other sensible measures even if Congress should refuse to curtail runaway executive authority, since the president is nowhere obligated to exercise such authority. And he can not only refuse to issue any more unconstitutional executive orders, but he can even issue an executive order repealing those that previous presidents have issued.
In foreign policy, the president as commander in chief can order the troops brought home from Iraq in a matter of months, not years, a policy no top Democratic candidate in 2008 consistently committed to. (Again, so much for the opposition party.) We are told by the war propagandists that such a withdrawal will lead to chaos, as if chaos did not exist there already, but these are the same people who also assured us that the war would be a breeze and that the whole thing would be paid for out of oil revenues. Why should we take their predictions seriously ever again? In the case of Vietnam, which is now a trading partner and has a functioning stock market, we have accomplished much more in peace than we ever did in an enormously costly war.
Particularly in light of the National Intelligence Estimate that was released in December 2007, the president should order the navy to back off the shores of Iran, and make clear that we have no intention of attacking that country. The president should likewise declare that the United States is abandoning its isolationist posture of refusing major diplomatic contact with Iran and that he is willing to talk with Iranian leaders, just as American presidents talked to Soviet and Chinese leaders throughout the Cold War. The sanctions against Iran should also be removed, as a further indication of our country's shift away from isolationism.
The price of oil would shoot downward and the dollar would move upward on the basis of these announcements. The United States would suddenly become diplomatically credible once again for the first time in years. The isolationism that our leaders have imposed on us would now be reversed, as our government once again observes basic norms of conduct to which all countries are expected to conform. No longer would the White House--which is now viewed throughout the world the way the free world once viewed Pravda, the old communist newspaper--bombard the international community with a ceaseless barrage of war-justifying propaganda that no one anywhere, apart from the gullible (and often complicit) American media, actually believes. And no longer would the patriotic sentiments of decent Americans be exploited on behalf of wars that have more to do with imperial ambition than with American security.
In other words, we need to keep our wits about us, and replace our bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy with a statesmanlike approach that is appropriate to the real needs of American security. We also need to stand firmly against moral relativism, recalling that actions do not become moral just because our government performs them.
And if we really oppose isolationism, as all our politicians assure us they do, then sanctions against Cuba should be lifted as well. Sanctions hurt the target population but rarely do serious harm to the targeted regime. How well have our sanctions succeeded in getting rid of Fidel Castro, who has happily exploited the sanctions in order to posture as an anti-American martyr oppressed by Yankee wickedness? There is no reason that Americans should not be free to travel and trade with Cuba. When I said so in a Miami Republican debate, the response was not unexpected. Afterward, though, I spoke to a huge rally--with Cuban-Americans making up 70 percent of those in attendance--where everyone cheered the message of freedom. It seems to be a generational issue: younger people, not emotionally or politically attached to our failed policy, know the Cuban regime's days are numbered no matter what, and that freedom, as usual, is the most morally attractive position for America to take starting right now.
It is also time to begin bringing American troops home from around the world--an absolute necessity if the budget is ever to be brought under control. We're going broke and we still have 75,000 troops in Germany? Talk about being frozen in the past. The president should notify our allies of the policy, which no one ever told Americans was to be in effect indefinitely, and then begin a withdrawal. We have not had a foreign policy that is proper to a republic for many, many years, and it is long past time that we reestablished one. If we did, Americans would be safer, our military would be more efficient and effective, and we would make an excellent start toward restoring our international competitiveness--other countries, after all, are not burdened with the same self-imposed overseas expenditures with which the federal government has weighed down the American economy for so many years.
What I am describing is the only realistic option Americans have. (That is, it would be their most realistic option if anyone in our government would actually offer it to them.) The alternative consists of an ever-growing financial burden, more police state measures, and an endless string of wars, pitched to Americans on the basis of now-familiar propaganda and financed by more borrowing, higher
taxes, and more money printed out of thin air. The collapse of the dollar will not be far behind.
The empire game our government has been playing is coming to an end one way or another. This is the fate of all empires: they overextend themselves and then suffer a financial catastrophe, typically involving the destruction of the currency. We are already seeing the pattern emerging in our own case. We can either withdraw gracefully, as I propose, or we can stay in our fantasy world and wait until bankruptcy forces us to scale back our foreign commitments. Again, I know which option I prefer.
Will it be difficult? Perhaps, though not nearly as much as some people think. We would finally begin to pull ourselves out from the crushing burden of debt and unfunded obligations that have hung over our economy for far too long. Our country would enjoy far more robust economic performance than we have seen in many decades. Rich and poor alike could once again look to the future with confidence, instead of a sense of foreboding.
Doing nothing would be far more difficult. In my travels around the country I have discovered that young people are waking up to reality faster than anyone else, since they realize that the cosmetic changes our political class is calling for will do nothing to prevent the financial catastrophe they now fear they will inherit. What decent parents would want to do such a thing to their children?
Ours is not a fated existence, for nowhere is our destiny etched in stone. In the final analysis, the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on needless wars, destroys the value of their dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them.
If freedom is what we want, it is ours for the taking.
Let the revolution begin.
A Reading List for a Free and Prosperous America
These are some of the books that have influenced me over the years. Naturally, some are more suited to the beginner than others. Some of the monetary texts, for instance, are for the advanced student, so I recommend beginning a study of monetary economics with Murray Rothbard's short book What Has Government Done to Our Money? (listed below), a classic that has been translated into countless languages.
ARMENTANO, DOMINICK. Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure, 2nd ed. Oakland, Calif.: Independent Institute, 1990.
BACEVICH, ANDREW J. The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
BAMFORD, JAMES. A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies. New York: Anchor, 2005.
BOVARD, JAMES. Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. New York: Palgrave Mac-millan, 2004.
DILORENZO, THOMAS J. The Real Lincoln. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.
ENGDAHL, F. WILLIAM. A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
FLEMING, THOMAS. The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I. New York: Basic Books, 2004.
------. The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
FLYNN, JOHN T. As We Go Marching. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1944. Flynn, an accomplished journalist, analyzes fascism in Italy and Germany and concludes by considering the state of America in his day.
FOLSOM, BURTON W., JR. The Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America. Herndon, Va.: Young America's Foundation, 1993.
GARRETT, GARET. The People's Pottage. Caldwell, Id.: Caxton, 1953. This is a persuasively argued and compellingly written early critique of the New Deal policies of the 1930s.
GIBBON, EDWARD. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. New York: Modern Library, 2003 [1776-88].
GRIFFIN, G. EDWARD. The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, 4th ed. Westlake Village, Calif.: American Media, 2002.
HAYEK, FRIEDRICH A. The Road to Serfdom. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944.
HAZLITT, HENRY. Economics in One Lesson. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1988 [1946]. This classic text has helped millions of Americans understand basic economics and the free market in just a few hours. (An indication of how the world has changed: Hazlitt once wrote editorials for the New York Times.)
HOFFER, ERIC. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. New York: Harper & Row, 1951.
HOLZER, HENRY MARK, ed. The Gold Clause: What It Is and How to Use It Profitably. iUniverse, 2000.
JASTRAM, ROY WILLIAM. The Golden Constant: The English and American Experience, 1560-1976. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1978.
JOHNSON, CHALMERS. Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire, 2nd ed. New York: Henry Holt, 2004.
KWITNY, JONATHAN. Endless Enemies: America's Worldwide War Against Its Own Best Interests. New York: Congdon & Weed, 1984.
LANE, ROSE WILDER. The Discovery of Freedom. New York: John Day, 1943.
MACKAY, CHARLES. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. London: George Routledge & Sons, 1869 [1841].
MISES, LUDWIG VON. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949.
MUELLER, JOHN. Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them. New York: Free Press, 2006.
NAPOLITANO, ANDREW P. Constitutional Chaos: What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006.
------. A Nation of Sheep. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007.
PALYI, MELCHIOR. The Twilight of Gold, 1914-1936: Myths and Realities. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1972.
PAPE, ROBERT. Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. New York: Random House, 2006.
PASTERNAK, BORIS. Doctor Zhivago. New York: Pantheon, 1997 [1958].
PATERSON, ISABEL. The God of the Machine. New York: Putnam, 1943. A classic work of libertarian political theory.
POWELL, JIM. Wilson's War. New York: Crown Forum, 2005.
RAND, AYN. Atlas Shrugged. New York: Random House, 1957. I consider all of Rand's novels worth reading, in spite of my strong disagreements with her on important matters.
READ, LEONARD E. The Love of Liberty. Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y: Foundation for Economic Education, 1975.
REES-MOOG, WILLIAM. The Reigning Error: The Crisis of World Inflation. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1974.
ROBERTS, PAUL CRAIG, and LAWRENCE M. STRATTON. The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Roseville, Calif.: Prima, 2000.
ROCKWELL, LLEWELLYN H., JR. Speaking of Liberty. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2005.
ROTHBARD, MURRAY N. America's Great Depression, 5th ed. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000.
------. What Has Government Done to Our Money? Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1990. The entire text is available for free at http://www.mises.org/money.asp.
RUEFF, JACQUES. The Monetary Sin of the West. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
SCHEUER, MICHAEL. Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2004.
------. Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America, rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2004.
SENNHOLZ, HANS F. Age of Inflation. Belmont, Mass.: Western Islands, 1979.
SOLOMON, NORMAN. War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. New York: Wiley, 2006.
STERN, JESSICA. Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. New York: HarperPerennial, 2004.
TANSILL, CHARLES CALLAN. Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1933-1941. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1952.
TOCQUEVILLE, ALEXIS DE. Democracy in A
merica. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002 [1835, 1840].
TUCHMAN, BARBARA J. The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. New York: Ballantine, 1985.
WEAVER, HENRY GRADY. The Mainspring of Human Progress. Irvington-on-Hudson, N.Y.: Foundation for Economic Education, 1953.
*I do not claim that pollution consisting of a few undetectable particles must be prohibited, or that no airplanes would have the right to travel high above people's homes. These are legitimate matters for the courts, where such matters have been properly decided in the past. (back to text)
*I am indebted for much of this discussion to Charles Whitebread and Richard Bonnie, Marihuana Conviction: The Legal History of Drugs in the United States (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1974). (back to text)
*John Adams is often misquoted as saying that one third of Americans supported the revolution, one third opposed it, and one third were indifferent. Historians have repeated this incorrect quotation time and again. Adams was in fact speaking of American support for the French Revolution. Historian William F. Marina has shown convincingly that a majority of Americans supported the American Revolution. (back to text)
