From the files of Ken LaRive at the Lafayette Examiner
At about two in the morning in the year 2007 I was looking for a YouTube video to validate an essay I was writing for the Examiner. I came across an old interview with a young Dr. Ron Paul. He was warning us of a coming calamity that would become chaos unless addressed, a caution that he saw emphatically manifesting itself in America.
After a half hour, going from one speech to another, I saw his powerful address to Congress, and I knew that his words were viable and true, and could save America. I woke up my wife sleeping in the next room when I gave an involuntary shout, “Oh my God!” I said, “He is telling the truth!”
Fact is, I didn't know about 40 percent of what he was referring to... Government overreach, the escalating and unconstitutional wars, corporatism for war, the National Debt, but I wanted to know more... and over the next several months I studied and learned, listening to every recording I could find, even buying his books on Ebay.
It fundamentally changed the perspective of my world view, my country, and my place in it, and for the very first time in my life, from the streets of New Orleans, the murder capital of the Nation, from Vietnam, to the life I had chosen as an International Mud Engineer... I felt truly afraid.
He was a twelve-term Congressman, and a leading advocate for a Constitutional government, free markets, honest money, personal liberty, and international peace. He had served his country as a Flight Surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and the National Guard during Vietnam.
He was the chairman of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee, founder of the Campaign for Liberty, and had authored eight books. He was a physician who had delivered over 4,000 babies, marrying his high school sweetheart, Carol, with five children.
I saw an endorsement somewhere by Ronald Reagan: “Ron Paul is one of the outstanding fighters for a stronger national defense. As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he puts them first. We need him fighting for our country.”
He talked about issues the American people were talking about, issues other candidates only glossed over, uncomfortable to bring to light. The 11 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., and how they were costing the U.S. Taxpayer $113 billion annually, and like a good doctor, addressed the cause of all of these problems, not merely the symptoms.
He tiredly endorsed the securely of our borders, and opposed federal entitlements and amnesty, such as birthright citizenship, and vied to remove incentives to illegally immigrate in the first place, seeing it as the root of the problem.
A Congressman from a key border state, Texas, he had a plan to halt the 3 million illegal immigrants entering the U.S. each year, that have now escalated to 10, while he proposed bills for LEGAL immigration for those who work hard and obey U.S. Law.
He said: “ We need to worry about our borders right here at home instead of borders in the Middle East.”
He supported our troops, and promised as President he would bring them home. He wanted to put America's security first; not fighting wars, policing, and “nation-building” all over the world. “Our troops are too valuable to be needlessly put in harm's way to serve other nation's interests.” He said.
He addressed that the U.S. had over 900 military installations in over 150 countries, and yet our national security has been compromised because our troops were spread too thin. They belonged home defending America.
A strict Constitutionalist, he advocated that the Federal Government's primary duty was not only to insure our Civil Liberties, but to defend America, and he got more votes from troops because of those two issues, then all other candidates combined.
War costs each American taxpayer $2,626.00 per year, with 6,300 American lives lost for nothing more than international corporate and banking profit. Not one county has embraced our American Constitution, because it is not presented to them as an option.
We install dictators that these bankers and corporations can buy and control, at the same time our Constitution and Bill of Rights are destroyed here at home.
“War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.” -Ron Paul
“If we want to go to war, the Congress should declare it. You get a declaration of war and you fight it and you win it and get it over with. We don't go to war like we did in Vietnam and Korea, because wars never end.” -Ron Paul
He had a plan called “Restore America,” to return America to a constitutional government that had made us the greatest nation in human history.
As President, he would have rescinded unconstitutional mandates that have this country by the throat, delivering major regulatory relief, spending cuts, a sound monetary policy, a balanced budget, creating jobs, and a booming economy.
On stage he stood alone in his convictions to return to our founding principles as a Republic, instead of what it had become, and still is, an oligarch. He not only predicted our crisis, but had a sound solution.
He wanted to:
- Phase out the IRS.
- Phase out Income Tax
Audit and phase out the Federal Reserve
- End Foreign Wars
- Bring our troops home
- Stop all foreign aid
- Secure our borders
- Fix the waist in health care, which is 50 percent of the cost
- Abolish ObamaCare
- Repeal the Patriot Act in its entirety
- Return power to the states, as in the 9th and 10th amendments
- Balance the budget
- Abolish corporate subsidies
- Return spending to 'o6 levels
He wanted to take a yearly salary of $39,336, equal to the average US worker's salary, instead of the Presidential salary of $400,000, and his voting record showed his true nature, voting Constitution every time.
He voted to:
- Lower taxes
For a balanced budget
- To lower Congressional Pay
- To allow gun ownership
- Against a National ID
- To keep internet free
- Against the Iraq war
- Against bailouts
- To limit power to the executive branch
Facts about Ron Paul:
He received the majority of his donations from individuals, where other candidates were funded mostly by special interests, banks and corporations. Ron Paul could not be bought.
Predicted the current economic collapse of 2007, in 2003.
Endorses free trade, but is opposed to NAFTA.
Was called the “Champion of the Constitution” by his peers.
“Believe me, the next step is a currency crisis because there will be a rejection of the dollar. The rejection of the dollar is a big, big event and then your personal liberties are going to be severely threatened.” -Ron Paul (Read his book, “END THE FED” on YouTube: “What is Constitutional money” and “Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air.”
To save us, Ron Paul wanted to re-establish Congressional authority over money. Established in 1913. the FED is an unconstitutional and secretive system, controlled by private bankers. The FED creates money out of thin air creating inflation. This leads to rising prices on everyday things like food, gas, clothing, prescription drugs, energy, and more...
Note that in the year 2000, the U.S. Debt was 5.7 trillion, in 2011 it had reached $15 trillion, around 2 trillion per year. Today we are at about 18.3 trillion, and projected to be 23.3 trillion by the end of 2015. He wanted to audit and expose the FED, who is above all law.
“Without the FED, our money could not be inflated at the behest of big government or big banks. Your income and savings would not lose their value.” -Ron Paul
“There are only two ways to conquer and enslave a nation. One is by sword, the other is by debt.” -John Adams
“I believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money are more dangerous to liberty than a standing army.” _Thomas Jefferson
Health Care
Dr. Paul would have repealed “ObamaCare,” with reduced health care costs and restored the doctor-patient relationship. He would never have allowed the Federal Government to take over health-care, who forces all Americans to to carry only government-approved health insurance or else answer to the IRS.
He had a plan of action to balance the budget in three years, cutting 1 trillion in spending during his first year, eliminating five unnecessary and self serving government agencies, HUD, Energy, Commerce, Interior and Education. He would have ended taxes on personal savings, allowing families to save for the future, while honoring our Social Security System for our seniors and veterans, and would have given young workers the ability to opt out if they so choose, for a private fund. He would have abolished the Death Tax.
He would have lowered the corporate tax rate to 15%, making America competitive in the global market. This would have created an economic boom and a demand for made-in-America products with a large demand for jobs. Trillions would have been invested and reinvested as they would have been allowed to repatriate capital without additional taxation.
YouTube:
- Ron Paul ABC Iowa debates.
- The Only One We Can Trust
- Ron Paul Iowa Debate
- Ron Paul “Imagine” Speech Remastered
AmazinglyAccurate
- Ron Paul
The American Upset
- Jerry Day on Ron Paul and the Media
Ron Paul in 15 Minutes?
- Ron Paul: A New Hope 2.0
- The Consistent Candidate: Ron Paul 2012
- Ron Paul on Meet The press 2011
- When in the course of human Events
- Candidates @ Google: Ron Paul
- You like Ron Paul, Except Foreign Policy
Author's notes:
The purpose of this essay, gleaned from the many pamphlets we Louisiana Libertarians distributed before the 2008 election... from the Louisiana Caucus, door to door in our neighborhoods, to the final night of the RNC betrayal of the Republican Party, America still continues to be ravaged and lied to by a one party system, a dog and pony show called Washington... We have the best government money can buy... bought and paid for by international corporations and central banks who are unaccountable to our laws, with men like George Soros creating a lucrative insider advantage in the mayhem he orchestrates... To say we are systematically being dismantled is not a stretch in a government bought and paid for by special interest lobbyists. We had a man who could have put a stop to it, but Dr. Paul was not good-looking enough for the American sensibility, with 52 percent of Christian women voting for the Progressive Socialist Marxist Obama, a good looking black man without a past. Or, to be more accurate, a past sealed from view by a court order...
Four months before the election we went from six to ten trillion in debt. And today, since Obama has been in office, we are at 18.3, with the promise of 23.3 before he gets out. And where are the voices of decent? A few thugs wanting to burn communities for a free TV and a case of beer? Face Book arm-chair patriots proposing the killing of “ rag heads?” America, what have we become? Home of the free and land of the brave? You are, we are, collectively pathetic. Yes, I remember when no one would put his sign on their lawn, closing the door on me when I asked. They knew nothing about him at all, and could not find the time to study the very profound questions that are destroying us today. Well, I guess I'm a bit bitter about it, and still afraid too, because I see the curtain falling on this nation... and I am at a loss to find a way to stop it... I could say that we will all get just what we deserve, but God, what a loss it will be to no longer have my America. We had so much, and we let it die. And the final nail will be another cold war for corporate profit, and no one cares enough to oppose it.
I remember the so called hippies at the airport, as they booed us in uniform, but it was a different time then, and I was 57 on the draft... Today, our brave service men and women volunteer, believing the lies that we are bringing Democracy to a land, as we topple duly elected Presidents for a puppet dictator, and guard poppy fields for the taste of European parties... and 95 percent of the people killed, are innocent of any crime. We call them collateral damage... But before the chant of change for the sake of change dies to a whisper, there will be no one left to write a truthful epitaph on the tombstone that was once America. And it won't matter much at all, because few would care to read it...
Slavery can come to a human being in many ways, and the most horrific is not a slavers lash, or the chains that hold you to a wall, not even debt slavery that some say is the most profound... No, the most hideous slavery of all, is subjugation of the spirit, where we voluntarily relinquish our Liberty for the crumbs off a table, or a promise to stay safe... but oh, how beautiful we are, as we pledge allegiance to America, waving the flag and bobbing our heads in unison, and never knowing why...
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