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Ron Paul’s Inaugural
Address
Johnny Kramer
Lew Rockwell.com
Wednesday September 5, 2007
Johnny
Kramer wonders what it might look like.
The Ron
Paul campaign has excited libertarians, but many people wonder
what he could accomplish as president, facing a contrary Congress.
While some of this is speculation and it’s not my intention to
put words in Dr. Paul’s mouth, his inaugural address might sound
something like this:
January 20,
2009
"My
fellow citizens:
"On
November 4th of last year, you, the American people,
overwhelmingly rejected the erosion of liberty that has occurred
in this country during the 20th Century and into the
21st.
"You
rejected having your money stolen through taxes and the inflationary
fiat money of the government’s central bank.
"You
rejected deficit spending.
"You
rejected corporatism – the suppression of competition by government,
at the behest of politically-connected businesses and at the expense
of their competitors and of you, the consumer, under the guise
of ‘consumer protection’; forced cartelization of industry; and
of businesses profiting through the theft of being financed by
tax dollars.
(Article continues below)
"You
rejected government healthcare.
"You
rejected nation-building and wars of foreign aggression.
"You
rejected the erosion of your civil liberties under the guise of
fighting ‘terrorism.’
"I
know this because I promised, backed by a 30-year record of honesty
and integrity, to do my best to put a stop to all of these things,
and more, if you elected me to serve as your president. You had
a choice to make that day: My agenda or the status quo. You chose
my agenda. I humbly thank you, and I hope to repay your confidence
during the next four years.
The Budget
"Last
year, the federal government spent $3 trillion, which is more
money than it spent from 1787 to 1900 combined, in 2007 dollars.
"In
1963, John F. Kennedy was concerned when the budget hit $99 billion,
because he didn’t want to be the first president with a $100 billion
budget.
"In
1980, when Ronald Regan promised to get government off of our
backs, the federal budget was $500 billion.
"In
1990, just half a generation later, the federal budget had more
than doubled, to more than $1 trillion.
"In
1995, when the Republicans took control of Congress, the federal
budget was $1.5 trillion.
"In
2000, leading into the previous administration, the budget was
$1.8 trillion.
"The
budget last year was $3 trillion.
"In
short, the budget has doubled in just 13 years. It’s six times
what it was in 1980, and 20 times what it was in 1960.
"What
happened in 1995, 1990, 1960, or even 1900, with a much smaller
government? The sky didn’t fall, California didn’t break off into
the ocean, and people weren’t starving in the streets.
"There’s
no question that our standard of living today is much higher than
in previous years, but that’s in spite of government spending
and regulation, not because of it.
"Today,
thanks to the degree of capitalism, liberty and property rights
that remain in this country, the poor literally have a higher
standard of living than the richest person in the world did less
than 150 years ago. Consider that the wealthiest of the wealthy
in the 19th Century didn’t have indoor plumbing, electricity,
central heating or air-conditioning, or life-saving antibiotics
and other life-saving medical technologies of 2009, much less
cars, airplanes, computers, televisions, telephones, cell phones,
and on and on.
"Where
did these things come from? Who makes life better for you: the
private sector, or government?
"The
standard of living we would enjoy without government boggles the
mind.
"In
contrast, what is the federal government giving us for our $3
trillion a year? It steals our money, through taxation and inflation,
as the price of earning a living and attempting to save some of
it. It tells us what we can buy and what we can sell, whom we
can hire and whom we can fire, and with whom we can associate
and with whom we cannot, as well as other impediments to the peaceful,
voluntary interaction that makes civilization possible. It runs
up the prices of the goods we buy and holds down the wages we
earn. It keeps life-saving medicines and other products from us
under the guise of ‘consumer protection.’ And that’s just for
starters; I don’t have time today to even begin detailing the
ways in which government abuses us.
Budget
Breakdown
"On
what does the federal government spend the $3 trillion it extracts
from the economy yearly?
"In
2007, the budget broke down as follows:
- $699 billion
(+4.0%) - Defense
- $586.1
billion (+7.0%) - Social
Security
- $394.5
billion (+12.4%) - Medicare
- $367.0
billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare
- $276.4
billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid
and other health related
- $243.7
billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt
- $89.9
billion (+1.3%) - Education and training
- $76.9
billion (+8.1%) - Transportation
- $72.6
billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits
- $43.5
billion (+9.2%) - Administration
of justice
- $33.1
billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment
- $32.5
billion (+15.4%) - Foreign affairs
- $27.0
billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture
- $26.8
billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development
- $25.0
billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology
- $20.1
billion (+11.4%) - General government
- $1.1 billion
(+47.6%) - Energy
"And
all of these figures represent increases over the previous year’s
budget." (Figures in parentheses show increase.)
"The
income tax accounts for $1.1 trillion, which means if it were
repealed, the federal government would still be roughly the size
it was in 2000, just nine years ago,
"The
interest in the debt accounts for roughly 8% of the budget, so
that could be eliminated with a balanced budget.
"Within
30 days, I will send Congress a budget for the new fiscal year
that cuts federal spending by 50% immediately, repeals the income
tax and replaces it with nothing, and requires that the budget
be balanced. I’ll let them figure out what to cut; most of this
spending is blatantly unconstitutional and destructive to the
average person’s standard of living anyway, so overall I’m unconcerned
with where the cuts will come from.
The Military
"I
urge Congress to make the military budget a large percentage of
the cuts, as it’s the cost of empire and policing the world and
is bankrupting us.
"Toward
that end, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, today I will
order the complete, immediate removal of all U.S. troops from
foreign soil.
"I
sincerely hope that another budget cut Congress chooses to make
will be the complete repeal of all foreign aid, which accomplishes
little but to prop up thugs, dictators and brutal, oppressive
regimes.
"And,
freed from the income tax, individual Americans will have the
resources to send money to causes they support; if they wish to
send their money to suffering foreigners, that’s their business.
But it has a much better chance of doing good, rather than evil,
traveling through private channels.
"I
want the United States to adopt a position of armed neutrality,
able to defend herself, but aggressor against none; friend and
trading partner with all. We are probably the most geographically-blessed
nation on earth, with thousands of miles of ocean to the east
and west, and friendly neighbors to the north and south. Why must
we police the world?
"Beginning
today, the U.S. armed forces will exist to maintain a border and
shore patrol to repel an incoming military invasion and to maintain
a missile defense, once one is developed.
"Speaking
of that, anyone who understands economics knows that the best
way to accomplish something is through the profit motive, while
the worst way is through a government bureaucracy. To that end,
today I am offering a $100 billion reward to the first private
company that can produce a working missile defense.
Osama
bin Laden
"On
September 11, 2001, the United States was hit with a brutal, devastating
terrorist attack. While I sincerely believe that the attack was
blowback for 50 years of U.S. government meddling in the Middle
East, it was still a despicable, unacceptable criminal act.
"A
criminal act – not an act of war. To respond by killing innocent
civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere is no better than the terrorists
responding to U.S. foreign policy by killing innocent Americans.
"It
is widely believed that former U.S. ally Osama bin Laden was responsible
for 9/11. Yet in over seven years since the attack, he has been
neither caught nor punished, largely because our government was
too busy nation-building and policing the world.
"I
will be reviewing the evidence for bin Laden’s guilt with my Attorney
General and his staff. If they agree that the evidence is strong
enough to get an indictment in a normal criminal proceeding, if
the networks and cable news outlets will be so kind as to give
me some time, I will go on television, lay the evidence out before
the world, and offer a ransom for anyone who can deliver bin Laden,
and any accomplices the evidence indicts, alive to U.S. custody.
If you kill any of them, you won’t get a dime; we don’t execute
people without trials here.
"If
they are captured, they will receive fair public trials, with
all of the habeas corpus and other rights that would be afforded
to any American system. I want America to be an example to the
world at all times, even trying times such as these.
The War
on Terror
"Regarding
the overall War on Terror: Terrorism is a tactic, an abstraction;
you can’t have a war against an abstraction. Terrorism is not
a person who can surrender, or an organization or nation-state
with a leader who can surrender. The concept is inherently nonsense.
"And
the evidence is overwhelming that America’s aggressive, proactive
War on Terror has significantly increased, not decreased, terrorism.
"There’s
no way that the government, or anyone else, can possibly anticipate
every possible place and every possible way that a terrorist could
strike, especially in a country this size. If it’s going to happen,
it’s going to happen; foil one plot, and the terrorists will just
hatch another. It was the government that failed to protect us
on 9/11; why should we look to them now? The best defense against
terrorism is armed neutrality and not giving anyone a reason to
hate, fear or want to attack us.
"Yet
the government constantly tells us that we must trade our civil
liberties for safety. As Benjamin Franklin said, "He who
sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." As president,
I will immediately begin pressuring Congress to repeal all so-called
anti-terrorism measures enacted since 9/11 that infringe on civil
liberties, including the Patriot Act and the Real I.D. Act.
Vices
"A
pressing issue for many today is vices, such as illicit drugs.
"The
constitution gives the federal government no jurisdiction over
vices. Yet the federal government continually wastes billions
of dollars, and destroys thousands and thousands of lives, trying
to stop peaceful, voluntary activities.
"A
government is not the arbiter of morality; it’s nothing but a
group of people who grant themselves a legal monopoly on the use
of force within a certain area. Governments routinely engage in
behavior that would be universally regarded as criminal in the
private sector.
"Liberty
is the condition of being legally free to do as you choose, so
long as you’re not forcibly intruding on anyone else’s body or
property.
"Naturally,
a great deal of peaceful, voluntary behavior that falls within
the guidelines of liberty is personally destructive. But, if it
should be illegal to buy, sell or ingest certain drugs, for example,
why shouldn’t it be illegal to smoke, drink too much, eat a bad
diet, go into too much debt, marry the wrong person, not get an
education, or choose a career for which one is ill-suited? If
personal harm is the standard for illegality, we should all be
in prison.
"It
may shock many to hear, but 100 years ago, there were no drug
laws in this country, not even prescription laws, and a 10-year-old
child could walk into a drug store and buy marijuana, cocaine
or even heroin. In fact, Bayer – the same company that makes Bayer
aspirin today – used to manufacture heroin, and even introduced
heroin to the market the year before they introduced aspirin,
in the 1880s, because they believed at the time that aspirin was
the more dangerous drug. Heroin was sold as a pain reliever and
sedative and was perfectly safe; it only became a deadly, toxic
substance once it was outlawed, much like gin became a deadly,
toxic substance during Prohibition, when it was produced in people’s
bathtubs instead of in legitimate distilleries.
"Please
understand that I am not condoning recreational drug use. As a
medical doctor, I have seen the destruction to lives that drugs
can cause. But most of that destruction, such as high prices requiring
theft to support the habits, drive-by shootings, gang warfare
and pushers on schoolyards, is caused by the black market created
by illegality, not by the drugs themselves.
"Nor
am I saying that some people won’t still take drugs if they’re
legal; of course they will. I live in the real world, not the
ridiculous "Drug Free America" utopia that the government
is always promising – and failing miserably – to create. But I
sincerely believe that drug use, and its negative effects on society,
will be minimized with a free, legal market.
"In
a free society, people should be free to make their own mistakes,
harm themselves, even harm their loved ones indirectly through
their behavior, and pay the consequences that naturally follow
from their actions. The legal system should only get involved
if the behavior forcibly violates another person’s body or property.
"And,
again, the constitution gives the federal government no jurisdiction
over drugs or any other vice.
"So
today I will grant a full, unconditional pardon to anyone who
has been convicted of a federal, non-violent drug offense. I will
order them all to be released from prison within 90 days – unfortunately,
there are a lot of people to process and it will take some time.
I will also restore their full civil and voting rights.
"The
constitution only allows three federal crimes: Treason, piracy
and counterfeiting. So today I will also begin granting pardons
to anyone convicted of any other federal, victimless crime, such
as non-violent gun control offenses, federal tax charges, and
insider trading.
Executive
Orders
"Today
I will issue an Executive Order, temporarily freezing all previous
Executive Orders and regulations put in place by previous presidents
until I can review the constitutionality of each one. If I deem
one to be unconstitutional, I will issue another Executive Order,
repealing it.
The Federal
Reserve
"In
1913, the Federal Reserve system was sold to the American people
as a way to ‘stabilize’ the banking industry and avoid bank runs
and panics. Since then, the Federal Reserve has presided over
a decade-plus depression, numerous recessions and near-constant
inflation. A 1913 dollar is now worth about four cents. Inflation
is a hidden tax by the wealthy against the poor and middle class.
"Fiat
money and the artificial expansion of credit also causes the boom-and-bust
cycle, such as the stock market bubble in 2000 and the housing
market bubble today. Many poor and middle class Americans have
had their standards of living significantly damaged by this cycle,
which wouldn’t occur in a free market with sound money.
"Today
I will begin urging Congress to amend banking regulations to allow
for a much more competitive, freer market in banking, including
the legalization of private money to compete with fiat Federal
Reserve Notes.
Health
Care
"Another
important issue today is health care.
"Despite
its flaws, and despite propaganda to the contrary, America’s health
care system is still the envy of the world. Stories abound of
people from countries with socialized healthcare, such as Canada,
traveling to the U.S. for live-saving procedures either the bureaucrats
in their own country had denied or to avoid a many-month or many-year
wait.
"Unfortunately,
there is only one way to ration scarce resources: By price. The
alternative is forced rationing and waiting lines; governments
cannot create resources out of thin air. In a free market, competition
and innovation drive prices down, and charity exists for life-and-death
services for those who need them and cannot pay.
"And
there is nothing compassionate about forcing people at gunpoint
to wait in line for treatment, to put life-or-death decisions
about their health in the hands of bureaucrats, or to create a
dangerous black market in health care, which is the market’s attempt
to circumvent the government’s failures.
"Some
say that essential services, like health care, should be beyond
pricing and profit. This is nonsense; there is no such thing as
a right to something for which someone else has to pay.
"Furthermore,
unless someone has an immediately life-threatening injury or illness,
food is more essential for life than healthcare; by this logic,
people should have a ‘right’ to ‘free’ food too.
"If
this seems like a good idea, consider that in countries that have
preached such beliefs and forcibly nationalized food production
and distribution, there was mass starvation on a scale that Americans
cannot begin to comprehend.
"But,
in countries like the U.S., where people are ‘exploited’ by greedy,
selfish food manufacturers, supermarkets and restaurants, even
the poorest people have more food than they can eat, and the government
still makes food more expensive than it would otherwise be, through
things like farm subsidies.
"And
health care is technology driven, so people should also consider
how it is that things like cell phones, DVD players, plasma televisions
and computers have fallen 50–90% in price over the past 10
years, even while the quality goes up, while health care continues
to get more and more expensive.
"Health
care is one of the most-regulated industries in America today.
It began in earnest in the late-19th Century, through
the forced cartelization of the industry through things like licensing
laws. As a medical doctor, I know that these laws were not enacted
to protect the public; they were enacted at the behest of the
health care industry, to artificially inflate their incomes by
restricting the supply.
"Government
regulation of health care and insurance has continued unabated
throughout the 20th Century.
"As
recently as the mid-1960s, a one-week hospital stay for an average
surgical procedure was $1,000 in today’s dollars – and that was
the total bill, not what remained to be paid after insurance paid
its part. And health insurance was cheaply available to all who
needed it.
"By
the government’s own figures, health care costs seniors twice
what it did before Medicare, even after adjusting for inflation.
"The
FDA approval process drives up the prices of drugs and delays
their arrival on the market for years. The FDA has killed more
people by keeping life-saving drugs off the market for too long
than it has saved by preventing potentially dangerous drugs from
being sold. It’s common sense that it’s not in the self-interest
of a pharmaceutical company to poison its customers.
"HMOs
became powerful because of legislation enacted on their behalf
in the 1970s.
"There
are many other ways government impeded health care, and I don’t
have time to detail them all today.
"But
rest assured that, as president, I will urge Congress to repeal
all federal regulations on the health care and insurance industries.
Social
Security and Medicare
"Two
other pressing issues are Social Security and Medicare.
"Unfortunately,
several generations of Americans have been conditioned to look
to the government as their provider, and now many people, especially
seniors, are dependent on government for their survival. While
I sincerely believe that these programs never should’ve been started,
I want to assure seniors that I have no intention of cutting off
their benefits without making provisions for them.
"When
Congress debates my budget proposal, I will urge them to make
provisions for Social Security and Medicare for the next fiscal
year. And I will urge them to alter how Social Security operates,
to change it from a Ponzi scheme where the incoming money is spent
immediately, to a program where the money is saved.
"I
will also push for people who are not already collecting Social
Security to be allowed to opt out of it, to be freed from the
15% tax in exchange for renouncing their claim to any future benefits.
Unfortunately, the money they’ve already paid into the system
can’t be refunded, because the politicians already spent it.
"If
my other health care proposals are enacted and the market is freed,
health care should become so inexpensive that the need for Medicare
will evaporate and it can eventually be repealed, but it may take
a few years.
"Later
in my term, I hope to explore alternatives for completely privatizing
Social Security, such as buying lifetime annuities with private
insurance companies for everyone who’s already collecting, or
will be within the next 10 years.
Congress
"Finally
today, let me address the issue of Congress.
"There
are a lot of people in Congress who believe in the State, in the
virtue of using force to remake society.
"Many
expect Congress to fight me tooth and nail. They may, but I want
to warn them that they will be taking an enormous political risk
if they defy me. Again, the American people had a choice to make
last November, and they chose the agenda I’ve outlined today.
"I
ask the American people to contact their Representatives and Senators
and urge them to help me restore liberty to America.
Thank
You
"There
are many other problems in our great nation today, and of course
I have not discussed them all. But I do believe I’ve outlined
an excellent start.
"I
want to humbly thank you again for choosing me to represent you
for the next four years, and I again promise to do my best to
repay your confidence and to make this a free country again."
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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