Presidential Candidates II

I urge you to take this election very seriously and do a complete study of the candidates’ positions on critical issues. For me, the main issues are over-spending and government overreach. This is not about who we like; it’s about who will save us from becoming a third world country. This is not a beauty contest and half-measures are insufficient. Future posts will outline updates on each candidates’ positions on critical issues.

Critical Issues

If you took the Vote Smart Vote Easy questionnaire and got your percentage match, you have done at least a cursory check based on issues. My standard for picking a candidate is to add up what he says to see if I get a $1 trillion a year in spending cuts. Only Ron Paul has done that so far. I wasn’t surprised after I took the Vote Smart Vote Easy questionnaire that Ron Paul’s position on issues matched at 97% with my answers.

I just finished my second exercise on Google. I typed in the candidate’s name and an issue like spending cuts, 10th Amendment, foreign aid, etc. Then I would go to the websites below and look up what they said. This is my follow-up exercise on issues to see what I missed.

I hear all the other candidates promise what I consider to be minor spending cuts. When I add up what they say, I don’t get $1 trillion in savings. I am one who believes that minor spending cuts are not going to save us from becoming a third world country. I believe we need to cut federal government spending in half. I cannot see us balancing the federal budget without closing most federal departments and agencies. If we return to compliance with the Constitution and the 10th Amendment, it’s easy to see $1 trillion a year being cut. So far, Ron Paul is the only one left willing to do it.

I want the other candidates to realize their current positions on issues are insufficient to deal with the real economy and the bubble bursts already in motion. They would need to pledge to close all unconstitutional federal departments and agencies and send these responsibilities to the States; that results in over $1 trillion in cuts. They would need to cut all foreign aid, quit the UN and quit all other globalist organizations. They would need to end the Fed, end bailouts, loan guarantees, close Fannie, Freddie, Sallie and get out of the loan business. They would need to transfer entitlements and federal land to the States. They would need to eliminate all federal grants.

Our next President will likely preside over the government debt bubble and the dollar crash bubble. These will occur because of past actions like bail-outs, wasteful stimulus and printing money. At the same time, we will be dealing with the more stock market crashes, layoffs, housing value hits, foreclosures, loan defaults the Euro crash, on top of already high unemployment. If our next President deals with these economic shocks by bailing everybody out, we will become a communist gulag with no liberty, no property and no future. The U.N. already has a plan for this, it’s Agenda 21.

The Fed

The cumulative actions taken by our federal government have caused our current economic collapse. These go back to 1913 with the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the end of sound money. Its very existence has created a slush fund for politicians to spend more money than they receive in revenue. The Fed not only debases the dollar with its printing press, it sets wholesale interest rates. The Fed held interest rates low because the federal government overspent. The Federal Reserve has increased the money supply by 300% over the past 4 years. If they don’t pull it back from the banks, that money printing binge will result in 300% inflation in a year, or 30% inflation for 10 years, or 10% inflation for 30 years, take your pick. Real inflation for 2010 and 2011 averaged 15%.

The Debts

We borrow or print 40 cents of every dollar the federal government spends. We’re broke. We don’t have 5 years to fix this. We saw the federal spending go from $3.45 trillion in 2010 to $3.59 trillion in 2011. Our annual revenue is about $2.2 trillion. We need a $1.4 trillion cut in spending to balance the budget.

We have a $15 trillion national debt plus unfunded liabilities of well over $100 trillion; that’s the value of all private property in the U.S. Obama’s current spending plan will take us to a $26 trillion national debt by 2021. We need to freeze the debt where it is and not increase it at all. Foreign investors continue to sell off U.S. Treasury Bills, $69 billion in 2011. If we keep increasing the debt and nobody buys the debt, the Fed will print the money and add to the 300% inflation it has already put in motion (think Weimar Republic).

Europe

If Greece, Spain and Italy fail to cut their government spending and default on their bond payments, our banks will take a $10 trillion hit and their balance sheets are already close to zero because of toxic assets. Our best economists are predicting two bubble bursts: one is the government debt bubble, the other is the dollar bubble crash. Both will result in more asset losses, crashing stock markets, crashing home values and higher unemployment.

Bubbles

Future Meltdowns are eminent. The are two bubbles ready to burst that are larger than the 2008 Meltdown house price and mortgage default bubbles. They are the U.S. government debt bubble and the dollar bubble. As each crashes, it will tank the stock market and give the economy another 30% hit. Unemployment will go to 50%
The federal government owns $5 trillion in toxic assets, including $1 trillion in student loans in Sallie Mae and $4 trillion in worthless mortgage backed securities in Fanny and Freddie and the Fed. The cumulative effect on our economy is $10 trillion from Europe, $5 trillion in bad loans, $15 trillion in National Debt and a $30 trillion loss in a dollar devaluation. There is almost no way out of this.

Government Reform Needed

Much of what the federal government currently does is unnecessary, destructive and designed to ruin our free market economy. It needs to stop giving away our money. All federal departments are implementing UN Agenda 21 to ruin our sovereignty, property rights and liberty. Our government wants to increase our energy costs 5 fold. We need to stop this now. We would eliminate all spending aimed at mitigating carbon emissions and declare global warming an unproven theory.. We would repeal Obama-care, Dodd Frank, Sarbanes Oxley and lots of other laws and regulations. We would cancel previous Executive Orders. We would eliminate foreign aid and quit the U.N. We would stop being the world’s policeman. We could still have a strong, well equipped military as a deterrent..

We would return all federal lands to the states. We would encourage the states to sell their land and return it to productive use. We would encourage oil and natural gas drilling, mining, tree harvesting and eliminate wetlands, wildlife preserves and buffer zones. We would reverse and repeal all productivity damaging laws and regulations. We would limit the sale of U.S. land to U.S. citizens. We would eliminate much of the endangered species list.

In short, I don’t think we can afford a Whitehouse or Senate or House who will keep kicking the can down the road. I don’t have a problem with cutting $1.4 trillion from the federal budget. It will save us from sovereign debt default and allow us to take steps to reduce the inflation we will suffer from money printing. All of the money printed since 1913 has gone to grow government. Balanced budgets end inflation.

Unemployment

We have 100 million working age citizens with no jobs; that’s 32% of our population. Yet we have admitted over 1 million new legal immigrants per year for the past 10 years. They filled 10 million jobs. If we reduce legal immigration to 100 thousand a year and deport 11 million illegal immigrants we would free-up 12 million jobs, If we cut corporate tax for manufacturers with plants in the U.S. to 5% and raise our import tariff from 1.2% to 6% we will see manufacturing jobs return to the U.S. If we cut corporate taxes for all companies with U.S. operations to 15%, more service jobs would return. If these actions result in the creation of another 20 million jobs, we will still have 80 million working age citizens with no jobs. Our real unemployment is far more severe than the government would have us believe.

Reset Government

Our government was designed to protect our free market system and our liberty. Since 1913, our government has passed laws in violation of the Constitution. We can trace all of the trouble we are now having in our economy to these violations. Our solution is to return the federal government to compliance with the Constitution, as written. We need to eliminate all departments and agencies in the federal government that are not authorized by the Constitution to get the kind of spending cuts we need to balance the budget. We would give these functions to the states; the states have most of these departments anyhow.

Swimming Upstream

To reset government, we would need a President, House and Senate who would do everything Ron Paul would do. Government deficit spending creates inflation that will certainly crush our free market economy. Government regulations continue to sap our productivity by restricting natural resource extraction and impose never heard of restrictions on our farms and businesses. The EPA, FDA and USDA are currently shutting down our food production and water access to comply with U.N. Agenda 21. The EPA has stopped all road work for decades because of regulatory overreach in the clean air act. They have shut down California farms by shutting down crop irrigation to save the snail darter. All this should stop.

Ron Paul’s main opposition would come from the 20% Hard Core Liberals, the globalist corporate cronies and the U.N. global government Marxist cabal. They are sending billions in campaign contributions to Obama and Romney.

Ron Paul

I think Ron is the perfect guy for foreign relations; he would leave them on their own, without our money. He has the most comprehensive, specific, common sense plan to return the country to liberty and restore the free market system. He would probably raise our import tariffs to 6% or more and it would be smart to do so. Germany has a 19% import tariff to offset prices and protect their own industries. Ron Paul is a genuine Constitutional Conservative. He is the “founder” of this 10th Amendment movement. He can’t be bought.

As commander-in-chief, he would not send troops unless Congress declared war. That would get the Saudis, Europeans and Japanese to take over monitoring their own neighborhood crazies and defend themselves and their shipping lanes.

If we don’t get Constitutional Conservatives in control of the House and Senate, all Ron Paul would be able to do is cancel all previous Executive Orders, refuse to sign bad bills and refuse to sign spending bills with the military and other foreign aid he has sworn to stop, that would help. He could effectively end Omnibus Bill abuse and make Congress send single item Bills without bad amendments. He could also lop off the extra trillion a year Obama put into the 10 year budget.

Ron Paul’s Mistakes

Ron Paul’s position on immigration is too weak. I believe suspending all immigration is the key to lowering our real unemployment. His position on Iran is too weak. I think we need to call their bluff. The ban on Iranian oil is a good start. Saudi oil passes through the straits of Hormuz and if Iran closes them, we and others will reopen it. This could be a short war we’ve waited too long to fight. It would be a mistake not to take out their nuclear capabilities at the same time. We could have bombed Iran’s nuclear sites years ago just because they have funded terrorism for decades. The UAE can by-pass the straits with their new pipeline, but the Saudi’s can’t . I believe we should regard an attack on Israel as an attack on the U.S., but I would have the Congress vote to confirm this.

Ron Paul is criticized for his Libertarian stance on a few issues. I don’t think Congress would not let him legalize marijuana or throw away their social conservative poker chips like defining marriage.

Ron Paul’s Clarity

Ron Paul’s plan is the only one you can do the math with, look at the results and know that it will work. Most objections to his plan amount to “inside the beltway” posturing, trying to save their jobs and pretending we need what they do. This is baloney.

The Other Candidates

If Newt Gingrich would include closing all unconstitutional federal departments and agencies and cut all foreign aid, he would have $1 trillion in cuts we could count and his plan might work. Newt wants to include a Reagan-type tax reduction and that could actually help. The other candidates have nothing close. They are too platitudinous. Their plans are vague, non-specific and they have no numbers. They are nice guys, but they are all can kickers.

If we fail and Obama is President when the bubbles burst and unemployment goes to 50%, he will confiscate our savings and our property, comrade. We will have Marshall law and we will find ourselves in one of the detention camps Homeland Security is building as we speak. Obama continues to chant big government myths, like we have big obligations to all other countries on the planet.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader