Ron Paul Was Right All Along About Our Fiscal Woes: Time for Congress to Listen Up

Back in October 11, 2000, libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) issued a warning to Congress:

“It should surprise no one that our financial markets are getting more volatile every day. Inflating a currency and causing artificially low interest rates always leads to malinvestment, overcapacity, excessive debt, speculation, and dangerous trade imbalances. We now live in a world awash in a sea of fiat currencies, with the dollar, the yen, and the Euro leading the way. The inevitable unwinding of the wild speculation, as reflected in the derivatives market, is now beginning.

"And what do we do here in the Congress? We continue to ignore our constitutional responsibility to maintain a sound dollar. Our monetary policy of the last 10 years has produced the largest financial bubble in all of history, with the good times paid for by borrowing and an illusion of wealth created in a speculative stock market. Our current account deficit, now running over $400 billion per year, and our $1.5 trillion foreign debt, has been instrumental in financing our extravagance. Be assured, the piper will be paid. The markets are clearly reflecting the excesses of the 1990s.”

Paul’s words targeted the Federal Reserve for the destruction of the dollar and at his colleagues in Congress who refused do anything. His prescription was to audit the Fed, cut excessive spending, reduce the deficits and balance the budget. Paul has been crying out that this country is headed for a fiscal cliff since before 2000. 

And still, even with the financial crash of 2008, few of our elected officials listen. Our congressional leaders just continue to play “kick the can” with current monetary policy and government spending. To send a clear message, any congressperson who has served more than one term and has failed to act to audit the Fed or truly cut government spending needs to be ousted from office. Find a list of incumbent Senators here. and House members here. 

Ron Paul again spoke out on Cavuto Sept 29, warning the public about the looming fiscal cliff.

And finally, on Tuesday, the Bloomberg BusinessWeek headline read: "U.S. Fiscal Cliff Threatens Growth, IMF’s Cottarelli Says."

What is it going to take to wake-up our elected officials and get them to take action on our monetary policies, especially a full audit of the Fed and cutting government spending? Ron Paul’s voice has been ignored. Will congress ignore the IMF as well? I propose the only way “we the people” will get the politicians attention, is to boot those who have failed to act, out of office in November. Perhaps the newly elected will do their job.