U.S. Representative Ron Paul

Texas Straight Talk

A weekly column

Competition With the Government?

Last Saturday many concerned Americans watched in horror as the House passed the healthcare reform bill.  If this bill makes it through the Senate, it would massively overhaul the way healthcare is delivered in this country.  Today, obviously, we don’t have a perfect system, but this legislation takes all the mistakes we are making with healthcare and makes them worse.  Most of what is wrong with healthcare stems from decades of government intervention and the resulting unintended consequences.  But the government’s prescription for the ills caused by intervention is always more intervention.  We see this not only in healthcare [continue reading]

11-16-2009, 12:33 PM | 30 Comments

Healthcare Reform is Economic Malpractice

As Washington continues debating healthcare reform the rest of the country is primarily concerned about jobs and the economy.  It is still uncertain what policies will be implemented, but I am certain about one thing:  It will only further devastate our economy and our dollar. The leadership has come up with a proposal they are confident will be what they consider fiscally responsible, only to have it scored as nearly twice as expensive by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.  Estimates of past healthcare spending programs have been off by as much as 100 percent so there is no telling [continue reading]

11-09-2009, 11:27 AM | 50 Comments

Government Statistics and Lies

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them.  But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades.  It concerns how the cost of living is calculated.  How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades.  If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has [continue reading]

11-02-2009, 11:55 AM | 67 Comments

Anything Less Than Full Disclosure is Unacceptable

Last week a new bill was introduced in the Senate to audit the Federal Reserve.  Some backers of my bill HR1207 and the existing Senate companion bill S.604 were a little miffed at this, but depending on how you think about it, this new legislation poses no great threat to our efforts. With the economy in shambles, people are looking for answers - not just because of lost savings on Wall Street, but because of lost houses on Main Street. Because of the many problems we face, the Federal Reserve and its powers over the economy have come under [continue reading]

10-26-2009, 12:11 PM | 53 Comments

The Very Busy Politicians in Washington DC

With a faltering economy, multiple wars, and the approaching demise of the dollar’s reserve status, there are more than enough problems to keep politicians in Washington working day and night.  In between handing out cash for clunkers and nationalizing healthcare, the administration is busy sending more troops overseas, escalating existing wars, and seeking out excuses to start new wars.  Congress is working on “urgent” legislation to address crises like healthcare reform and climate change.  The reforms are so very urgent that legislation must pass swiftly with no time to read the bills even though the new laws wouldn’t take [continue reading]

10-19-2009, 12:53 PM | 53 Comments

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