How Will Ron Paul Do It?
by Big Dog on Jan 6, 2008 at 01:51 Political
I have not decided on a candidate yet and since my state primary is after Super Tuesday it might not matter. I have tried to give everyone of them a fair shot at earning my vote. I have watched Ron Paul as I have the others and I like some of the things that he says. I agree with most of his domestic policy ideas and some of his foreign. I have a hard time taking his blame America for everything position. Yes, we as a country have done some things that are not nice. But we are not to blame for all the world’s woes. I would love to see us bring our troops home from Germany, Japan and South Korea and Iraq (but only after we win). I just have some trouble with his insistence that we caused the attack to happen and that our only interest is oil.
The thing that bothers me most about Ron Paul is that he never says HOW he is going to accomplish the things he espouses. He says that he will abolish the IRS. How will he do that when it will take Congress to pass the legislation? Paul says that he will go back to the gold standard. How will he do this without Congress enacting it? I like some of what Ron Paul says but he never tells me how he is going to get it done. Considering he has been in Congress for quite some time I assume he knows that Presidents do very little (regarding these kinds of issues) other than set an agenda and either sign or veto what Congress passes. Without Congress Ron Paul cannot do anything that he says he will. Paul cannot change things because of the very Constitution that he believes in following (and rightly so) and that means nothing will ever get done, regardless of who is president, without Congress.
This is not to say that the other candidates will accomplish what they say because they will face the same hurdles but at least they say how they intend to do things. McCain says he will work with members of both parties to hammer out bills they can agree upon. Thompson says he will put forth plans to work with Congress to get his things done. That is true for all the candidates except for Ron Paul. I like the guy and I like what he believes in but I want to know the HOW part.
As I stated, I have not selected any candidate and there might not be as many by the time I get a chance but I want to give them all a fair look. I want each to have a fair chance at convincing me why I should vote for them.
If some of his supporters, after reading this post, could comment and tell me how he will do these things I would be appreciative. I am not talking about the fringe folks who attack and go all nuts when someone writes anything perceived as negative about Paul. I mean the folks who support him and know his policies. If you know how he will do it or can steer me in the right direction then I would appreciate it.
Please don’t tell me why I should vote for him. Tell me what he is going to do and how he will do it. Convince me that he is the best person for the job.
Tags: assistance, how, method, revolution, ron paul
If you watch Ron Paul in longer interviews, as opposed to the debates where he is more constrained to soundbites, he fully admits that he may or may not be able to enact all of his plans and that it will depend on getting things through congress. As the commander in chief, the policy he would have the most likely success would be in pulling back our overseas military operations. He also says that that initial foreign policy move is the prerequisite to all his other plans because the hundreds of billions of dollars in savings resulting from retrenching back to our own borders would then finance his ambitious domestic plans like abolishing the income tax.
Ron Paul fully admits he won’t be able to get rid of the income tax over night, but in regards to the IRS they are a piece of the executive branch of government, Ron Paul simply wouldn’t fund them in the 2009 budget presented to congress and they are gone. To a certain extent if you take away the gestapo that is the IRS enforcing the tax it would start it’s decent to death and ultimately allow the people to demand it’s removal from the federal codes.
You mentioned our troops coming home but not “until we win.” I would as what criteria you hold for “winning.” We said we were performing regime change in Iraq, I say the regime has changed, we won, lets come home. The vast majority (99%) of attacks in Iraq are Al Qaeda attacking us. If we leave they won’t be able to so easily attack us. So long as we stay they don’t even have to buy a plane ticket to attack us.
What Dr. Paul is doing with his campaign is educating American people about what the Federal government is supposed to do compared to what it is doing now. His supporters have been labeled as the most educated supporters out of all the candidates by several media pundits, including Carlson Tucker and Pat Buchanan. There is a reason for that -because Paul’s stances are founded on scholarly sources, instead of media sources such as TV or newspapers.
Did you know where we get the money to fund the wars? We finance it through China and Japan. This is one of the reasons the government has to increase the money supply to “stimulate” the economy, but the consequence of doing so is increased inflation (why you see increases in our gas prices, and food).
So, how will he get ‘er done in the White House? The most direct thing he can do as Commander in Chief is pull the troops from Iraq (in a logical and safe manner). This would save billions of dollars right away. But as you know, he also wants to retract all our forces from around the world! That’s the most exciting thing for me because I’m in the Air Force, and I just spent a year in Korea away from my family – to protect South Korea from North Korea, instead of protecting America from North Korea. I would feel much better about doing my job if I was serving to strengthen our own borders.
In order to phase out the IRS, he will need to work with Congress for support. But if he is elected president, there will be the support of the American people behind him. Thank goodness the House of Reps are only termed two years at a time, because if the Congress doesn’t approve of ending the IRS, it will be very difficult for them to be re-elected the next term. But that can only happen if informed citizens around the country marshal their voting power to do so. Change only begins through the people – that’s the beauty of the Constitution!
So what I will challenge you with is this: Understand the intent of the Constitution first and foremost. Then study the candidates and decide who will abide by it the most.
Thanks to all. Troy, I understand the Constitution very well (I have even seen some areas where what Paul says might not be allowed by it) so I am good there. But me understanding that document does not tell me how he will do it.
As for Congress having difficulty getting reelected? The system is set up to give incumbents a great advantage.
The support for Ron Paul is on the rise in AR it seems. I was there over the holidays and apparently just yesterday somebody plastered dozens of fliers on a billboard near a well traveled road deep in the Republican stronghold county next to the county my parents live in. Several of my conservative friends in the state have said they regret their Bush vote and support Ron Paul.
The fact that Ron Paul came ahead of Rudy 911 in Iowa made me laugh my head off.
The one thing he can do immediately I believe is pull all the troops home. This in itself will be a HUGE change. The world will I’m sure be very proud of Dr. Paul for doing it and will be very outspoken. Yes, we will hear about it because if it’s censored in the media, it will be online. I’m sure we’ll hear only the negative effects first because the media has really been skewing the information lately. The money will immediately be affected because the money will not be sent overseas. Paid military will be spending it here. Hey, they’ll need to buy homes if they don’t live on bases. Our housing crisis may begin to lighten a bit. More spending at home will happen immediately. Our stock market will most likely start to rise again because Americans will have more faith in our government. And I believe Dr. Paul wants to position some of our military as border patrol. Simply bringing the troops back will cause a domino effect immediately. And with Dr. Paul’s voice to re-educate Americans on their rights, I believe that will in turn make Americans more interested in their own districts. Congress is supposed to do what their constituents want; not what they want to do on their own. And if they don’t do what the people want, they get voted out. As far as programs being gradually decreased, I don’t think it’s as bad as some make out. For example, government funding was stopped to PBS about 10 years ago and they raise their own money now through public contributions. This is a great example of a quality media network with no government funding. When there is less government intervention, programs tend to be better. And the more difficult the decisions that need to be addressed, the more local it needs to become. It wouldn’t make sense for big government to make legislation from that high up on the different cultures of each state. Sometimes it just needs to be done on a smaller scale. I’m no expert on all this but I think he’d be taking other issues one at a time; just as a judge would do when a trial is going on. To work with Congress means Congress needs to do what the people want. Right now, they’re not doing a very good job of it.
I just hope Mr Paul if elected and retracts our troops is prepared for the consequence of that action. IF we remove our forces and things go sideways in the world we USED to be in, will he then say “Ooops my bad?” I doubt it. IF MILLIONS of innocent folks are murdered because of OUR inaction will there be any Apologies? It is a huge gamble that has been partially undertook in the past…. Think Iran, Carter removed our “meddling” and we got hostages taken and Iran has been a thorn ever since.
Beirut we left after the bombing of the barracks, didn’t help… Israel removed themselves from areas and got MORE violence, We left Somalia and got MORE terrorist acts….
When leaving is seen as weakness it is a huge recruiting tool as well as fighting.. so tell me what are the risks associated with Troop withdraw from EVERYWHERE? Tell me they are acceptable IF you family is wiped out because of that action….
To be fair Adam, Rudy did not campaign in Iowa. Clinton (Bill) lost Iowa but he did not campaign there either.
[…] post written over here today.Doug Powers Have a read:Big Dog paw fingerprint. The thing that bothers me most about Ron Paul is that he never […]
Ron Paul stated that this is our fault because we have people over there. First of all, we did not enter any country prior to 9/11 without permission. I don’t give a rat’s a$$ why they say they attacked us. The terrorists have no home country and they attacked us because we were where we were invited to be.
I have stated many times that America has made mistakes and that we have not always been the best toward others but that dos not give them the right to attack us. We did not attack them. How about if we just attacked England, or Spain, or any number of places because the Muslims are in those countries?
People should understand these things when they try to make a point.
I guess I would like to agree with Big Dog. I also am very interested in getting more information on Ron Paul’s HOWs. Really, I truly like the idea of pulling out of all of these countries. One cannot make the argument intelligently i think about consequences to pulling out of countries, when there are plenty of horrible things happening in the world today. I would hope that along with the action of “pulling out” of these countries there will be a clear and understandable warning that went along with it. But that aside, I am really interested in Mr. Paul’s ideas about the economy. I think a president with a lot of support can get a lot of things done with congress, by using the executive order. There would be a lot done by repealing executive orders that are standing now. JFK has a standing executive order to disband the IRS. It’s there, but not acted upon. He died a few weeks after signing it. I just know that the preconception is that the president can’t do much, but in reality if he uses the powers that are given to him or her, then change can happen. And a whole lot can be done by the pen of the president.
Keep the faith all and these conversations only help us.