Ron Paul

Geithner Says U.S. Will Never Lose AAA Debt Rating

Bloomberg
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the U.S. is in no danger of losing its Aaa debt rating even though the Obama administration has predicted a $1.6 trillion budget deficit in 2010. “Absolutely not,” Geithner said, when asked in an ABC News interview broadcast yesterday whether a downgrade is a concern. “That will never happen to this country.” Geithner said investors around the world turn to U.S. Treasury securities and dollar-denominated assets whenever they are worried about global stability. That reflects “basic confidence” in the U.S. and its ability to bounce back from the global recession, he said.
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New Federal Agency to Track Climate Change

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration proposed a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Service on Monday, reorganizing the agency so it can provide Americans with predictions on how global warming will affect everything from drought to sea levels. The initiative, modeled loosely on the 140-year-old National Weather Service, will provide forecasts to farmers, regional water managers and business operators affected by changing climate conditions. But it comes at a time when climate skeptics have become increasingly effective in attacking the credibility of global warming forecasts. NOAA, along with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ranks as one of the federal government's key agencies for monitoring the climate and conducting climate research.
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Rash of retirements push Social Security to brink

USA Today
WASHINGTON — Social Security's annual surplus nearly evaporated in 2009 for the first time in 25 years as the recession led hundreds of thousands of workers to retire or claim disability. The impact of the recession is likely to hit the giant retirement system even harder this year and next. The Congressional Budget Office had projected it would operate in the red in 2010 and 2011, but a deeper economic slump could make those losses larger than anticipated. "Things are a little bit worse than had been expected," says Stephen Goss, chief actuary for the Social Security Administration. "Clearly, we're going to be negative for a year or two."
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Not Planning To Retire, Are You?

By Gary North / LewRockwell.com:
I have just posted a video of my 90-minute seminar: "Retirement Armageddon." It presents the background for a series of nasty surprises. For those of you who don't have time to watch a 90-minute video, let me summarize its implications. The U.S. government has a nasty surprise for tens of millions of retirees: a now-empty piggy bank. Two of them, actually: Social Security and Medicare.
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US Food Stamps Set Ever-Higher Record-32.8 Million

The Guardian
A record 38.2 million Americans were enrolled in the food stamp program at latest count, up 246,000 from the previous month and the latest in record-high monthly tallies that began in December 2008. Food stamps are the primary federal anti-hunger program, helping poor people buy groceries. The Agriculture Department updated enrollment data on Friday with a preliminary figure for November. USDA estimates up to $58 billion will be spent on food stamps this fiscal year, which ends Sept 30, with average enrollment of 40.5 million people. Food stamps were renamed the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in 2008.
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It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt

By Michael Snyder / BLN
A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.
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Former Bank of America Head Lewis Charged With Fraud

CNNMoney.com
NEW YORK -- New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Thursday it was bringing civil charges against senior Bank of America executives, including former company CEO Ken Lewis, for their role in the company's controversial purchase of Merrill Lynch. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission said it had struck a $150 million settlement agreement with BofA over its decision to pay billions of dollars in bonuses to former Merrill employees.
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More Government Equals Fewer Jobs

321 Gold
With today's unexpected decline in December payrolls, the cry for more job-related stimulus will grow even louder. But the sad truth is that any new stimulus or jobs bills will ultimately swell the ranks of the unemployed, thereby raising calls for an even bigger federal effort. If we are not careful, government regulations, subsidies, and spending, all designed to fight unemployment, could push the labor market into a death spiral. Regulation acts like a tax on job creation. By subjecting employers to all sorts of extra expenses when they hire people, regulations increase the cost of employment far beyond the wages employers actually pay their workers. In fact, some regulations are specifically tied to the number of workers employed. This provides some employers with a strong incentive to stay small and not hire.
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Greece 'Dress Rehearsal' for U.S., Deutsche Bank Says

Bloomberg
The cost of insuring against U.S. and U.K. debt defaults may rise in the same way as it has for so- called European peripheral nations including Greece and Portugal, Deutsche Bank AG said. “The problems currently faced by peripheral Europe could be a dress rehearsal for what the U.S. and U.K. may face further down the road,” Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank in London, wrote in a research note. The U.S. and U.K. “have similar issues to those facing peripheral Europe but have the luxury of a flexible currency up their sleeves as a first defense if the market wants to attack them,” Reid said. “Such a defense means that the market, for now, thinks there are easier targets.”
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Secret Summit Of Bankers

News.com.au
THE world's top central bankers began arriving in Australia yesterday as renewed fears about the strength of the global economic recovery gripped world share markets. Representatives from 24 central banks and monetary authorities including the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank landed in Sydney to meet tomorrow at a secret location, the Herald Sun reports. Organised by the Bank for International Settlements last year, the two-day talks are shrouded in secrecy with high-level security believed to have been invoked by law enforcement agencies.
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Ron Paul: Yemen on the Brink: Implications for U.S. Policy

Campaign for Liberty
Statement of Congressman Ron Paul United States House of Representatives Statement on House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing: 'Yemen on the Brink: Implications for U.S. Policy' February 3, 2010 -- Mr. Chairman, I am extremely concerned over current US policy toward Yemen, which I believe will backfire and leave the United States less safe and much poorer. Increasing US involvement in Yemen may be sold as a fight against terrorism, but in fact it is more about expanding US government control and influence over this strategically-placed nation at the gateway to Asia.
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Presidential Assassinations of U.S. Citizens

Glenn Greenwald / Buchanan.org:
The Washington Post's Dana Priest reports that "U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people." That's no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization. The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown.
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Feds Say They May Kill Americans Abroad

By John Byrne / Raw Story:
In a striking admission from the Obama Administration's top intelligence officer, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced Wednesday that the United States may target its own citizens abroad for death if it believes they are associated with terrorist groups. "We take direct action against terrorists in the intelligence community," Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told the House Intelligence Committee. He said US counter-terrorism officials may try to kill American citizens embroiled in extremist groups overseas with "specific permission" from higher up.
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House Agrees to $1.9 Trillion More Debt

The Associated Press
The House on Thursday voted to allow the federal government to go $1.9 trillion deeper in debt - an increase of about $6,000 more for every U.S. resident that provided a vivid election-year reminder of the nation's perilous financial condition. The huge debt increase, approved 217-212, is only enough to keep the government afloat for about another year as it borrows more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends on programs like defense, health care, feeding the poor and protecting the environment. The budget tops $3.7 trillion this year and the deficit's approaching $1.6 trillion under the budget submitted by President Barack Obama this week.
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Obama Plans to Raise Taxes on the Rich and Businesses

By Bill Bonner / The Daily Reckoning
Got money? You might find it hard to hold onto. Americans with money are caught in a vise. On the one side is the de-leveraging economy. On the other is the government. The depression squeezes everything -- asset prices, businesses, earnings. And it's going to be with us for years -- no matter what the papers tell you. Get ready for a 20% decline in stock prices, says our old friend Marc Faber. Another analyst puts the current P/E at 22...also implying a loss of about 20% just to get down to 'normal' levels. But "this isn't a normal environment," says a senior analyst at Ned Davis Research.
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National Tea Party Convention opens in Nashville

The Washington Post
The grass-roots movement that exploded across the nation last year in revolt against Obama's economic policies and health-care agenda is reaching a critical milestone Thursday as hundreds of conservative activists converge here for the start of the inaugural National Tea Party Convention. But the first gathering of a sprawling movement, made up of hundreds of disparate Tea Party groups, has been marred by controversy. Some high-profile speakers and activist groups have canceled their appearances in protest of alleged profiteering by the convention organizers. Attendees have been charged $549 a ticket (plus hotel and transportation) to gather for three days at the luxurious Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center -- an expense that critics say is out of reach for the average grass-roots activist. Some of the proceeds will go to cover former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's reported $100,000 fee to deliver Saturday's keynote address.
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Tea Party Convention In Nashville to Allow Streaming Webcast and Broadcast In Response to Critics

By Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller
This weekend’s Tea Party Convention in Nashville, under criticism that high ticket prices are preventing true grassroots activists from attending, made a surprise announcement late Sunday night that the convention will be televised. Tea Party Nation, the group sponsoring the event that starts Thursday, said it is working with internet media company PJTV, FOX News, CNN and Reuters TV to “allow the millions of Tea Party activists who could not be in attendance to view many of the proceedings live along with special interviews of delegates and speakers alike.”
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Getting The Tea Party On The Ballot

WGRZ-TV
"First we're going to identify whether we've got a winning effort," said Carl Paladino. And if they do, Buffalo real estate developer Carl Paladino may run for governor of New York State; but not as a democrat or republican. The Tea Party would create its own line on the ballot for him. "You need 15,000 signatures statewide," said Ralph Mohr, Erie County Board of Elections Commissioner. Mohr says they would have to get those during a six week period beginning at the end of July. But it's not that easy, since it's a governor's race, the signatures have to come from all across the state.
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Healthcare Will Eat Up One In Five Dollars of US GDP by 2020, Medicare Says

Rogue Government
WASHINGTON -- Health care legislation may be on the back burner, but a new report released today underscores its spiraling upward trend. In 2009, health care spending consumed an record high 17.3 percent of the nation's GDP, according to a study published in Health Affairs by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The figure is up from 2008, when health care costs constituted 16.2 percent of the gross domestic product. Health spending in 2009 totaled $2.5 trillion, a growth rate of 5.7 percent in a year when overall GDP contracted.
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Senate Will Vote On Job Proposals Next Week: Reid

Reuters
WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats unveiled a long-awaited "jobs agenda" on Thursday but said they would solicit Republican support before determining which elements to bring up for a vote next week. With a nervous eye on the November congressional elections, Democrats say their top priority this year will be bringing down the nation's double-digit unemployment rate. But with their supermajority gone after a surprise defeat in Massachusetts last month, Senate Democrats need at least some Republican support to get any of their ideas passed.
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Price of Madoff's Palm Beach Home Cut Again

Reuters
NEW YORK -- The asking price for imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff's former home in Palm Beach, Florida, has been reduced again. The 8,750 square-foot (813 square-meter) home is being offered by Corcoran Group for $7.25 million, according to the broker's website. The new price is 8 percent below the previous asking price of $7.9 million, and 15 percent below the original $8.49 million asking price. Corcoran has listed the home for close to five months. Federal marshals are overseeing the sale of Madoff's assets, with proceeds going toward reimbursing victims of his estimated $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
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'Why You've Never Heard of the Great Depression of 1920'

By Matt Hawes / Campaign for Liberty
As Obama continues to try to sell the country on the necessity of government intervention, this Mises Institute video from April 2009 with Thomas E. Woods looks at what happened when a president made the rare choice to restrain government action in an economic crisis.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI

Abolish America's 'Illegal' Income Tax!

By Gordon Bishop / Ether Zone
Every now and then I find myself reminding my readers that the United States federal income tax is "Illegal." That's right! It was never officially ratified by the majority of our states when it was proposed bu Congress in 1913. Looking at the broader TAX picture, we can also conclude that the estate 'death' tax and capital gains tax are all unconstitutional -- ILLEGAL TAXES! Why? Because none of these taxes, or "entitlements," can be found anywhere in the Constitution of the United States America. Nope! It's not there. The whole thing is the biggest Ponce Scheme in the world. Our nation's founders never envisioned these "entitlements" when they wrote the Constitution for a Republic based on freedom, liberty and opportunity for all American citizens -- and I underline Citizens!
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China Threatens U.S. Sanctions Over Taiwan Arms Sale

Sydney Morning Herald
China will erect trade sanctions against Boeing and other large US companies unless the US Congress blocks the Obama administration's planned $7.2 billion weapons sales program to Taiwan, a senior defence strategist said. Rear Admiral Yang Yi told the Herald yesterday China was prepared to hurt itself in order to teach the administration a lesson. ''We're waiting for the reaction from US Congress and if they don't have a U-turn then the follow-up of sanctions will come soon,'' said Admiral Yang, who previously co-wrote Chinese defence white papers while director of international strategic studies at the National Defence University.
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The Regime Defends the AlGore Fraud

Walter E. Williams / LewRockwell.com
Global Warming Update: John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, in an hour-long television documentary titled "Global Warming: The Other Side," presents evidence that our National Climatic Data Center has been manipulating weather data just as the now disgraced and under investigation British University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. The NCDC is a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its manipulated climate data is used by the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, which is a division of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration. John Coleman's blockbuster five-part series can be seen here.
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Obama's Pyramid Schemes Would Make Keynes Happy

By Caroline Baum / Bloomberg
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Meet the new mantra, same as the old mantra. No longer will President Barack Obama be content to cite specious numbers about “jobs saved or created” as a result of last year’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus. Now he’s proposing $100 billion of new spending to “jumpstart job creation,” according to White House Budget Director Peter Orszag. It’s part of a $3.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2011, unveiled Monday, that projects a $1.3 trillion deficit next year, following a $1.6 trillion deficit this year. Spend money to save money. Spending dressed up as a jump- starter is still spending by another name.
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Ron Paul: The Coming Political and Social Chaos

The LRC Blog

Letter To 1100 State Legislators - Sound Money Bill

By Devvy Kidd / NewsWithViews.com
On January 18, 2010, I sent a letter to 1100 state representatives and senators. I would like to thank all those who donated for the postage, printing, labels and envelopes to do these massive mailings (another one below). All of those legislators either voted for (if given the opportunity) a Tenth Amendment Resolution bill in their state last year or is a strong supporter of the Tenth amendment. It was no easy task tracking them all down. I might have missed one or two names, but it is nonetheless a considerable number of lawmakers in more than three dozen states. Not all 50 states had Tenth Amendment Resolutions. I find it remarkable that so many state legislators voted against an existing Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I guess those state legislators don't believe the U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of the land or more likely, they wish to ignore it in order to continuing receiving hot checks from Congress as they mismanage their state budgets.
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Largest-Ever Federal Payroll To Hit 2.15 Million

The Washington Times
The era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history. The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over” and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force. Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will grow by 153,000 workers, to 1.43 million people, in fiscal 2010.
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More New Taxes, More New Spending

Can someone explain how this is change?
The Washington Times
Over the next decade, Obama plans on increasing taxes by $1.4 trillion, offset by his planned $300 billion in tax cuts. But his spending splurge will increase so much that Mr. Obama will add $5.1 trillion to the national debt over the next five years and $8.5 trillion over 10 years. This will be on top of the $1.4 trillion deficit we ran last year. At the end of these 10 years, the publicly held national debt will nearly double to $18 trillion. Even Mr. Obama's own estimates put all the other tax-and-spend liberals to shame. And Mr. Obama hasn't even gotten his massive, costly takeover of the health care system and his even more costly cap-and-tax proposal. It is not as if Americans couldn't survive with a smaller amount of government spending - eight years ago, the budget was about half as big as Mr. Obama's proposal.
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Backdoor Taxes To Hit Middle Class

Reuters
The Obama administration's plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families. In the 2010 budget tabled by Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year -- effectively a tax hike by stealth. While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
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Cloudy Future For Fannie And Freddie

NY Times
The Great Bailout is mostly over for the banks. But for those troubled behemoths of the nation’s housing bust, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the lifeline from Washington just keeps getting longer. Fifteen months after Fannie and Freddie were effectively nationalized, neither the Obama administration nor Congressional leaders see a quick solution to one of the thorniest problems in American finance: how to fix the twin mortgage giants without choking the flow of credit to homeowners and dealing a blow to a still-fragile housing market.
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Maryland Taking Out $250M loan to Cover Unemployment Checks

Baltimore Business Journal
The state will borrow $250 million to prop up its nearly depleted unemployment insurance fund, the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation said Thursday. With the fund down to $96 million on Jan. 14, the state anticipates needing the advance in February. Those collecting jobless benefits are not expected to notice any interruptions in payments. Maryland expects to repay the federal government loan without interest by the year’s end, said Alexander M. Sanchez, secretary of the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The loan is interest-free if paid back by the end of the year.
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NJ Businesses Face Unemployment Tax Hike

NJ TODAY
TRENTON -- New Jersey businesses are facing a significant tax hike this summer if the federal government doesn't help replenish the state's unemployment fund, Gov. Chris Christie warned this week. New Jersey’s Unemployment Insurance Fund will be $1.6 billion in debt by March, according to Christie. Business taxes are automatically increased by law when the fund’s balance goes below a certain level as measured every March. The new Republican governor plans to ask the federal government to forgive loans that are keeping the fund solvent, but warned that there was no money in the state budget to stop the tax increase.
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Spending Freeze Not Likely

By Ron Paul / Texas Straight Talk:
Last week politicians in Washington made a few things clear about how they really feel about the state of the union. First, they are beginning to hear the growing discontent with the size and scope of government and the broken promises that keep piling up. Certain events in Massachusetts recently made that statement loud, clear and unavoidable. In the face of those events, the powers that be made the determination that some populist rhetoric was in order, and the idea of a spending freeze in Washington was proposed, albeit with several caveats. These caveats to the proposed spending freeze ensure that we are not at any real risk of actually doing anything about spending.
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Federal Reserve Is Worsening The Depression (See Video)

"What would be the first two things you would do if you were in Mr Ben Bernanke’s seat?" Jim Rogers: "I would Abolish the Federal Reserve and Resign."

Obama Budget: Record Spending, Record Deficit

The Associated Press
Spelling out painful priorities, Obama urged Congress on Monday to quickly approve a huge new shot of spending for recession relief and job creation, part of a record $3.8 trillion budget that would boost the deficit beyond any in the nation's history while only slowly beginning to put Americans back to work. If Congress goes along with Obama's election-year plan, the nation would still end the year with unemployment pushing double digits at 9.8 percent and this year's pool of government red ink deepening to $1.56 trillion — by the administration's accounting.
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Bashing Iran Increases Danger to Christians in Iran!

John Lofton / The American View:
Interview with Carl Moehler of "Open Doors" Ministry says yes, of course, U.S. "Christian leaders" bashing Iran increases danger to christians in Iran! On this program you will hear the actual voices of the warmongers who have agitated for war with Iran, for overthrowing that government. Tied for Warmonger-In-Chief re: Iran are: Pat Robertson and Neo-Con Man William Kristol. Others include: George Will; Sean Hannity (rhymes with insanity); Michael Ledeen; Rick Warren; Newt Gingrich; Rep. Mike Pence.

Related:
Steve Deace Interviews Tom Minnery
Doug McHone / Coffee Swirls.com:
For those of us who didn't know (myself included), Tom Minnery is the long-time political director of Focus on the Family. He was recently interviewed on Deace in the Afternoon, and Steve really made Tom feel right at home. (Editor: Also, hear Tom Minnery use a statest, neo-con misinterpretation of Romans 13:1-7). You can listen to the interview here.

Steve Deace podcasting WHO Radio.com archive.

Deficit Balloons Into National-Security Threat

Wall Street Journal
The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat. The budget plan released Monday by the Obama administration illustrates why this escalation is warranted. The numbers are mind-numbing: a $1.6 trillion deficit this year, $1.3 trillion next year, $8.5 trillion for the next 10 years combined—and that assumes Congress enacts President Barack Obama's proposals to start bringing it down, and that the proposals work. These numbers are often discussed as an economic and domestic problem. But it's time to start thinking of the ramifications for America's ability to continue playing its traditional global role.
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