SEN. RAND PAUL CUTS $500K FROM HIS OFFICE BUDGET, RETURNS IT TO TREASURY

Image courtesy of WFPL News

By Becket Adams

When freshman Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was elected in 2010, he promised to cut federal spending.

It looks like he’s making good on his promise.

“The Kentucky Republican and tea-party favorite said Thursday he’s returning $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury – money from his operating budget that his office never spent,” writes Scott Wong of Politico, and “he contends no senator has returned as much to taxpayers.”

How does he do it? Some would say frugality.

“We look at all of our office expenses. We look at the coffee pot to the computers bought and we try to buy things as if it were our money we were spending, or your money that we were spending, and our goal is not to spend all of it, our goal is to save some of it,” Paul said.

If Congress offered incentives for lawmakers and staff to cut budgets, the U.S. could save $130 million annually, Paul added.

“I ran to stop the reckless spending. And I ran to end the damaging process of elected officials acting as errand boys, competing to see who could bring back the biggest check and the most amount of pork,” Paul said at a news conference in Louisville, where he presented taxpayers with a massive mock check for $500,000…

Read more.

Source: The Blaze

RNC Chairman Priebus Calls on President Obama to Fire Tim Geithner

By Michael Short

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement calling for President Obama to fire Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner:

“In light of the downgrade of America’s credit rating and the resulting negative reaction in the financial markets, President Obama needs to relieve Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner of his responsibilities – immediately. More than anything, our economy needs a restoration of confidence, which will occur only with concrete action, not more empty rhetoric and political speeches.

The unprecedented downgrade is a direct result of Obama and Geithner’s failure to cut the debt. For two and half years, Republicans warned of the dangers of Obama’s reckless spending.  All the while, he and Geithner proposed record deficits and absolutely no plan to cut spending.  And just four months before this embarrassing downgrade, Geithner vowed it would never happen.  The Treasury Department is no place for such irresponsible stewardship.            .

For the good of the country and the health of our economy, President Obama needs to ask the very person who assured the American people this would never happen to step aside.”

BACKGROUND:

Geithner Said There Was No Risk We Would Lose Our AAA Credit Rating

In April, Treasury Secretary Geithner Insisted That The There Was “No Risk” Of The United States Losing Its AAA Credit Rating. PETER BARNES: “Is there is a risk that the United States could lose its AAA credit rating? Yes or no?” TIM GEITHNER: “No risk of that.” BARNES: “No risk?” GEITHNER: “No risk. …” (Fox Business, 4/19/11)

•When Asked Again If The US Would Keep Its AAA Rating Geithner Said “Absolutely”. BARNES: “So Standard & Poor's is wrong, the United States will keep its AAA credit rating?” GEITHNER: “You know -- absolutely.” (Fox Business, 4/19/11)

Watch the video where Geithner says the US would NOT lose its AAA rating

No, We're Still Not Protected

By Zach Foster
Best read with companion article No, Your Money Isn't Safe

Many members of the Democratic Party are celebrating the one year anniversary of President Obama’s signing into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  The White House has sent out a video release outlining why the banks and Wall Street agents are bad and why the Dodd-Frank Act is good and American families and consumers are much better off.  While the video is somewhat informative and marginally interesting, much of it is either redundant or not quite true.  DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz is also waving the Party banner as she cheers on the President’s so-called accomplishments.[1]  Schultz bragged that “our economy is more protected from the threat of future economic crises.”

The truth is that, while there are a few more restrictions on what the clowns on Wall Street can do, Americans are not better off than they were a year ago before the magical everything-proof shield was signed into law.  Banking is still highly unstable in the country, and the banks still exist as entities only because they were artificially revived in the form of massive bailouts.  All across the political spectrum, Americans are angry that the massive bailouts ever happened, and they haven’t forgotten that this bailout, spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (who was present at the appointment ceremony for the head of the CFPB), happened under President Obama’s watch and he failed to take action against it. (Find out why banking is still highly unstable)

Schultz is attempting to pin poverty on the Republican Party, especially Republican members of Congress.  Much of her attack against the GOP is dismissible, as it’s just another serving of partisan rhetoric.  However, she accuses the GOP of “doubling down on the failed policies of less regulation and more tax breaks for the wealthy.”  She is mistaken to do so, because the policy of less regulation is not a failed one.  While several are undoubtedly opposed to the Obama administration’s agenda simply for the reason that they passionately hate the President, most are even-tempered people with some idea of what they’re doing.  By no means do Congressional Republicans advocate, nor are they trying to implement, no regulations at all.  What they are trying to do is remove some of the chains that cripple industry, such as tariffs, trade agreements that favor one country or company over another, and many of the other industry killers that remain unseen.[2]

Despite whatever noble intentions are spoken of by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the fact remains that American consumers are not protected.  They are only partially protected from a few unscrupulous consumer goods producers, but they remain exposed to the oppression of government regulation.  This is why it is nearly impossible for consumers to get their hands on raw milk, which when boiled is more nutritious than pasteurized milk,[3] though federal think tanks denounce it and federal regulations outlaw it in the interest of public health.  The same is why many shower heads have a weak water flow and high power therapeutic shower heads used by masseuses are widely outlawed.[4]  For the “protection” of all consumers, citizens are instructed to prevent drought by using less water, even though the local Raging Waters park, Soak City park, and even the community pool use untold gallons every minute.

Similar reasons over time turned the health insurance market into the fiasco it is today.  Heavy regulations by state governments are what makes the prices of health care plans vary widely and mostly unaffordable.[5]  The same regulations that make health care so expensive are all meant to protect consumers from being cheated by health insurance providers who want to charge high prices… go figure.

To further damn the idea that fewer regulations are beneficial to economic growth, Schultz tries to make the case that fewer regulations caused this [brink of] depression.  To counter this statement it is necessary to analyze the common denominators between the Great Depression and today’s Second Great Depression (a.k.a. the Great Recession).  The main two factors that stick out are: (1) fractional reserve banking, meaning most of the money that was supposed to exist never actually existed, and (2) extensive use of credit in making large transactions, which means banks, stock markets, and many other firms were buying and selling with promises to pay based on money that never existed.  In the daily lives of the American citizens, receiving something on credit and then not paying for it is called FRAUD.  This is not due to fewer regulations; this is clearly a case of people stealing and other people thinking they had more monopoly money to spend in the real world than they actually had.

So when the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the DNC Chair tell the American people that they are protected, who do they really think they’re fooling?


The image is artwork by the author.  It was compiled from various images on Wikimedia Commons.

---

[2] Bastiat, Frederic. That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Unseen. Chapter 9: Credit.

[3] Thornton, Mark. “Legalize Milk, Real Milk”. http://mises.org/daily/5365/Legalize-Milk-Real-Milk

[4] Tucker, Jeffrey. “The Bureacrat In Your Shower” (also chapter 1 of Bourbon For Breakfast).

[5] “The Easy Fix For Health Care and Why Obama Opposes It.”
[1] Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz Marks One Year Anniversary of Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. http://political-spectrum.blogspot.com/2011/07/chair-debbie-wasserman-schultz-marks.html

Private Tender: Anti-Government Group Mints Its Own Coins

Money doesn’t grow on trees. It also can’t be printed or minted by private citizens—as four co-conspirators in North Carolina and Indiana recently learned the hard way.

Last month, the founder and “monetary architect” of an illegal currency known as the Liberty Dollar was convicted in North Carolina on federal charges of making illegal coins and selling them—at a profit—to compete with legal U.S. currency. Bernard von NotHaus, of Evansville, Indiana, was found guilty of making coins resembling U.S. coins; issuing, passing, selling, and possessing Liberty Dollar coins; issuing and passing Liberty Dollar coins intended for use as current money; and conspiring against the United States. Three others indicted in the case are awaiting their own trials.

“People understand that there is only one legal currency in the United States,” said Owen Harris, then-special agent in charge of our office in Charlotte. “When groups try to replace it with coins and bills that don’t hold the same value, it affects the economy. And consumers were using their hard-earned money to buy goods and services, then getting fake goods in return.”

It all began in 2004, when our Charlotte Division learned that a customer at a North Carolina financial institution had tried to use silver coins that were not legal U.S. currency. Our investigation revealed that the coins came from the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve and Internal Revenue Codes (or NORFED), headquartered in Evansville, whose mission was to return the country’s monetary system to gold and silver. The president of the organization was Bernard von NotHaus, who marketed his currency as inflation-proof, claimed it was backed by silver and gold, and said it could be used to compete with—and limit reliance on—U.S. currency.

Our investigation, which included an undercover scenario, revealed that NORFED contracted for the minting of about $7 million worth of Liberty Dollars in Idaho. The organization also took orders and payments from customers for Liberty Dollars and organized “Liberty Dollar University” sessions to help educate people interested in selling, buying, or using the currency. There was even a Liberty Dollar website.

NORFED used several groups of people to get its illegal coins into circulation:

■Regional currency officers marketed Liberty Dollars in their geographic areas.

■Liberty Dollar associates paid a $250 membership fee and received 100 Liberty Dollars, plus instructions on how to market the currency.

■Recruited merchants and business owners accepted Liberty Dollars in exchange for goods or services and handed out the coins as change.

During the course of the investigation, the U.S. Mint issued a press release warning that the Liberty Dollar was not legal tender and that the Department of Justice had determined that the use of these coins as circulating money was a federal crime. This press release was sent to known NORFED regional currency officers. Despite the warning, though, NORFED and its officers, members, and associates continued to break the law and circulate the illegal tender.

As with many of our other cases, we didn’t work this investigation alone. Providing tremendous assistance was the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Treasury’s Office of Inspector General for Tax Administration, North Carolina Joint Terrorism Task Force, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Mint.