January 28, 2011
July 29, 2010
Put patients and doctors back in control of healthcare
Posted by sandekinca under Action, Background, California, change, civil rights, Events, freedom, Healthcare, hope, libertarian, liberty, Marin County, News, politics, Ron Paul, S.F., U.S.A. | Tags: Commerce Clause, FDA, Flexible Savings Account, Food and Drug Administration, free market health care system, FSAs, health care, Health Maintenance Organizations, Health Savings Account, HMOs, HSAs, medigap policies, Private Option Health Care Act, Ron Paul, third-party payers |Leave a Comment
Posted By Ron Paul On June 1, 2010 (4:59 pm) In Voices and Choices
Most everyone agrees that health care in the United States has major problems, the biggest problems relating to skyrocketing costs. No one doubts the system is in need of reform. However, too many in Washington see tighter government controls as the solution. In fact, the problems are rooted in past government controls that created more problems than they solved.
Ironically, laws and policies in the 1970’s promoting Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) resulted from desperate attempts to control spiraling costs. However, instead of promoting an efficient health care system, HMOs took far too much control away from patients and physicians and gave it to the insurers. This excessive reliance on third-party payers instead removed incentives for insured patients to economize on health care costs, and allowed the problem to snowball. Furthermore, the third-party payer system created a two-tier health care system where people whose employers could afford to offer “Cadillac” plans have access to top quality health care, while others face financial obstacles in obtaining quality health care.
For these and other reasons, I introduced the Private Option Health Care Act last week. This bill places individuals back in control of health care by replacing the recently passed tax-spend-and-regulate health care law with reforms designed to restore a free market health care system.
First, the bill would provide all Americans with a tax credit for 100 percent of health care expenses. This tax credit is fully refundable against both income and payroll taxes. It would also allow individuals to roll over unused amounts in cafeteria plans and Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs). Next, it would provide a tax credit for premiums for high-deductible insurance policies connected with a Health Savings Account (HSAs) and allow seniors to use funds in HSAs to pay for medigap policies. In addition, it would repeal the 7.5 percent threshold for the deduction of medical expenses, and thus would make all medical expenses tax deductible.
This bill would also create a competitive market in health insurance by exercising Congress’s Constitutional authority under the Commerce Clause to allow individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines. Ending these state-imposed bans would create a competitive national marketplace in health insurance.
The Private Option Health Care Act would also ensure that people harmed during medical treatment receive fair compensation while simultaneously reducing the burden of costly malpractice litigation on the health care system. The bill achieves this by providing a tax credit for negative outcomes insurance purchased before medical treatment. This type of insurance would provide compensation for any negative outcomes without having to go through lengthy litigation or giving huge sums to trial lawyers.
Finally, the Private Option Health Care Act would lower the prices of prescription drugs by reducing barriers to the importation of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharmaceuticals. Under my bill, anyone wishing to import a drug simply submits an application to the FDA, which then must approve it unless it is either not approved for use in the United States or is adulterated or misbranded.
The Private Option Health Care Act allows Congress to correct the mistake it made last month by replacing the new health care law with health care measures that give control to individuals, instead of the federal government and corporations. Our health is too vital to allow for the typical results of government interference and “fixes”.
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Article taken from SmallGovTimes.com – http://www.smallgovtimes.com
URL to article: http://www.smallgovtimes.com/2010/06/put-patients-and-doctors-back-in-control-of-healthcare/
May 16, 2010
Ron Paul’s “audit the fed bill” compromised in Senate
Posted by smoker6453 under Action, Background, change, civil rights, constitution, Events, freedom, hope, libertarian, liberty, News, politics, Ron Paul, Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: audit the Fed, audit the Federal Reserve Bank, House Financial Services committee, Ron Paul, taxpayers |Leave a Comment
Ron Paul’s “audit the fed bill” compromised in Senate
Posted By Steve Adcock On May 7, 2010 (10:55 am) In Voices and Choices
Washington, D.C. – Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) expressed disappointment that his landmark legislation to audit the Federal Reserve Bank- which passed by a wide margin in the House Financial Services committee and has over 319 House co-sponsors- was threatened by a compromise in the Senate today.
More specifically, Paul’s language (passed by the House) to audit the Federal Reserve has been stripped from the Sanders Amendment to the Senate financial reform bill. Instead, the Sanders Amendment now contains softer compromise language that exempts monetary policy decisions, discount window operations, and agreements with foreign central banks from Government Accounting Office (“GAO”) audit.
This is of particular concern when several countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Spain are seeking IMF help in the midst of their financial crises, because American taxpayers provide fully 17% of all IMF funding.
“Taxpayers are weary of bailing out privileged banks and corporations in the US, and we certainly cannot afford to bail out entire countries. The possibility of this happening behind a veil of Federal Reserve secrecy is not acceptable,” stated Congressman Paul. “This compromise language represents a huge missed opportunity by Congress to finally make the Fed accountable for trillions of taxpayer dollars it administers. Full transparency, via a full GAO audit, is the only acceptable option. However, I am grateful to Senator Vitter for offering the original full audit language in an alternative amendment to the bill.”
The above was taken from an official Ron Paul press release.
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Article taken from SmallGovTimes.com – http://www.smallgovtimes.com
URL to article: http://www.smallgovtimes.com/2010/05/pauls-audit-the-fed-bill-compromised-in-senate/
May 4, 2010
Congress freezes its own pay
Posted by sandekinca under Action, Background, California, change, civil rights, constitution, environment, Events, Foreign policy, freedom, Healthcare, hope, libertarian, liberty, Marin County, News, politics, Ron Paul, S.F., Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: American taxpayers, Ann Kirkpatrick, congress, Congressional pay raise, Congressional salaries, Darrell Issa, Harry Mitchell, House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nathan Deal, Ron Paul, senate |Leave a Comment
Posted By Ron Paul On May 3, 2010 (10:13 am) In Voices and Choices
Last week Congress did something fiscally responsible. It’s not very often I can say that. Granted, it was small in the grand scheme of things, but I was glad to be an original cosponsor, along with Congressman Harry Mitchell of Arizona, of a bill to block the automatic pay raise that Congress otherwise receives every year. Every Member of Congress gets this raise unless it is expressly voted down. For the second year in a row Congress has voted to freeze its own pay, which, in a time of skyrocketing deficits and high unemployment, is the very least Congress can do.
The country is in a serious recession, bordering on depression. Unemployment is grossly underreported, and not likely to get better anytime soon. American citizens and businesses are overtaxed, yet tax revenues still fall far short of our government’s voracious appetite for spending. This is no time to raise taxes. And since congressional salaries come from tax revenue, allowing ourselves a raise would fly in the face of economic reality.
Of course, Congress ignores economic reality all the time. But if Congress can freeze salaries as a first step towards fiscal sanity, it can freeze- if not drastically cut- a vast array of federal expenditures.
At the very least, Congress could freeze current spending levels, instead of constantly increasing them. We could stop increasing the debt ceiling every few months, as has become our habit. We could freeze regulations that add to the burden on our struggling small businesses. We could freeze intrusive bailouts that upset the balance of the market and cost us billions – billions we could instead use to eliminate the oppressive income tax! We could freeze the money supply and stave off the tsunami of inflation the Fed has been generating for years.
Furthermore, we could address the mismanagement and waste in foreign affairs which adds immensely to our budget. Like entitlements, militarism is expensive. We need to reject sanctions as a precursor to military action, and embrace free trade as the most effective method for spreading liberty. After all, as the great economist Frederic Bastiat said – when goods don’t cross borders, armies will. It is time to bring our troops home, instead of instigating expensive new wars when we’re already hopelessly mired in several conflicts already. We need to rethink the whole idea of pre-emptive war- not only because it’s wrong and counterproductive, but because we literally cannot afford it!
We could do much to restore fiscal sanity to this country simply by stopping the madness and bringing our troops home – from Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, Japan, Germany, and so many other places. This costly global empire does not serve the interests of the American people and we should end it peacefully and voluntarily now, lest it end in chaos later.
Though it may be wishful thinking on my part, I’m encouraged by the small step taken by Congress last week. Fiscal sanity can begin with a small step, and I want to encourage Congress to move in this direction.
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Article taken from SmallGovTimes.com – http://www.smallgovtimes.com
URL to article: http://www.smallgovtimes.com/2010/05/congress-freezes-its-own-pay/
May 4, 2010
Ron Paul leads charge to halt Congressional pay raise
Posted by sandekinca under Action, Background, California, change, civil rights, constitution, environment, Events, Foreign policy, freedom, Healthcare, hope, libertarian, liberty, Marin County, News, politics, Ron Paul, S.F., Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: American taxpayers, Ann Kirkpatrick, congress, Congressional pay raise, Congressional salaries, Darrell Issa, Harry Mitchell, House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nathan Deal, Ron Paul, senate |Leave a Comment
Posted By Steve Adcock On May 3, 2010 (6:33 am) In Voices and Choices
For the third consecutive year, Congressional pay raises have been halted due in part to a charge lead by Representative Ron Paul and Arizona Rep. Harry Mitchell, arguing that Congressional pay raises are not appropriate while Americans continue to struggle.
Texas Representative Ron Paul “We should not be padding our pocketbooks when our constituents are still tightening their belts and losing their jobs,” stated Ron Paul. “As well, we could continue with this symbolic first step and stop increasing taxes, expanding the federal budget, and spreading our military so thin. These additional measures would do much to begin our economic recovery.”
The move will save American taxpayers $850,000 next year. The base pay for members of Congress stands at $174,000 with Congressional leaders earning more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earns $223,500.
Pay raises for Congress in the midst of economic uncertainty are clearly unpopular, and some members of Congress are taking the pay raise halt one step further. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick of Arizona wants to cut Congressional pay next year by $8,700. Former Rep. Nathan Deal proposed a plan that will slash pay for members of Congress each year the government runs a deficit. Rep. Darrell Issa supports getting rid of the automatic pay increase entirely and instead opting for an “independent commission” that manages Congressional salaries, including raises.
In Congress, pay raises are automatically applied unless voted down by members of the Senate and House. This year, the Senate was first to vote down their pay raise, followed by the House. The measure still needs to be signed by President Obama.
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Article taken from SmallGovTimes.com – http://www.smallgovtimes.com
URL to article: http://www.smallgovtimes.com/2010/05/ron-paul-leads-charge-to-halt-congressional-pay-raise/
April 25, 2010
The FCIC: Passing the buck
Posted by sandekinca under Action, Background, change, Events, freedom, hope, libertarian, liberty, News, politics, Ron Paul, Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: congress, economic meltdown, FCIC, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, great depression, Pecora Commission, Ron Paul, SEC, Voices and Choices |Leave a Comment
Posted By Ron Paul On April 13, 2010 (6:50 am) In Voices and Choices
Last week the federal government’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission held hearings as part of their continuing investigation into the causes of the acute economic meltdown which occurred in late summer 2008. This bipartisan commission, partly inspired by the Pecora Commission- which investigated the causes of the Great Depression- is expected to report back to Congress before the end of the year.
Things don’t seem to be going well. The individuals questioned by the commission mostly seem to be diverting blame for the whole fiasco to someone else. Nobody is offering any tangible insights into the causes of the financial crisis.
Predictably, the commission will avoid calling any witnesses who might unequivocally indict the federal government for its role in the crisis, or suggest solutions which take away government power. Government commissions have a remarkable tendency to recommend granting even more power to the same useless government agencies that so utterly fail to prevent crises in the first place. We saw this with the Pecora Commission, we saw it after 9-11, and we’re seeing it again today with regard to financial regulations. For example, this latest commission almost certainly will suggest granting more power to the SEC, when in fact the SEC should be abolished as an embarrassing farce. Rest assured that this recommendation will be made without apology or sense of irony.
The reality is that the Federal Reserve relentlessly expanded the money supply through artificially low interest rates for over two decades, and this expansion of easy money caused a wholly predictable bubble. To a myopic Keynesian regulator, the bubble may appear to be caused by greed, but in truth it is completely predictable that humans will act in their own perceived self interest. If the Fed wants to dole out artificially cheap money, people and businesses- including Wall Street businesses- will line up to take it. We can condemn this as greed, but the fundamental problem is Fed policy itself. There will always be demand for cheap money, but we should not allow the Fed to debase our currency and create bubbles of false prosperity to satisfy that demand.
What the commission really needs are experts who understand free market economics rather than big government Keynesian fantasies. The commission has none of these, and has called no true free market witnesses. That perspective would only distract from their predetermined goals.
The commission will bemoan the complexity and inscrutability of our economic problems, but the solution is simple: allow freedom to operate in our markets. Allow U.S. financial, labor, and housing markets to normalize without political interference. Though solution is simple, and rather obvious, it would not be easy or painless, but we’d be so much better off for it in the long run. It would require admitting fiat money is a tangled web of monetary deception prone to catastrophic failure. It would require allowing Americans to choose a system of sound money, where the money supply and interest rates are set by market forces rather than centralized economic planners. Unfortunately, fiat money is like a drug to a Congress hopelessly addicted to spending vastly more than the Treasury collects in revenues. Because of this, our problems can only get worse and more complex before they get better.
April 12, 2010
Healthcare and economic realities
Posted by smoker6453 under Action, Background, California, change, civil rights, constitution, environment, Events, Foreign policy, freedom, Healthcare, hope, libertarian, liberty, News, politics, Ron Paul, S.F., Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: Austrian economic theory, Ben Bernanke, budget predictions, central economic planning, economic realities, Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Chairman, healthcare reform, human right, market assumptions, quality of care, Ron Paul, single payer healthcare, Soviet Union, Timothy Geithner, Treasury Secretary, U.S. economy, universal healthcare, Voices and Choices |Leave a Comment
Posted By Ron Paul On March 30, 2010 (7:49 am) In Voices and Choices
With passage of last week’s bill, the American people are now the unhappy recipients of Washington’s disastrous prescription for healthcare “reform.” Congressional leaders relied on highly dubious budget predictions, faulty market assumptions, and outright fantasy to convince a slim majority that this major expansion of government somehow will reduce federal spending.
This legislation is just the next step towards universal, single payer healthcare, which many see as a human right. Of course, this “right” must be produced by the labor of other people, meaning theft and coercion by government is necessary to produce and distribute it.
Those who understand Austrian economic theory know that this new model of healthcare will cause major problems down the road, as it has in every nation that ignores economic realities. The more government involves itself in medicine, the worse healthcare will get: quality of care will diminish as the system struggles to contain rising costs, while shortages and long waiting times for treatment will become more and more commonplace.
Consider what would happen if car insurance worked the way health insurance does. What if it was determined that gasoline was a right, and should be covered by your car insurance policy? Perhaps every gas station would have to hire a small army of bureaucrats to file reimbursement claims to insurance companies for every tank of gas sold! What would that kind of system do to the costs of running a gas station? How would that affect the prices of both gasoline and car insurance? Yet this is exactly the type of system Congress is now expanding in health insurance. In a free market system, health insurance would serve as true insurance against serious injuries or illness, not as a convoluted system of third party payments for routine doctor visits and every minor illness.
While proponents of this reform continue to defy all logic and reason by claiming it will save money, I worry about cataclysmic economic events. Already investors are more reluctant to buy US Treasuries, fearing that the healthcare bill, along with other spending, will cause government debt to explode to default levels. I had the opportunity last week to address my concerns with both Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, especially about the potential for the coming serious inflation. I am not optimistic that these important decision makers truly understand what is coming, why it is coming, and how best to deal with it.
The Federal Reserve finds itself in an unprecedented and unenviable position. To keep up with government spending and corporate irresponsibility, it has increased the monetary base by nearly $1.5 trillion since September of 2008. Excess bank reserves remain at historically high levels, and the Fed’s balance sheet has ballooned to over $2 trillion. If the Fed pulls this excess liquidity out of the system, it risks collapsing banks that rely on the newly created money. However, if the Fed fails to pull this excess liquidity out of the system we risk tipping into hyperinflation. This is where central banking inevitably has led us.
The idea that a handful of brilliant minds can somehow steer an economy is fatal to economic growth and stability. The Soviet Union’s economy failed because of its central economic planning, and the U.S. economy will suffer the same fate if we continue down the path toward more centralized control. We need to bring back sound money and free markets- yes, even in healthcare- if we hope to soften the economic blows coming our way.
April 12, 2010
Government and gasoline
Posted by smoker6453 under Action, Background, change, civil rights, constitution, environment, Events, Foreign policy, freedom, hope, libertarian, liberty, News, politics, Ron Paul, Taxes, U.S.A. | Tags: abolish the EPA, alternative fuel sources, energy production, EPA, gasoline prices, Iran, Ron Paul, subsidies, Venezuela, Voices and Choices |Leave a Comment
Posted By Ron Paul On April 5, 2010 (9:06 am) In Voices and Choices
As we head into the summer driving season and gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up more off-shore areas for exploration and drilling. On the one hand this can be lauded as a positive step. On the other hand, it is too little, much too late to have any meaningful or long-term effect on what Americans pay at the pump any time soon, if at all.
Indeed, if increasing domestic energy production was really a priority, the administration would direct the EPA to remove its many roadblocks and barriers to energy production. In fact, abolishing the EPA altogether would do much to improve our country’s economy. Instead of protecting the environment as they are supposed to do, most of what they do simply chills the economy. Polluters should be directly liable in court to any and all parties they harm, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA.
Of course, last week’s announcement was couched in terms of removing barriers and red tape. However, the fact that we had these barriers in the first place is yet another reminder of how the energy market is hampered and controlled by bureaucrats and central planners in Washington, rather than the demands of the people and the decisions of private investors.
Consider how extremely negative our government’s reaction has been to other governments around the world that have nationalized their oil and energy industries, such as Venezuela and Iran. We deposed a democratically elected leader in Iran in 1953 for this very reason. Yet the level of involvement of our government and bureaucrats in energy is nearly absolute. Of course, the only thing worse than our government dictating energy decisions to its own citizens is our government dictating energy decisions to the citizens of other countries.
Along with the waste of prohibitions that leave our own natural resources untapped is the waste our government perpetrates with subsidies to alternative fuel sources. There is certainly profit to be made in perfecting cheaper, cleaner fuel sources, but government subsidy programs interfere with finding realistic long-term solutions. Subsidies divert resources towards certain politically-favored fuel types while ignoring others. If the market were left alone, private investors would put their own capital into the most promising alternative fuels. Instead, due to government incentives, resources are concentrated into politically chosen endeavors that could very well end up being dead ends. Meanwhile, precious time and money is wasted.
The government has the opposite of the Midas touch. This has been observed over and over by the reduced quality and rising prices in every private industry in which it entangles itself. Yet somehow people still seem willing, even eager, to relinquish to government control the most important and sensitive portions of our economy and society. Education, healthcare, and energy are all unfortunate examples of industries that are in my opinion, far too important to be left to government control when it is the market that has the golden touch.
