 Now our next speaker, I haven't seen for some time prior to this evening, but I get in touch with him He's a congressman. He's from Texas and Texas next to California as the number two state as far as we cool is not concerned but Ron Paul Has been a member of the Republican Party from Texas and that's like not being too popular You know if you want to count numbers. It's like being a libertarian if you will It's like being in favor of reason then emotion from Texas He consistently ranks first in the house and the ratings of both the National Taxpayers Union and the council for a competitive economy He's now serving his fourth term and he's going to talk to us tonight And there's a lot of time which is tough for a Texan on the subject of the need for new ideas Would you please welcome Congressman Ron Paul? Thank you very much I'm here from the government. I'm here to help you Certainly is nice to be here and I Really believe and feel strongly that it is indeed an honor for Bob to have called me and to invite me to speak to you because I Just convinced it's a distinguished audience and it's a great event to celebrate 15 years of reason But in fact in the 60s it was an important decade for me I finished medical school in the early 60s, and it was as I was finishing medical school that I developed an interest in economics as well And it was during the 60s that I think Anne ran had a lot of influence on What I was thinking at the time and I do recall that I did receive the first subscription of reason magazine in 1968 and received everyone since and Therefore as I was formulating my views during the late 60s and the early 70s as I was entering into politics I know definitely that the magazine has had an influence and still does Influenced me a lot in my staff in Washington. So it's it's been a great magazine and I hope sincerely it continues to Do the job it's been doing I I Understand I saw some applause here earlier for the for anarchists, and I want you to know that some of my best friends are anarchists But I want you also to know that I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't be a politician if I wasn't a politician I'm here because I'm a politician because Bob wouldn't have called me if he had just heard about me being a gynecologist Delivering babies done in Texas now our laughter might have called me because he might need a gynecologist I'm here because I'm a politician not because I'm a doctor and it's been a vehicle for me And it's been something that has permitted me to participate and actually qualify so to speak to come and meet with you and Since my pay is less as in as I'm being involved when I'm involved in politics, and it would be when I'm in medicine Some of the rewards are the is the privilege of coming to and meet with you So I qualify mainly by being a politician and to me in some ways this is self-serving because I do enjoy being involved and dealing with the issues of the day Not because not only because I enjoy the discussion, but also because I'm concerned about what's happening And I think my topic for the night is rather appropriate the need for new ideas How can you think of a better guy to talk talk about need for new ideas somebody who spends their time in Washington? I mean, it's it's very obvious If you ever want to see Bob is more optimistic than I am he was describing all these wonderful things happening in Washington All this deregulation and this stuff going on some days. I'm not that optimistic I mean, I do think I get more optimistic when I come out here and visit real people You know when I come back to the United States, it's much better than when you're in Washington But I do believe there is certainly a grassroots change occurring in the country today it is not reflected and has not been reflected in Washington yet and Who knows if it will or not, but I do know that the effort is worth worth it And one way or the other if we're determined we can do something about it. How it's going to come about I'm not so sure. I've decided we've only have two problems in Washington Made up of conservatives and liberals the rest are okay But we we certainly have problems and I thought I'd try to demonstrate a little bit of what we're facing And the reason we need some new ideas. I found a couple bills I thought I brought I thought I'd bring along with me to show you what's happening And here's one introduced just recently about a fellow by name of Weiss He said that he would like this as a bill HR 4 and 4 to provide a story for the president to stabilize Price's wage is interest rates and corporate dividends It's all he wants to do He wants to eliminate all windfall profits In other words necessary to care out to purpose this title and to stabilize interest rates corporate dividends and similar transfer at Levels consistent with orderly economic growth. It'll be it'll be orderly There won't be any In such orders regulation may provide for the making of such adjustments as may be necessary to prevent gross inequities. No inequities And only a minor penalty if you don't behave you get fine 25,000 dollars if you don't pay you go to jail So that's one sitting there just in case they run out of things to do This kind of stuff you think never could be possible But the truth is a lot of this is on the books of ready You know if you look at banking regulation number one and the defense production act and all the other things sitting there They really want to take absolute control of the economy in your life They can and they will and do time if we're not careful Now here's another one hj res 202 This is by mr. Owens. He says proposing and oh he has to amend the constitution on this one serious stuff An amendment to the constitution which provides that the united states shall guarantee to each person the right to employment opportunity Everybody gets a job. So don't sweat it. Don't worry if you're out of work Tell us in washington We'll fix it up for you know just last week the administration center build down introduced by somebody in the senate and They they've been annoyed. They haven't been able to send enough of your money to china So they had to change the rules because somebody along the way made the rules that if you're a communist You can't get the money quite as easy as if you're not a communist It takes a little bit of finagling. They still get plenty, but you got to do a little finagling And it's slowed up the administration a bit. So what they're doing Is we're going to declare if we pass the law that china is no longer communist But this is the truth They said if it's no longer communist then they qualify for xm ones and they get a discount rate The other day they came to the state department came to and they said, uh, we'd like to change your mind on the n max We need your vote on the n max. It's a tight vote and I said, well, um I'm not all against this defense business, but it doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense to me to You know build more weapons when we're still paying for theirs I said Too much the answer for that but then he got the thing he says well I'll tell you what he says that would be bad and then I mentioned that about communist china I says what you're trying to do is you know changes with with china and he was very much aware of it He says he said, you know that if you had your way that be dancing in the streets in moscow today because they would know that We were we were going to desert our friends in china He would just scare the death of we don't send enough of your mind to china Then they might become friends with russia Well, he didn't get my vote I understand I called my office this evening when I got in here and they said well, uh The secretary of the defense called me three times today. I guess there's a vote coming up on tuesday, and it's a tight vote But uh, I don't quite see a lot of any reason right now that we should build weapons for both sides I don't know how I'd feel any more secure You know, I still can't understand this about the weapons, you know Uh, I wasn't for this nuclear freeze business. Uh, I'm just for voting for less money for Bombs that's all but I didn't like this idea of Of signing signing a treaty because I don't trust the soviets and I don't it doesn't make a lot of sense But I don't what I don't understand is how they feel so much more secure If you have 30 000 bombs, how do you get more secure with 40 000? You know, and that's the argument and the other thing is is if you have 30 or 40 or 50 000 you freeze them How do you feel more secure if you sign a treaty with a bunch of old loans? so Long behold, I was in the middle of that when I couldn't even find either side I was on in that debate Here's another one Monetary control act a few years ago was passed 1980 and uh in the conference This was never debated in the house or the senate but in the conference They stuck a little clause in there and said Well, if we run short of collateral for our front of reserve notes use foreign bonds They're pretty good mexican bonds british bonds But you do they have it it's little don't they do it all the time They they thought they were going to sneak this through and that nobody would ever see or hear it again And nobody would check on them. Well, I found it and we circulated this among newsletter writers And we had generated tens of thousands of letter to the federal reserve system who never gets any mail But they didn't feel good about all the mail they were getting they were rather annoyed by it So they decided they were going to change this they came over and volunteered to have hearings to explain that that's not so I was Distorting it and that's really not what was going on We weren't using really foreign bonds to collateralize our money What they said was happening was they were just trying to earn interest and of course They've been giving me a little bit trouble in in giving me the information I've been looking for But they said we were going to revise that and this week lo and behold Mr. Faunt Roy who's the subcommittee chairman on domestic monetary policy subcommittee on which I serve They have introduced this when we called the office. We said well Have you checked this out with the fed to see if they approve this and they say what do you mean? They're the ones who wrote it They admitted it they said it's to amend the federal reserve act to provide Flexibility in the issuance of federal reserve notes in order to assure that the nation will have an adequate supply of currency Now, how do you think they're gonna do that and you deal with a restraint now? They can't print unless they have Mexican bonds I mean there's a lot of restraint there But now they're gonna change the rules It's my time up. Yeah I'm just getting started This says That collateral shall not be required for the federal reserve. That's now they're not even going to use any that funny money in the back I'll be a funny money But they're changing the rules all the time But if that doesn't convince you I can tell you a few more We're desperate We're desperate in washington the country is desperate desperate for new ideas desperate for the ideas That have been presented in magazines like reasoned for several years to be implemented Yes, we see signs that they have been introduced But what we have in washington really you can't rest well at night Don't be reassured that we're making much progress I think in the educational sense we have made progress and I think at a grassroots level we have The real question in my mind is do we have enough time? Do we have enough time really to change enough attitudes so that one day Those who are in charge of the legislation in washington will reflect those views today. That's not the case Fortunately, though more and more grant people are joining the underground economy and keeping the economy alive and But that that won't work forever because that just gives the status more incentive And that's why this administration has just hired 5,200 new irs agents And that's the problem because unless we resolve that conflict of the great desire for the real market to work That is the black market versus the Individuals in washington who think they must enhance revenues And collect be more efficient tax collectors This is also why there's a big attack right now today on the hard money assets Mainly because you who know something about hard assets protect yourself and you're pointing the finger at the scoundrels And you're saying you're the carpets who's destroying the money and we know what you're doing and we're going to preserve our country We're going to preserve our freedom. We're going to preserve our own asset. So what are they going to do? They're going to attack it. That's why in the conference they put a little clause in there and exclude from the iras You're not allowed to buy gold coins And that's why they're preparing to make sure that if you invest in golden silver any collectible that you won't have capital gains benefits It's an attack on Those individuals who know how to protect themselves because if you know how you point the finger at the ones who are causing all the trouble Those who are depreciating the currency destroy the system and destroy the country It wasn't too long ago when we had our first budget resolution 1981 One gentleman was asked, uh, you know, he had been lobbied by the administration to come in this way to vote with the administration And he said he finally did and the interviewer asked him. He said, how come uh, how come you voted with the administration? He was one that was wavering back and forth. He says, well, he gave me the best deal And the reporter said, well, you know, and I think he needed some guarantee that he'd get a subsidy Somehow another that he needed for his district. He says he got the best deal from the republican So he went with the republican balanced budget, you know, only 47 billion off balance that turned out 115 and They said does that mean your vote can be bought And the congressman said no, but it can be rented Be real sure though, we have things under control in washington because we had a very crucial vote yesterday Very significant vote Yesterday, we made sure that the temporary debt has now become permanent debt Now, I know you realize we were getting ready to pay that debt off and that's why it was always called temporary But the permanent debt was always only 400 billion But we had to raise the debt limit up a little yesterday. We had to boost another hundred 100 billion that is we had already raised at 145 billion for this year But they raised it and turned it into our permanent debt. It's 1.389 trillion now But since the concert has been in charge, uh, we've been doing real well We have only increased the national debt by 454 billion dollars, nearly a half a trillion dollars obligations, of course, are about 11 trillion Can you imagine what would have happened if we'd have had the liberals in I mean, we could have been in big trouble But the spending we're getting control of it We're really tightening down on about what we're doing what we have expect to do is generate a lot of new money Stimulate the economy and collect more taxes and then the balance the budget will be balanced But don't hold your breath. It doesn't look like that's going to happen You know, sometimes I don't seem to fit in real well in washington So one day after I got back to congress, I was in in 76 for a part term and I was reelected in In 78 and I went back and I introduced a couple bills like Reduced the salary of congressmen at the rate of inflation. Maybe they'll learn a lesson But that didn't go over to me. I got two cosponsors But then I had one that said no junkets. No junkets. Y'all stay home Y'all know what to do at home and vote without going over to europe and paris and all these places to study the issues And one fella came in had been in about 20 years. He sat down. He says look Ron. He says we're glad to have you back But lay off. He says a lot of us enjoy this. He says y'all just learn to enjoy these side benefits because that's part of our pay And I said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, and that went by but he came back six months or so later And he sat down with me again He wanted to give me some fatherly advice because I think we were looking at a vote and was 435 to 1 And uh, and he was he was a little bit worried about that. He says look he said you keep both like that And you're not going to come back again. He says you're a weak politician And he says you got to go with the mainstream if you want to get reelected and he was serious He wanted to give me this advice on how to get how to keep coming back. He said I want to give you this advice He says in washington expediency is a virtue consistency is a vice And he said, uh, if you learn that lesson you'll learn to come back another day Well, something happened after that he went home and lost his election I went home and my opponent dropped out and I got 99 of the vote So maybe truth wins out in the end Now I'll bit you any money. I'm coming real close to having used up all my time And I'd like to just give you one little quote I hope I got a message across that we have problems and that we need new ideas. That's what I was supposed to do But I'd like to quote from mises and say and and recite this There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility whoever neglects to examine To the best of his abilities all the problems Involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a self-appointed elite of superman in such vital matters blind reliance upon Experts and uncritical acceptance of popular catchwords and prejudices Is tantamount to the abandonment of self-determination and to yielding to other people's domination That's what we have to do. We have to prevent that and thank you very much