Ron Paul Talks abt War (114 QUOTES)

* Astonishingly, American taxpayers now will be forced to finance a multi-billion dollar jobs program in Iraq. Suddenly the war is about jobs. We export our manufacturing jobs to Asia, and now we plan to export our welfare jobs to Iraq, all at the expense of the poor and the middle class here at home.
* Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.
* I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense. I mean, we stood up to the Soviets. They had 40,000 nuclear weapons. Now we're fretting day in and day and night about third-world countries that have no army, navy or air force.
* I have never met anyone who did not support our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or some group does not support the men and women serving in our Armed Forces. But this is pure demagoguery, and it is intellectually dishonest.
* Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.
* Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.
* The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.
* War is never economically beneficial except for those in position to profit from war expenditures.
* If the new nation of America could defeat what was then the most powerful military empire in the world without a draft, there is no reason why we cannot address our current military needs with a voluntary military.
* If we can't or won't define the enemy, the cost to fight such a war will be endless.
* How many American troops are we prepared to lose? How much money are we prepared to spend? How many innocent civilians, in our nation and others, are we willing to see killed? How many American civilians will we jeopardize? How much of our civil liberties are we prepared to give up?
* I rise to urge the Congress to think twice before thrusting this nation into a war without merit- one fraught with the danger of escalating into something no American will be pleased with.
* War is not popular. It may seem popular in the short run, when there appears to be an immediate victory and everyone is gloating, but war is not popular. People get killed, and body bags end up coming back. War is very unpopular, and it is not the politically smart thing to do.
* Military force is justified only in self-defense; naked aggression is the province of dictators and rogue states. This is the danger of a new "preemptive first strike" doctrine.
* Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.
* The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.”
* All initiation of force is a violation of someone else's rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it's supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals.
* Astonishingly, American taxpayers now will be forced to finance a multi-billion dollar jobs program in Iraq. Suddenly the war is about jobs. We export our manufacturing jobs to Asia, and now we plan to export our welfare jobs to Iraq, all at the expense of the poor and the middle class here at home.
* Cliches about supporting the troops are designed to distract from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war, anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon.
* I believe that when we overdo our military aggressiveness, it actually weakens our national defense.
* I have never met anyone who did not support our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or some group does not support the men and women serving in our Armed Forces. But this is pure demagoguery, and it is intellectually dishonest.
* Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.
* Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms.
* The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.
* The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.
* All initiation of force is a violation of someone else’s rights, whether initiated by an individual or the state, for the benefit of an individual or group of individuals, even if it’s supposed to be for the benefit of another individual or group of individuals. Legitimate use of violence can only be that which is required in self-defense.
* When one person can initiate war, by its definition, a republic no longer exists.
* Military force is justified only in self-defense; naked aggression is the province of dictators and rogue states. This is the danger of a new “preemptive first strike” doctrine. America is the most moral nation on earth, founded on moral principles, and we must apply moral principles when deciding to use military force.
* It is said we go about the world waging war to promote peace, and yet the price paid is rarely weighed against the failed efforts to make the world a better place.
* Fighting over there has nothing to do with preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the opposite is true.
* We have a lot of goodness in this country. And we should promote it, but never through the barrel of a gun. We should do it by setting good standards, motivating people and have them want to emulate us. But you can’t enforce our goodness, like the neocons preach, with an armed force. It doesn’t work.
* Americans, unfortunately, have very short memories, and they don’t remember our foreign policy that may have antagonized… The founders were absolutely right: stay out of the internal affairs of foreign nations, mind our own business, bring our troops home, and have a strong defense.
* The American people are generous – there’s no reason why we can’t help feed the world, and we do. But there’s no justification to use violence against our people to extract money to do good overseas.
* Clearly, language threatening to wipe a nation or a group of people off the map is to be condemned by all civilized people. And I do condemn any such language. But why does threatening Iran with a pre-emptive nuclear strike, as many here have done, not also deserve the same kind of condemnation?
* Iran is no threat to Israel, which has hundreds of nuclear weapons. And it certainly is no threat to the US, with its thousands of nuclear weapons. In fact, it is Iran that is threatened.
* It is with the complicity of Congress that we have become a nation of pre-emptive war, secret military tribunals, torture, rejection of habeas corpus, warrantless searches, undue government secrecy, extraordinary renditions, and uncontrolled spying on the American people.
* The constant refrain that bringing our troops home would demonstrate a lack of support for them must be one of the most amazing distortions ever foisted on the American public.
* If the mafia attacks someone in this country, we don’t bomb Italy.
* Defense of our homeland is one thing. Offensive tactics overseas are quite another. Worse yet, when our newly minted enemies find their way over here, where will our troops be to defend us?
* The constant refrain that bringing our troops home would demonstrate a lack of support for them must be one of the most amazing distortions ever foisted on the American public.
* Economist Lawrence Parks has explained how the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 made possible our involvement in World War I. Without the ability to create new money, the federal government never could have afforded the enormous mobilization of men and material. Prior to that, American wars were financed through taxes and borrowing, both of which have limits.
* The best way to support the troops is through a sensible foreign policy that does not place them in harm's way unnecessarily or force them into uncomfortable, dangerous roles as occupiers.
* The dependency on government generated by welfarism and warfarism, made possible by our shift from a republican to a democratic system of government, is the real scandal of the ages.
* It was a mistake to go, so it's a mistake to stay.
* Don't we remember than when you sacrifice liberty for security, you lose both?
* We honor our veterans by ensuring that their service to the nation is never in vain.
* We cannot impose democracy in Iraq any more than we can erase hundreds of years of Iraqi history.
* Even opponents of the war now argue that we must occupy Iraq indefinitely until a democratic government takes hold, no matter what the costs. No attempt is made by either side to explain exactly why it is the duty of American soldiers to die for the benefit of Iraq or any other foreign country. No reason is given why American taxpayers must pay billions of dollars to build infrastructure in Iraq. We are expected to accept the interventionist approach without question, as though no other options exist.
* Those who seek to whip the nation into a frenzy of fear do a disservice to a country that expelled the British, fought two world wars, and stared down the Soviet empire.
* War does not justify the suspension of torture laws any more than it justifies the suspension of murder laws, the suspension of due process, or the suspension of the Second amendment.
* War cannot raise the standard of living for the average American.
* Is America better off as a result of our war in Iraq? The young men and women who were hurt or killed certainly are no better off. Their families are no better off. Taxpayers are no better off. Whether we are safer from terrorism here at home is an open question. We all hope and pray nothing happens. But even our own intelligence forces cautioned that an invasion and occupation of Muslim Iraq could breed resentment among sympathetic Muslims and serve as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda.
* Why should young Americans be hurt or killed to liberate foreign nations? I have never heard a convincing answer to this question.
* The federal government has spent tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars in the region, and a succession of presidents have held peace summits with Middle Eastern leaders, all to no avail. The endless supply of American money, however well-intentioned, gives the leaders of both sides a perverse incentive to remain engaged in the process indefinitely.
* Peace is too important to be left up to government officials, most of whom are safely insulated from the daily violence.
* The powers in charge keep us in a perpetual state of fear, keep us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.
* Some politicians simply love the thought of mandatory service to the state. To them, the American government is America. Patriotism means working for the benefit of the state.
* We should stop the endless game of playing faction against faction, and recognize that buying allies doesn't work. We should curtail the heavy militarization of the area by ending our disastrous foreign aid payments. We should stop propping up dictators and putting band-aids on festering problems. We should understand that our political and military involvement in the region creates far more problems that it solves.
* The greatest economic cost of war, however, comes from the expansion in the size and scope of government. Government always grows during wars and other crises.
* The sad irony is that while our soldiers have fought for the freedom of Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, and Iraq, the government uses war to steadily diminish freedom here at home. While we fight a war in Iraq, we must also fight to maintain and restore individual liberty in America.
* Only by using American troops judiciously and in service of the Constitution can we avoid the kind of endless military entanglements we witnessed in Korea and Vietnam. We honor our veterans by ensuring that their service to the nation is never in vain.
* Today's American soldiers are the veterans of the future, and they should never be sent to war without clear objectives that serve definite American national security interests. They should never fight at the behest of the United Nations or any other international agency. They should never serve under a UN flag, nor answer to a UN commander. They deserve to know that they fight for the American people and the Constitution, and that the decision to send them into battle was made by their own congress rather than by UN bureaucrats who don't care about them.
* One Republican member stated that the Constitutional requirement that Congress declare war is an anachronism and should no longer be followed, while a Democratic member said that a declaration of war would be "frivolous." I don't think most Americans believe our Constitution is outdated or frivolous, and they expect Congress to follow it.
* Do you personally feel strongly enough about Iraq to leave your home, family, and job to join the war? If you are beyond the age of military service, would you want your children or grandchildren to do the same? After Pearl Harbor, almost all Americans would have answered yes to this question, but do we really have the same national unity and clear sense of purpose when it comes to Iraq?
* We are blessed to live under the Constitution, rather than under a King or dictator. Yet if we blatantly violate the Constitution by pursuing an undeclared war, we violate the rule of law. We invite the President, and future Presidents, to act in an imperial manner. We damage the separation of powers that is so critical to our freedom. We act more like Iraq than the United States of America when we ignore the Constitution.
* The young men and women who will be called upon to fight for the Constitution in Iraq deserve to see it followed at home.
* War is war, no matter what we call it. When we bomb another country, when we send troops, planes, and warships to attack it, we are at war. Calling war a "police action" or a "peacekeeping mission" does not change the reality.
* The Constitution requires a congressional declaration of war precisely because the founders wanted the most representative branch of government, not an imperial President, to make the grave decision to send our young people into harm's way.
* Remember that American tax dollars have been instrumental in the incredible militarization of the entire region. We give Israel about $3 billion each year, but we also give Egypt $2 billion. Most other Middle East countries get money too, some of which ends up in Palestinian hands. Both sides have far more military weapons as a result. Talk about adding fuel to the fire! Our foolish and unConstitutional foreign aid, though debatably well-intentioned, only intensifies the conflict.
* It is clear that we are not in the Middle East for national security reasons, but rather to protect powerful commercial interests. This assures we protect oil supplies for the West, and provides us with an excuse to keep the military industrial complex active.
* Our policy in the Middle East cannot possibly be successful. It's obvious there will be an inevitable conflict between our support for the moderate Arabs- which antagonizes the Islamic fundamentalists in the region- and our special treatment for Israel. It is clear that powerful financial interests in this country want to use our military force to protect their commercial and oil interests in the region, while at the same time there always will be powerful U.S. political support for the State of Israel. The two sides never will be reconciled by our attempt to support both.
* Our many failures in the last fifty years should prompt us to reassess our entire foreign policy of interventionism. We must end our efforts to police the world.
* The greatest threat to our national security is our own bad policy.
* Unquestioned loyalty to the state is especially demanded in times of war. Lack of support for a war policy is said to be unpatriotic. Arguments against a particular policy that endorses a war once started, are always said to be endangering the troops in the field. This, they blatantly claim, is unpatriotic and all dissent must stop. Yet it is dissent from government policies that defines the true patriot and champion of liberty.
* Sending troops off to war for reasons that are not truly related to national security -- and for that matter may even damage our security -- is hardly a way to patriotically support the troops.
* The only authentic way to best support the troops is to keep them out of dangerous, undeclared, no-win wars that are politically inspired.
* Who are the true patriots: those who conform or those who protest against wars without purpose? How can it be said that blind support for war, no matter how misdirected the policy, is the duty of the patriot?
* Out of fear of being labeled unpatriotic, most citizens become compliant and accept the argument that some loss of liberty is required to fight the war in order to remain safe. This is a bad trade-off in my estimation, especially when done in the name of patriotism.
* Once a war of any sort is declared, the message is sent out not to object or you will be declared unpatriotic.
* The greatest danger we face is ourselves: what we are doing in the name of providing security for a people made fearful by distortions of facts. Fighting over there has nothing to do with preserving freedoms here at home. More likely the opposite is true.
* The catch-all phrase, "war on terrorism" in all honesty, has no more meaning than if one wants to wage a war against criminal gangsterism.
* There's no logical reason to reject the restraints placed in the Constitution regarding our engaging in foreign conflicts unrelated to our national security. The advice of the founders and our early presidents was sound then and it's sound today
* Keeping our troops out of harm's way, especially when war is unnecessary, is never unpatriotic. There's no better way to support the troops.
* We should be ever vigilant when we hear the fear mongers preparing us for the next military conflict our young men and women will be expected to fight.
* As our country becomes poorer due to the cost of the war, anger surely will escalate. Much of it will be justified.
* We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing America and bring the troops home.
* It was a mistake to go, so it's a mistake to stay. If we made the wrong diagnosis, we should change the treatment. So we're not making progress there and we should come home.
* You can't enforce our goodness with an armed force. It doesn't work.
* We have to come to our senses about this issue of war and preemption and go back to traditions and our Constitution and defend our liberties and defend our rights, but not to think that we can change the world by force of arms and to start wars.
* Defend our interests, defend our liberties, and we do not need to be occupying Europe and Japan, Korea, all these countries. We have troops in 130 countries. We have 750 bases around the world. We can't afford it, and it causes trouble for us.
* We have lost over 5000 Americans over there in Afghanistan and Iraq, plus the civilians killed. How many more do you want to lose? How long are we going to be there? What do we have to pay to save face? All we're doing is saving face. It's time we came home.
* The people who say there will be a bloodbath are the ones who said it will be a cakewalk or it will be a slam dunk, and that it will be paid for by oil. Why believe them? They've been wrong on everything they've said.
* My argument is that we shouldn't go to war so carelessly. When you do that, the wars don't end.
* The economic benefits of a foreign policy of nonintervention are extraordinary. The wars that result from meddling in the internal affairs of other nations cause much greater economic harm than most people imagine. The cliche that war is a stimulus to economic growth is blatantly false.
* The time has come for a change.
* How many more years will it take for civilized people to realize that war has no economic or political value for the people who fight and pay for it?
* Wars are always started by governments, and individual soldiers on each side are conditioned to take up arms and travel great distances to shoot and kill individuals that never meant them harm. Both sides drive their people into an hysterical frenzy to overcome their natural instinct to live and let live. False patriotism is used to embarrass the goodhearted into succumbing to the wishes of the financial and other special interests who agitate for war.
* War reflects the weakness of a civilization that refuses to offer peace as an alternative.
* A policy that endorses peace over war, trade over sanctions, courtesy over arrogance, and liberty over coercion is in the tradition of the American Constitution and American idealism. It deserves consideration.
* The absence of good reasoning to pursue this war prompts the supporters of the war to demonize the skeptics and critics. They have no other defense.
* Although I concede the history of the world is a history of frequent war, to capitulate and give up even striving for peace, believing peace is not a benefit to mankind, is a frightening thought that condemns the world to perpetual war and justifies it as a benefit and necessity. These are dangerous ideas, from which no good can come.
* Just as man's condition was not locked in place by the times and wars of old and improved with liberty and free markets, there's no reason to believe a new stage for man might not be achieved by believing and working for conditions of peace.
* Neocons, unfortunately, claim that war is in man's nature and that we can't do much about it, so let's use it to our advantage by promoting our goodness around the world through force of arms. That view is anathema to the cause of liberty and the preservation of the Constitution. If it is not loudly refuted, our future will be dire indeed.
* It's been true throughout history and remains true today, each side of major conflicts invokes God's approval. Our side refers to a crusade; theirs to a Holy Jihad. Too often wars boil down to their god against our God. It seems this principle is more a cynical effort to gain approval from the masses, especially those most likely to be killed for the sake of the war promoters on both sides who have power, prestige and wealth at stake.
* None should be pleased with the steady attack on the civil liberties of all American citizens and the now-accepted consensus that preemptive war for almost any reason is an acceptable policy for dealing with all the conflicts and problems of the world.
* Talk about hypocrisy! The mere thought that we fight wars for affirmative action in a country 6,000 miles from home, with no cultural similarities, should insult us all.
* The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.
* It's time American soldiers quit being killed and it's time for us to quit killing a lot of other people who have not attacked us.
* We can achieve much more in piece than we can in these needless, unConstitutional, undeclared wars.
* Ultimately, our money, weapons, and interventionist policies never buy us friends for long, and more often we simply arm our future enemies. The politicians responsible for the mess are usually long gone when the trouble starts, and voters with a short attention span don't connect the foreign policy blunders of twenty years ago with today's problems. But wouldn't our long-term interests be better served by not creating the problems in the first place?
* The moral and Constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.

Ron Paul Talks abt Tyranny (51 QUOTES)

* America must guard against current calls for government to violate the Constitution- meaning break the law- in the name of law enforcement.
* History shows that when government gains the power to monitor the actions of the people, it inevitably uses that power in harmful ways.
* America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.
* How can I run for office and say I want to be a weak president? We need a strong president, strong enough to resist the temptation of taking power the President shouldn’t have.
* This essential principle of our Constitutional Republic is being ridden roughshod over by imperial Washington, which bullies local governments into accepting its illegal and unConstitutional policies.
* Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure.
* No matter how well intentioned, an authoritarian government always abuses its powers.
* Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference.
* Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives.
* History shows that when government gains the power to monitor the actions of the people, it inevitably uses that power in harmful ways.
* Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy. A few have, and others will continue to do so, but too many—both in and out of government—close their eyes to the issue of personal liberty and ignore the fact that endless borrowing to finance endless demands cannot be sustained.
* When government uses force, liberty is sacrificed and the goals are lost. It is freedom that is the source of all creative energy.
* Only armed citizens can resist tyrannical government.
* Gun control historically serves as a gateway to tyranny. Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control.
* Remember that one's relationship with the state is never voluntary. Every government edict, policy, regulation, court decision, and law ultimately is backed up by force, in the form of police, guns, and jails. That is why political power must be fiercely constrained by the American people.
* The desire for power over other human beings is not something to celebrate, but something to condemn! The 20th century's worst tyrants were political figures, men who fanatically sought power over others through the apparatus of the state. They wielded that power absolutely, without regard for the rule of law.
* Political power is not like the power possessed by those who otherwise obtain fame and fortune. After all, even the wealthiest individual cannot force anyone to buy a particular good or service; even the most famous celebrities cannot force anyone to pay attention to them. It is only when elites become politically connected that they begin to impose their views on all of us.
* In a free society, government is restrained--and therefore political power is less important. I believe the proper role for government in America is to provide national defense, a court system for civil disputes, a criminal justice system for acts of force and fraud, and little else. In other words, the state as referee rather than an active participant in our society.
* It's convenient for gun banners to dismiss this argument by saying, "That could never happen here, this is America." But history shows that only vigilant people can keep government under control. By banning certain weapons today, we may plant the seeds for tyranny to flourish decades from now.
* The greatest foreign assistance we can give to other countries is to demonstrate to the rest of the world that limited government and the rule of law ensure freedom and prosperity.
* Most governments, including our own, tend to do what they can get away with rather than what the law allows them to do. All governments seek to increase their power over the people they govern, whether we want to recognize it or not.
* Without precise meanings behind words, politicians and elites can obscure reality and condition people to reflexively associate certain words with positive or negative perceptions. In other words, unpleasant facts can be hidden behind purposely meaningless language. As a result, Americans have been conditioned to accept the word "democracy" as a synonym for freedom, and thus to believe that democracy is unquestionably good.
* We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined.
* History proves that societies crumble when their governments become more powerful than the people and private institutions.
* Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part, is a history of people who don't like being told what to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents to run our lives.
* If you don't have anything to hide, they ask, what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I'm afraid of losing the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear. I'm afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing. Most of all, I'm afraid of living in a society where a subservient populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.
* It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated by the encroachment of the police state. Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances because they have been deluded into believing total government supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy a high level of material comfort. That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad, a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates, and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
* Those who believe a police state can't happen here are poor students of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny. We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.
* Both history and economic theory prove conclusively that centrally-planned economies lower the standard of living for everyone except government elites. Historically, centralized economic planning goes hand in hand with hardship and bloodshed.
* If Americans wish to be free of judicial tyranny, they must at least develop basic knowledge of the judicial role in our republican government. The present state of affairs is a direct result of our collective ignorance.
* The 9-11 Commission report is several hundred pages worth of recommendations to make government larger and more intrusive. Does this surprise anyone? It was written by people who cannot imagine any solution not coming from government.
* Every new security measure represents another failure of the once-courageous American spirit. The more we change our lives, the more we obsess about terrorism, the more the terrorists have won.
* America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
* Our Founding Fathers no doubt would be embarrassed at our squandering of their vision. After all, they revolted at a comparable tax rate in the single digits or less. And yet we willingly suffer an effective tax rate of 50%, and much more in many cases. They tyranny of the Crown has been replaced by the tyranny of the federal government in Washington.
* We are not slaves, but many feel they are indentured servants to government. And by and large it has happened with our willing consent. We have knowingly compromised our sacred liberty for temporary promises of security or false prosperity.
* War does not justify the suspension of torture laws any more than it justifies the suspension of murder laws, the suspension of due process, or the suspension of the Second amendment.
* The beauty of the Constitution is that it encourages some degree of gridlock in government, making it harder for any branch to act capriciously or secretly. When we give any president- one man- too much power, we build a foundation for future tyranny.
* Ironically, the Constitution itself was conceived in a time of great crisis. The founders intended to place inviolable restrictions on what the federal government could do even in times of great distress. America must guard against current calls for government to violate the Constitution- meaning break the law- in the name of law enforcement.
* America was founded by men who understood that the threat of domestic tyranny is as great as any threat from abroad. If we want to be worthy of their legacy, we must resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society. Otherwise, our own government will become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.
* Tyrants from Hitler to Mao to Stalin have sought to disarm their own citizens, for the simple reason that unarmed people are easier to control. Our Founders, having just expelled the British army, knew that the right to bear arms serves as the guardian of every other right. This is the principle so often ignored by both sides in the gun control debate. Only armed citizens can resist tyrannical government.
* Most of the worst excesses of big government can be traced to a disregard for states' rights, which means a disregard for the Ninth and Tenth amendments.
* Freedom works a lot better than tyranny.
* I do not believe that our Constitution permits federal agents to monitor phones, mail, or computers without a warrant. I do not believe that government should eavesdrop on confidential conversations between attorneys and clients. I certainly do not believe "terrorism" should be defined so broadly that American citizens expressing dissent against their own government could be investigated and prosecuted as terrorists.
* American should be very concerned about the unintended consequences of policies promoted to fight an unending, amorphous battle against terrorism.
* We must be vigilant to resist the rush toward ever-increasing state control of our society, so that our own government does not become a greater threat to our freedoms than any foreign terrorist.
* Congress should be careful in its rush to enact new laws that may result in dangerous unintended consequences for American citizens.
* Government spending not only affects our fiscal health as a nation; it also determines the size and scope of government power over our lives.
* For some, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. For others, it means dissent against a government abuse of the people's rights.
* Those who believe in the powerful state see war as an opportunity. Those who mistrust the people and the market for solving problems have no trouble promoting a psychology to justify the expansive role of the state.
* We are constantly told that the next terrorist attack could come at any moment. Rather than questioning why we might be attacked, this atmosphere of fear instead prompts giving up liberty and privacy. 9/11 has been conveniently used to generate the fear necessary to expand both our foreign intervention and domestic surveillance.
* In all instances where fear is generated and used to expand government control, it's safe to say the problems behind the fears were not caused by the free market economy, or too much privacy, or excessive liberty.

Ron Paul Talks abt Taxes (67 QUOTES)

* Taxes never create prosperity. Private-sector innovation and productivity are the engines that drive our economy, regardless of what politicians tell us.
* If you truly own your property, you have the right to dispose of it any way you wish. You can sell it, give it away, or direct who will receive it when you die. This control is the essence of property rights. If you can't control what happens to your property, you don't really own it.
* Astonishingly, American taxpayers now will be forced to finance a multi-billion dollar jobs program in Iraq. Suddenly the war is about jobs. We export our manufacturing jobs to Asia, and now we plan to export our welfare jobs to Iraq, all at the expense of the poor and the middle class here at home.
* Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
* The large majority of Americans are sick and tired of being overtaxed and despise the income tax and the inheritance tax. The majority of Americans know government programs fail to achieve their goals and waste huge sums of money.
* One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens pay nearly half of everything they earn to government.
* Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers."
* The large majority of Americans are sick and tired of being overtaxed and despise the income tax and the inheritance tax. The majority of Americans know government programs fail to achieve their goals and waste huge sums of money.
* The American people are generous – there’s no reason why we can’t help feed the world, and we do. But there’s no justification to use violence against our people to extract money to do good overseas.
* Mr. Speaker, I once again find myself compelled to vote against the annual budget resolution for a very simple reason: it makes government bigger.
* Instead of simply debating spending levels, we ought to be debating whether the departments, agencies, and programs funded by the budget should exist at all.
* When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money.
* My personal finances would be very good if I borrowed a million dollars every month. But, someday, the bills will become due. And the bills will come due in this country, and then we’ll have to pay for it. We can’t afford this war, and we can’t afford the entitlement system.
* We have to live within our means. You can’t print money out of the blue, and think you can print your money into prosperity.
* The theory of the IRS is rather repugnant to me because the assumption is made that I, the government, owns 100% of your income and I permit you to keep 5%, 10% or 20%. You’re vulnerable, you’ve sold out. The government can take 80% if they want, which they did at one time.
* You don’t have a right to the fruits of somebody elses labor. You don’t have a right to a house, you don’t have a right to a job, you don’t have a right to medical care. You have a right to your life, you have your right to your liberty, you have a right to keep what your earn. And that’s what produces prosperity.
* Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple.
* You don’t cost the government money, the government costs you money!
* While I believe strongly in the moral value of helping the less fortunate, charity must come voluntarily from the heart, not under threat from the IRS."
* The reality is that most working Americans lose about half of their incomes to federal, state, and local taxes.
* Government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society.
* Government entitlement spending is like a runaway freight train headed straight at American taxpayers.
* The mentality in Washington is simple: avoid hard choices at all costs; spend money at will; ignore deficits; inflate the money supply as needed; and trust that the whole mess somehow will be taken care of by unprecedented economic growth in the future.
* When we cut the size of government, our taxes will fall. When we reduce the power of the federal bureaucracy, the cost of government will plummet. And when we firmly fix our eyes, undistracted, on the principles of liberty, Americans truly will be free. That should be our new declaration.
* Imagine how quickly Americans would demand lower taxes and spending if they had to write the federal government a check each month.
* Arrogant is the only word to describe a Congress that cares so little about its own taxpaying citizens while pretending to know what is best for the world.
* For more than six months of every year the average American toils not for his family, for his needs, or for his future. No, for the first six months of the year the average American works to pay the cost of federal, state, and local taxes and regulations. From New Year's Day until about the 4th of July, you worked to pay for government. This is unconscionable.
* Our Founding Fathers no doubt would be embarrassed at our squandering of their vision. After all, they revolted at a comparable tax rate in the single digits or less. And yet we willingly suffer an effective tax rate of 50%, and much more in many cases. They tyranny of the Crown has been replaced by the tyranny of the federal government in Washington.
* We are not slaves, but many feel they are indentured servants to government. And by and large it has happened with our willing consent. We have knowingly compromised our sacred liberty for temporary promises of security or false prosperity.
* It is clear that interventionism leads to the perceived need for more interventionism, which leads to more conflict and to increased resentment and anti-Americanism. It is an endless cycle and the American taxpayer is always left holding the bill.
* It's easy for elected officials in Washington to tell Americans that government will do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism, but it's your freedom and your tax dollars at stake- not theirs.
* I'm for lowering everybody's federal tax bill, because I believe every dollar left in the private economy benefits all Americans much more than a dollar sent to Washington.
* The money people earn is their own and they have a moral right to keep as much of it as possible. It does not belong to Congress.
* Today, our phony allies are bought and paid for with billions of your tax dollars, but prove less than trustworthy when trouble arises.
* Foreign aid is not only unConstitutional, but also exceedingly unwise. It creates the worst kind of entangling alliances that President Washington warned about. It doesn't buy us any real allies, but instead encourages false friendships, dependency, and a sense of entitlement among the recipients. It also causes resentment among nations that receive none, or less than they feel they deserve. Above all, however, it is simply unconscionable to tax American citizens and send their money overseas. We have enough problems of our own here at home, and those dollars should be returned to taxpayers or spent on legitimate Constitutional activities.
* The desire to save money and build a better life is intrinsically human, and no society that punishes saving can remain prosperous for long.
* Not only does government spend far too much of your money, it spends the money badly. Once we as a society accepted the notion that Congress could fund programs not authorized in the Constitution, the sky was the limit- and we've reached that limit today.
* The only thing we know for sure about the federal budget is that it will go up each year unless and until voters remove the politicians who insist on taxing, spending, and borrowing us to death.
* The American dream is based on making a better life for one's children, despite the empty rhetoric of the class-warfare politicians in Washington. Building wealth is not sinister, it is admirable. Our tax rules should encourage the decidedly American virtue of saving for the future.
* We cannot make ourselves safer simply by creating new departments, spending more taxpayer money on federal police, or sending more troops into yet another foreign land. Real homeland security requires a reexamination of our policies and priorities abroad, and a commitment to the Constitution at home.
* When taxes are reduced on individuals, they have more money to spend, save, or invest. When taxes are reduced on companies, they have more money to hire new employees, increase wages, or pay dividends to investors. Since all economic growth depends on private capital, the goal of any economic stimulus plan must be to leave more private capital in the hands of investors
* Remember, the private marketplace is always far more efficient that any government program. You know better than the government how to spend your own money, and the same principle applies to the economy as a whole. Spending is spending, even when politicians call it "investing in America" or "stimulus." Government cannot simply spend us into prosperity.
* The only way to end the unconscionable waste is to drastically reduce federal revenues by cutting taxes. Voters need to regain control of the nation's finances by rejecting the big spenders at the ballot box.
* The harmful effects of the income tax are obvious. First and foremost, it has enabled government to expand far beyond its proper Constitutional limits, regulating virtually every aspect of our lives. It has given government a claim on our lives and work, destroying our privacy in the process.
* The ridiculous complexity of the tax laws makes compliance a nightmare for both individuals and businesses. All things considered, our Founders would be dismayed by the income tax mess and the tragic loss of liberty which results.
* America without an income tax would be far more prosperous and far more free, but we must be prepared to fight to regain the liberty we have lost incrementally over the past century.
* Congress and the American people do not share the same goals. The real enemy of tax reform is the spending culture in Washington.
* The truth of the matter is that the economy is hurt when the government takes money out of the paychecks of private citizens that they would otherwise spend, save or invest. The government has never created anything, much less economic prosperity. The government can only take from one and give to another.
* I have never met a tax cut I didn't like.
* The American people are over-taxed. The average person pays more to their government than they do for the combined cost of food, clothing, shelter, entertainment and education in a year.
* Federal spending must be dramatically reduced so that all Americans can go back to working for themselves instead of working to pay their taxes.
* Helping Americans improve themselves by reducing their taxes will make our country stronger.
* True patriotism today has gotten a bad name, at least from the government and the press. Those who now challenge the unConstitutional methods of imposing an income tax on us, or force us to use a monetary system designed to serve the rich at the expense of the poor, are routinely condemned.
* A free society rejects all notions of involuntary servitude whether by draft or the confiscation of the fruits of our labor through the personal income tax.
* Today we are the strongest economy in the world, and have much to be proud of, but Congress doesn’t seem to understand that we did not tax our way here.
* The power to tax is the power to destroy.
* If you think that government has to take care of us, from cradle to grave, and if you think our government should police the world and spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a foreign policy that we cannot manage, you can't get rid of the IRS; but, if you want to lower taxes and if you want the government to quit printing the money to come up with shortfall and cause all the inflation, you have to change policy.
* When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans. Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
* I lean towards a flat tax but I wanna make it real flat, like zero.
* Government spending is always a tax burden on the American people and is never equally or fairly distributed. The poor and low-middle income workers always suffer the most from the deceitful tax of inflation and borrowing.
* The theory of the IRS is rather repugnant to me, because the assumption is made that I, the government, owns 100% of your income and I permit you to keep 5%, 10%, or 20%.
* I want the money to be held in the hands of people so that people can come up with new ideas and go out and start new businesses.
* When I say cut taxes, I don't mean fiddle with the code. I mean abolish the income tax and the IRS, and replace them with nothing.
* We have allowed our nation to be overtaxed and overburdened and overran by beurocrates. The Founders would be ashamed by what we're putting up with.
* The history of the 20th century shows that the Constitution is violated most often by Congress during times of crisis; accordingly, most of our worst unConstitutional agencies and programs began during the two world wars and the Depression. Ironically, the Constitution itself was conceived in a time of great crisis. The founders intended its provision to place inviolable restrictions on what the federal government could do even in times of great distress. America must guard against current calls for government to violate the Constitution- break the law- in the name of law enforcement.
* Nothing would please the terrorists more than if we willingly give up some of our cherished liberties while defending ourselves from their threat.
* Do they think if we destroy our freedoms for the terrorists they will no longer have a reason to attack us? This seems the epitome of cowardice coming from those who claim a monopoly on patriotic courage.

Ron Paul Talks abt Security (25 QUOTES)

* Real homeland security requires a reexamination of our policies and priorities abroad, and a commitment to the Constitution at home.
* While fear itself is not always the product of irrationality, once experienced it tends to lead away from reason, especially if the experience is extreme in duration or intensity. When people are fearful they tend to be willing to irrationally surrender their rights.
* It is clear, people seek out safety and security when they are in a state of fear, and it is the result of this psychological state that often leads to the surrender of liberty.
* Liberty once again must become more important to us than the desire for security and material comfort.
* Personal safety and economic prosperity can only come as the consequence of liberty.
* Demanding domestic security in times of war invites carelessness in preserving civil liberties and the right of privacy. Frequently the people are only too anxious for their freedoms to be sacrificed on the altar of authoritarianism thought to be necessary to remain safe and secure.
* Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.”
* Do we really want to live in a world of police checkpoints, surveillance cameras, and metal detectors? Do we really believe government can provide total security? Do we want to involuntarily commit every disaffected, disturbed, or alienated person who fantasizes about violence? Or can we accept that liberty is more important than the illusion of state-provided security?
* America was not founded on a promise of security, it was founded on a promise of personal liberty to pursue happiness.
* Don't we remember that when you sacrifice liberty for security, you lose both?
* Every new security measure represents another failure of the once-courageous American spirit. The more we change our lives, the more we obsess about terrorism, the more the terrorists have won.
* We are not slaves, but many feel they are indentured servants to government. And by and large it has happened with our willing consent. We have knowingly compromised our sacred liberty for temporary promises of security or false prosperity.
* We cannot make ourselves safer simply by creating new departments, spending more taxpayer money on federal police, or sending more troops into yet another foreign land. Real homeland security requires a reexamination of our policies and priorities abroad, and a commitment to the Constitution at home.
* Once people look to government to alleviate their fears and make them safe, expectations exceed reality.
* Until we consider the root causes of terrorism, beyond the jingoistic explanations offered thus far, we will not defeat terrorism and we will not be safer.
* Just as we must not allow terrorists to threaten our lives, we must not allow government to threaten our liberties.
* Everything we have done in response to the 9-11 attacks, from the Patriot Act to the war in Iraq, has reduced freedom in America. Spending more money abroad or restricting liberties at home will do nothing to deter terrorists, yet this is exactly what the 9-11 Commission recommends.
* Rather than asking ourselves what Congress or the president should be doing about terrorism, we ought to ask what government should stop doing.
* More than anything, our federal government should stop deluding us that more government is the answer. We have far more to fear from an unaccountable government at home than from any foreign terrorist.
* It's easy for elected officials in Washington to tell Americans that government will do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism, but it's your freedom and your tax dollars at stake- not theirs.
* We cannot remain free if we allow the endless, undeclared war on terror to serve as an excuse for giving up every last vestige of our privacy.
* Secret trials might be more orderly, that is true, but ask anyone who has suffered under a totalitarian regime whether is it worth sacrificing justice for "efficiency."
* Executive orders authorizing secret trials on American soil, however, send a very different message to America and the world. That is a shame.
* It's easy for elected officials in Washington to tell the American people that the government will do whatever it takes to defeat terrorism. Such assurances inevitably are followed by proposals either to restrict the Constitutional liberties of the American people or spend vast sums from the federal treasury.
* A decent society never accepts or justifies torture. It dehumanizes both torturer and victim, yet seldom produces reliable intelligence.

Ron Paul Talks abt Politics (10 QUOTES)

* Statesmanship in Washington has come to mean one's willingness to abandon any personal beliefs or principles to serve the greater good-- whatever that is. But it is not possible to preserve the rule of law or individual liberty if our convictions are no stronger than this. The more we abandon consistency and a guiding philosophy of liberty, the more we abandon the republic so carefully designed by the Founders. Without a wise consistency, our faltering republic will be replaced by something far less desirable.
* We need to get money out of government; only then will money not be important in politics.
* With the November elections looming, politics is taking priority over sensible policy.
* The reality is that politics involves itself with us whether we like it or not. We can bury our heads in the sand and hope things don't get too bad, or we can fight back when government treats us as its servant rather than its master.
* There is one business that clearly will not go into a slump-the Washington lobbying industry.
* The truth is that many politicians and voters essentially believe in a free lunch. They believe in a free lunch because they don't understand basic economics, and therefore assume government can spend us into prosperity. This is the fallacy that pervades American politics today.
* The rise in corruption in Washington simply mirrors the rise in federal spending.
* A limited, Constitutional government would not tempt special interests to buy the politicians who wield power. The whole process feeds on itself. Everyone is rewarded by ignoring Constitutional restraints, while expanding and complicating the entire bureaucratic state.
* Even when it's recognized that we're traveling down the wrong path, the lack of political courage and the desire for reelection results in ongoing support for the pork-barrel system that serves special interests.
* It seems bizarre that it's so unthinkable to change course if the current policy is failing. Our leaders are like a physician who makes a wrong diagnosis and prescribes the wrong medicine, but because of his ego can't tell the patient he made a mistake. Instead he hopes the patient will get better on his own. But instead of improving, the patient gets worse from the medication wrongly prescribed. This would be abhorrent behavior in medicine, but tragically it is commonplace in politics.

Ron Paul Talks abt Individual Responsibility (31 QUOTES)

* This nation was founded on principles of self-reliance, but we've allowed ourselves to become far too dependent on government.
* Good intentions frequently lead to unintended bad consequences. Tough choices, doing what is right, often leads to unanticipated good results.
* When it comes to decency, the American people should stop looking to government and start looking at themselves.
* Everybody complains about pork, but members of Congress keep spending because voters do not throw them out of office for doing so. The rotten system in Congress will change only when the American people change their beliefs about the proper role of government in our society.
* The experience of working hard, saving for a downpayment, and buying a home is the essence of the true American dream. Eventually the beneficiaries of government programs stop thinking of themselves as independent citizens, and start viewing themselves as wards of the state.
* It is impossible to maintain a free society when more and more people look to the state to provide what Americans used to provide for themselves.
* Law should reflect moral standards, of course, but morality comes from religion, from philosophy, from societal standards, from families, and from responsible individuals. We make a mistake when we look to government for moral leadership.
* In a free society every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality. This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Rather than looking to government to correct what is essentially a sin of the heart, we should understand that reducing racism requires a shift from group thinking to an emphasis on individualism.
* When we give government the power to make medical decisions for us, we in essence accept that the state owns our bodies.
* Freedom over one's physical person is the most basic freedom of all, and people in a free society should be sovereign over their own bodies.
* We owe our Founding Fathers a tremendous debt of gratitude. They created a society based on the radical idea that the purpose of government was to protect the rights of the individual, preexisting rights granted by God rather than the state. For the first time in human history, a government was designed to serve the individual, rather than vice versa.
* This triumph of the individual over the claims of the state, the King, the collective, or society represents a great gift to humanity.
* We should remember, however, that we hardly would want to live in a rigid totalitarian society completely free of danger. This nation was founded on principles of self-reliance, but we've allowed ourselves to become far too dependent on government.
* The American dream is based on making a better life for one's children, despite the empty rhetoric of the class-warfare politicians in Washington. Building wealth is not sinister, it is admirable. Our tax rules should encourage the decidedly American virtue of saving for the future.
* Congress could clean up its financial mess, but ultimately it is voters who must demand accountability for their tax dollars. Remember that you give government at all levels nearly half of everything you earn. If you invested that much into a private company, don’t you think you would keep a close eye on it and demand accountability as a shareholder? The only thing we know for sure about the federal budget is that it will go up each year unless and until voters remove the politicians who insist on taxing, spending, and borrowing us to death.
* Patriotism is more closely linked to dissent than it is to conformity and a blind desire for safety and security.
* Governments should just get out of the way and let individuals make their own decisions about how they want to relate to the world.
* I want to just tell people to live their own lives and assume responsibility for themselves.
* Liberty, freedom, and self-determination. Those goals are as worthy of our attention today as they were 228 years ago in a hot convention hall in Philadelphia. Just as devotion to those goals brought forth this great nation then, a renewed adherence to liberty can save our nation today.
* The principle of a servant government is the ideal that made America the greatest nation on earth.
* Let it not be said that we did nothing.
* We have come to view the state as our protector and the solution to every problem.
* Every generation must resist the temptation to believe that it lives in the most dangerous time in American history.
* America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
* The failed history of welfarism and socialism in America shows that government programs ultimately erode our culture by damaging personal virtue.
* Our job is to take responsibility for ourselves to improve our well-being and to improve and work with excellence, and that's what freedom is all about.
* This idea of personal liberty which might allow individuals to do things that others might not approve of is also exactly the liberty that we need to practice our religion and keep the government off our backs.
* Freedom doesn't give you perfection. But everybody who's responsible for their selves, their house, their household, or their private property should provide the protection.
* The job of the government is to provide liberty and protect liberty. The people are supposed to take care of themselves. Both in a personal way as well as in economic way. And we‘re not supposed to tell other countries how to live. That‘s what the Constitution dictates to us.
* The biggest threat to your privacy is the government. We must drastically limit the ability of government to collect and store data regarding citizens’ personal matters.
* We can hardly expect more government to cure our current health care woes. As with all goods and services, medical care is best delivered by the free market, with competition and financial incentives keeping costs down. When patients spend their own money for health care, they have a direct incentive to negotiate lower costs with their doctor. When government controls health care, all cost incentives are lost.

Ron Paul Talks abt Government Spend (40 QUOTES)

* A rational person would argue that failed aid programs should be eliminated. In Washington, however, failed programs get more money thrown at them.
* History shows us that compassionate deficit spending hurts poor people the most, by devaluating the value of the dollar.
* The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation.
* Every dollar the federal government borrows makes us less secure as a nation, by making America beholden to interests outside our borders.
* Your money has never been safe in the government's hands, and it never will be. Governments spend money; it's just their nature.
* It's particularly galling when members of Congress pledge never to raise taxes, but then vote to increase the debt limit. By doing so, they are voting to raise taxes on future generations pure and simple.
* Congress has become like the drunk who promises to sober up tomorrow, if only he can keep drinking today. Does anyone really believe this will be the last time, that Congress will tighten its belt if granted one last loan? What a joke! There is only one approach to dealing with an incorrigible spendthrift: cut him off.
* The only way to control federal spending is to take away the government's credit card and refuse to allow Congress to borrow one red dime.
* The best private solution, of course, is simply to allow the American people to keep more of their paychecks and invest for retirement as they see fit.
* The federal government has proven itself incapable of good money management, and permitting politicians and bureaucrats to make investment decisions would result in unscrupulous lobbying for venture capital.
* Everybody complains about pork, but members of Congress keep spending because voters do not throw them out of office for doing so. The rotten system in Congress will change only when the American people change their beliefs about the proper role of government in our society.
* Too many members of Congress believe they can solve all economic problems, cure all social ills, and bring about worldwide peace and prosperity simply by creating new federal programs. We must reject unlimited government and reassert the Constitutional rule of law if we hope to halt the spending orgy.
* If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.
* Today's political process is nothing more than a street fight between various groups seeking to vote themselves other people's money.
* Government spending is the problem! Taking a big chunk of the people's earnings out of the economy, whether through taxes or borrowing, is always harmful. The real issue is total spending by government, yet this is ignored or politicized by both sides of the aisle in Congress.
* Not only does government spend far too much of your money, it spends the money badly. Once we as a society accepted the notion that Congress could fund programs not authorized in the Constitution, the sky was the limit- and we've reached that limit today.
* The problem is simple: Congress spends way too much.
* It is time for voters to think about their grandchildren and stop rewarding spendthrift politicians with 97% reelection rates. Debt does matter, and it's cowardly to ask future generations to pay for our extravagance.
* None of the free-market restraints against financial mismanagement apply to government. The federal government doesn’t need to raise money by meeting a market demand or raising investment capital- it simply takes what it wants through taxes, which can be raised at will.
* So why is there not more outrage about government financial accountability? Of course we read the occasional news article lamenting $400 hammers at the Pentagon, but for the most part Congress gets a free pass on its own fiscal mismanagement.
* Congress could clean up its financial mess, but ultimately it is voters who must demand accountability for their tax dollars. Remember that you give government at all levels nearly half of everything you earn. If you invested that much into a private company, don’t you think you would keep a close eye on it and demand accountability as a shareholder? The only thing we know for sure about the federal budget is that it will go up each year unless and until voters remove the politicians who insist on taxing, spending, and borrowing us to death.
* Real homeland security must focus on consolidation of federal agency resources, better intelligence gathering, and elimination of red tape and bureaucratic turf battles that prevent proper sharing of information. Proposals to merely hire thousands of new federal employees and throw money at new agencies- without changing the bureaucratic culture- are doomed to fail.
* Whenever I discuss the issue of foreign aid with my colleagues, I always remind them that in all my years serving in Congress, I’ve never once had a constituent ask me to send more money overseas.
* We should have the courage to face our grandchildren knowing that we have done all we can to end the government spending spree.
* Remember, the private marketplace is always far more efficient that any government program. You know better than the government how to spend your own money, and the same principle applies to the economy as a whole. Spending is spending, even when politicians call it "investing in America" or "stimulus." Government cannot simply spend us into prosperity.
* American voters should understand that Congress will always find a way to spend every last dollar sent to Washington. Remember, politicians get votes by promising everything to everyone, always at the expense of some other invisible taxpayers. Most politicians are unashamed of their unConstitutional pork-barrel spending, even highlighting during campaigns their "accomplishment" of spending more and more of your money.
* The federal government cannot maintain a budget surplus any more than an alcoholic can leave a fresh bottle of whiskey untouched in the cupboard.
* The rise in corruption in Washington simply mirrors the rise in federal spending.
* The single greatest threat to our liberty in America is uncontrolled spending by Congress.
* We hear Congress talk about smaller government, but the size of the federal budget increases each year. Huge amounts of federal spending could be eliminated if Congress adhered to the limited enumerated powers listed in the Constitution.
* we must massively reduce government spending, so that income taxes can be lowered drastically.
* Government spending not only affects our fiscal health as a nation; it also determines the size and scope of government power over our lives.
* We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
* This debt is the result of one very simple but enormous problem: over the years, Congress has spent more than the Treasury has collected in taxes.
* If you subsidize something, you get more of it.
* We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
* When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans. Deficits mean future tax increases, pure and simple. Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
* Spending, borrowing and printing money cannot be the road to prosperity.
* There's nothing radical about it. To me, the radical idea is over spending, over-borrowing, and then resorting to printing money when you run out of it.
* Don't steal. The government hates competition.

Ron Paul Talks abt Government's Role (146 QUOTES)

* I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.
* The moral and Constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.
* When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.
* Mr. Speaker, I once again find myself compelled to vote against the annual budget resolution for a very simple reason: it makes government bigger.
* Since it’s proven that centralized control over education and medicine has done nothing to improve them, and instead of reassessing these programs, more money is thrown into the same centralized planning, this is much closer to Emerson’s foolish consistency than defending liberty and private property in a consistent and forceful manner while strictly obeying the Constitution.
* We need to understand that the more government spends, the more freedom is lost. Instead of simply debating spending levels, we ought to be debating whether the departments, agencies, and programs funded by the budget should exist at all.
* No matter how well intentioned, an authoritarian government always abuses its powers.
* The federal government has no right to treat all Americans as criminals by spying on their relationship with their doctors, employers, or bankers.
* A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank.
* The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government.
* It is time for Congress to put the interests of the American people ahead of the special interests and their own appetite for big government.
* In the free society envisioned by the founders, schools are held accountable to parents, not federal bureaucrats.
* Respect for individual liberty and dignity is the only answer to government force, force that serves the politically and economically powerful.
* A free society is based on the key principle that the government, the president, the Congress, the courts, and the bureaucrats are incapable of knowing what is best for each and every one of us.
* When one person can initiate war, by its definition, a republic no longer exists.
* The increases in domestic, foreign, and military spending would not be needed if Congress stopped trying to build an empire abroad and a nanny state at home.
* Our federal government, which was intended to operate as a very limited Constitutional republic, has instead become a virtually socialist leviathan that redistributes trillions of dollars.
* The American people have been offered two lousy choices. One, which is corporatism, a fascist type of approach, or, socialism.
* No Supreme Court ruling by itself can instill greater respect for life. And no Supreme Court justice can save our freedoms if we don’t fight for them ourselves.
* As we know well, when the government subsidizes something we get more of it.
* Deficit spending should be viewed as a tax on future generations, and politicians who create deficits should be exposed as tax hikers.
* Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place.
* Politicians throughout history have tried to solve every problem conceivable to man, always failing to recognize that many of the problems we face result from previous so-called political solutions.
* Government cannot be the answer to every human ill.
* Continuing to view more government as the solution to problems will only make matters worse.”
* I once again find myself compelled to vote against the annual budget resolution for a very simple reason: it makes government bigger.
* The moral and Constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.
* Whether it’s the war against poverty, drugs, terrorism, or the current Hitler of the day, an appeal to patriotism is used to convince the people that a little sacrifice of liberty, here and there, is a small price to pay. The results, though, are frightening and will soon become even more so.
* Politicians throughout history have tried to solve every problem conceivable to man, always failing to recognize that many of the problems we face result from previous so-called political solutions.
* You don’t cost the government money, the government costs you money!
* Americans understandably expect ethical conduct from their elected officials in Washington. But the whole system is so out of control that it's simply unrealistic to place faith in each and every government official in a position to sell influence. The larger the federal government becomes, the more it controls who wins and who loses in our society.
* Government cannot be the answer to every human ill. Continuing to view more government as the solution to problems will only make matters worse.
* The message is always the same - government intrusion into our lives is way too much.
* Government is supposed to be there to protect property and protect privacy.
* I'm for the individual, I'm not for the government.
* We need time to think before we enact. The American people deserve at least this much from their Congress.
* The American people have NOT gotten the government they deserve. They asked for a stronger America and peace through nonintervention, yet we have a government of deceit, inaction and one that puts us in grave danger on the international front. The American People deserve much better than this. They deserve foreign and domestic policy that doesn't require they surrender their liberties.
* If the government was restrained within its proper Constitutional functions, it would be far better managed and much more readily would proper oversight occur.
* Only when the American people absolutely demand that the spending spree be stopped, will their representatives in Washington stop using this issue as a political football to score public relations points, and finally face-up to the fact that we are a nation in a very precarious financial position, which demands real spending cuts in order to avoid bankrupting our next generation.
* In modern Washington nothing is more misunderstood, and less appreciated, than the genius of republicanism. Presidents issue signing statements that effectively approve in part and reject in part, laws of the land even though there is no Constitutional provision for such a process. In addition, Congress cedes its powers at the crucial moment when a decision on whether or not a war is to be fought will be made, only to then criticize the effort it could have used its powers to stop.
* While our founding fathers were individual men in a historically unique situation, they posited that the principles upon which they rested our national independence were timeless.
* Only when Washington comes to understand that our founders expressly intended for our federal government to be limited in scope, will policy questions such as this be rightly understood. But that understanding will not come until the people demand their elected officials act in accordance with these principles.
* Only in Washington would anyone call the creation of an additional layer of bureaucracy on top of already bloated bureaucracies streamlining. Only in Washington would anyone believe that a bigger, more centralized federal government means more efficiency.
* Whenever something terrible happens, especially when it becomes a national news story, people reflexively demand that government do something. This impulse almost always leads to bad laws and the loss of liberty. It is completely at odds with the best American traditions of self-reliance and rugged individualism.
* Government, through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails in our society.
* Spendthrift politicians may love a system that generates more and more money for their special interest projects, but the rest of us have good reason to be concerned about our monetary system and the future value of our dollars.
* The mentality in Washington is simple: avoid hard choices at all costs; spend money at will; ignore deficits; inflate the money supply as needed; and trust that the whole mess somehow will be taken care of by unprecedented economic growth in the future.
* We seem to have forgotten that freedom means the absence of government coercion. So when politicians and the media celebrate political power, they really are celebrating the power of certain individuals to use coercive state force.
* To many politicians, the American government is America.
* If we hope to avoid a calamitous financial future for our nation, we must address the hardest question of all: What is the proper role for government in our society? The answer to this question will determine how prosperous and free we remain in the decades to come.
* Our basic problem is that we have lost sight of the simple premise that guided the actions of our founding fathers. That premise? The government that governs least is the government that governs best.
* The truth is that many politicians and voters essentially believe in a free lunch. They believe in a free lunch because they don't understand basic economics, and therefore assume government can spend us into prosperity. This is the fallacy that pervades American politics today.
* For government, the federal budget is essentially a credit card with no spending limit, billed to somebody else. We hardly should be surprised that Congress racks up huge amounts of debt! By contrast, responsible people restrain their borrowing because they will have to pay the money back. It's time for American taxpayers to understand that every dollar will have to be repaid.
* These abuses were inevitable, unfortunately. They are the direct result of a top-down, centralized, bureaucratic system that wrongly assumes Washington planners always know best, that every issue and problem should be addressed at the federal level.
* It's not compassionate simply to throw money at a problem, especially when that money is wasted and does not help the very people who need it most. It's not compassionate for politicians to spend money that doesn't belong to them. It's not compassionate to instill false hope that Washington can solve every problem and respond to every emergency. It's certainly not compassionate to create huge deficits that hurt poor people the most through inflation, as government prints more and more money to pay its bills.
* The notion that an all-powerful, centralized state should provide monolithic solutions to the ethical dilemmas of our times is not only misguided, but also contrary to our Constitution.
* The only effective way to address corruption is to change the system itself, by radically downsizing the power of the federal government in the first place. Take away the politicians' power and you take away the very currency of corruption.
* We need to get money out of government. Only then will money not be important in politics. It's time to reconsider exactly what we want the federal government to be in our society. So long as it remains the largest and most powerful institution in the nation, it will remain endlessly susceptible to corruption.
* Only in Washington DC can a spending increase be called a spending cut.
* No amount of spending will ever satisfy those who believe government should address every human problem and involve itself in every aspect of our lives.
* Arrogant is the only word to describe a Congress that cares so little about its own taxpaying citizens while pretending to know what is best for the world.
* The Constitution is written in plain, forthright text, and there is nothing mystical about it. It simply establishes a system of shared, limited power between the three branches of the federal government, while reserving most government power to the states themselves.
* The Constitution does not empower government and grant rights, it restricts government in order to safeguard preexisting rights. When federal courts disregard this principle, acting as legislatures or failing to enforce Constitutional limitations, we get the worst kind of unaccountable government.
* The present state of affairs is a direct result of our collective ignorance.
* If we intend to use the word freedom in an honest way, we should have the simple integrity to give it real meaning: Freedom is living without government coercion. So when a politician talks about freedom for this group or that, ask yourself whether he is advocating more government action or less.
* Every generation must resist the temptation to believe that it lives in the most dangerous time in American history.
* The Patriot Act, like every political issue, boils down to a simple choice: Should we expand government power, or reduce it? This is the fundamental political question of our day, but it's quickly forgotten by politicians who once promised to stand for smaller government.
* America will regain lost freedoms only when her citizens wake up and reclaim a national sense of self-reliance, individualism, and limited government. A handful of judges cannot save a nation from itself.
* The reality is that politics involves itself with us whether we like it or not. We can bury our heads in the sand and hope that things don't get too bad, or we can fight back when government treats us as its servant rather than its master.
* Who decides, the individual or the state? This is the central question in almost every political issue.
* Government cannot instill morality in the American people. On the contrary, rigid, centralized, government decision-making is indicative of an apathetic and immoral society. The greatest casualty of centralized government decision-making is personal liberty.
* I think people are starved for this message I have--limited government.
* A pro-life conscience is fostered by religion, family, and ethics, not government. History teaches us that governments overwhelmingly violate the sanctity of human life rather than uphold it.
* Few Americans understand that all government action is inherently coercive.
* If we hope to remain free, we must cut through the fog and attach concrete meanings to the words politicians use to deceive us. We must reassert that America is a republic, not a democracy, and remind ourselves that the Constitution places limits on government that no majority can overrule.
* Remember, government officials cannot be generous or charitable, because the money they dispense does not belong to them.
* Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy that would have been abhorred just a few years ago. We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part, is a history of people who don't like being told what to do. Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government and its agents to run our lives.
* It's easy to repeat the tired clich that tmes have changed since the Constitution was written in fact, that's an argument the left has used for decades to justify an unConstitutional welfare state. Yet if we accept this argument, what other principles from the founding era should we discard? Should we reject federalism? Habeas corpus? How about the Second Amendment?
* The problem is that government is not supposed to plan our lives or run the country; we are supposed to be free. That our public discourse strays so far from this principle is an unhappy sign of our times. Those who believe in limited Constitutional government should worry every time a politician says, 的 have a plan.
* Remember, there is a simple dictionary definition for government planning of the production and provision of goods and services: socialism.
* Giving more authority over social matters to any branch of the federal government is a mistake, because a centralized government is unlikely to reflect local sentiment for long.
* When capital remains in private hands, it is allocated to its most productive uses as determined by the choices of consumers in the market. Placing capital in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats inevitably results in inefficiencies, shortages, and economic crises, as even the best-intentioned politicians cannot know the most efficient use of resources.
* This is why we can never trust new bureaucratic programs: no matter how benevolent their proponents claim them to be, most programs morph into something much larger than originally foreseen. Those who view my concerns as alarmism fail to understand the inevitable nature of bureaucratic growth.
* American parents must do everything they can to remain responsible for their children's well-being. If we allow government to become intimately involved with our children's minds and bodies, we will have lost the final vestiges of parental authority. Strong families are the last line of defense against an overreaching bureaucratic state.
* Just as we must not allow terrorists to threaten our lives, we must not allow government to threaten our liberties.
* Our nation will be safer only when government does less, not more.
* More than anything, our federal government should stop deluding us that more government is the answer. We have far more to fear from an unaccountable government at home than from any foreign terrorist.
* Americans don't need new federal programs, and they certainly don't need more federal control over their schools. They don't need a disastrous government-run medical system. What Americans do need is a federal government that provides national defense, secures our borders, and does very little else.
* Those who signed the Declaration of Independence envisioned a nation based on the rule of law and the right of individuals to live their lives free from oppression. To a degree perhaps unimaginable to that band of radical idealists, their vision has come to pass over these two centuries.
* It is impossible to maintain a free society when more and more people look to the state to provide what Americans used to provide for themselves.
* The obvious lesson of September 11th is that government cannot protect us.
* Arrogant is the only word to describe a Congress that cares so little about its own taxpaying citizens while pretending to know what is best for the world.
* Government is not moral and cannot make us moral.
* Social problems cannot be solved by Constitutional amendments or government edicts.
* True conservatives and libertarians should understand that the solution to our moral and cultural decline does not lie in a strong centralized government.
* New laws are made in a haphazard manner; new regulations are imposed on an ad hoc basis; trillions of dollars are spent without regard to whether the programs and agencies funded do any good whatsoever. Both political parties blame each other for the resulting mess, but both are guilty of an egregious lack of principle in virtually everything they do.
* Both parties cite the Constitution when it suits their purposes, but both regularly violate it-- particularly through legislation that exceeds the enumerated powers of Congress and tramples on states rights.
* A wise and consistent defense of liberty is more desperately needed today than any time in our history. Our foolish and inconsistent policies of the last 100 years have brought us to a critical junction, with the American way of life at stake. It is the foolish inconsistencies that we must condemn and abandon.
* When government ostensibly attempts to promote culture, it always further erodes liberty.
* Wealthy people will always seek to influence politicians, because government unfortunately plays a very big role in determining who gets (and stays) rich in our country. Our federal government has become a taxing, spending, and regulating leviathan that virtually controls the economy.
* We need to get money out of government; only then will money not be important in politics.
* America cannot impose its will upon every conflict around the globe. Lasting, effective peace agreements can be crafted only by those who will live under them.
* We owe our Founding Fathers a tremendous debt of gratitude. They created a society based on the radical idea that the purpose of government was to protect the rights of the individual, preexisting rights granted by God rather than the state. For the first time in human history, a government was designed to serve the individual, rather than vice versa.
* The principle of a servant government is the ideal that made America the greatest nation on earth.
* These are troubling questions raised by the latest assault on states' rights in Washington. The Ninth and Tenth amendments make it clear that under our federal system, states retain full authority to craft their own laws. The federal government has only limited, express powers, and therefore can preempt state laws only in a very narrow range of federal matters. But in imperial Washington, states have become nothing more than glorified counties.
* The greatest economic cost of war, however, comes from the expansion in the size and scope of government. Government always grows during wars and other crises.
* If we ever hope to enjoy real and lasting prosperity in this country, we must redefine our view of the proper role of government. It is tempting during difficult times to demand that the government "do something," but a free society is defined by what its government does not do.
* Americans now more than ever must trust the great Constitutional institutions that have served us well for more than 200 years. The separation of powers and rule of law are cornerstones. Remove them and our way of life will quickly crumble.
* Our society has become too focused on federal approaches to every perceived societal ill, while ignoring Constitutional limits on government.
* The debate in Washington tends to focus on which nations and companies should be subsidized, rather than whether American taxpayers should pay for trade subsidies at all.
* In the fight against big government, we should start by demanding that Congress abide by the Constitution and stop sending U.S. taxpayer funds overseas.
* Congress finds it much easier to federalize every human evil rather than uphold the Constitution and respect states' rights.
* We hear Congress talk about smaller government, but the size of the federal budget increases each year. Huge amounts of federal spending could be eliminated if Congress adhered to the limited enumerated powers listed in the Constitution.
* A free market economy requires that government keeps its hands off and allows the consumers to exert their rightful control over the economy.
* Government cannot be the answer to every human ill. Continuing to view more government as the solution to problems will only make matters worse.
* Politicians throughout history have tried to solve every problem conceivable to man, always failing to recognize that many of the problems we face result from previous so-called political solutions.
* At home I'm frequently asked about my frustration with Congress, since so many reform proposals go unheeded. I jokingly reply, "No, I'm never frustrated, because I have such low expectations."
* Nothing will change in Washington until it's recognized that the ultimate driving force behind most politicians is obtaining and holding power.
* We expect the government to manage monetary and economic policy, the medical system, and the educational system, and then wonder why we have problems with the cost and efficiency of all these programs.
* Government wrongdoing cannot be undone by more government wrongdoing.
* We don't need somebody in Washington telling us what we can do, because we don't have perfect knowledge. And that's the magnificence of our Constitution and our republic. We sort out the difficult problems at local levels, and we don't have, you know, one-case-fit- all.
* The more difficult an issue is, the more local the solution ought to be.
* When we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people through their representatives to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake.
* The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government.
* What I'd like to be is a president that doesn't even have a goal of running your life, running the economy, or running the world.
* The role of the president as Commander in Chief is to direct our armed forces in carrying out policies established by the American people through their representatives in Congress. He is not authorized to make those policies. He is an administrator, not a policy maker. Foreign policy, like all federal policy, must be made by Congress. To allow otherwise is to act in contravention of the Constitution.
* The job of the government is to provide liberty and protect liberty. The people are supposed to take care of themselves. Both in a personal way as well as in economic way. And we‘re not supposed to tell other countries how to live. That‘s what the Constitution dictates to us.
* Defending the country against aggression is a very limited and proper function of government. Our military involvement in the world over the past 60 years has not met this test, and we're paying the price for it.
* The biggest threat to your privacy is the government. We must drastically limit the ability of government to collect and store data regarding citizens’ personal matters.
* Do the American people really believe it's the government's responsibility to make us morally better and economically equal? Do we have a responsibility to police the world, while imposing our vision of good government on everyone else in the world with some form of utopian nation building? If not, and the contemporary enemies of liberty are exposed and rejected, then it behooves us to present an alternative philosophy that is morally superior and economically sound and provides a guide to world affairs to enhance peace and commerce.
* It was understood that an explicit transfer of power to government could only occur with power rightfully and naturally endowed to each individual as a God-given right.
* Ideas do have consequences. Bad ideas have bad consequences, and even the best of intentions have unintended consequences.
* The conflict of the ages has been between the state and the individual: central power versus liberty.
* The more restrained the state and the more emphasis on individual liberty, the greater has been the advancement of civilization and general prosperity.
* Power, politics and privilege prevail over the rule of law, liberty, justice and peace. But it does not need to be that way.
* Both sides of the political spectrum must one day realize that limitless government intrusion in the economy, in our personal lives and in the affairs of other nations cannot serve the best interests of America.
* Once enough of us decide we've had enough of all these so-called good things that the government is always promising more, when the country is broke and the government is unable to fulfill its promises to the people, we can start a serious discussion on the proper role for government in a free society.
* I don't want any assumption that the government owns our lives, because then they can own our libery and own our property. And unfortunately we're moving in that direction. I want to go in the other direction.
* I think the American public is tired of the iron fist approach to their lives!
* We don't need to depend on the federal government because it doesn't work.
* Without the Federal Reserve our money could not be inflated at the behest of big government or banks. Your income and savings would not lose their value.
* Failure of government programs prompt more deterimned efforts, while the loss of liberty is ignored or rationalized away.
* The moral and Constitutional obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people.
* When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.
* We have come to view the state as our protector and the solution to every problem.