I Try to Get Out, But He Keeps Pulling Me Back IN

Ron Paul Has Released an Economic Plan. This is a hoot.

I'm going to take this apart piece by piece, just for fun. You can see the original at http://www.ronpaul2008.com/Prosperity if you like whacko shit.

Tax Deform
The first part of Paul's plan is a plethora of Tax proposals. These are pretty easy.

1)Eliminate Taxes on Dividends and Savings
This is a blatantly obvious ploy to make the rich richer. Dividends are what you earn on investments, on your stock portfolio. Obviously, the richer you are, the more this benefits you.

2)Repeal the Death Tax
There is no such thing; it's an Estate Tax, as in, a tax on the Estate you leave to your designated heir or beneficiary. The Estate tax is an essential provision of liberty in a democratic society, as it places a cap on inherited wealth and retards the growth of landed aristocracy. This also almost exclusively benefits the wealthy.

3)Cut Taxes for Working Seniors
He wants to repeal the taxes on social security as a part of your income. I have no problem with this.

4)Accelerate Depreciation on Investment. We need to help companies grow and create jobs.
Pass H.R. 4995 to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reduce corporate marginal income tax rates.
A tax cut for corporations. Big surprise.

5)Eliminate Taxes on Capital Gains. Investment should be embraced and rewarded.
Pass H.J. Res 23 (The “Liberty Amendment”), proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens.

This is the big one. No income taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and NO PUBLIC UTILITIES OR SERVICES.

This goes way, way beyond what even your average libertarian believes. This would eliminate everything from the public electric utlity, to the public library, to the highway department, along with all the taxes that pay for all meaningful public services. This is the absolute death knell of the federal system of government. Without those taxes, you have no military, no protection from our enemies, and no federal government. This would turn the United States into 50 separate governments.

This is huge.

6 and 7 are proposals for taking tips for wait staff off of taxes, and for some mortgage relief due to the current subprime thing. They're only there after 5 because he needs camouflage. There won't be any waiters or mortgages to worry about after Paul collapses American Civilization with his plan.

Spending Deform

Two simple proposals here:
1) Pulls our troops out of our overseas global bases, castrating our military strength.
2)Freezes non-defense, non-entitlement spending at current levels, presumably to attempt to account for the massive loss of revenue his tax cuts entail.

Of course, since those two categories make up about 70% of the federal budget, that helps, oh... not a lot.

NOWHERE HERE DOES HE SAY WHERE HE WILL PAY FOR THE PROGRAMS HE HAS NOT CUT. HE CANNOT DO IT, SO HE HOPES YOU WILL NOT NOTICE

Monetary Policy Deform
Three proposals here.

1)Televise Federal Open Market Committee Meetings
Ok, so he wants to see the Fed meetings on CSPAN. Probably not a big deal.... hardly revolutionary television, but ok.

2)Expand Transparency and Blah Blah at Federal Reserve
Essentially he wants a weekly book report from the Fed on our incredibly complex monetary policy. On its face, innocuous, but probably impossible to implement, which would give him cover to dissolve the Fed entirely.

3)Return Value to Our Money Legalize gold and silver as a competing currency.
Oh lord, this is great stuff. He wants to legalize people to PRINT THEIR OWN MONEY IN GOLD, SILVER, OR ANY OTHER METAL.

IN ANY LIKENESS.

PRESUMABLY HIS OWN.

Regulatory Deform
Two provisions here, both pretty whacko.

1)Repeal Sarbanes/Oxley
This is the law passed overwhelmingly by Congress after the Enron scandals. It's byzantine but designed to reign in the kind of blatant, outright corporate fraud that Enron and Worldcom engaged in.

Needless to say, binning this law would put us back in the Wild Wild West days of Enron. Hope you don't like investing in the stock market.

2)Repeal or Remove Costly and Unnecessary Federal Regulations. Neighbors know best how to help their neighbors.
We need to make it easier for community banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions to better serve their communities and to help people in these communities get access to credit and capital.
Pass H.R. 1869 to enhance the ability of community banks to foster economic growth and serve their communities, boost small businesses, increase individual savings, and for other purposes.

This one I had no clue on. I had to go look up H.R. 1869.

Basically, it lets small banks entirely off the hook of regulation by the federal government. Local banks can do what they want and not open their books to anybody.

Yeah... that sounds like a great idea.

SUMMARY:

So there you have it, Ron Paul's plan to save America. A few small sops to the working poor, a meaningless and corrupt gesture to small banks, a ton of corporate handouts, and, oh yeah, an AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION THAT WOULD DESTROY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN ITS ENTIRETY FOREVER AND PLUNGE US INTO A NEW DARK AGE