Ron Paul and HR 1098: Free Competition in Currencies

[PMBug]

It seems painfully obvious to me that given events that are shaping the future for the US Dollar, we are headed for a currency crisis. Most pundits in the financial media, at least the ones who dare to discuss this topic, usually point to two options - default on the debt or monetize the debt. Either option will eventually yield the same result - extreme pain for America and the destruction of the US dollar. It is an event which is going to wipe out what's left of the American middle class and most of the upper middle class as well.

There is a bold solution [not (tm) Herman Cain], however, which would offer Americans a means to preserving their wealth and weathering the storm. I present to you Ron Paul's Free Competition in Currencies Act of 2011 to repeal the legal tender laws, to prohibit taxation on certain coins and bullion, and to repeal superfluous sections related to coinage:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011’.

SEC. 2. REPEAL OF LEGAL TENDER LAWS.

(a) In General- Section 5103 of title 31, United States Code (relating to legal tender), is hereby repealed.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of sections for subchapter I of chapter 51 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to section 5103 and inserting the following new item:

‘5103. [Repealed].’.

SEC. 3. NO TAX ON CERTAIN COINS AND BULLION.

(a) In General- Notwithstanding any other provision of law--

(1) no tax may be imposed on (or with respect to the sale, exchange, or other disposition of) any coin, medal, token, or gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or rhodium bullion, whether issued by a State, the United States, a foreign government, or any other person; and

(2) no State may assess any tax or fee on any currency, or any other monetary instrument, which is used in the transaction of interstate commerce or commerce with a foreign country, and which is subject to the enjoyment of legal tender status under article I, section 10 of the United States Constitution.

(b) Effective Date- This section shall take effect on December 31, 2011, but shall not apply to taxes or fees imposed before such date.

SEC. 4. REPEAL OF SUPERFLUOUS SECTIONS.

(a) In General- Title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking sections 486 (relating to uttering coins of gold, silver, or other metal) and 489 (making or possessing likeness of coins).

(b) Conforming Amendment to Table of Sections- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 25 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking the items relating to the sections stricken by subsection (a).

(c) Special Rule Concerning Retroactive Effect- Any prosecution under the sections stricken by subsection (a) shall abate upon the taking effect of this section. Any previous conviction under those sections shall be null and void.

That's it. It's less than a page long. It holds the key to future wealth preservation and prosperity. Ron Paul introduced this bill thusly:

INTRODUCING THE FREE COMPETITION IN CURRENCY ACT

______


HON. RON PAUL

of texas

in the house of representatives

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Free Competition in Currency Act. Currency, or money, is what allows civilization to flourish. In the absence of money, barter is the name of the game; if the farmer needs shoes, he must trade his eggs and milk to the cobbler and hope that the cobbler needs eggs and milk. Money makes the transaction process far easier. Rather than having to search for someone with reciprocal wants, the farmer can exchange his milk and eggs for an agreed-upon medium of exchange with which he can then purchase shoes.

This medium of exchange should satisfy certain properties: it should be durable, that is to say, it does not wear out easily; it should be portable, that is, easily carried; it should be divisible into units usable for everyday transactions; it should be recognizable and uniform, so that one unit of money has the same properties as every other unit; it should be scarce, in the economic sense, so that the extant supply does not satisfy the wants of everyone demanding it; it should be stable, so that the value of its purchasing power does not fluctuate wildly; and it should be reproducible, so that enough units of money can be created to satisfy the needs of exchange.

Over millennia of human history, gold and silver have been the two metals that have most often satisfied these conditions, survived the market process, and gained the trust of billions of people. Gold and silver are difficult to counterfeit, a property which ensures they will always be accepted in commerce. It is precisely for this reason that gold and silver are anathema to governments. A supply of gold and silver that is limited in supply by nature cannot be inflated, and thus serves as a check on the growth of government. Without the ability to inflate the currency, governments find themselves constrained in their actions, unable to carry on wars of aggression or to appease their overtaxed citizens with bread and circuses.

At this country's founding, there was no government controlled national currency. While the Constitution established the congressional power of minting coins, it was not until 1792 that the U.S. Mint was formally established. In the meantime, Americans made do with foreign silver and gold coins. Even after the Mint's operations got underway, foreign coins continued to circulate within the United States, and did so for several decades.

On the desk in my office I have a sign that says: ``Don't steal--the government hates competition.'' Indeed, any power a government arrogates to itself, it is loathe to give back to the people. Just as we have gone from a constitutionally-instituted national defense consisting of a limited army and navy bolstered by militias and letters of marque and reprisal, we have moved from a system of competing currencies to a government-instituted banking cartel that monopolizes the issuance of currency. In order to introduce a system of competing currencies, there are three steps that must be taken to produce a legal climate favorable to competition.

The first step consists of eliminating legal tender laws. Article I Section 10 of the Constitution forbids the States from making anything but gold and silver a legal tender in payment of debts. States are not required to enact legal tender laws, but should they choose to, the only acceptable legal tender is gold and silver, the two precious metals that individuals throughout history and across cultures have used as currency. However, there is nothing in the Constitution that grants the Congress the power to enact legal tender laws. We, the Congress, have the power to coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, but not to declare a legal tender. Yet, there is a section of U.S. Code, 31 U.S.C. 5103, that purports to establish U.S. coins and currency, including Federal Reserve notes, as legal tender.

Historically, legal tender laws have been used by governments to force their citizens to accept debased and devalued currency. Gresham's Law describes this phenomenon, which can be summed up in one phrase: bad money drives out good money. An emperor, a king, or a dictator might mint coins with half an ounce of gold and force merchants, under pain of death, to accept them as though they contained one ounce of gold. Each ounce of the king's gold could now be minted into two coins instead of one, so the king now had twice as much ``money'' to spend on building castles and raising armies. As these legally overvalued coins circulated, the coins containing the full ounce of gold would be pulled out of circulation and hoarded. We saw this same phenomenon happen in the mid-1960s when the U.S. government began to mint subsidiary coinage out of copper and nickel rather than silver. The copper and nickel coins were legally overvalued, the silver coins undervalued in relation, and silver coins vanished from circulation.

These actions also give rise to the most pernicious effects of inflation. Most of the merchants and peasants who received this devalued currency felt the full effects of inflation, the rise in prices and the lowered standard of living, before they received any of the new currency. By the time they received the new currency, prices had long since doubled, and the new currency they received would give them no benefit.

In the absence of legal tender laws, Gresham's Law no longer holds. If people are free to reject debased currency, and instead demand sound money, sound money will gradually return to use in society. Merchants would have been free to reject the king's coin and accept only coins containing full metal weight.

The second step to reestablishing competing currencies is to eliminate laws that prohibit the operation of private mints. One private enterprise which attempted to popularize the use of precious metal coins was Liberty Services, the creators of the Liberty Dollar. Evidently the government felt threatened, as Liberty Dollars had all their precious metal coins seized by the FBI and Secret Service in November of 2007. Of course, not all of these coins were owned by Liberty Services, as many were held in trust as backing for silver and gold certificates which Liberty Services issued. None of this matters, of course, to the government, who hates to see any competition.

The sections of U.S. Code which Liberty Services is accused of violating are erroneously considered to be anti-counterfeiting statutes, when in fact their purpose was to shut down private mints that had been operating in California. California was awash in gold in the aftermath of the 1849 gold rush, yet had no U.S. Mint to mint coinage. There was not enough foreign coinage circulating in California either, so private mints stepped into the breech to provide their own coins. As was to become the case in other industries during the Progressive era, the private mints were eventually accused of circulating debased (substandard) coinage, and with the supposed aim of providing government-sanctioned regulation and a government guarantee of purity, the 1864 Coinage Act was passed, which banned private mints from producing their own coins for circulation as currency.

The final step to ensuring competing currencies is to eliminate capital gains and sales taxes on gold and silver coins. Under current federal law, coins are considered collectibles, and are liable for capital gains taxes. Short-term capital gains rates are at income tax levels, up to 35 percent, while long-term capital gains taxes are assessed at the collectibles rate of 28 percent. Furthermore, these taxes actually tax monetary debasement. As the dollar weakens, the nominal dollar value of gold increases. The purchasing power of gold may remain relatively constant, but as the nominal dollar value increases, the federal government considers this an increase in wealth, and taxes accordingly. Thus, the more the dollar is debased, the more capital gains taxes must be paid on holdings of gold and other precious metals.

Just as pernicious are the sales and use taxes which are assessed on gold and silver at the state level in many states. Imagine having to pay sales tax at the bank every time you change a $10 bill for a roll of quarters to do laundry. Inflation is a pernicious tax on the value of money, but even the official numbers, which are massaged downwards, are only on the order of 4 percent per year. Sales taxes in many states can take away 8 percent or more on every single transaction in which consumers wish to convert their Federal Reserve Notes into gold or silver.

In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, allowing for competing currencies will allow market participants to choose a currency that suits their needs, rather than the needs of the government. The prospect of American citizens turning away from the dollar towards alternate currencies will provide the necessary impetus to the U.S. government to regain control of the dollar and halt its downward spiral. Restoring soundness to the dollar will remove the government's ability and incentive to inflate the currency, and keep us from launching unconstitutional wars that burden our economy to excess. With a sound currency, everyone is better off, not just those who control the monetary system. I urge my colleagues to consider the redevelopment of a system of competing currencies and cosponsor the Free Competition in Currency Act.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-20...1-PgE483-3.htm

Lawrence White, Professor of Economics at George Mason University testified before Congress:

Chairman Paul, Ranking Member Clay, and members of the subcommittee: Thank you for the opportunity to discuss my views on HR 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011 (hereafter “the Act”). As an economist specializing in monetary systems I have studied and written for many years about the role of free competition in currency. ...

More: http://financialservices.house.gov/U...91311white.pdf

Ron Paul has been proposing this bill every session of Congress for many years now. It always languishes in committee, just like his Audit the Fed bills.

If this bill is going to see the light of day, it's going to take an awakening among the voters to push their representatives just like the tea party groups helped pressure Congress to pass an Audit the Fed measure.

Have you contacted your Congressional Representative about this bill? Ask them whether they will support it or even better co-sponsor it? I urge you to do so:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

Ron Paul is the only man in Washington D.C. who is truly championing economic liberty for America. If you would like to get involved in grassroots efforts to support him, I highly recommend joining the multi-hued melange of liberty lovers at the Ron Paul Forums (RPF)

[DoChenRollingBearing]

I agree that Ron Paul is really the only candidate who could fix this mess our country is in. Even with Ron Paul, we would still go through a lot of a lot of turbulence and pain.

But, he gets it. Honest money. He is very truthful (by political standards anyway).

And he does not have any problems with liberty of owning gold, in fact he is aggressive in recognizing gold's roles as wealth protector and liberty protector.

Still, if he cannot win the nomination I would rather have a Romney or a Gingrich than the current president. But, I think that anybody BUT RP is more part of the problem than part of the solution.

[dali lambone]

Every word that Ron Paul speaks is about returning power to the people, reducing government and government spending, practicing sound monetary policy, and a return to the constitution. A document, that I think, Americans take for granted, even though it is supposed to be the guideline for our government and the direction we are to take as a people.

I think if people who didn't know the first thing about Ron Paul would just get on youtube and watch his recording on "Mutually Assured Respect", they wouldnt' need another word from him on anything else. Ron Paul is the first politician that actually makes me feel HOPE, and I'd love to be able to tell him that in person.

Ron Paul 2012!!!!!!

[dontdeBasemebro]

I agree that Paul, and the good ideas of his like this one, are the best hope we have to avoid the disaster we are trying to prepare for. I'll second PMBug's endorsement of RPF as well, it is a great site with an amazing array of people, opinions, and insights.



I do wonder how things would actually work with such legislation enacted.

If gold and silver were again allowed to function as they should, and the paper/digital FRNs we have now still exist, what would the transition look like?

If it happened tomorrow I could see many people, like all of us, who would basically take our paychecks straight to the coin dealers. Over time I would think that metals will become more popular, as they already are, resulting in higher metals prices in terms of dollars.

At some point I think people would realize that getting paid in dollars is not good enough since their value would have been so greatly reduced that trading paper for metal would become rather difficult.

Would businesses start paying wages in metal? Would employers increase the dollar wages until some breaking point (like losing employees to competitors who pay in metal)?

How would the mechanism for paying employees work with metal as currency? I could see it working with the bank acquiring metals from its customers and depositing it in a bank of some sort. Then it could electronically issue claims tickets for certain amounts of metal that could be redeemed in person (like in the old days) or electronically (transfer said metal to account/deposit box in employee's name). I would love for my boss to hand me a bag of coins at the end of the week, but some folks like the ease of direct deposit.

I would think that it would not work to denominate the employees' compensation in dollars to be redeemed in metals since the purchasing power of dollars will vary wildly. That variation could be wonderful or disastrous for the bank, the employer, and/or the employee in different circumstances. This brings up a bigger question in my mind that would be best served by a standalone thread.



Here's what my paycheck should look like ---->

[PMBug]

...
I do wonder how things would actually work with such legislation enacted.
...

I posted my thoughts in your tangent thread:

http://www.pmbug.com/forum/f13/monet...s-162/#post747

[ancona]

If this act were made in to law, nearly every single piece of "paper" out there becomes instantaneously worthless on its face. Think about the ramifications of the elimination of leverage for a minute. While I am a firm believer in real money, gold and silver would have to be valued exponentially higher to support the "value" of all paper contrtacts that currently support the world financial paradigm.

Now suppose for a minute we incrementally re-value PM's to support that mountain of garbage. Gold and silver would be unobtainable by the common man.

It's kind of a catch 22 right now. Unless we have a rapid and disorderly collapse of the current system, such that there remains zero faith in fiat, we cannot step in to a PM based system, because there is simply not enough of it to support the worlds population. We would be talking in terms of a milligram of gold being worth a hundred dollars. You would have to mint base metal medallions with a tiny drilled out center point, with a miniscule amount of precious metal inserted.

That said, if TSHTF, which I believe to be happenning in slow motion as I type this, then it all becomes moot, and PM's rule by default.

[PMBug]

Ron Paul's Plan for Monetary Freedom - YouTube

Ron Paul's Plan for Monetary Freedom - YouTube

[white&yellow999]

Some states are already taking matters into thier own hands. I know this was several months ago now, but Utah is now encouraging citizens to use gold and silver as money, and not by face value but by weight. Look at this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/30/us...pagewanted=all

[dontdeBasemebro]

Mr. Franco is among several supporters who say the law’s most important feature may be that it eliminates state capital gains taxes on the sale of gold and silver, a move he thinks will prompt individuals and large scale investors outside the state to move their gold and silver to Utah. But federal capital gains taxes would still apply.

He who has the gold...

[PMBug]

The Fed's latest actions in cooperating with foreign central banks to undertake liquidity swaps of dollars for foreign currencies is another reason why Congress needs enhanced power to oversee and audit the Fed. Under current law Congress cannot examine these types of agreements. Those who would argue that auditing the Fed or these agreements with central banks harms the Fed's independence should reevaluate the Fed's supposed independence when the Fed bails out Europe so soon after President Obama promised US assistance in resolving the Euro crisis.

Rather than calming markets, these arrangements should indicate just how frightened governments around the world are about the European financial crisis. Central banks are grasping at straws, hoping that flooding the world with money created out of thin air will somehow resolve a crisis caused by uncontrolled government spending and irresponsible debt issuance. Congress should not permit this type of open-ended commitment on the part of the Fed, a commitment which could easily run into the trillions of dollars. These dollar swaps are purely inflationary and will harm American consumers as much as any form of quantitative easing.

The Fed is behaving much as it did during the 2008 financial crisis, only this time instead of bailing out politically well-connected too-big-to-fail firms it is bailing out profligate government spending. Citizens the world over deserve better than this. They deserve sound money that cannot be manipulated and created out of thin air by central planners who promise printed prosperity. Fiat money caused this European crisis and the financial crisis before it. More fiat money is not the cure. The global fiat currency system has proven itself a failure, we need real monetary reform. We need sound money.

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?opti...eches&Itemid=1

[PMBug]

The Gold Standard Vs. A Competitive Monetary System - YouTube

The Gold Standard Vs. A Competitive Monetary System - YouTube

[PMBug]

...
The question is why, if the Federal Reserve and the system of fiat money are so superior to sound money, has our country been in such a pickle these past few years. The Fed has tried every trick in the book and some that aren’t in the book. Yet so far the economy seems impervious to its monetary ministrations. It has met neither of its dual mandates of stable prices and employment. The Fed chairman did acknowledge that his institution failed at crucial moments, most notably in his view in the Great Depression, when it “did not use monetary policy to prevent deflation,” as he put it yesterday. But what about its failures in the current time, when it has run the value of the dollar down to a level that was once unthinkable and millions are still out of work?

It’s always possible that Mr. Bernanke will confront these questions in the remaining three lectures he is scheduled to give at George Washington, but given the preview yesterday, it looks unlikely. The full accounting of the Fed is going to have to come from the body that created it in the first place. We are less than two years away from the centenary of the institution, and there will be plenty of legislation around which this accounting could take place. One bill, H.R. 1098, would establish a free competition in currency and end the system centered on making legal tender out of the kind of scrip that Mr. Bernanke circulates. No doubt it will be a long battle, and it wouldn’t be surprising to us were some of the bright-looking students to whom Mr. Bernanke spoke yesterday to end up in the lists.

More: http://www.nysun.com/editorials/bernanke-101/87752/

Bravo NY Sun!

[PMBug]

Follow up to Bernanke's propaganda tour at George Washington University:

...
Chairman Bernanke’s first lecture in the series included a long discussion of gold. This is as it should be because up until forty years ago global money was always backed in some way, shape or form with precious metals. Since 1971 the Fed and other central banks have been the monopoly issuers of currencies that have not been exchangeable into gold. We will not spend time here recounting what we have already taken 150,000 words over the last five years to discuss. Suffice to say US dollars and all the world’s currencies are backed by the full faith and credit of treasury ministry authority to have their central banks manufacture even more money. The question before us today is: how many new paper currency units are necessary to secure banking systems and protect against deflation? To which we answer: probably somewhere around 15 trillion new dollars and about 75 trillion new dollar-equivalent currencies across the world.

Our business, as fiduciaries, is allocating capital based on relative value within the macroeconomic environment we see as likely. In our opinion Mr. Bernanke’s lecture last Monday perpetuated bad or unimportant data, implied impossible outcomes, and was quite self-serving in its conclusions. His description of history was incomplete, his extrapolations were baseless, and his arguments were quite weak. (Ultimately we believe Fed policy will migrate -- or be suddenly reversed -- to meet the consequences of its current policies.)

As we pointed out only a few weeks ago following Warren Buffett’s unsolicited gold comments, (“Golden Boy”), and in December 2009 following Nouriel Roubini’s assertion that a gold bubble was about to pop (“Roubini Rebuttal”), gold is simply money - a savings (not investment) vehicle, a means of storing purchasing power in a time of paper money dilution. That’s it. Central banks compete directly with gold ownership because they manufacture competing savings vehicles in the form of baseless paper money. For the past twelve years global wealth holders have been converting their savings in increasing amounts from paper media of exchange (or financial assets denominated in them) to gold and natural resources. Why? Because central banks must dilute the purchasing power of their currencies to de-leverage the global banking system.
...

More (including point by point rebuttal to Bernanke's presentation): http://www.zerohedge.com/news/annota...discredit-gold

[PMBug]

John Stossel: SPEAKS TO EX-FEDERAL RESERVE EMPLOYEE - YouTube

John Stossel: SPEAKS TO EX-FEDERAL RESERVE EMPLOYEE - YouTube

[PMBug]

FreedomWorks, Dick Armey's attempt to hijack the original tea party movement, is apparently on board with HR 1098!

Dear FreedomWorks member,

As one of our million-plus FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2011. Introduced by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), the bill would repeal federal legal tender laws and tax laws that penalize the use of gold and silver coins as money. The Free Competition in Currency Act would help restore sound money by allowing Americans to choose a currency among competing currency that works best for them.

Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution clears states that “No State shall ... coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Unfortunately, Congress passed unconstitutional lender tender laws in 1965 which force Americans to use Federal Reserve Notes issued by the Federal Reserve. These legal tender laws have granted the central bank a monopoly on currency. This is problematic since the Federal Reserve has significantly devalued the currency that we are forced to use.

Americans should be free to use whatever currency they desire. The Free Competition in Currency Act would make it legal to use commodity money in personal economic transactions. Choice is good because it allows for currency competition. The paper dollar would have to compete with other forms of currency. The prospect of Americans using alternative currencies would encourage the Federal Reserve to stop inflating the money supply.

People must be free to use a currency that they trust. This is the first step to restoring sound money in America. I urge you to contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act today.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe
President and CEO
FreedomWorks

http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/mki...or-hr-1098-the

Link to send a letter to your Congresscritter: http://action.freedomworks.org/6563/.../?source=APR15

[PMBug]

Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman on Bloomberg TV - April 30, 2012 - YouTube

Ron Paul vs. Paul Krugman on Bloomberg TV - April 30, 2012 - YouTube

[PMBug]

The Fed: Mend It or End It?

Last week I held a hearing to examine the various proposals that have been put forth both to mend and to end the Fed. The purpose was to spur a vigorous and long-lasting discussion about the Fed's problems, hopefully leading to concrete actions to rein in the Fed.

First, it is important to understand the Federal Reserve System. Some people claim it is a secret cabal of elite bankers, while others claim it is part of the federal government. In reality it is a bit of both. The Federal Reserve System is the collusion of big government and big business to profit at the expense of taxpayers. The Fed's bailout of large banks during the financial crisis propped up poorly-run corporations that should have gone under, giving them a market-distorting advantage that no business in the United States should receive. The recent news about JP Morgan is a case in point. JP Morgan, a recipient of $25 billion in bailout money, recently announced it lost another $2 billion. If a corporation shows itself to be a bottomless money pit of "errors, sloppiness and bad judgment," the Fed shouldn't have expected $25 billion in free money to change that or teach anyone a lesson in fiscal discipline. But it determined that this form of deliberate capital destruction was preferable to one business suffering bankruptcy. Clearly, some changes need to be made.

Several reforms for the Fed were discussed at the hearing. One was a call for the full employment mandate to be repealed, in order to allow the Fed to focus solely on stable prices.

Another reform calls for changes to the composition of the Federal Open Market Committee. Still another proposal was for outright nationalization of the Fed or of its functions. But if what the Fed does now is bad and inflationary, allowing the Treasury to print and issue money at-will would be even worse, and could possibly lead to a Weimar-like hyperinflation.

The problems and advantages of the gold standard were discussed at the hearing. The era of the classical gold standard was undoubtedly one of the greatest eras in human history. For a period of several decades in the late 19th century, the West made enormous advances. However, the gold standard was still run by government. The temptation to suspend gold redemption reared its head again with the outbreak of World War I. Once the tie to gold was severed and fiscal restraint thrown to the wind, undoing the damage would have required great fiscal austerity. Instead, the Western world proceeded to set up a gold-exchange standard which lasted not even a decade before easy money led to the Great Depression.

While returning to the gold standard would certainly be far better than maintaining the current fiat paper system, as long as the government retains the power to go off gold we may end up repeating the same mistakes.

The only viable solution is to get government out of the money business permanently. The way to bring this about is through currency competition: allow parallel currencies to circulate without receiving any special recognition or favor from the government. Fiat paper monetary standards throughout history have always collapsed due to their inflationary nature, and our current fiat paper standard will be no different.

It is imperative that the American people be educated on the dangers of the Fed and the importance of restoring sound money. The laying of the groundwork must begin today, so that the American people will be prepared for the day when the mirage the Fed has created evaporates completely. The full hearing footage is available on my website and I would encourage every American to take a look.

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?opti...talk&Itemid=69