Monday, December 13, 2010

Ron Paul gets the gavel, Bernanke can't be happy

Taken from Politico's headlines:

White House launches charm offensive with new Republican chairs

GOP chairmen are getting congratulatory phone calls from President Barack Obama and private meetings with Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder. The incoming Agriculture Committee chairman, Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), is setting up a regular monthly lunch with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The White House's efforts moved into high gear shortly after the Republican victory on Election Day.

If you read the full article, it appears that every committee chair is getting some mono-on-mono time with the administrators who they will oversee. Politico even mentions that Ben Bernanke sat down the Chair the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darrell Issa.

I wonder if Ben Bernanke has yet placed his congratulatory phone call to Monetary Policy Chairman Ron Paul?

hahaha...

I love it!

But in all seriousness, regardless of Congressman Paul's philosophical views on monetary policy, his chairmanship will be founded on two important principles that have been missing in that committee for a long time:

1) He will demand what all reasonable and rational people -- this excludes The Fedsters -- expect: transparency.

2) He will use the bully pulpit to push a national discussion on monetary policy, including:

a) Fiat money vs. sound money?

b) Fractional-reserve banking vs. full-reserve banking?

c) Keynesian economics vs. Austrian school economics?

d) Should America have a central bank?

The Establishmentarians like to dismiss this discussion by explaining there is an "international consensus" on all of these issues. But therein lies the problem. The consensus -- that money grows on trees -- has been decreed by The Political Class. And therefore this is no consensus among regular people. And my view is that most regular people know that money doesn't grow on trees.

Go Chairman Paul!

Tim White

4 comments:

Breachway said...

My Republican party's insistance on extending the tax cuts to everyone has now led to another bloated bill full of BS that is only going to make our deficit climb thanks to the Dems adding on and the Repubs having to agree. They should have compromised on an income level with the DEms...oh wait...Boehner says he isnt going to compromise on anything...this doesnt make me feel too good about the next 2 yrs and pushes further towards leaving the Rs and joing the Indies...

Anonymous said...

The Republican party in Washington had their way, they would only extend the tax cut to the richest 2% of the population, and screww everyone else.

Before the election, we heard them over and over again about how important it was to cut the deficit, but giving the rich another $900 billion and add that to the deficit is perfectly alright. It's not surprising because the only represent and work for theair masters the rich, screw everyone else.

Until they they deliver the money to their masters, they will say no to everything. They are against everything, healthcare, extending unemployment, providing for the 911 responders and anything that does not put money in the pockets of their special interests.

These people lack heart, feeling and decency. How in the hell were they elected?

tim white said...

2:48... there are a lot of things that could -- and should -- be cut in the federal budget immediately. I have no idea why my GOP would start with unemployment bene's.

I get that there are some people who game the system. But that's the exception. And it's the case with every gov't program. I think I heard that a huge chunk of SS & Medicare dollars relate to fraud. But do they talk about cutting those programs? No.

I think the fed gov't needs to be reigned in across the board... but starting with unemployment seems foolish to me.

tim white said...

Breach... the GOP is screwing up already IMO. Rasmussen has a poll out that voters are more concerned with "cutting spending" than "deficit reduction."

The voters get it. Deficit reduction is important, but the bigger question is taxing and spending. And we know that taxes are important, but they aren't the real issue. The real issue is spending. Taxes (today or in the future) are simply a result of spending.

If the Washington GOP insists on making taxes the center of conversation, there will be even more GOP primaries in 2012 from regular people.