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About one-third of this $3 trillion is so-called discretionary spending; the remaining two-thirds is deemed "mandatory" entitlement spending, which means mostly Social Security and Medicare. I'm sure many American voters would be shocked to know their elected representatives essentially have no say over two-thirds of the federal budget, but that is indeed the case. In fact the most disturbing problem with the budget is the utter lack of concern for the coming entitlement meltdown.

Entire article here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst040207.htm

Last week the House passed an emergency supplemental spending bill that was the worst of all worlds. The presidents request would have already set a spending record, but the Democratic leadership packed 21 billion additional dollars of mostly pork barrel spending in attempt to win Democrat votes. The total burden on the American taxpayer for this bill alone will be an astonishing 124 billion dollars. Democrats promised to oppose the war by adding more money to fight the war than even the president requested.

I am pleased to have joined with the majority of my Republican colleagues to oppose this bill.

Among the pork added to attract votes was more than 200 million dollars to the dairy industry, 74 million for peanut farmers, and 25 million dollars for spinach farmers. Also, the bill included more than two billion dollars in unconstitutional foreign aid, including half a billion dollars for Lebanon and Eastern Europe.

What might be most disturbing, however, is the treatment of veterans in the bill. Playing politics with the funding of critical veterans medical and other assistance by adding it onto a controversial bill to attract votes strikes me as highly inappropriate. Veterans funding should be included in a properly structured, comprehensive appropriations bill. Better still, veterans spending should be automatically funded and not subject to yearly politicking and nit-picking.

Full article here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul378.html

Once again Congress wants to have it both ways. Back in 2002, Congress passed the authorization for the president to attack Iraq if and when he saw fit. By ignoring the Constitution, which clearly requires a declaration of war, Congress could wash its hands of responsibility after the war began going badly by citing the ambiguity of its authorization. This time, House leaders want to appear to be opposing the war by including problematic benchmarks, but they include language to allow the president to waive these if he sees fit.

Full article here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst032607.htm

The $124 billion supplemental appropriation is a good bill to oppose. I am pleased that many of my colleagues will join me in voting against this measure.

If one is unhappy with our progress in Iraq after four years of war, voting to de-fund the war makes sense. If one is unhappy with the manner in which we went to war, without a constitutional declaration, voting no makes equally good sense.

Voting no also makes the legitimate point that the Constitution does not authorize Congress to direct the management of any military operation the president clearly enjoys this authority as Commander in Chief.

But Congress just as clearly is responsible for making policy, by debating and declaring war, raising and equipping armies, funding military operations, and ending conflicts that do not serve our national interests.

Full article here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul377.html

Watch Ron Paul's speech on video.

The Federal Reserve provides the mother's milk for the booms and busts wrongly associated with a mythical "business cycle." Imagine a Brinks truck driving down a busy street with the doors wide open, and money flying out everywhere, and you'll have a pretty good analogy for Fed policies over the last two decades. Unless and until we get the Federal Reserve out of the business of creating money at will and setting interest rates, we will remain vulnerable to market bubbles and painful corrections. If housing prices plummet and millions of Americans find themselves owing more than their homes are worth, the blame lies squarely with Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.

Full text here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst031907.htm

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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. 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.

Entire article here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst031207.htm

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The official national debt figure, now approaching $9 trillion, reflects only what the federal government owes in current debts on money already borrowed. It does not reflect what the federal government has promised to pay millions of Americans in entitlement benefits down the road. Those future obligations put our real debt figure at roughly fifty trillion dollars- a staggering sum that is about as large as the total household net worth of the entire United States. Your share of this fifty trillion amounts to about $175,000.

Full text here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst030507.htm

Hundreds of thousands of American troops already occupy Afghanistan and Iraq, a number that is rising as the military surge moves forward. The justification, given endlessly since September 11th, is that both support terrorism and thus pose a risk to the United States. Yet when we step back and examine the region as a whole, it's obvious that these two impoverished countries, neither of which has any real military, pose very little threat to American national security when compared to other Middle Eastern nations. The decision to attack them, while treating some of region's worst regimes as allies, shows the deadly hypocrisy of our foreign policy in the Middle East.

Entire article here:
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst022607.htm

Social Security Totalization is a Bad Idea
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2007/tst010807.htm

RFID Chips being Forced on Amish Community
Indiana Amish resisting government chipping program

Concerned Amish Farmers Bring this to My Attention.

The Indiana Amish community has been informed by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health that they are required to participate in a 3 phase process which will, at the second phase, put RFID chips in each of their animals.

The 3 phases are:

1. Premise identification.
2. Animal identification (when chips will be implanted in the animals)
3. Animal tracking.

In documents dated June 30, 2006, Jennifer Greiner, DVM, informs the small farmers that effective September 1, 2006, enrollment in the program will be MANDATORY, and all farm animals, defined as cattle, bison, swine, sheep, goats, and captive deer or elk, must be entered into the electronic database.

[Source Article] by Margaret Schaut on http://www.squidoo.com/

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