The Daily Hatch

Why is Ron Paul surging? (Part 1)

The liberals have been successful at getting government to spend over 25 percent of our total GDP, but the problem is that money is running out. Actually it ran out a long time ago. In 2011 we spent 3.8 trillion and took in a little over half that amount. At that rate we will be going bankrupt a few years after Greece.

I think the future looks bright for politicans like Ron Paul. There are several reasons why Ron Paul has surged in the polls. Let me list some of the reasons this has happened. These reasons are taken from the article by Edward Crane, “Why Ron Paul Matters,” Wall Street Journal, Dec 31, 2011:
• Tax and spending. If ever there were sound and fury signifying nothing, it has to be the recent “debate” over the budget. Covered by the media as though it was negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles, the wrestling match between Republicans and Democrats centered on the nearly trivial question of whether the $12 trillion increase in the national debt over the next decade should be reduced by 3% or 2%.

Mr. Paul would cut the federal budget by $1 trillion immediately. He can’t do it, of course, but voters sense he really wants to. As Milton Friedman once explained, the true tax on the American people is the level of spending — the resources taken from the private sector and employed in the public sector. Whether financed from direct taxation, inflation or borrowing, spending is the burden.

• Foreign policy and military spending. As the only candidate other than Jon Huntsman who says it is past time to bring the troops home from Afghanistan, Mr. Paul has tapped into a stirring recognition by limited-government Republicans and independents that an overreaching military presence around the world is inconsistent with small, constitutional government at home.

The massive cost of these interventions, in treasure and blood, highlights what a mistake they are, as sensible people on the left and right recognized from the beginning. Of course we want a strong military capable of defending the United States, but our current expenditures equal what the rest of the world spends, which makes little sense. It is futile to try to be the world’s policeman — to try to create an American Empire as so many neoconservatives promote. And we can’t afford it.