Magnifisyncopathological

Ron Paul, of the 14th Congressional District of Texas, is regularly considered to be one of the - if not the - most libertarian member of Congress. The doctor boasts an extensive archive at Lew Rockwell's website. Some refer to him as Dr. No for his regular and consistent "nay" votes on all kinds of legislation. He gets favorable mentions in Reason Magazine and within the Cato Institute. He ran as the Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1988.

Some insight into his opinion regarding Hurricane Katrina is found in a "Texas Straight Talk" column written on September 12 and titled, Responding to Katrina:

Private donations already have topped $600 million. This outpouring shows there is hope for rebuilding and breathing life back into New Orleans and other destroyed communities, if the American entrepreneurial spirit is permitted to operate freely.

[...]

The original $10 billion authorized by Congress for hurricane relief was spent in a matter of days, and there is every indication that FEMA is nothing but a bureaucratic black hole that spends money without the slightest accountability. Any federal aid should be distributed as directly as possible to local communities, rather than through wasteful middlemen like FEMA. We cannot let the Katrina tragedy blind us to fiscal realities, namely the staggering budget deficits and national debt that threaten to devastate our economy.

Why does Congress assume that the best approach is simply to write a huge check to FEMA, the very government agency that failed so spectacularly? This does not make sense. We have all seen the numerous articles detailing the seemingly inexcusable mistakes FEMA made - before and after the hurricane. Yet in typical fashion, Congress seems to think that the best way to fix the mess is to throw money at the very government agency that failed. We should not be rewarding failure.

[...]

The examples of FEMA blocking relief efforts are numerous: Wal-Mart trucks containing water and supplies were turned away; the Coast Guard was prevented from delivering diesel fuel; a 600-bed Navy hospital was left unused; firefighters were ordered away from flood sites; donated generators were refused; and rescue attempts by private citizens were rebuffed. Is FEMA really an agency that should be given another $50 billion?

In several disasters that have befallen my Gulf Coast district, my constituents have told me many times that they prefer to rebuild and recover without the help of federal agencies like FEMA, which so often impose their own bureaucratic solutions on the owners of private property.

Once again the federal government is attempting to impose a top-down solution to the disaster. No one questions where this $52 billion will come from. The answer, of course, is that the federal government simply is going to print the money. There will be no reductions in federal spending elsewhere to free up this disaster aid. Rather, the money will come from a printing press. The economic devastation created by such a reckless approach may well be even more wide-reaching than the disaster this bill is meant to repair.

[...]

Katrina’s victims and the rest of the country deserve a more sustainable and financially rational approach than simply printing and spending money.

In a speech titled The Coming Category 5 Financial Hurricane given before the House of Representatives, Dr. Paul said:

One side claims Katrina proved there was not enough government welfare, and its distribution was based on race. The other side claims we need to pump billions of new dollars into the very federal agency that failed (FEMA), while giving it extraordinary new police powers. Both sides support more authoritarianism, more centralization, and even the imposition of martial law in times of natural disasters.

There is no hint that we will resort to reason now that the failed welfare policies of the past 60 years have been laid bare. Certainly no one has connected the tragedy of poverty in New Orleans to the flawed monetary system that has significantly contributed to the impoverishment of a huge segment of American society.

Congress reacted to Katrina in the expected irresponsible manner. It immediately appropriated over $60 billion with little planning or debate. Taxes won't be raised to pay the bill-- fortunately. There will be no offsets or spending reductions to pay the bill. Welfare and entitlement spending is sacrosanct. Spending for the war in Iraq and the military-industrial complex is sacrosanct. There is no guarantee that gracious foreign lenders will step forward, especially without raising interest rates. This means the Federal Reserve and Treasury will print the money needed to pay the bills. The sad truth is that monetary debasement hurts poor people the most-- the very people we saw on TV after Katrina. Inflating our currency hurts the poor and destroys the middle class, while transferring wealth to the ruling class.

[...]

Any new expenditures must have offsets greater in amount than the new programs. Foreign military and foreign aid expenditures must be the first target.

[...]

If Congress does not show some sense of financial restraint soon, we can expect the poor to become poorer; the middle class to become smaller; and the government to get bigger and more authoritarian-- while the liberty of the people is diminished. The illusion that deficits, printing money, and expanding the welfare and warfare states serves the people must come to an end.

In another Texas Straight Talk, Dr. Paul wrote, "It is easy to call for drastic government action in the emotional aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but we must not ignore history, logic, and basic economics."

When the House voted on H. R. 3673, the bill designed to send more than $50 billion to areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Paul voted against it, one of only 11 reps to do so.

From his LewRockwell.com columns, he has recently said:

• "What programs can we cut? What agencies and departments should go? A better question is: What should stay on a permanent basis? That's easy: only those functions specifically outlined in the Constitution. Is foreign aid allowed by the Constitution? No. Is public housing in the Constitution? No. Is federal involvement in education? No. Are the EPA, OSHA, and the BATF? No."
  
• "The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. It is this one-two punch - Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Fed printing money to make up the difference - that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars."
  
• "Most governments, including our own, tend to do what they can get away with rather than what the law allows them to do. All governments seek to increase their power over the people they govern, whether we want to recognize it or not. The Patriot Act is a vivid example of this."
  
• "The City of New London, Connecticut essentially acted as a strongman by seizing private property from one group of people for the benefit of a more powerful private interest. For its services, the city will be paid a tribute in the form of greater taxes from the new development. In any other context, what's happening in Connecticut properly would be described as criminal. However, the individuals losing their homes understand that stealing is stealing, even if the people responsible are government officials."

So, how has House Representative Ron Paul reacted to Hurricane Rita, which actually hit parts of the 14th District and which caused an early estimate of more than $8 billion in direct damages?

Paul Asks President for Emergency Declaration

September 21, 2005

Washington, DC: Congressman Ron Paul has joined Texas Governor Rick Perry in requesting a federal state of emergency declaration for the entire state of Texas. Under a federal declaration of emergency, federal assistance in many forms becomes available to the people of Texas. This assistance includes Disaster Unemployment Assistance, Hazard Mitigation, SBA disaster loans, and USDA loans, in addition to assistance from the U.S. Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security in general.

President Bush declared the emergency today, pledging a stepped-up federal response to what may be the biggest Hurricane ever to hit Texas.

Paul, in a letter to the president, stressed that all 254 counties in Texas likely will be affected by the hurricane, causing the displacement of thousands or even millions of citizens. Galveston and Brazoria counties in particular may be hard hit, and will need the coordination of federal, state, and local disaster services to ensure the fastest possible recovery.

These emergency declarations, as I have noted in several of my recent Federal Register Watch columns, pay for "assistance for emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance" at typically either 75% or 100% "of the total eligible costs." Meaning, federal tax money (or additional printed fiat cash) is handed over to local government agents to defray the costs of responding to the disaster.

Read that list of agency and program activation. I challenge Dr. Paul and any of his supporters to find direct Constitutional authorization for most of that. Aside from DHS and the Coast Guard and FEMA (which the rep has clearly indicated is at best a wasteful, failed bureaucracy), they all fail his usual legislative tests for federal action. This is merely another arm of the welfare state that he is supposed to oppose.

I was worried Dr. Paul would do this. I must admit I'm not that surprised. Despite his laissez-faire reputation, he is still a government agent and one that advocates a Constitutional structure that monopolizes or bullies some crucial markets for itself. I'll let you decide if this approach works with his "Freedom Principles":

• Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
  
• Property should be owned by people, not government.
  
• All voluntary associations should be permissible -- economic and social.
  
• The government's monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.
  
• Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
  
• The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government's.

His call for federal involvement in the cleanup is a serious rebuke to several of those bullet points.