Posted by
john prange on Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:53:01 PM
While our descent from liberty to servitude proceeds at an ever-quickening pace, perhaps we can ascertain the crux of the problem by harkening back to the final days of the 2008 Presidential campaign.
Sharing the headlines with the candidates at the time was the bill to use $700 billion of the people's money to bail out corrupt, financially irresponsible banks. This bill had been defeated once in Congress, due to overwhelming bipartisan opposition by millions of people who took the time to let their congressmen know how they felt. Chief promoter of the bill, Henry Paulsen, U.S. Treasurer and former head of banking giant Goldman-Sachs, continued to twist congressional arms, and the bill quickly resurfaced, this time laden with $100 billion of extra fat to entice our more piggish representatives. At this point, many of us naively and idealistically expected one if not both of the presidential candidates to take the side of the people. Neither Obama nor McCain did.
Instead, both candidates gave nearly identical speeches -- it would probably be more accurate to say they read scripts -- in support of the bill, which passed the second time around. I had the distinct impression that the talking points on this subject had been provided to the candidates, as well as to Congress, by someone in Henry Paulsen's office, most likely written by someone in the Goldman-Sachs public relations department. All supporters of this heist, including Obama and McCain, were using the same catch phrases and buzz words -- "free up the credit markets . . . student loans . . . auto loans . . . loans to businesses so they can meet their payrolls, blah, blah, blah . . ." In other words, it was vitally important that America maintain its addiction to borrowed money.
Further evidence that the banking community is in control of our government came when President Obama appointed a Paulsen accomplice in the bank "bailout," Timothy Geithner, to head the so-called new and improved administration's Treasury Department. That is not change. Real change would mean putting someone in Treasury who has more allegiance to the people who supply the Treasury with money than those who take it.
Though we are losing money and liberty to this new government of the bankers, by the bankers, and for the bankers, we are gaining a deeper understanding of what Thomas Jefferson meant when he warned that "banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies."
Today our most powerful banking institution, and thus the biggest threat to our liberty, is the Federal Reserve, created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which was most likely passed by congressmen who received large donations from bankers. Congressman Charles A. Lindbergh, Sr., father of the famous pilot, said, "When the President signs this Act, the invisible government by the money power will be legalized."
Of all the Republicans and Democrats who ran for President in 2007-2008, only one, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, understood the relationship between our Federal Reserve ("Fedzilla," as some call it) money system and America's financial crisis. Recently he introduced a bill, HR 833, which would repeal the Federal Reserve Act and abolish the Federal Reserve.
"From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies, to the current economic crisis caused by
the housing bubble," Paul said, "every economic downturn suffered by this country over the past century can be
traced to Federal Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the economy
with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an artificial 'boom' followed by a
recession or depression when the Fed-created bubble bursts."
More than our pocketbooks and retirement accounts are threatened by the current economic crisis. Powerful people in powerful places are using this occasion to tranfer power from the people to an elite ruling class who feel they are more qualified to spend our money than we are. One man, Ron Paul, is trying to transfer power back to the people.
"The borrower is servant to the lender," as it says in the Book of Proverbs. The bankers and their allies in Congress seem determined to make servants of us all. Let them know that you prefer liberty. Let them know that you support HR 833.