From White House Office of Management and Budget
In the fiscal year 2009, which just ended Oct. 1, the U.S. government wasted $98 billion on “improper payments.” That’s their euphemism for money flushed down the toilet due to fraud, misdirected reimbursements, duplicate payments or money that was simply lost — not lost as in, “I lost money on that stock,” but lost as in, “I had a million dollars and now I don’t know where it is.”
Isocrates, 436-338 B.C., Ideas on Liberty, Sept. 1955, P66
Virtue is not advanced by written laws but by the habits of everyday life; for the majority of men tend to assimilate the manners and morals amid which they have been reared. Furthermore, they held that where there is a multitude of specific laws, it is a sign that the state is badly governed; for it is in the attempt to build up dikes against the spread of crime that men in such a state feel constrained to multiply the laws. Those who are rightly governed, on the other hand, do not need to fill their porticoes with written statues, but only to cherish justice in their souls; for it is not with legislation, but by morals, that states are well directed, since men who are badly reared will venture to transgress even laws which are drawn up with minute exactness, whereas those who are well brought up will be willing to respect even a simple code.
One need look only at the proliferation of laws governing roads and driving that have been enacted since the days of unlicensed horsemen as an example of how corrupt and overreaching our government has become.
How many laws do we really need? And why do the legislators and voters keep asking for more?
Ron Paul on H1N1 Emergency
HR1207 — Audit the Fed — Gutted by Politician Sitting in Bank’s Pocket
From the 5-Minute Forecast:
"There's nothing left, it's been gutted," Ron Paul laments, offering our last bit today. Unfortunately, he’s referring to HR1207, the “Audit the Fed” bill he’s been championing this year. According to Paul, Mel Watt (chairman of the House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology) took out “just about everything” when preparing the bill for House vote. According to Bloomberg, Paul believes the bill “has been stripped of provisions that would remove Fed exemptions from audits of transactions with foreign central banks, monetary policy deliberations, transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee and communications between the Board, the reserve banks and staff.”
Paul says he plans on drafting an amendment to the bill that would restore the original language… but until further notice, the “Audit the Fed” outlook isn’t pretty.
In what can only be a cosmic coincidence, we note that Mel Watt is a North Carolina representative. Specifically, he represents District 12… which just so happens to be the HQ for Bank of America, the biggest beneficiary of opaque Federal Reserve lending practices. Hey just for kicks, lets look at the top donors for Watt’s 2008 re-election, as listed on his own Web site:
1 Wachovia Corp.
2 American Bankers Assn.
3 Bank of America
4 American ExpressWhat are the odds?
Heh, and now that we’ve inched our 5 Min. toes outside the boundary of political correctness, why not cross the line altogether… Is this the most disgustingly gerrymandered district you’ve ever seen?
The Federal Reserve System was founded through secrecy and deception, and it relies on secrecy and deception to survive. If Ron Paul can amend his bill and re-add everything Mel Watt took out, we may just get a glimpse at what they've been doing to debase our currency by 95% since it was solid gold.