The Freedom Bulletin

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Ron Paul took a break from the campaign trail this week to introduce and speak on the House floor about a piece of legislation to repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This provision allows the government to indefinitely detain, without trial, people who allegedly “substantially supported al Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States.” President Obama wrote in a signing statement that he would not use this law against U.S. citizens, but the bill’s vague language makes it possible that it could indeed be used against U.S. citizens one day.

Paul said that Section 1021 “provides for the possibility of the U.S. military acting as a kind of police force on U.S. soil, apprehending terror suspects, including Americans, and whisking them off to an undisclosed location indefinitely … Sadly, too many of my colleagues are too willing to undermine our constitution to support such outrageous legislation.”

Thank you Congressman Paul for fighting for liberty both on in the presidential campaign and in Congress!

To my surprise and sadness, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) announced today that he will not be running for re-election in 2012. Paul wants to focus all his attention on his presidential campaign, and also cited an unfavorable redistricting plan. No matter the outcome of the 2012 election, Congress will be losing its bravest advocate for liberty and individual rights.

More reporting and reactions from the The Facts, Daily Paul, and Humble Libertarian.

Finally, Chuckduck764 at the Daily Paul expressed his thanks to Congressman Paul better than I could in this wonderful blog post. Thank you, Dr. Paul, and hopefully you’ll be moving on from the House to the White House!

The new members of Congress were sworn in today, including the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH). Before she handed over the gavel, former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave a fairly classy speech, in which she complimented Boehner and congratulated him and the new Republican majority. Boehner’s speech (below), although not the most exciting I’ve ever heard, was short, sweet, and straightforward.

The representatives will read the Constitution aloud tomorrow, which I think is pretty cool.

Also, some of my favorite politicians were on the news to weigh in with their ideas for the new Congress:

Ron and Rand Paul discussed the national debt in a great interview with George Stephanopoulos of Good Morning America.

The father-son duo were also on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) talked about spending and the health non-reform bill on the Dylan Ratigan Show.

I hope that this new Republican majority can get some good things done!

More coverage of today’s events from the usual sources: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and AP.

Congress seems like it’s actually been getting some things done lately. In addition to the Senate repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell today, both houses recently passed, and President Obama signed, a compromise bill to both cut taxes and extend unemployment benefits. While anything that involves tax cuts is a good thing, it’s disturbing that neither Congress or Obama is taking any serious measures to reduce our national debt.

Here are the main points of the tax deal:

• The “Bush tax cuts” will be extended for 2 years.
• Unemployment benefits will be extended for 13 months.
• Workers who make $106,800 or less will pay 4.2% of their wages to Social Security instead of 6.2%.
• The estate tax will continue, but at a lower level.

The bill has some of what Republicans want (lower taxes) and some of what Democrats want (free stuff for people), but anyone with common sense can see that these are not a good combination when it comes to long-term financial success. As W.E. Messamore explains, cutting taxes without cutting spending will eventually result in higher taxes in the future. Compromise is often a good thing, but compromises between Republicans and Democrats have resulted in more spending without more taxes, and therefore a national debt of $13 trillion and counting. I’m no supporter of raising taxes – which I think are way too high to begin with – so I think that the just way to pay down the national debt would be to leave taxes as they are and significantly cut spending. Politicians need to be brave enough to make the unpopular choices that will put our country on the right financial path.

For the first time since current budget rules were enacted in 1974, Congress will not pass a budget blueprint this year. “It isn’t possible to debate and pass a realistic, long-term budget until we’ve considered the bipartisan commission’s deficit-reduction plan, which is expected in December,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Instead, Congress plans to pass a “budget enforcement resolution,” which only concerns next year’s budget instead of planning for the next five to ten years, as a budget blueprint would.

I don’t know about you, but to me, this doesn’t look like a good sign for fiscal responsibility. Minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) seems to agree.