Ron Paul has released his Comprehensive Economic Revitalization Plan. This isn't a stimulus package like the others although it would stimulate the economy. The difference is that this Plan is based on sound economic principles and would have a lasting effect.
If you look at this plan, you'll also see that it's a <sarcasm> tad </sarcasm> more detailed than other plans and includes the actual bills that could be passed to implement the plan.
The economy is the #1 issue among voters and that's going to be even more true in November. It would probably be prudent to put someone into office that actually knows how our economy works.
This would not include McCain, obviously.
In the debate last night, each candidate was allowed to ask another candidate a question. McCain is the GOP front runner this week (it changes every week) and the economy is the #1 issue so Ron Paul asked McCain a question about a presidential committee that monitors the stock market. McCain was completely lost and told us all that he would consult his knitting circle to help him make economic decisions. I'll show you the clip but before I do, let me fill you in, in case like McCain, you've never heard of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets, aka Plunge Protection Team.
This is a group of people who are in control of the money in the US (a couple from the Fed, the Secretary of Treasury, Chairman of SEC, and a couple others) and when the stock market is in trouble, the president can call on them to "make things look better". Let me explain how it works using a hypothetical situation.
Let's say, for this example, that the US was on the brink of recession. Let's also say that one day, a Tuesday, the market drops by about 300 points. In this scenario, the stock market was okay on Monday because it was a holiday (let's pick MLK day just to make it interesting). When the stocks plunge, it could cause investors to panic and start selling everything off and the people telling us that there wasn't going to be a recession would have the illusion disappear. The president calls in his team and tells them to "make it better" so he can try to keep things from unraveling before he leaves office, hypothetically speaking of course. The team decides how good they want things to look and then the Fed sends money out to accounts around the world. Agents use that money to start buying stocks. As the stock market starts moving up, investors that were ready to sell yesterday start buying instead. Agents can then pull the money back out of the stock market. Band aid applied.
If you wanted a bit of icing for the cake, this boost to the stock market could happen on the same day that the President finalized an economic stimulus package. The Old Media shocked by a 600 point turnaround could kind of attribute the miraculous change to investor confidence induced by the stimulus package (even though checks won't be in the hands of tax payers until June). Even some of the newscasters would have a hard time making it believable.
What does McCain think of this team and how they operate?
Now, I don't think that the President of the United States has to know everything about everything but the clip is funny because instead of saying that he doesn't know what the Plunge Protection Team is, he goes on and on about surrounding himself with advisors. I guess we expect the President to have an answer, any answer, to any question. It was a no win situation for McCain because if he asked Ron Paul what the team was and what they did, Ron Paul would be able to showcase his understanding of economics.
You know this is one time when the other NeoCons were thankful that they weren't the front runner this week. Interestingly enough, none of them asked any questions of Ron Paul.
The question about the Plunge Protection Team probably went over the heads of many people watching the debate and most of them probably didn't bother to get off the couch and get online to see what Ron Paul was asking. Some did though and that may have been just as much the point as showing that Ron Paul knows about the economy and the president's powers and McCain does not.
A great deal of the Revolution is about teaching Americans things that they really should know. Americans have been sidetracked by TV and toys to the point that they have given away more power, authority, and trust to the government than they ever should have. "You take care of it, I'm busy," has been the attitude. It's going to be a real struggle getting that power back and it starts with education.
Ron Paul is not dropping out of the race despite how he's treated or maybe to spite how he's treated. He's going all the way to the national convention because the longer he stays in and the more candidates that drop out, the more people will hear his message. This isn't about getting a man into the White House. It's about teaching Americans who is running and ruining their country.
Hat tip to PTE Rick for the cartoon.