Ron Paul’s economic theories winning GOP converts — including Michele Bachmann
Tuesday, May 05, 2009 at 5:00 am
- 29 Comments
Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) (bachmann.house.gov, Flickr)
From time to time, a few members of Congress — as many as 10, sometimes fewer — gather with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) to eat lunch and hear from an author or expert whose opinion he thinks is worth promoting. They grab something to eat off of a deli plate. They take notes. They loosen up and ask questions.
“It’s not all that easy for the other members to get here,” said Paul in an interview with the Washington Independent, sitting just outside of his office before heading back to Texas for a few days. “It’s just that there’s so much competition. Once they get here and they get going, they all seem to enjoy it.”
A funny thing has started happening to Paul since his long-shot presidential campaign ended quietly in the summer of 2008. More Republicans have started listening to him. There are the media requests from Fox Business and talk radio where he’s given airtime to inveigh on sound money and macroeconomics. There is HR 1207 , the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, a bill that would launch an audit of the Federal Reserve System, and which has attracted 112 co-sponsors. When Paul introduced the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act just two years ago, no other members of Congress signed on.
And then there are the luncheons. The off-the-record talks have brought in speakers such as ex-CIA counterterrorism expert Michael Scheuer, libertarian investigative reporter James Bovard, iconoclastic terrorism scholar Robert Pape, and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. Perhaps the most influential guest has been Thomas Woods, a conservative scholar whose previous books include “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” and “Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush,” and whose current book “Meltdown” has inspired Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to question Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about economic fundamentals.
Paul’s unexpected and sudden clout with his fellow Republicans — even some of Paul’s staff have been surprised with the momentum of his “Audit the Fed” bill — come as the GOP engages in a tortured internal dialogue about its future. Since January, no small number of new coalitions have formed between current members of Congress, former advisors to President George W. Bush, and perennial party leaders such as former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) and former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.). Few of those conservatives, however, have spent much time criticizing the very foundations of America’s modern economic system and worrying about a 1929-style crash. Few of them had a drawer stuffed with off-brand economic ideas and forgotten libertarian texts, ready to explain what needed to be done. Ron Paul did, and as a result the ideas that made the Republican establishment irate enough to bounce him from a few primary debates are more popular than ever.
“There’s a growing recognition that the GOP is intellectually bankrupt and morally bankrupt,” explained Bovard. “Most of these Republican ‘rebranding’ efforts amount to a group of overpaid consultants getting detached from reality, but I’m glad that Paul is putting together these meetings. I hope the battle of ideas is changing.”
The success of Paul’s events, however under-the-radar, have been a pleasant surprise for the experts. “I’ll admit it,” said Thomas Woods. “I was dead wrong in my first reaction when I heard Ron talking about the Fed on the campaign trail. I said, ‘This is too complicated for most Americans. This isn’t going to galvanize people.’ I was wrong! He’s taken an issue that wasn’t even an issue, and he’s got a lot of Americans suddenly fascinated by the Fed, by monetary policy, by the Austrian business cycle theory,” economic ideas promoted by thinkers like Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard that blame central banks for painful business cycles.
Since his congressional comeback in 1996 — after a long stint as a Libertarian Party politician, and after only narrowly defeating a Democrat-turned-Republican that Newt Gingrich’s Republican leadership supported — Paul has maintained a small circle of allies in Congress. Some of them, like Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), are regular guests at the expert luncheons. But the most prominent new face is Bachmann, the rising conservative star who left C-Span and YouTube watchers scratching their heads with a grilling on the Constitution that seemed to puzzle Geithner. “What provision in the Constitution could you point to to give authority for the actions that have been taken by the Treasury since March of ‘08?” asked Bachmann during a hearing on March 24. “What in the Constitution could you point to to give authority to the Treasury’s extraordinary actions that have been taken?”
Bachmann “goes to these luncheons on a weekly basis,” said Debbee Keller, Bachmann’s press secretary. Keller noted that Bachmann was reading “Meltdown,” which argues that the New Deal failed and that the Federal Reserve is responsible for the current economic crisis. “Just as Austrian theory suggests,” wrote Woods, “the Fed’s mischief was responsible for the Great Depression.”
“I had a feeling she’d have some interest in the book,” said Woods, “because she asked some good questions. She was taking notes. She was asking if this or that point could be found in the book. I thought I recognized a sincere person who wanted knowledge, not the usual politician who couldn’t care less about what the truth is and just wanted to propagandize.”
Paul didn’t take credit for turning Bachmann on to Austrian theory (“He’ll give credit to everyone on the planet except himself,” laughed Woods) but said he was pleased to see more members of Congress delving into economics. “She’s very open to studying,” said Paul. “In fact, she’s been working really hard to get me back to Minneapolis. She says, ‘You’ll get such a great reception there!’”
Paul’s other influence has reached further across the aisle. Since he introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act of 2009, he has locked in the support of a majority of the Republican conference as well as 13 Democrats, for a bill that would mandate an “audit of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Federal reserve banks” before the end of 2010 to reveal how the board makes it decisions and moves around money. “As Congressman Paul pointed [out] many times,” said freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) after co-sponsoring the bill, “the Federal Reserve should have come clean with the American people a long time ago. The Fed is disbursing trillions of dollars and the taxpayers have a right to know who is getting it.”
It’s been a rapid rise for an idea that, only months ago, was located firmly in the political fringe. The John Birch Society, the far-right group that Paul has often defended from media criticism, was one of the first groups to encourage members to contact their members of Congress to support an audit of the Fed. Paul’s own coalition, the Campaign for Liberty, has engaged in a months-long grassroots campaign for the bill, something that Paul credited for a surge in support unlike anything he’s introduced in his second stint in Congress.
“People today are clamoring for transparency,” said Paul, “and there is more awareness of the Federal Reserve. I do think it has something to do with the focus we put on this during the campaign. It’s not so much that I’m personally converting people, it’s that we’ve got people at the grassroots converting their members of Congress.” Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), a conservative who is running for governor of Tennessee next year, has told Paul that his support for the Fed audit and his condemnation of a Missouri law enforcement policy to watch out for cars with Ron Paul bumper stickers get some of his loudest, most positive reactions on the campaign trail.
Paul has remained surprised and bemused at his new influence. “I was talking with one of the other Republicans on the floor,” he remembered, “one of the types that had been voting with Bush, for big spending and all of that. I asked him: ‘Are you voting with me now or am I voting with you?’ They just laugh. They know what the situation is.”
David Weigel is a politics reporter for the Washington Independent.
29 Comments
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 6:18 am
Bachmann’s question to Geitner didn’t so much “puzzle” him because it was so brilliant, but baffle him because it was so moronic. “What part of the constitution gave Geitner the power to do the things they were doing?” Well, the part of the constitution that says Congress can make laws and he has to follow those laws. To put it simpler, the part of the constitution that makes Bachmann’s existence possible.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 8:37 am
Alec, She has that video on her youtube site. She actually thinks she ‘got him’. She has no clue.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 8:38 am
Alec, clearly you are not very informed about how our democracy works or about the situation. Firstly, the assumption is not that the federal government can do whatever the hell it wants to unless deliberately outlawed. Our federal government is given very specific powers. So if Geitner can’t say under what grounds (either law or in the constitution itself) he acted, well, either he’s not very informed or he overstepped his mandate. In any case, this question is ALWAYS a good question to ask.
I hate Bachmann, but please, don’t slip into blind hatred. As always, our critical thinking skills are what sets us apart from the likes of Bachmann (most of the time), not what side of the aisle we’re on or how many petty insults we throw.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 8:54 am
Abolition of the Federal Reserve was Milton Friedman’s lifelong quest and it remains a favorite hobby horse of the John Birch Society. Apparently, the Birchites now have a new recruit in this Tom Woods, who has thrown away his professional credentials to win the admiration and accolades of people who are susceptible of conspiracy theories to explain things they do not understand. This is how ignorance and stupidity are propagated in our culture despite the best efforts of educators and schools to wipe it out.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 9:26 am
i can’t believe people on this thread think the Federal Reserve is constitutional… The Birchers are old news but the objects of their anxiety have been dispersed into a vast array of people over the Internet. Bachmann gets attention because she talks about things like monetary policy and “the weird stuff” that have resonance, but the terrible thing is that she isn’t very interested in accuracy, correcting herself when she’s wrong, or discreetly working hard on minor policies important to the district.
This article doesn’t get into how many RonPaul fans have been methodically seizing control of the basic party units in her congressional district. Part of her angle has been to straddle the fence with those people…
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 10:06 am
If you want to understand the full implications of this, go here and spend an afternoon digging:
Lew Rockwell has been close to Ron Paul throughout Paul’s political career and was his campaign manager. He is a pivitol figure in the Mises/Rothbard universe.
Actually, this is is the first good thing I’ve heard about Bachmann.
May she drink deep the waters of Libertarianism.
It should generate rethinking on everything from marijuana to gay marriage to torture, to civil liberties, to Bush’s wars.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 10:07 am
One of the reasons Ron Paul has this level of success is because he’s got an actual political base – right-wing Libertarians. The other recent Presidential candidate with a similar base was Mike Huckabee, who had right-wing Christian fundamentalists.
The thing that worries me about Paul and his movement is that his right-wing libertarian base includes overt fascists. The white supremacist website Stormfront is full of his supporters, and Paul rather famously took money from them and when challenged, kept it. So Paul not only has those supporters, he accepts their support.
Since Huckabee doesn’t appear to be doing anything politically, that makes Paul one of the very few Republicans with followers who are doing anything at all. So he is bringing actual political support, narrow though it is right now. That Bachmann is sitting at his knee is disturbing but not surprising, since the ‘red meat-Palin’ wing of the Republican party is that same militia-based fascist-tinged group.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 11:05 am
Nihilix, please. Every political party includes fringe members who don’t represent the base, even the Dems. Smearing Paul and his supporters because of an insignificant portion of his following is pretty low. I know Paul denounced the white supremacists over and over again, and IIRC he didn’t give back their money because he thought he might as well use it for something he agrees with instead of giving it back so they can spend it on something he doesn’t. I’d do the same thing.
Anyway, my main problem with your post remains the same as my problem with others — baseless smears. It makes you look petty. Engage ideas and issues on their merits, discuss the facts, and leave smears, guilt by association fallacies and name calling to the demagogues. I like to think that we Minnesotans are better than that.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 11:34 am
People like Paul and Bachman stand for something as opposed to most politicians and people, who simply fall for anything. they represent a search for truth, transparancy and do it with integrity.
That’s a far cry from most politicians these days who are beholden to power, influence, propaganda, personal agenda, bias, greed and what ever other means they can use to justify their actions. While Bachman has a little ways to go to overcome this political class, we can look towards these types of leaders to bring integrity to any debate and get away from baseless rhetoric that plagues politicians these days.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
I wouldn’t say Bachmann is above baseless rhetoric, and is certainly not anywhere near the same plain as Paul, who seems incapable of even addressing absurd issues invented by either political party or the media. Bachmann more often than not fans the flames, and she is very much a politico (see the majority of her media comments for reference). It is encouraging to learn that she can actually passionate about and sink her teeth into real issues, though, so I’m not above giving her kudos where kudos are due.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 12:29 pm
I don’t think people here truly understand the enormity of this.
Yes both Bachmann and Paul are right-wing.
However, Bachmann personifies what is known in Ron Paul circles as Red-State-Fascism. Paul and his supporters are ardently individualist, anti-state, and anti-war. In another time, they would have been called Anarchists, albeit of the Individualists variety.
Bachmann has been anything but an Individualist. She’s a unabashed Theocrat.
I can’t think of a reasonable equivilent in left-wing terms…perhaps if Al Franken started attending Socialist Worker Party meetings…
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
So much garbage being disseminated here. Paul supporters do tend to be individualist, do strongly support a constitutional republic of very limited scope as outlined by our constitution, and are anti-someone-else’s-war-agenda-that-we-get-billed-for certainly, but are very much pro strong national defense within the limits of a balanced budget. The anarchists among us are a tiny minority of Ayn Rand style anarchocapitalists, largely on the fringe. Most of us are Christians, as is Dr. Paul- a preacher’s son.
Nihilix sounds like a mnjac nutjob intent on stirring up fear to promote authoritarianism. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Mn’ans of all political persuasion against the breakdown of civil liberties and the rise of the local and federal nanny state. We deplore govt excess as the greatest threat to Americans today, both economically and politically, and strongly call for the unraveling of this act of organized crime against the Rule of Law.
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 5:40 pm
When you start to think about the money we surrender our time laboring for to define our own individual standard of living and quality of life is really a private, for profit business all of itself…..then the public should have the liberty to renegotiate the 1/3 ratio that is coercively imposed on us.
Why is coercive, involuntary servitude tolerated?!!!!!
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 9:04 pm
Realist. Please define Fascism for us. I’ll give you a hint. Look east to Washington dude. Fascism is a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
Please note this part:
regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism.
Ummm, hero man, that would be President Obama, Senator Reid, Speaker Pelosi and the rest of the libs who are ordering/blackmailing publicly owned companies practising in capitalism to shelter under the government wing. Conservatism does not practice that belief, hence Congresswoman Bachmann is unjustly accused by dopes such as yourself spewing tripe and showing what absolute ignorant imbeciles you really are.
Now check the last word… Racism. Is it not a form of racism to target unjustly private companies officials and force their resignations because they don’t march goose stepping with the current administation down Pennsylvania Avenue. Please dude. Educate yourself before you totally embarrass yourself, capice’?
Comment posted May 5, 2009 @ 9:14 pm
Rick
Small point here, but racism actually is related to an individual’s race, not his or her corporate executive status. I realize members of the confederate party aren’t too bright to being with, but before swinging that “ya’all such dummies” card, you may want to look in the mirror, or open a book.
Comment posted May 6, 2009 @ 5:08 am
Gary, please reread my post. I wrote a “form”. Racism can come in many forms. If one “group” actively targets another “group” that can be construed as a racist or subjective act, which is where I was going with this. You Sir are just arguing semantics to begin with. I also find it highly insultive and a showing of ignorance on your part when you automatically stereotype me and you have no clue who I am, where I’m from, my level of education or even what color I am. This goes hand in hand with my other posts. Folks in here love to stereotype and when they’re called out they get even meaner, more insultive and defensive. Thanks for making my point.
Comment posted May 6, 2009 @ 10:18 am
Rick,
Google is a remarkable tool. I recommend it. Even imbeciles can use it. Dude.
Red State Fascism:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/red-state-fascism.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/red-state-triumph.html
Ken…you have no clue who Ron Paul is, and what he actually stands for.
Comment posted May 7, 2009 @ 2:20 am
Realist, please re-read my post. Apparently you’re missing my point. Thank you for the insult by the way. It shows me where you’re coming from. Amazingly, yes I’m stereotyping, literally every Ron Paul supporter I’ve met seems to operate with unbridled passion for the guy, which somehow leads to mild derangement. Not an issue being very “pro Paul” but don’t let it cloud your vision. I do like a lot of his ideas, but I don’t understand your link of fascism and the right. As I explained above, it’s entirely the opposite, but it’s pointless discussing this with you since your blinders are on. I did check out Rockwell’s site (http://www.lewrockwell.com/) and did find it interesting, but nothing compelling and nothing I didn’t already know.
Comment posted May 7, 2009 @ 3:25 pm
Rick to Realist 05-May> …Congresswoman Bachmann is unjustly accused by dopes such as yourself spewing tripe and showing what absolute ignorant imbeciles you really are.
Rick to Realist 07-May>…Thank you for the insult by the way. It shows me where you’re coming from.
___
Trolls are a waste of time. Our discussion is finished.
Comment posted May 7, 2009 @ 8:22 pm
Realist… Nice diversionary tactic. Too bad you can’t “man up” and answer my rebuttals. Who’s the troll???
Comment posted May 9, 2009 @ 3:23 pm
I have mixed feelings about Bachmann but anything that puts heat on the fed is good. If we can repeal the Federal Reserve Act we take away the big spenders ability to borrow. No more war. No more federal mandates. No more stupid laws that go beyond the original constitution. The forced shrinking of government would be beautiful.
Comment posted May 11, 2009 @ 8:37 pm
I’m not a Minnesotan and I don’t know Bachmann from Santa Claus, but at least it sounds like she’s trying to learn. I am 53 and I didn’t stumble across Austrian economics until 2002, and I feel like I’m a pretty bright guy. Once I started reading, I realized that there was so much that I had merely taken for granted about the Fed and our government that was simply wrong. I disagree with Ron Paul on abortion, but he’s right on the money when it comes to the fed, to spending, and the war.
Comment posted May 11, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
nihilix smears … “The thing that worries me about Paul and his movement …”
It’s not Paul’s movement, it is the movement of the FOUNDING FATHERS. The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and today we intend to return our socialist/corporatist country back to the Constitution. It’s the Constitution that brings us together with freedom and liberty for all – even nasty people who race-bait.
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 9:23 am
I love reading these posts it helps me understand how a state could elect Al Franken!! Your brains must be permanently frozen!
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
Milton Friedman for most of his life spoke AGAINST the Austrian Economic Business Cycle. Friedman was loved by the right wing, because he believed in the permanent boom theory that most Keynsian Economists also believe him. Friedman thought Greenspan was Great.
Paul, Woods, Rockwell and the rest of the Austrian School Economics think Greenspans monetary was awful.
When are you progressive types going to get a clue — the Murray Rothbard and Milton Friedman we’re friendly rivals, but rivals.
Comment posted August 25, 2009 @ 11:39 am
People on the right and the left always mistake and underestimate supporters of Ron Paul because they are too worried about each other. That is why we have opportunities to educate people about the benefits of individual liberty.
Pingback posted August 25, 2009 @ 12:49 pm
[...] Bachmann too is now asking tough questions of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when he visits Capitol Hill [http://minnesotaindependent.com/34032/ron-paul-michele-bachmann] [...]
Pingback posted August 26, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
[...] Bachmann is a convert to the Ron Paul movement, sometimes attending the congressman’s weekly lunches. [...]
Pingback posted June 19, 2011 @ 6:55 am
[...] “…Bachmann “goes to these luncheons on a weekly basis,” said Debbee Keller, Bachmann’s press secretary. Keller noted that Bachmann was reading “Meltdown,” which argues that the New Deal failed and that the Federal Reserve is responsible for the current economic crisis. “Just as Austrian theory suggests,” wrote Woods, “the Fed’s mischief was responsible for the Great Depression.” [...]
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