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Sept. 28, 2023 - Ron Paul Liberty Report
25:05
'Ukraine First!' Foreign War Funding Is A Main Culprit In Government Shutdown

While each side is jockeying for position in political points, the fact remains that one of the main factors precipitating the coming government shutdown is the insistence by both parties to continue sending money we do not have to a losing war in Ukraine. Also today: McConnell claims sending more money to Ukraine is the "number one priority right now for the United States." Really?

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Debate Wrap-Up 00:02:48
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report.
With us today, Daniel McAdams, our co-host.
Daniel, good to see you this morning.
Good to see you, Dr. Paul.
Wasn't sure we'd have a show today.
Yeah, we had to improvise, but that's okay.
That's necessary because what we're anxious is our message to get out.
And hopefully we will be efficient enough that we will get a message out to our very loyal supporters.
But there are problems abreast of all this activity.
You know, well, you know, I have to confess, I watched almost all the debates last night.
Oh, my gosh.
Do I get a little star for that?
Yes.
I'll tell you what, it was grueling.
I couldn't last the whole time.
But I like to listen to some of the comments at the morning afterwards.
And there was a pundit on one of the reporters, and he was talking about it.
He said, well, this is what I told Chris Christie.
And he was giving advice about what he would advise to Christie what he did.
Any question he was asked, he was supposed to just say, well, yes, that's interesting, but I have to ask you a question about such and such.
And he said he would do that every time, but he insisted that Christie always bring up the only one subject, which was the most important in the history of the world, and that was the strike.
You know, the strike is pretty important because it symbolizes so much of what is wrong, you know, why they have strikes and why they need more money and there's inflation and the spending and all that.
But that wasn't it.
It was a strike and what you do.
So that was that effort.
But there was nobody there saying, you know, advising or nobody on the floor, you know, the debating floor to say, well, no, I can't answer that question directly.
There are some things that are much more important.
And I want to talk about funding, you know, for Ukraine in a serious manner and not fluff over it and find out when they're going to quit this nonsense.
And that's what probably would have been a much healthier debate than what we ended up with.
And also, of course, the shutdown is an important subject to bring up.
They talked a little bit about that.
But the shutdown, if they understood, the shutdown is just staying open is just temporary because of some illusion, you know, about the idea that our money, our dollar, and our empire is going to last forever and not willing to admit.
Shutdown Debacle 00:15:34
And they never brought up, do you know that we're in the middle of a bankruptcy, financial bankruptcy, the biggest in the history of the world?
Do you know that we have a bankruptcy, a moral bankruptcy too, and we have to do something about that?
And nobody seems to be worried about it, especially because they say, well, we're getting along okay, and we have forever because, you know, we've been an empire, we've been printing all this money, and everything's working out fine.
So, no, there was not a lot of insistence on that.
But I do believe that the American people are savvy enough to understand the relationship of those problems.
And this is something that is ongoing because that is the closing down of the government because they believe, or they at least imply, they closing down the government very superficially and very narrow-minded is the greatest threat in the history of the whole world.
It's like a nuclear attack is coming.
But financially, there are problems that are going to be very nuclear in nature.
But right now, it's in a narrow debate.
You know, some Republicans are having an honest effort to keep the government open and back and forth.
There's lots to do.
But without the admission of the problem, I'll tell you what, they're not going to solve it.
But one thing, Daniel, that has come out of this that I think you will hear about, and that is that who's going to be blamed for all this?
And unfortunately, the major blame is going to go to a couple dozen people, the House, the House Freedom Caucus.
They're going to get blamed for anybody messing around and wasting all this time by talking about freedom, honest money, getting rid of the Fed, bring our troops home.
No, that's not going to happen.
But the people who advocate that, they're going to try to bury all those individuals in the Congress, discredit them for being, you know, not with it.
And so I didn't get much reassurance, Daniel, when I was watching that program.
I think they're catching on.
Even though we do on occasion, we come up with an item and say, yeah, people are catching on a little bit, but maybe the transition from people waking up in the country and the average citizen and people who are suffering, it takes a while for the politician to wake up.
I think the Freedom Caucus is a representative of that group.
But unfortunately, I don't think they're going to have their way in this fight this week.
Yeah, Dr. Paul, I did not watch the debate.
I'm just completely not interested.
I watched a little bit of Tucker interviewing O'Reilly, which was interesting for a while.
But the one thing impressed upon me looking at this slate of candidates is how weak the Republican Party is and how if this is the best we can do, we should hang it up.
Because I think it was Jeff Tucker who tweeted out just how terrible the questions are, how terrible the answers are.
And I just responded, I hopefully this is the end of the old guard because there are some people upcoming in the party who, while not perfect, at least offer some hope for thinking outside of these same old tired ways and ridiculous platitudes.
Of course, no one was asked about the January 6th people either.
That would have been a good question.
But, you know, some of these people that we've been watching, Dr. Paul, you mentioned the Freedom Caucus.
Well, they've been busy.
Well, these other people have been, you know, basically airheads.
Yesterday on the floor, there was some interesting action.
There were some important amendments that were put up by some members, including Matt Gates and Andy Biggs and some others.
And those amendments were to strike funding for Ukraine from the defense bill, the defense appropriations bill.
And while some people may look at that and say, well, they failed, that is true.
They did fail.
They did not pass these.
Andy Biggs bill was 104 to 330.
And that was to strip the $300 million to train Ukrainian military from the bill.
And Matt Gates' bill would be barring all security assistance to Ukraine.
That failed by 93 to 339.
And again, while it's easy to say, ah, well, they failed, that's not the point.
The point is, you've got 104 Republicans.
There's no Democrats, I don't think, went against it.
104 Republicans said no more training, no more funding to train Ukraine.
And almost 100 Republicans said no more money to Ukraine.
That is a huge, a huge important thing.
I just saw even the Politico said each showed a sizable GOP opposition to continued aid for Ukraine.
This is how things are trending.
And even though they lost, again, Dr. Paul, something very, very encouraging in these votes.
You know, I don't know how they managed to get away with the blame.
There's a constitutional argument for blaming the House of Representatives.
They're supposed to originate these bills.
But in reality, in the practical world, it doesn't mean too much because we do know that the president has to sign the bill.
So he has a big participation in this process.
And the Senate, the same way, it has to get through the Senate too.
And that is always, but right now, it's done, I think, deliberately.
It's automatic that it's the House is blaming for everything.
And here it is, the people who are trying to do it, really stand their ground on this are the people who would like to save really a couple bucks trying to avoid a disaster or continue the disaster in Ukraine.
But it's still, it's down to the wire.
And then you have people, you know, making the comment, which is probably right.
No matter what they do in the House, no matter what they send to the Senate, it's dead on arrival.
We're not going to pay for it.
Oh, well, maybe we should talk to our Republicans in the Senate.
Maybe they'll help us out and restore order.
Right now, Daniel, I don't think that's likely to happen.
No, I don't think so.
It's a real mess.
You know, in this politico article, there were a couple of really interesting arguments by Republicans who opposed the Gates and Biggs amendment.
That means they want money to go to Ukraine.
And one of them was Steve Womack, Republican from Arkansas.
He said, we do not know, we do not yet know how the war will play out, but I do know that voting for this amendment will send the wrong message at the wrong time.
Okay.
And here's Ken Calvert.
He chairs the House panel that controls much of the Pentagon budget.
And he listen to this, Dr. Paul.
Here's his argument.
He argued, A, the bill steps up oversight of Ukraine funding.
Oh, that makes it okay then, right?
But listen to the second part.
He also noted that Pentagon funding doesn't go directly to Ukraine.
Instead, the money is used for training and to sign contract with U.S. defense companies to provide weapons to Ukraine.
So what Calvert is saying, Calvert, Republican California is saying, come on, guys, this isn't money for Ukraine.
This is money for our military-industrial complex.
Don't cheat them out of their money.
It's pretty amazing.
Yeah, you know, the military-industrial complex is a big deal, and they're playing a large role in this, but it really was.
The time I listened, but I didn't, I'll have to admit, I wasn't listening always very carefully.
But the military industrial complex, it wasn't an issue.
You know, just think of the power behind it.
And we sensed that power.
Of course, when I was in office and you were working with me, you could just sense it.
You could feel it.
And they're very, very powerful.
And that is where it really starts.
It's the system that has permitted this.
And then the financing of it.
How do you do it if you don't have any money?
Well, you just print the money.
I mean, if you talk about delusion, but the empire's been operating this way.
The military has been operating this way.
And a lot of pseudo-prosperity, fake prosperity has been operating this way.
And they think they're invincible.
And I would say that the one warning that I have tried to issue over a few years is that it's not going to last.
It's falling apart already.
And when it does, it's going to be a big deal.
And the way that happens is difficult to fully understand.
But I do know one thing that this mishmash that we're listening to and it drives you buggy is the thing that will not solve the problem because they're not talking about the real issues.
I mean, there's a true bankruptcy going on and they don't challenge the whole system.
They'll say, well, maybe we have to cut spending.
No, you can't cut spending.
Even Republicans.
Uh, they do.
There's a lot of good Republicans say we should cut taxes and on occasion that gets passed and that gives a little boost, but it never solves the problems of deficits, you know.
It just gives them a little encouragement.
It gives them blind encouragement to continue and to consent to, to continue to satisfy the military industrial complex.
And it used to be.
They were all Republican.
But the problem now, right now, is universal because you know those Democrats know they, their friends are in the military industrial complex.
There it's, it's the Freedom Caucuses start trying to wake people up and saying even military spending you can cut.
So uh it's, it is a, it's a, it's a bad deal for the American people.
And I would say it was uh, and there was no serious attempt last night, it was all the the day.
The debate that the pseudo debate they had, as far as i'm concerned, was all fluff.
Yeah, there are a couple of issues about passing these bills and avoiding the shutdown.
Dr Paul, first of all, it can't, it cannot be avoided at this point.
Uh, first of all, Mccarthy can't, cannot pass the defense bill.
Um, on the floor, they're trying to do it today and it won't pass.
Uh because uh, it'll have.
It has Ukraine money in it and uh, first of all, as you know, dr Paul, the Democrats will vote against this defense spending bill as almost a matter of course, because it contains some things they don't like.
It's almost a procedural vote for the minority party to vote against the majority party's uh appropriations bill, so he's lost all the Democrats and, with this Ukraine money in, he will lose enough Republicans that it will not pass.
And the other thing is that they're talking about a stopgap vote.
We could talk about this later, but the stopgap vote, the uh continuing resolution, also won't pass because the Senate insists on having six billion dollars for Ukraine in it and it will be very difficult to have that pass.
But um, you mentioned that things were uh, I think you said, coming apart or something like this.
Well, one of the things we wanted to talk about today that is coming apart uh is uh Mitch Mcconnell, the Senate minority leader, and there's a couple of quotes that he's had out lately that are basically so out of touch with the thinking of even the mainstream Republican party that it's almost comical.
I'm going to throw one of the first ones out at you, dr Paul.
So there's this massive uh crisis in Dc about spit, about the government's shutdown, about spending about trillions of dollars in debt.
And here's what Mcconnell said.
He said providing assistance to the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians.
That's the number one priority for the United States right now, According to most Republicans, so McConnell thinks that is our number one priority, money to Ukraine to kill Russians.
The real irony of this is that, you know, there was a crisis with the Soviets for a long time in the Cold War, and it was serious.
We had missiles in Cuba and all these things.
But when the Cold War ended, I was encouraged.
A lot of others, we were expecting to have a peace dividend, and there was a partial dividend.
There was more economic exchange with Russia.
But then people got bored with all that.
And the military-industrial complex, I guess, needed some more excuses.
So, this whole thing that McConnell's complaint about, he was a participant in creating it.
I mean, we were doing pretty well with the Russians.
That's why there has been investments.
But then, though, we had to have an enemy, have an enemy to destroy.
And the real tragedy is even now when you can finally find somebody, and there are some of the candidates for president right now are saying, Well, Russia, we need a different policy for Russia, but we need to take all that money and fight China.
You know, and that see it makes no sense to me and anybody that had any understanding of the long-term destructiveness of a policy like this and the destruction of the monetary system.
And the involvement of the dollar in the world economy is bigger than any other currency ever was in the past.
The globalism is alive and not well.
It's alive, but it is not going to last.
And it's something very, very serious.
And these monsters destroyed, like McConnell wants to do.
People ought to point out, well, maybe you had something to do with creating this mess.
And you create the mess, then you have to fight the mess.
It's sort of like when you have economic problems, you create economic problems and poverty.
Oh, we have to have another program.
You know, it feeds on itself.
And so someday we have to have that reverse and liberty feeding on itself and see the shrinkage of big government and the abuse of our freedoms.
Well, the other couple of things that McConnell said really revealed some deep cynicism.
I would say a lack of humanity because McConnell is essentially saying he's not saying that we have to prop up Ukraine because it's in our national interest.
He's not saying that it's very important for the United States, our strategic position in the world.
Here's one of the other things he said.
He said, as a result of the weapons transfers we've made to Ukraine, we are reindustrializing our base here in the United States.
And we're employing a significant number of Americans in this country, building our industrial base again.
So a half a million Ukrainian soldiers have to die so that the Americans, so that the United States can reindustrialize, can build up its industrial base and create jobs for America.
I don't know how, I don't know if you realize how horrific that really sounds.
Reindustrializing at Ukraine's Expense 00:06:42
And here's another one, an example of his lack of humanity.
He said, American support for Ukraine is not charity.
It's in our own direct interest, not least because degrading Russia helps deter China.
So we are sacrificing half a million Ukrainians because we want to degrade Russia and deter China, not because we want to protect the United States of America.
I mean, that should be carved in a wall somewhere as really the Low point than the idea of the American military empire because it's just absolutely disgusting.
There are some that are arguing that the people promoting the war have changed their tune and that they're conceding that the war is lost and they're making preparation and that NATO and the United States has to admit the truth that the war efforts have led to too much trouble.
And their argument for the end of this war occurring is the fact that everybody's lining up to go to Ukraine and set up a new business or invest more money.
And they've done this so many times.
They blow up a country, they ruin it, and then they suppress them and put them all into poverty.
And then they say, oh, we're going to come in here and build a plant.
There's going to be a job and we'll have more.
See, that way they believe that they've used the military to maintain their empire, but now the empire is getting a little shaky and people getting a little annoyed.
Well, we'll be have we'll have this philanthropic type of empire building and go over there and make money on it.
So some of them are planning on making a lot of money.
And yet I think the financial situation is much more powerful than some of these economic worldwide planners.
So I think that will end in spite of all these efforts that they had this perpetual machine, go to war and then go to worldwide globalism.
No, I think there's still a spirit of liberty left.
We just need to energize it.
Well, speaking of making a profit on the destruction of these countries, I don't know if you noticed, but a couple of days ago, I think it was over the weekend, the Clinton Global Initiative had a meeting and they were talking about all the wonderful money that's going to be available to companies rebuilding Ukraine after it's been destroyed with U.S. weapons and European weapons.
So the Clintons are going to make a couple dollars on it as well.
They just won't go away, Dr. Paul.
But I guess the last thing we want to talk about it a little bit, and we talked about it for most of the show, is what to expect coming up.
Now, they're trying to pass, I think, four appropriate bills today.
Very unlikely they'll pass.
This is Thursday.
Maybe they'll be in session tomorrow, but it doesn't look like they will have anything in line, a CR or regular order passing of the appropriations bills before the fiscal year runs out.
So I don't know, Dr. Paul, what do you think the odds are that we're going to have a shutdown?
Maybe 90%, 99%?
Right now, it looks like there will be, but the big thing about this is they're going to try to make it a much bigger political event.
It'll be a more political event than an ability to really change things because the shutdown is fictitious.
Nobody loses anything.
And I always hear, what was the example that the people in Ukraine aren't going to lose?
We keep sending money over there and nobody comes up short.
You know, we take care of everybody.
I mean, the whole thing is nuts.
I mean, it just doesn't make any sense.
I was out doing a little shopping yesterday.
A young lady came up to me.
We were talking a little bit.
And she was pretty well informed.
And when we were talking about what we're talking about now, I said, I asked her, well, how did you arrange it?
How did you arrive at this?
She said, it's just common sense, you know.
And that is true.
That's why I think we do.
Maybe I argue that we who are in the freedom movement, that we're not good salesmen because we don't do a better job because it's a wonderful philosophy and it's appealing to a cross-board political system because it's common sense.
And so often we do run into people more so now than ever where we have, you know, progressives going both ways, but I tell you what, there's others that are waking up to this.
And but it's with grave danger, although I'm an optimist on the long run and we can rebuild because the ideas will drive us that way.
But on the short run, there's still a bill to pay.
And that's why this is so difficult.
The bill is being paid.
And there's a few people waking up and putting a monkey wrench into the shenanigans of the interventionists and the big government people.
So that's the difference.
But guess what?
I believe the market wins out over government interventionism because the government tried to prop up and lie to everybody about a gold center, but the market finally said, you're a bunch of liars.
Gold cannot be rellars cannot be redeemed at $35 an ounce.
The market overwhelmed and we still have chaos there.
But that has to eventually lead to sound money and an emphasis on limited government and personal liberty.
Dr. Paul, I'm going to close out just by saying it says everything about the state of the U.S. right now, that the entire government is going to shut down because they refuse to take $6 billion for Ukraine out of the Senate bill.
Over to you, Dr. Paul.
Yes, I'm afraid that's going to be the case.
There will be it.
It'll make the problems much worse.
And that will create a greater demand for more bailouts.
So it always bugs me when people are suffering from inflation and they were the ones who were the big champions of spending either domestically or internationally on wars.
And then they come in and they say, well, I can't pay my bills.
We're having problems and economies.
We need more money.
Not realizing they just want to feed the fire of the very things they endorse that created this monster.
I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report.
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