Wrong Paul
The SPP has a factsheet on its Web site that attempts to put to rest all the tall tales surrounding it. And if that isn't enough, the Washington Post's Fact Checker, Newsweek and the urban legend site Snopes.com all have previously debunked this particular bit of conspiracy-theorizing.
Of course, maybe they're all in on it, too.
About That Trillion Dollar Empire
In debates, Paul has claimed the U.S. spends a trillion dollars on a "foreign operation" each year to maintain an "empire":
Paul (Jan. 30): So, yes, this money should be spent back here at home. We have a $1 trillion foreign operation to operate our empire. That's where the money is. You can't keep borrowing from China. You can't keep printing the money.
View Ron PaulOne should be suspicious of this number right away. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects total spending for the current fiscal year to be about $2.9 trillion. President Bush's proposed fiscal 2009 budget would top $3 trillion for the first time. In fiscal 2008, a total of almost $1.8 trillion goes to mandatory spending on programs like Medicare and Social Security and to interest on the debt. That leaves just under $1.1 trillion in total discretionary spending, of which $572 billion goes to defense spending. Even if we called the entire defense budget an overseas cost of maintaining an empire – and then kicked in the entire $50.6 billion budget for the State Department and international programs – Paul is still $378 billion short.
When we asked the Paul campaign for some documentation for the $1 trillion claim, it directed us to an opinion piece by a fellow at the libertarian-leaning Independent Institute. The article argues that in 2006, the U.S. actually spent just under $1 trillion on defense. To arrive at that figure, the study included a number of items that one might generally not think of as defense spending, including the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, one-third of the funding for the FBI and half of NASA's funding. The numbers also include medical and retirement pay for veterans and a large portion of interest on the debt.
So it turns out that what Paul says is a trillion dollars for a "foreign operation" includes a lot of things that seem pretty domestic to us. For example:
* The entire U.S. Border Patrol
* Every military base in the United States and all the 1.4 million full-time military personnel (not just those serving overseas)
* Background checks for new immigrants
* Inspections of incoming cargo
* All airport security programs
* The issuing of U.S. passports
* The FBI's counter-terrorism unit
* 92 percent of the interest payments on the national debt
Loading Menu
Member Comments
Posted By: Nins @ 03/13/2008 9:23:14 PM
Comment: A blogger named Edson writes "Did the word Democrat really come from democracy?"
Here is a derivation of the words "Democrat" and "Republican."
The United States of America is a republic, that is to say, a Federal government in which the people are represented by elected officials from the various states. Before we were a republic, we were a democracy made up of 13 individual states that were not united. A democracy is a form of government where the individual citizens have the right to speak their minds and influence the political discourse. Democracy was named after Demosthenes, a citizen of ancient Greece with a speech impediment who practiced talking with his mouth full of pebbles to overcome his disability. Demosthenes later became a great political orator. This is where the Democrats derive their name.
The original Republicans were in favor of the states joining to form a republic (which is how that party got it's name). The original Democrats were opposed to this idea, they represented the individual states and were worried that the republic could gain too much power over the states, and through the exercise of tyranny, deny individuals their freedom. Trust me, people were pretty passionate about their liberty in those days, having just fought for independence from England. The Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were all hammered out by serious-minded men who sought to balance the need for individual freedom with our shared common cause, the needs for united strength and social order. Balancing the rights of the individual against the rights of the whole society is what America is all about. This is not only a great achievement for our nation, it is one of the greatest achievements of mankind. And we have, by and large, been true to our ideals over the past 227 years. The system of government we initially established, although needing occasional revisions, has stood the test of time.
Let's not forget where we started from, that impulse towards equality and freedom.
America is, with all it's faults, a meritocracy. Most of our founding fathers would never have had a voice in the 18th century English government they rebelled against, a monarchy where you had to be born into power. In America it was different. If you had intelligence, passion, ambition, drive, talent and a little luck, you could change the world.
This is the real secret to Obama's popularity, his ability to touch this archetype in our souls. This is why a white, conservative middle-aged female Republican like me wants to vote for him. He's got that blend of intelligence, passion, ambition, drive and talent. I'm giving him my vote to proffer him the last ingredient, a little luck, so I can watch our Republican Democracy in action, and once again change the world.
IN GOD WE TRUST
Posted By: johnsmith123456 @ 03/03/2008 5:47:20 PM
Comment: No matter what these so called "reliable sources" say, the American People will not go down without a fight!! Even if Ron Paul does not get nomination, more and more people are becoming aware of the ever growing control of the federal government and I for one will not be a part of a nation where its citizens are enslaved. People of the United States it is time to take hold of our Second Amendment and take back our nation by force. I will not fight for a war of OIL but I will give my life in defending this nation from the real terrorists "THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT".
Posted By: GuitarFreakStyle @ 02/26/2008 2:29:59 AM
Comment: Goto SPP.gov see for yourself. The Government's own website with the layed out details of the North American Union. The CFR Counsel of Foreign Relations are negotiating the merge. Secondly last year at the Canada Builderberg meeting it was the main discussion. The NAFTA superhighway is real Mr Miller. and Last but not least get this through your head.. RON PAUL IS NOT DROPPING OUT OF THE RACE. You are Posting false information. Newsweek is just as bad at posting fake Ron Paul info just Like Fox, and MSNBC cause you don't want people to know Dr. Ron Paul is the only true Candidate who's never flip flopped.