Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., had the most conservative voting record in 2008 according to the American Conservative Union (ACU), and was a “taxpayer hero” according to the National Taxpayer’s Union (NTU), but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says his 2008 record was less pro-business than Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.

Similarly, Texas libertarian GOPer Rep. Ron Paul—the most steadfast congressional opponent of regulation, taxation, and any sort of government intervention in business—scored lower than 90% of Democrats last year on the Chamber’s scorecard.

Liberal Democrats often accuse conservative Republicans of being pawns for Big Business, but the 2008 scorecard for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—the largest lobbying organization in the country and the official Washington voice of business—provides convincing evidence to the contrary. In fact, the policy agenda of big business can be very different from that of limited-government conservatives and libertarians.

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Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) yet again went against the grain in Congress when he stood up in the House and argued against a proposal that would tax 90 percent of AIG executive bonuses, saying that it was a “disgrace,” a “distraction” and an “outrage” that undermined the Constitution.

“I rise in opposition to this rule and the bill because of the problem — because of the lack of need for this and the disgrace that this has brought upon us,” Paul said. “Yesterday, for instance, the Federal Reserve met and they came out and they announced that they would create new money to the tune of $1.25 trillion.”

Paul, a dark horse Republican candidate for president in 2008 who still enjoys considerable popularity with a base of hardcore supporters, noted that the value of the dollar went down significantly after that announcement by the Fed.

“Today…on emergency legislation, we’re going to deal with $165 million of bonuses, which obviously shouldn’t have never been given, but who’s responsible for this?” Paul said. “It’s the Congress and the president who signed this [$787 billion stimulus bill that allowed the bonuses to go forward]. So this is a distraction, this is an outrage.”

He chided his fellow House members who were considering supporting the new tax legislation for only caring about the millions in bonuses when they should be concerned with the trillions in deficits the country is facing.

“So everybody can go home that voted for this bill, say, ‘Look, I’m clamping [down] on this $165 million but I don’t care about the previous $5 trillion the Fed created and the $1.25 trillion they created yesterday,’” he said. “Think of the loss of purchasing power in less than 24 hours.”

Paul urged his House members to support his bill, H.R. 1207, which would change the way the Federal Reserve is audited.

“Let’s quit appropriating funds in an unconstitutional manner. Let’s quit bankrupting this country,” Paul said. “The Fed is not even required to answer any questions. So it’s about time we have an open book about the Federal Reserve and solve some of these problems.”

House passes tax bill Thursday afternoon

Despite the protestations of Paul and a few others, the House voted overwhelmingly to pass the bonus tax legislation Thursday afternoon.

Roll Call reports the vote was 328-93 to impose a 90 percent tax on employee bonuses at companies that received federal bailout funds.

“While the vote was bipartisan, the GOP was split on the bill, with Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) voting against it and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) voting in favor of it,” reported Roll Call.

Rep. Ron Paul, in a speech delivered to an enthusiastic crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference, said conservatives “have to be devoted to and willing to stand by and defend the Constitution, and have the position that it is absolutely necessary to get rid of the Federal Reserve system.”

Paul, who ran for president in 2008 championing the Constitution, talked about his bill seeking to abolish the Federal Reserve, which he said is getting bipartisan support in the Congress.
“We’ve gotten ourselves in a mess because the conservative movement, which was designed to bring us back to our roots of limited government, smaller government and more individual liberty, hasn’t happened,” said Paul, R-Texas.

Paul believes that in many ways, the conservative movement has had a struggle defining what and who a true conservative really is.

“After finally getting the House, Senate and White House in 2000, what did we do? We doubled the size of the Department of Education. I thought we were supposed to get rid of the Department of Education!” Paul said.

“Now, since we did not do the job we were supposed to do, the opposition has taken over, and they’re going to double and triple and quadruple spending. Believe me, we’re in serious trouble,” he warned.

“In the past 12 months, our national debt went up $1.5 trillion, and next year it’s going to be more. Young people know what they are getting. They know they are getting a bad deal. They’re getting nothing but debt.

“We’re in an atmosphere now where if we can accept the idea that the taxpayers can bail out the banks and big business, there is nothing that can’t be funded. Everything will be appropriated. There will be no cuts.

“Our financial system has come unglued, but the next shoe to drop will be the disintegration of the dollar. We as conservatives and believers in limited government have a tough task to restrain big spenders before that happens because, when that happens, what is threatened is our liberty.”
Paul said the main purpose of a government in a free society should be the preservation of liberty.
“Fortunately, we live in a country that knew something about that and emphasized that in our early years, but we have forgotten it and lost our confidence.”

Paul said conservatives today are not determined to present the case for liberty.

“We have chopped liberty up into pieces,” he explained. “We have economic liberty, we have social liberty, and we have a foreign policy that is built on total fallacies. We have to put this all back together again and, fortunately, we have something that can pull it back together, and that is the understanding of the Founding Fathers that put it in our Constitution.”

“If we followed the rules and did the job right, we wouldn’t have a welfare state.”
Paul said the job ahead for conservatives is “to present this case and still prove that we are the humanitarians. The liberal do-gooders and the big spenders who say, ‘We’re going to give a free house to everybody, free medical care to everybody, free education’ – that’s preposterous.

“If you care about your fellow man, there is only one way you can maximize prosperity and freedom, and that is through the rule of law and making sure that everybody understands that liberty is an individual thing and not a collective right.”

By PETER GUINTA

State Republicans are trying to thwart a move by Ron Paul supporters to take over the party in St. Johns County and the state.

This week, the Republicans sent warning letters to 10 state chapters of the Republican Liberty Caucus — an organization within the party that promotes an agenda much the same as Ron Paul libertarians. The letter warned the caucus the law doesn’t allow them to use the word “Republican” in its name without permission.

Some local Republicans see the caucus as seeking control of their party and then opposing Sen. John McCain, who they see as too liberal. This is similar to what is playing out on the national stage, as mainstream Republicans are losing western support for McCain to libertarians.

This week, the caucus here vowed a strong court fight to keep its name.

“We’re Republicans, too,” state caucus chairwoman Lisa Bullion said. “We’re Republican activists within the party. We feel we’re operating under the law.”

William Westmiller of Thousand Oaks, Calif., chairman of the national Republican Liberty Caucus, said no other caucus has this problem.

“To my knowledge, this type of law only exists in Florida. Our strategy has always been to work in a civil and cooperative fashion within the Republican Party,” he said.

St. Johns County libertarians joined the Republican Party after Paul, a Texas congressman and former Libertarian Party candidate, polled only single digit percentages in nearly all states. They say the mainstream party has lost its conservative base.

Northeast Florida’s Republican Liberty Caucus president, Will Pitts, a St. Johns County resident and Jacksonville businessman, said taking away their name is “un-American. We have every right to use that name.”

Bob Veit, president of St. Johns County Republican Club, said, “They’re generally nice people, but also are zealots. They would marginalize other Republicans, moderate and conservative. This augurs no good for the party in the long term.”

Two caucus members — John Charles Stevens and Wynona Mayer — are running Aug. 26 for state committeeman and state committeewoman, seeking to oust mainstream incumbents Jon Woodard and Becky Reichenberg.

Veit said Woodard and Reichenberg had “dedicated themselves to victory in November for the Republican slate.”

State committee seats make and change Republican strategy. The caucus leadership wants to inch ahead and get more members elected to such posts.

The libertarian agenda now assumed by the caucus seems plucked directly from an earlier Republican playbook.

It seeks more individual liberty, minimal government intrusion, fiscal responsibility, opposition to welfare and entitlements, no foreign aid, lower taxes, state sovereignty, elimination of federal agencies duplicated at the state level, less regulation and a strong national defense with fewer military bases abroad.

Many Republicans believe those aims are the heart of their party.

But Veit said he doesn’t like their tactics, and mainstream Republicans have filed grievances to Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer, reporting anti-Republican comments by caucus members.

Stevens reportedly said “bashing the (Republican) party did nothing to advance (our) agenda,” and added that “a chunk of ‘the base’ (of Republican voters) can be turned our way.”

He also discussed obstacles the caucus faced if it tried to take over the Democratic Party or third parties.

Veit said said Stevens and Mayer had sworn to support McCain.

“They obviously do not take their oath seriously because they both are actively trying to torpedo McCain’s candidacy as evidenced by their stated intentions to demonstrate against McCain at the National Convention in Minneapolis. I want Republicans to know what’s happening.”

Bullion said vocal dissenters like Stevens don’t speak for the caucus. Stevens later said many of the comments attributed to him were taken out of context.

“We’re a little more expressive and passionate (than other party members), kind of in your face,” Stevens said. “I don’t believe (the state party) has legal grounds (to prevail in a lawsuit).”

Still, some local Republicans don’t want a divided party. For example, Joe Moody of Ponte Vedra Beach, a lifelong Republican voter, doesn’t belong to the caucus and hadn’t met Veit.

“(But) if he’s a true conservative Republican, I will support him with vigor. If he is not, I won’t. If the Republican Party would move back to its base, it would be more cohesive and more effective getting Republicans out to vote.”

Another Republican voter, Robert Champion, president of the Ponte Vedra Beach Republican Club and a member of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee, said the caucus has good ideas, one being low taxes.

“(But) I think their approach is wrong,” Champion said. “They might get a victory for (themselves) at the cost of the election. John McCain is much more of a Republican than Barack Obama. They’d be better off getting behind McCain. They could be an election spoiler.”

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