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Can Ron Paul Beat Obama: News says No, People Say Yes!

Bernanke to Congress: We're Much Closer to Total Destruction Than You Think

Official Congressional budget estimates understate the peril of rising debt, Fed chair Ben Bernanke told the Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today.

Warning that our nation's fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don't confront them, they'll find themselves confronted by them.

From Bernanke's prepared remarks:

By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit. One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will come as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis.

Bernanke explained that the Congressional Budget Office's calculations miss an important reality. As the government's debt and deficits rise, the economy will slow down—an effect not taken into account by the CBO. So, for instance, when the CBO says that federal spending for health-care programs will roughly double as a percentage of GDP in the next 25 years, it is probably being too optimistic. If debt keeps, rising, GDP will be much lower than the CBO estimates—which will mean that health care spending will be a much larger percentage of the overall economy.

Here's Bernanke on the effect of rising debt:

Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult.

In short, the official estimates members of Congress hear from their budget office are under-estimating our dire economic predicament. If fiscal policy is not brought under control, things will be much, much worse.

RON PAUL WITH 8,500-PLUS VOTERS AT UC – BERKELEY SHATTERS TOWN HALL MEETING ATTENDANCE RECORD

UNPRECEDENTED CROWD OF SUPPORTERS AND UNDECIDED VOTERS GREETS DR. PAUL AT FINAL OF THREE CALIFORNIA EVENTS HELD DURING THIS VISIT

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul attracted a peculiar 8,500-plus voters to the third of three town hall meetings he held in California this week, this time at UC-Berkeley. In drawing such a huge crowd to Berkeley, the 12-term Congressman from Texas shattered his unrivaled town hall meeting attendance record.

At similar events held yesterday and Tuesday, respectively, Dr. Paul drew remarkable crowds of 6,200-plus voters to Cal State – Chico, and 6,000-plus at UCLA.

Ron Paul’s college campus town hall meeting took place at 7:00 p.m. PST at UC-Berkeley’s Memorial Glade, where he addressed the crowd from atop the steps of Doe Library, Berkeley, CA 94720.

Dr. Paul spoke about his platform of constitutionally-limited government, the enduring bonds between economic and civil liberties, and elements of his ‘Plan to Restore America,’ a fiscal blueprint the cuts Washington spending, shrinks the national debt, and reverses the federal government’s harmful growth and intrusiveness.

Ron Paul’s town hall meetings in California were organized by ‘Youth for Ron Paul’ (YFP). YFP, an initiative of the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential campaign, launched in September 2011, and since its inception, students nationwide have organized 591 chapters and recruited more than 53,600 people. To learn more about ‘Youth for Ron Paul,’ including how to sign-up and establish a local chapter, visit the YFP website by clicking here.

Photographs of Ron Paul’s UC – Berkeley town hall meeting with 8,500-plus voters follow.

MIND MASTERY