1) Eliminating the IRS - this would be awesome, no doubt, but the consequences would be - interest rates soar - after all, if there is no money to pay the interest on the bonds, why would foreign holders continue to hold our debt?.....the stock market declines nicely, perhaps 30-40% (maybe more) because the ability for our government to issue debt is vital for our economy....the dollar plummets further, perhaps to $4/euro, why? well when those foreign debt holders dump our bonds they will sell dollars and buy back their currency. 2) the elimination of the federal reserve......with no lender of last resort who would prevent runs on our banks when there is a mad rush to convert meaningless paper assets to gold 3) putting us back on the gold standard would cause mass inflation while the economy plunges into recession because no money to back our bonds and no fed to rescue the banks, everything of real value rises - gold, wheat , oil.... no way he could do it even 2 termsshhh. don't tell the ron paul supporters that congress would have to write these changes into law FIRST, then he would pass them.as for the recession remark - recessions come and go, and when we finally came out from these reforms it would be a decade later (even considering the american people wouldn't throw him out, and stick to the plan) when we emerged from a depression that would make the great depression feel like the internet bubble.on the plus side............. once the above happens - it will make american rediculously cheap. the U.S. will replace china as the manufacturing hub of the world, and the economy will be based on "sound" money...............considering americans have the stomach to loose almost everything - we will become the top shelf 3rd world economy in the world, after about 10 years of mass poverty.thomas S - i know he only goes after the cause - i'm asking you to consider the effects, because he doesn't talk about them, nor does anybody else.in theory - i agree with him - but he talks about abolishing the IRS within the first week of his administration. oh yeah, how many of you ron paul supporters are willing to vote for a tom delay type of representative? cause thats what it would take for these reforms to be passed in the first place...........these reforms would take a generation to complete without serious damage to our economy - you talking about a herion, alcohol, and crack addict going gold turkey one day and waking up ready to win the boston marathon the next day.

It does not matter to them. They will have their weed.

In case you haven't noticed we are entering a global recession already, the question is do we want to come out on the other side with a strong Gold Based currency, or just wait until the dollar falls below the peso ?

Nah...Ron Paul supporters having to think critically, in real world terms? Naaaah...Never happen.This guy voted against relief funding for victims of Hurricane Rita in his own district...then took credit for its passage.

Most of 'em will never notice.

You may not have noticed but the President has very little power without the cooperation of the Congress.

The IRS violates the law in several ways. There is no adequate justification for allowing a government to violate the law. Nor is it needed, as the Constitution provides the means for the government to generate sufficient revenue to carry out its' legitimate functions. The problem here is the source, not necessarily the amount; the Founders specifically prohibited income tax."under the gold standard, a free banking system stands as the protector of an economy's stability and balanced growth... The abandonment of the gold standard made it possible for the welfare statists to use the banking system as a means to an unlimited expansion of credit... In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation."~ Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman.Don't listen to so much hype.

RS supporters got some primo weed. I bet he even wears a Rasta wig when he get's down.

NOPE! They don't know and will vote him anyway, because they just don't want to do their homework on all of the other candidates. We can't afford to have another partisan political hack in office again. No more nepotism please. Vote Straight in '08.

I hate sermons, but this was sent to me by a fellow supporter. The issues you discuss are actually effects, he wants to go after the cause. This guy breaks it down convincingly, even though it's from an overtly Christian perspective. It's not what you think.

You are talking way over the head of most of Mr. Paul's supporters.

I would rather fight the beast now than watch the beast implant bio chips into my children. I would rather suffer the consequences of our past mistakes than wait until it is impossible for my ancestors to rectify our mistakes. If there has to be a world wide depression, to save humanity, so be it. But I don't think it would ever come to that.Americans are still a resilient people. We are still capable of regaining our independence and maintaining our sovereignty.But, time is running out. It is probably now or never. The American people have faced hard times in our history. We can prevail over this evil that is globalism and Big Brother government. It won't be easy. But, if we don't do it now, it'll be impossible in the future. This is a struggle for humanity. Now is the time to stand up for our inalienable rights. It's basically now or never.

The reveue would come in very nicely from a National Sales Tax. No prob. And we'd get to spend ALL our money, however we chose to. It's Ron Paul's BEST plank. Ending the war quickly is his other good one.Too bad he's a loon on most other things! Thus, he has ZIP chance of being nominated.

1) Why did we elect such incompatent idiots in the first place who sold our country out to foreign nations.2) The greatest debt this nation ever had when adjusted was right after the Revolutionary War. Yet we managed with out an IRS to get out of it. Of course we had men who were leaders like Washington, Franklin, Adams, etc to lead this nation not, George W, Pelosi, Reid, Cheney, etc.3) One the nation functioned great for over 100 years before the Federal Reserve was ever created.4) The gold standard is tried and true, almost every civilization that has ever been has used gold.5) We would still pay taxes just in the form of a national sales tax. That said the Federal Reserve has been around for almost 100 years. Ron Paul is correct things have to change, the fact is that I hope he realizes that in order for it to work it will have to be a gradual change, not something done overnight kind of like bringing our troops home from all over the world. Ever since WW1 (Again that idiot Wilson) we have been foreward deployed to some extant. To fix things that have been in place for 100 years will take time.

yes the tax code needs major overhaulsales tax is regressive. sales taxes always effect the poor more then the rich. it requires the same basic items to support a family of 4 if you are rich or poor the only difference is in the extras that people can afford, this is why some but not all states have taken sales tax off of food. sales tax is just unfair it does not encourage savings or prevent unneeded spending it just takes a bigger percentage of a poor persons funds relative to their assets.a fair tax has not been offered but it should be based on income without deductions of any kind for anyone personal or business. Mr Paul wants to do away with IRS and at the same time wants to give huge tax refunds(deductions) to all kinds of groups. he wants to restore social security reserve while putting less funds into it. he has some wonderful ideas, if we could enact them things would be great. the problem is he has no plan of how to pay for or administer his plans. he just throws out seemingly good ideas with no clue as to how to actually enact or fund.

First of all, going back to gold, is going to happen anyways, when the dollar reaches all time lows( Look on Paul's website and see how many economics teachers openly support him)......... because then the people will demand it. His resolution although extreme sounding, would be the only way to bring stability back to our currency.... which is worth .04 on the dollar of what it used to be. Why do you think the Foreign exchange market is so big these days with educated investors? The mad rush and mass inflation wouldn't be as extreme as you speak, because the plan Paul has isn't to immediately switch to gold....... He plans to freeze the assets of the federal reserve, virtually keeping the dollar a stand still, until another standard is set in place.... graduallyBTW- every time the fed bails out the U.S. they flood the money supply and that's what causes inflation.... so your saying the problem is the solution....His plan to abolish the IRS is also a gradual one, in which he would cut a % then allocate less spending, cutting back the budget until the IRS is gone.......Your right he propably won't accomplish both things in two terms..... but he will signifigantly reduce the excess in the tax system and atleast get our country on a different path, so we're not as dependent on other countries..... Hence the independence and liberty campaign.Congress has to introduce the laws? If the american people vote in Paul and vote for change..... and demand that congress clean up thier act, then they would have to listen.....I'm not afraid to work and fight for what i believe.... and what i'm getting from your reactions..... is that your doing the same thing congress is doing.....making excuses and rationalizing, that it's too much trouble to fix a broken system..... Action, not words is what needs to come about........The more i research him and hear his plans the more they make sense, of course the media doesn't give him time and they don't ask for details......... because they just want the people to speculate!

We need to elect a congress full of Ron Pauls! The country will do fantastic without the IRS to terrorize us and an anonymous sales tax would boost the economy beyond belief! We are at the edge of self destructing. If we don't do something about it now it will be too late! Don't listen too all the Liberal Nut Jobs that call Ron Paul a kook. There were those who called some of our founding fathers kooks too!

Check it out, since you seem to misunderstand it. When Ron Paul says "get rid of the IRS" he's talking about personal income taxes. The corporate taxes could still pay for the U.S. government if it only spent the amount of money it did prior to the Bush presidency.So really, you're talking about 1/3 of the federal budget - leaving social security and medicare not just intact but well funded. Trust me about not needing the Dept. of Education, I worked for one of the banks that profits madly off those tax dollars.

I'd be interested to know if you know what the money is backed by right now? If the Government really needs a billion dollars but doesn't have it, the Fed just prints it. But nooo, they don't leave it at that, they want the billion back, plus more in the form of interest. All your Federal tax right now goes to pay off this interest, while the government keeps wracking up debt with a mostly private firm. The strangest thing is, it's technically not worth much more than ink and paper. So we winged it this far, eventually a flawed fiat system will fail as they all do, and you have to admit, it's flawed.All these little fluctuations in the interest rates and especially money supply (data which we don't have access to anymore) can either create or destroy markets. The stock market, the housing market, the energy market, etc. They create cash, and crashes from nothing, give it to you, and expect you to somehow pay more than they created in the first place. If this isn't being indentured, I don't know what is.The people that want free healthcare, I cannot figure out why they can't figure this out. The people that want more war, I cannot figure out why they are willing to shortchange everyone's children and grand children's futures for much the same reason. Someone is playing musical chairs, and it's not the President in office at the time, caught when the music stops, it's US, who let this fraud perpetuate.If there is a recession caused by them, the really rich can ride it out, and gobble up realestate and businesses for pennies on the dollar. It happens everytime. They will just create a new stupid currency, again, based on nothing, but with the slate wiped clean.Either way you look at it, we are screwed, but with Paul, at least we can say we tried, acknowledged, and attempted to repair something.

Do they? Probably not, but that is mainly because not everything you just said was correct. What you just mentioned was a worst case scenario, what actually will happen is likely much less severe.Beyond that, our current currency is horribly inflated and a depression will eventually happen if it is left in its current direction. Thus Dr. Paul is trying to mitigate the negative repercussions of what will happen.

Since there is an annoying possibility the whole world economy may collapse before the election is over, it may be a unique opportunity for Ron Paul to actually get some reforms through. Timing is going to be everything, and I have no Lil to help me with the calculations. (Any sci fi buffs remember who and what Lil was?) But you're right. Since the whole world economy seems to be headed into collapse because of speculative activity, who do we want to take the blame for it? Sweet dreams.