WASHINGTON -- Two Democratic senators and one Republican senator are calling for the removal of all regular combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, a timetable that is significantly shorter than the one President Obama recently announced.
"We commend the president for sticking to the July date he had outlined for beginning the withdrawal. However, his plan would not remove all regular combat troops until 2014," Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) wrote in a Tuesday op-ed in The New York Times.
"We believe the United States is capable of achieving this goal by the end of 2012. America would be more secure and stronger economically if we recognized that we have largely achieved our objectives in Afghanistan and moved aggressively to bring our troops and tax dollars home," the senators continued.
In the op-ed, they said the U.S. is spending $10 billion a month in Afghanistan while back home, the United States is struggling with "high unemployment and a flood of foreclosures, a record deficit and a debt that is over $14 trillion and growing."
"It is not too late to change course in what has become the longest American war in history. In light of our considerable national needs, both security and domestic, we urge the president to bring our troops home at last," they concluded.
The author expects the FED to be able to sell a T-bill to “soak up” the money at exactly the time no one will want a T-bill and the dollar will begin its march to oblivion. He obviously missed the point that the only thing keeping T-Bill purchases going is the Fed, not the Open Market.
That without fed intervention to prop it up (ie: buying between 70-85% of bonds) no one else is displaying much confidence in lending to the US… sustainable? Worrying
2. The proposal is to trade REAL assets owned by the government for the junk bonds owned by the fed? Next time… why not just auction these assets to raise money rather than pump the markets full of funny money and distort interest rates?
The damage is done by the Fed; it’s 1.6 trillion dollars of faux-wealth will never be taken from the money supply because we all (should) know that when the Fed conducts large scale OMO’s, they always buy bonds, expanding the money supply and depreciating our currency.
Ron Paul’s plan is just clearing up some of the stupidity of the Federal Reserve and our government in general. It would allow Congress to avoid raising the debt ceiling, without having any consequences that wouldn’t happen anyway (such as the 1.6 trillion in new credit).
Additionally, this move could open America’s eyes to the irony of the Federal Reserve and bolster more support for Ron Paul. That way, the next time Congress votes to raise the debt ceiling, President Paul could veto it! Unfortunately, such a Constitutional government may be difficult to achieve with morons like you miseducating the public about the monetary system.
So let me get this straight; we give the Fed “assets” that are “owned” by the the government, which means assets owned by the people, and then let the Fed sell them off to the private sector.
I think your missing the whole point; the government, and more importantly, the people, do not owe this non-governmental cartel of banks (the Federal Reserve) that money. The Fed printed abunch of phony money – they can deal with it – just walk away from it. Don’t give them our assets and let them sell them off to get more money.
Also, who do you think they’re going to sell these to? My guess would be Goldmansachs, JP Morgan and other banking interests that they have ties to, oh and probably some foreign banks and corporations.
Ron Paul was right in 2008 when he warned us off the economic collapse coming (and no other politicians agreed, in fact, most of them, and the mainstream media, laughed at him…whose laughing now?) – how about give him some respect – he obviously knows more than the other “experts.”
...And there's a LOT MORE where those came from!