Position Statements on Colombia, Foreclosures and Gaza
Non-Interventionism needed - both at home and abroad.
Plan Colombia: Drug War Run Amok
The recent events in Latin America - including cross-border violence and war tensions - are a natural result of US drug policy and interventionism in the region.
In the late-1990's, the US Government launched "Plan Colombia," which aimed to curb drug smuggling by providing financial and military "aid."
Since its inception, billions have been sent to the Colombian government - with a large majority of that in the form of "military and police" support.
Plan Colombia is seen as part of the "war on drugs." This never-ending "war" has been used as an excuse to violate your rights - and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders being sent to prison here in the U.S. In Colombia, we were told that this plan would put an end to the drug trafficking of rebel groups such as FARC. But, years later, the rebels are stronger than ever, and the civil war rages on with no end in sight.
Our expanded interventionism in Colombia over the past few years is called "counterterrorism," but no one has even attempted to demonstrate that Colombia's civil war poses even a remote terrorist threat to the United States. The drugs continue to flow, the violence keeps escalating, and it's now beginning to expand into a larger, regional issue as well. Plan Colombia is a complete and utter failure.
The continuation of this policy can only lead to an even further escalation in violence and hatred. It's time to end not only Plan Colombia, but the entire war on drugs.
There is nothing, whatsoever, in the US Constitution, which authorizes such activities. You should not be forced to support, with your hard-earned income, any side of a civil war. If you choose to donate your money to the Colombian government or to the FARC rebels - or to your own savings account instead - you should be free to do so.
Sadly, in America, you are not truly free. Instead, the government dictates to you who you will and will not support.
Foreclosures: The Real Culprit is the Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve holds the primary blame for the housing bubble - and the resulting explosion in foreclosures around the country.
Intervention in the economy by the Fed, through the manipulation of interest rates and the expansion of the money supply, caused an artificial boom in mortgage lending.
Since the early 1990's, the Federal Reserve has increased the amount of US dollars and credit in circulation by nearly 300%. Because of this, borrowing money became cheap - and easy - which caused a massive increase in demand for homes, and thus - a dramatic rise in home prices. But, this kind of boom never lasts. Eventually the markets go through a "correction" which is nothing more than a collapse. The longer and greater the boom period, the harder and deeper the crash. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like there's going to be a quick turnaround.
In order to truly get out of this mess and prevent it from happening again in the future, we need to understand the cause of the problem. Spending time and energy on anything but the root of the problem will only ensure that we see this cycle repeated.
Thus, calls for legislation against lenders, while often driven by good intentions, are really missing the mark. Some lenders clearly made unethical or even fraudulent loans, and they must be held accountable, but attacking the entire industry is hardly the right answer.
It must be recognized that everyone really does play a part in this - the mortgage companies made bad loans to reckless applications, and people may not have been so eager to borrow (many times beyond their means), if the interest rates weren't so low. And, the only reason they were low is because the Federal Reserve forced them to be that way.
The subprime lending madness we've seen is nothing more than a symptom of the housing bubble (caused by the policies of the Fed), and not the cause of it.
When the Federal Reserve makes credit artificially cheap, it drives lenders to loan more recklessly - often times to people who normally wouldn't qualify. On top of this, people tend to borrow more with low interest rates, and they don't expect rates to go back up anytime soon.
Why is the Fed to blame for the housing bubble? In short, because it is a bubble. That means the boom was false, and the wealth that people thought was being created through inflated home prices was really just an illusion. Who or what has the power to create illusory wealth? The Federal Reserve - through the artificial lowering of interest rates - which results in loads of credit and an increase of the money supply. (and rising prices, too)
The only way to ensure a stable economy for our future is to stop the Federal Reserve from artificially inflating the money supply and creating periods of false growth that can never be sustained. It's time to end this "boom and bust" cycle that has plagued us for far too long.
The Crisis in Gaza
The Populist Party opposes the recent passage of House Resolution 951, which condemns Palestinian rocket attacks but includes a strongly worded defense of recent aggressive Israeli tactics in the Gaza strip.
The House voted in approval, 404 to 1.
The U.S. should do now what it should have been doing in the Middle East (and the entire world) all along: strive for commercial relations with everyone, without attempting to manage the entire world political scene.
The use of force in American foreign policy never seems to give the results that the politicians promise us. Using force to take sides only encourages the opposition to do whatever it takes to gain power and use that same force for their political purposes.
It's time for each American to be given the freedom to support whatever side they want to - or to take no side at all.
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