There is an ongoing argument about higher income tax rates for the top 1 percent of us but that is just a diversion from the real problem.
Since 9/11, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates to zero and started printing more money to keep our economy from collapsing. But a decade of free money caused a flurry of spending that caused the stock market and housing bubble to inflate and finally burst, leaving a mountain of new debt.
But, rather than tightening our belt to pay down some of this new debt, the government went all in with bailouts for private industries, forcing the Fed to print $3 trillion more worthless money over the past three years.
With this new glut of national debt and a mountain of new worthless money, the money in our pockets buys less every day as prices go up. If the dollar has lost 70 percent of its value since 1970, that's a 70 percent tax increase on all of us.
That is why Ron Paul wants to eliminate the Federal Reserve and that is why we need to listen to him. We need to cut the federal budget or milk and gas will both cost $8 a gallon.
— Dan Feuling, New Hampton
