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Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum Favor Return to Gold Standard

Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum Favor Return to Gold Standard

Friday, 06 Jan 2012 11:46 AM
By Lowell Ponte
Newsmax

Three of the top four winners in Iowa's Republican caucuses Tuesday night have given at least some support to the idea of returning the United States to a gold standard, a policy considered by President Ronald Reagan.

If one of them becomes president, we might soon see legislation to again back the U.S. dollar in some way with gold.

A new gold standard would cause huge changes in America's economy that might send the price of gold skyrocketing to $5,000 or more per ounce.

It would also slam the brakes on unchecked government spending and stop our spendaholic politicians and the Federal Reserve from printing trillions of dollars out of thin air to bankroll the welfare state and the warfare state.

Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who finished third in Iowa Tuesday night, was a member of President Ronald Reagan's U.S. Gold Commission.

A longtime advocate of restoring the gold standard, Rep. Paul and fellow commission member Lewis Lehrman are co-authors of “The Case for Gold: A Minority Report of the U.S. Gold Commission,” which can be found at mises.org, the website of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

"How long since they've taken a poll on the gold standard?" asked Rep. Paul in a speech to supporters Tuesday night following the caucuses. "We need a gold standard, not a paper money standard."

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum agreed to be part of a bus tour across Iowa last June that was dedicated to advocating the return to a national gold standard, as this column discussed on June 14.

Other Republican presidential candidates last June also eagerly signed up to be speakers as part of this Iowa tea party-sponsored 18-day bus trip.

Two who signed up for this pro-gold tour were former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who respectively finished fourth and sixth in Iowa Tuesday night. Rep. Bachmann ended her campaign this week.

Three of the five remaining Republican candidates may therefore in one way or another support the return of a national gold standard.

Other candidates on last June's pro-gold standard bus tour had departed the race prior to Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

These gold advocates are former pizza company executive Herman Cain, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who has said he may seek the Libertarian Party's nomination in 2012.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who finished fifth among six candidates in Iowa Tuesday night, has not advocated a return to the gold standard. Gov. Perry has, however, been extremely critical of Federal Reserve Board monetary and stimulus policy.

One of Perry's prominent supporters is publisher Steve Forbes, a former presidential candidate who advocates returning America to a gold standard within five years.

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman "doesn't endorse the gold-standard explicitly," reported Business Insider last November 28, "but he does call for 'sound money' in his [economic] plan contending that we 'cannot devalue our way to prosperity'" by just printing more and more paper money out of thin air.

As President Obama's Ambassador to China, Huntsman in December 2010 sent a declassified cable saying that Chinese leaders are deeply concerned that the United States might re-value our dollar and then peg it to gold. This cable, published by WikiLeaks, was reported last September 14 by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.com

Utah last year put into law that U.S. gold coins are legal tender, thereby taking what some see as a first step back towards a new gold standard. Fourteen other states have recently been considering similar measures.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has not advocated a return to the gold standard and has said he would not consider abolishing the Federal Reserve, which has the unlimited legal power to create as many paper dollars as it deems necessary.

With at least seven of its 10 initial presidential contenders giving at least some support to restoring a gold standard, the Republican Party may be quietly going for the gold in 2012.

By contrast, incumbent President Barack Obama supported printing more than $5 trillion in a failed attempt to stimulate the U.S. economy, something that the sound money policy required by a new gold standard would make virtually impossible.

Lowell Ponte is co-author, with Craig R. Smith, of "Crashing the Dollar: How to Survive a Global Currency Collapse"; "The Inflation Deception: Six Ways Government Tricks Us . . . And Seven Ways to Stop It"; and "Re-Making Money: Ways to Restore America's Optimistic Golden Age." For a limited time, you can get a free copy of "The Inflation Deception" by calling 800-630-1494.

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