[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 116 (Monday, September 10, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1616]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT

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                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 10, 2001

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, when the Defense Production Act was enacted in 
1950, considerable damage was done. Some of the worst damage occurred 
as a result of wage and price controls and the improper delegation of 
economic powers to the President (much of which economic power even 
Congress itself didn't have).
  This bill's entire existence rests on the presumption that its 
supporters have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in either freedom 
or the market process. In a time of crisis, you don't need an 
``industrial policy'' and you don't need some fascist or corporatist 
variety of socialism. What one needs more than ever in a time of crisis 
is the market--deviation from the market process is the worst thing an 
economy can do. Oftentimes, it's the ``industrial policy'' which is the 
very cause of the economic crisis one hopes to remedy with yet another 
round of ``industrial policy'' intervention.
  We have an energy crisis in California created by the bureaucrats and 
the politicians. As prices skyrocket and a crisis is declared, it is 
later said that prices are now down and there's less of a shortage or 
crisis. But it's the market process that worked because the prices 
skyrocketed rather than skyrocketing prices becoming the justification 
for abandoning the market process.
  Of course, if one likes socialism and rejects the notion that freedom 
works, this type of an Act and improper of delegating and centralizing 
such powers is ideal. But why accept the notions of socialism when you 
really need an economy to provide products and services in the nation's 
time of most dire need? This whole notion that the powers in this bill 
should be illegitimately granted to a President and then turned over to 
the head of FEMA is potentially one of the most dangerous things this 
body will ever do (or continue doing).
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage the members of this body to begin thinking 
about the amount of false hope they place in the centralization of 
power in the hands of a central-planners and reconsider their apparent 
lack of confidence in the market process and a free society. I 
encourage a strict adherence to market principles and strongly oppose 
H.R. 2510.

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