[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[House]
[Page 28921]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



           GOOD TIME FOR CONGRESS TO REASSESS ANTITRUST LAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, by now, the Microsoft antitrust case should 
have caught every Member's attention. This is a good time for Congress 
to reassess the antitrust laws.
  Under current law, collusion, negotiations, or even discussions about 
markets may be enough to find someone guilty of breaking these laws. 
Prices in one industry that are too high, too low, or all the same are 
suspect and could be used as evidence of monopoly practices.
  We must remember bigness in a free market is only achieved by the 
vote of consumers, supporting a company that gives them a good product 
at a low price.
  It is an economic truism that the only true monopoly is government 
protected, such as the Post Office or a public utility. There is 
nothing more annoying than a government bureaucrat or Federal judge 
gleefully condemning a productive enterprising capitalist for doing a 
good job. These little men filled with envy are capable of producing 
nothing and are motivated by their own inadequacies and desires to 
wield authority against men of talent.
  In a free market, the consumer is king, not the businessman. The 
regulators hate both and relish their role of making sure the market is 
fair according to their biased standards.
  Antitrust suits are rarely, if ever, pursued by consumers. It is 
always a little disgruntled competitor, a bureaucrat who needs to 
justify his own existence.
  Judge Jackson condemned Microsoft for being a ``vigorous protector of 
its own self-interests.'' Now this is to be a crime in America. To care 
for oneself and do what corporations are supposed to do, that is, 
maximize profits for stockholders by making customers happy, is the 
great crime committed in the Microsoft case.
  Blind to the fact that there is no conflict between the self-interest 
of a capitalist and the consumers' best interests, the trust busters go 
their merry way without a complaint from the Congress which could 
change these laws.
  Only blind resentment drives the economic planners and condemns 
business success, good products, low prices, and consumer satisfaction 
while undermining the system that has provided so much for so many.
  Many big companies have achieved success with government subsidies, 
contracts, and special interest legislation. This type of bigness must 
be distinguished from bigness achieved in a free market by providing 
consumer satisfaction.
  To help rectify the situation, Congress should first stop all 
assistance to business, no more corporate welfare, no bailouts like we 
saw to Lockheed, Chrysler, Long-Term Capital Management and many 
others.
  Second, we ought to repeal the archaic and impossible-to-understand 
antitrust laws.
  Next, we should crown the consumers king and let them vote with their 
money on who should succeed and who should fail.
  We should then suppress the envy which drives the anticapitalist 
mentality.
  The Bill Gateses of the world can only invest their money in job-
creating projects or donate it to help the needy. The entrepreneurial 
giants are not a threat to stability or prosperity. Government 
bureaucrats and Federal judges are. But strict enforcement of all the 
ill-inspired antitrust laws does not serve the consumer, nor the cause 
of liberty.

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