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A former Florida congressman who has been a top campaign bundler for President Obama said Wednesday he is taking immediate steps to de-register as a lobbyist for a Florida-based airline so he can continue to raise funds for the president.
Ron Klein, who has raised between $200,000 and $500,000 for the president, was registered as a lobbyist last month for Spirit Airlines, a low-cost airline that has been fighting new Obama administration airline regulations. But the Obama campaign has a rule against accepting campaign contributions from federally registered lobbyists.
After the Washington Free Beacon website reported on his lobbyist role today -- noting that he is listed on the Obama campaign's website as one of its bundlers -- Klein told NBC News that his registration with the Secretary of the Senate last month was a "clerical error" by an employee of Holland & Knight, the Washington law and lobbying firm where he currently works. He will "de-register" with the Secretary of the Senate today, he said.
Klein said he had brought in Spirit Airlines as a client for Holland & Knight in keeping with his role of "business development" for the firm. But, he added, "I'm not a lobbyist" even thought he was listed as one of the three Holland & Knight lobbyists who were registered last month to work on issues relating to "Department of Transportation aviation regulations" and "customs and border protection" at Ft. Lauderdale airport.
The case illustrates the fuzzy rules of what constitutes lobbying in Washington. Spirit Airlines recently launched a campaign to overturn a new Transportation Department regulation allowing passengers to change flights within 24 hours of booking without paying a penalty.
The airline has launched a website to fight the new rule -- KeepMyFaresLow.org -- urging customers to contact their congressmen and senators and imposed a $2 fee on its customers it calls the "Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences Fee."
Klein said he knew Spirit Airlines, because it's located in his former district, resulting in his recruitment of the company for Holland & Knight.
"They want to express their story on Capitol Hill," he said.
When first contacted about Klein, an Obama campaign official said by email, "All of the funds he raised for the campaign were raised last year. At the moment, he became a federal lobbyist he stopped raising for the campaign."
But Klein said he had not heard from anybody in the Obama campaign. And, he added, he fully expects to continue raising money for the president's re-election.
"I understand the rules," he said.
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Rick-881466Restored " Converting to a gold standard today would immediately result in the value of everything you own decreasing by at least 50%, and the value of everything you owe would at least double."
So
for the sake of argument let’s say I have $500k in a bank account. I also just
recently purchased a home worth $500K secured by a bank mortgage. With your comment
my $500k bank account is now $250k and my home mortgage would now be $1 mil?
Please explain these economics.
There is no way on Earth we will ever go
back to the gold standard, but we can and will in the future be on a commodity
standard it has to happen and Ron Paul would be the one to lead the way given
the chance.
.
Ok Dane, let's stop and think about the gravity of what you have just said. Our current monetary policy is that the dollar IS the gold standard for the world. After World War II the United States sold most developed nations on the fact that since the dollar was backed by gold, it was unnecessary for all currencies to be backed by gold, but rather by the dollar. Then in 1971 the US ended the convertibility of the dollar to gold and simply promised to use "sound monetary policy". This was excepted since the dollar at that time was still the most sound currency in the world.
Now that we have a little background on the end of the gold standard lets examine what has happened since then. Since the dollar is no longer backed by gold, the international banks that were established by the original Bretton Woods system can now print money at will, devaluing currencies around the world. Essentially we have devalued our dollar already, but have devalued nearly every other currency equally as a result, so nominal inflation is very low. The only thing that is keeping the dollar afloat is its status as a reserve currency, which is currently under assault around the world. As soon as other nations determine that the dollar is unsound, and that it is causing too much inflation of their own currency, they will dump the dollar as a reserve currency, which will cause the dollar to be worth nearly nothing overnight.
So at this point in time we have 2 choices. We can either bury our heads in the sand and continue to devalue currencies around the world and lose our status as a reserve currency, which would lead to everything you own, and your savings account being worth nothing at all. Or we could realize that our dollar is being artificially inflated and begin the necessary, albeit painful, corrections that are needed to return to a sound source of money. History shows us what the first course of action results in, massive debts, hyperinflation, and widespread poverty. Look at Greece, the UK, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and ancient Rome, it is not a viable course of action.
I am not supporting an immediate return to the gold standard, because as you said it would cause a massive financial crisis. However, this crisis would be a condemnation of the results of our current monetary system, not a condemnation of the gold standard. I will leave it to the brighter economic minds of our time to develop a gradual return of the gold standard, but eventually it is a standard to which we must return or face what the Wiemar Republic faced after WWI.