August 14, 2010 -- Michael Badnarik ran for President of the United States in 2004 against George W. Bush and John F. Kerry on the Libertarian ticket. He teaches classes about the Constitution, and to that end runs ConstitutionPreservation.org. He is a an originalist and boils the Constitution down to two sentences: "Don't hurt me. Don't take my stuff."
I sat down with Michael during a break in the Freedom Action Convention, where he was the keynote speaker. In this interview, he talks about the Constitution, the Federal Reserve, and the responsibilities of Congress and of citizens.
"In 1913, Congress pretended -- and I say 'pretended' because it's not valid -- pretended to create the Federal Reserve Act which, presumably if you read the paper, gives the Federal Reserve -- a private corporation -- the authority to print money out of thin air…Ironically, Article 1, Section 8, Clause 6 -- the next sentence -- says that Congress is responsible to prevent counterfeiting. Well, what is counterfeiting? Well, counterfeiting is making artificial money; printing money out of thin air. So not only did Congress not have the authority to give the Federal Reserve this power, they have the responsibility to…if the Federal Reserve comes into existence some other way, Congress has the responsibility to shut it down."
Listen to part 1 of the interview here:
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Listen to part 2 of the interview here:
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