Amidst this debt ceiling debate, this president and his Democrat minions' arguments have descended from straw men to bogeymen in their attempts to scare Americans.  

Our seniors were told their hard-earned Social Security checks would be stopped. Our brave veterans were told the services our grateful nation provides them (never mind that there is much more we could do) could be stopped.  Our entire citizenry was told America could face an economic Armageddon. 

But we Americans are more courageous than the president and Democrats credit us. Thus, we must tell President Obama and his minions to stop; join with Republicans to seize this moment to cut, cap and balance the federal budget; and start restructuring Washington Big Government into Main Street self-government.

In our new post-11/7 world, it's important to understand that there are two Robin Hoods:  the legend and the myth of the legend.  The first is a conservative-libertarian.  The second is a liberal thug.

The legend was best played by Errol Flynn in the 1938 movie classic, The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion, Alan Hale as Little John, Claude Rains as Prince John, Melville Cooper as the Sheriff of Nottingham, and Basil Rathbone as the evil Sir Guy de Gisbourne.

The myth of the legend is currently being played by Teddy Kennedy with Nancy Pelosi as his understudy in drag.

Major General Peter Chiarelli, head of US military’s Task Force Baghdad and commander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, spoke a few days ago at a AUSA (Association of the United States Army) meeting at the Ft. Hood (Texas) Officer’s Club. A friend of To The Point’s took notes. This is how it really is.

*Baghdad is about the same size, geographically, as Texas’ capital of Austin, with ten times the folks: 700,000 for Austin, 7 million for Baghdad.

*Baghdad’s main problem area has been a huge slum called Sadr City. Last fall, there was an average of 160 terrorist attacks per week. For the last three months, they have flatlined: five to zero a week.

*The media blared in front-page headlines about the 100 Iraqis killed in Baghdad as they were lined up to enlist in the police and security service. It was never reported that the next day, there were 300 lined up in the same place.

Confidence in the dollar is plummeting, confidence in the euro has been shattered by the European bond crisis, and beleaguered consumers and investors are slowly but surely awakening to the fact that government-issued currencies do not hold their value.

A government monopoly on the issuance of money is purely a method of central control over the economy. If you can be forced to accept the government's increasingly devalued dollar, there is no limit to how far the government will go to debauch the currency.

Anyone who attempts to create a market based currency-- meaning a currency with real value as determined by markets-- threatens to embarrass the federal government and expose the folly of our fiat monetary system.  So the government destroys competition through its usual tools of arrest, confiscation, and incarceration.

This is why I have taken steps to restore the constitutional monetary system envisioned and practiced by our Founding Fathers. I recently introduced HR 1098, the Free Competition in Currency Act.

This bill eliminates three of the major obstacles to the circulation of sound money: