Transcript
Wolf Blitzer: Joining us now is a Republican who comes to this debate with his always unique and outspoken point of view, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. Congressman, thanks very much for coming in.
Ron Paul: Thank you, Wolf.
Wolf Blitzer: When it comes to the president’s economic policies, his tax policies, is there anything in there you like?
Ron Paul: Well, I understand there will be some tax credits and that means there’ll be lower taxes for businesspeople and encourage investment, although they are short term and we don’t know what would happen after a couple of years. No, anything that will cut taxes I’m for, the fact that he’ll be raising spending, but also because he doesn’t plan to raise taxes on the lower income people under $200,000 or $250,000, I think that’s good. It’d be horrible if he did raise the taxes at the first year on all those. So I have to say that is a little bit of relief to know that those taxes won’t go up.
Wolf Blitzer: Because you’re a deficit hawk, you hate this huge national debt, the annual budget deficits. The White House says if you eliminate the tax breaks for the wealthy Americans, those families making more than $250,000 a year, about 2 or 3% of all Americans out there, you’re going to save $700 billion over the next 10 years. $700 billion, that would be good to have that reduction in the national debt, wouldn’t it?
Ron Paul: Well, it would be, but it would be a horrible way of doing it. That means taxes are going up $700 billion. I could think of a much better thing to do and that would be to read that article by Stiglitz this morning. He said he made an error last year when he did that report that he said the Iraq war was going to cost us over $3 trillion. He says it’s going to be much higher than $3 trillion. Why don’t we stay out of these wars and save this money, that’s what we need to do. We need to cut the spending and we don’t have to tax people and we could solve this problem, but nobody wants to give an inch on these overseas expenditures, the Republicans don’t want to cut overseas expenditures and war, neither does Obama. So, but the American people, the ones I talk to at least, are all for it.
Wolf Blitzer: I know you were…
Ron Paul: So that’s where it should go, we should cut spending overseas.
Wolf Blitzer: We had you on recently with Congressman Barney Frank. You guys have some ideas to save hundreds of billions of dollars in defense related spending, we discussed that. The president also went after some Republicans for wanting to privatize Social Security, listen to what he said.
Barack Obama: As long as I’m president, no one is going to take the retirement savings of a generation of Americans and hand it over to Wall Street. Not on my watch.
Wolf Blitzer: Do you agree with the president on that?
Ron Paul: Well, I have to know what he is thinking about on privatizing what others think about privatizing because it’s two different things.
Wolf Blitzer: He doesn’t want to privatize it, he wants to keep it the way it is now.
Ron Paul: Yeah, but I want to know what privatize means. If we could turn this money over and give the individual money like an investment retirement fund that they manage, that’s a little bit different. But I think most people, what they think about privatizing and I’m not for this type of privatizing, that’s when the government manages accounts and gets involved in the stock market, if that’s what he’s thinking about, I don’t want any part of that. But I want to privatize the retirement funds and put the responsibility on the individual. That to me is a lot different type of privatization. But for government bureaucrats to get involved in the stock market, I don’t like that.
Besides, if you truly have privatization, you can make your own choices, but it’s when, the way we have it now, you only can buy government debt, that’s really not a very good investment. But I think these are academic arguments because, talking about 5 or 10 years from now, we’re facing up such a serious crisis with our dollar and our financial situation. The next 2 or 3 years, this is going to be resolved because we’re going to have a financial crisis based on a dollar devaluation and that to me is going to change all the rules in the game. And talking about the tax code for a year or two I won’t have a whole lot of meaning.
Wolf Blitzer: I’m curious what your reaction is to this pastor in Florida who wants to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday.
Ron Paul: Well, I put a little statement out about that because everybody was talking about it. It’s a shame he’s getting this much attention, and Petraeus made this statement that I agreed with, he said “this could endanger our troops” and I agree with that. But I also went on to add the point, as much danger as burning the Quran might be, what about our invasion, our bombing, collateral damage, arrests and secret prisons and pictures of torture, drone attacks, do you think that isn’t an incitement to violence overseas? I mean, they already have so much.
Yes, we should recognize that this is not good for us, it’s a bad image. Of course nobody is challenging his right to do this thing, I mean we’re even allowed to burn flags in this country, so that isn’t the issue as much, for me it was the issue of saying what kind of a reaction would this be, and I say our foreign policy has a much, much more negative reaction than burning Quran would.
Wolf Blitzer: Very quickly, because we got this new CNN Time Magazine poll in on the race for the Senate in Kentucky, your son Rand Paul is running. Right now we have it as a dead heat among registered voters, Rand Paul 46%, Jack Conway the Attorney General there 46%. Are you surprised by this poll, how close it is?
Ron Paul: I think that’s pure fiction, that’s the biggest surprise of my life. If that happened, it happened within the last 12 hours, I think we better check that one out. But no, the race will be hard for, and hard run and he’ll run as if it’s tied. But those aren’t quite the accurate statistics that I’ve been hearing about.
Wolf Blitzer: Yeah, I’ve heard other polls that had your son way ahead. But this is among registered voters, CNN Time Opinion Research Corporation poll; we’ll stay on top of this race and all the other races. Always to have you in the Situation Room, Congressman, thanks for coming in.
Ron Paul: Thank you, Wolf.
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Why are we even debating tax cuts for one economic class vs. tax hikes for another? That is nothing short of class warfare that the beaurocrats and politicians use to their advantage, it doesn’t benefit anyone else. There should be a flat income tax if any income tax at all that is the same for everyone. Nobody should be rewarded or penalized for the ammount of money they make. There is to much money in Washington, thats why we have out of control beaurocracy & rediculous foreign policy.
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Ron Paul will be our President in 2012!
»crosslinked«
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In fact, Bible urges killing not Quran, Ex.:
Lk:19:27″but those my enemies, who did not wish me to reign over them, bring hither and slay before me”
Joshua:6:21″and they devote all that is in the city, from man even unto woman, from young even unto aged, even unto ox, and sheep, and ass, by the mouth of the sword”
Ezekiel:9:5 “Pass on into the city after him, and smite; your eye doth not pity, nor do ye spare; aged, young man, and virgin, and infant, and women, ye do slay – to destruction”
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1.) The debt will never be reduced since there isn’t enough money in circulation to account for the interest.
2.) If we are free then why are we forced to participate in Social Security to begin with?
3. Most wars are built on lies and we should end this phony war now by bringing back the troops from all over the world.
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We need to burn our foreign policy, if it was not for that we would not have 9/11, no one would hate us. So change the foreign policy. Mind your own business and try to help American people. Like hurricane Katrina victims
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the wars are more of a danger then the burning gerlad celente said the same thing at info wars paul/celente
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They should burn one of each brand of religious book to show what the constitutions says: the government respects no religion.
If you say that they shouldn’t burn a koran because it would be dangerous for our troops, aren’t you in effect validating the violence of regious extremists? You’re saying the their threats are a succesful way of getting other people do behave in on fashion vs another.
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Unique? BAH! We stand together Mister Blitzer. Campaign For Liberty look it up.
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We need jobs. Ever been to Walmart. Should be made in China Mart.
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Ron Paul, our only real hope. Screw Mark Levine for basing him all the time.
mark levine thinks we need a central bank. He asked a caller on his show that if the fed was ended, who would control the money supply.
I thought he stood up for the constitution.
What about Article 1, sections 8 and 10 of the U.S. Constitution. Where it states that congress has the power to Coin money and regulate the value thereof, and that no state shall make anything but gold and silver coin a tender….
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TODAY IS, “9/11 -BURN A KORAN TO REMEMBER THE LOST DAY” !
I’LL WILL VIDEO MINE !!!!!
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CNN TIME RESEARCH CORPORATION LMAO. CIA at work. Paul is way ahead, but controlled mainstream media, always bullsh4ttin.
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Of course, CNN and the Drone Wolfe couldn’t resist putting up bogus poll figures in yet another feeble attempt to deceive the public, and to diminish Rand’s stellar lead of 54% to Conway’s 39%.
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It is so sad. Ron Paul makes so much sense. And Wolf is trying to politicize with his questions. Funny, funny, funny.
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You tell em’ Dr. Paul!
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I loved the ending. He pretty much laughed in CNN’s face when he was asked about the tie in the polls.<3 Ron Paul
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GOD i LOVE THAT MAN AND CAN’T WAIT TO VOTE FOR HIM!!!
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Ha Ha he totally called out CNN for poor poll results!!
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Paul-Napolitano 2012!
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Ron has become the elder statesman…
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Lol, Rasmussen polls from the same day had Rand Paul at 54 to 39. No wonder Ron just laughed at the CNN poll.
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CNN is for those who can’t their own opinion.
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Even though Dr. Paul is not likely to become POTUS or even occupy a meaningful place in a Whitehouse Cabinet, (the general public just isn’t intelligent enough to get behind him in an election), I sincerely hope Congressman Paul lives forever because of his incredible talent in cutting through the BS and making sense of so many complex subjects that we face in this country. I will vote for him (again) or for any candidate that he supports. Thanks Ron.
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Toss up in the Kentucky Senate race?? What crack is CNN smoking??
Ron Paul 2012!
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Ron Paul makes a lot of sense. That’s why a lot of people don’t understand him.
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Of course, Ron Paul is a humble German immigrant. Wolf Blitzer, on the other hand, is an aggressive, relentless Zionist………..
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thats rational Dr. Ron Paul.
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a government abuse its power but so do people with guns. should we take away guns to
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I love it when Ron throws red meat to liberals. If the wars are still going on in 2012, Ron’s going to win, knock on wood.
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Ron Paul Rules
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How’s life going in Free Traitor land, Free Traitors.
You all should be hanged.
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everytime i hear Dr.Ron Paul speak i tear up cause he is the ONLY TRUE HONEST canidate for presedent the only AMERICA loving politition …not for the elite or israel lobby zionist banker/war mongers ….but a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT….im just afraid they will do to him what they did to JFK or last great president…G-D bless AMERICA with a president like RON PAUL 2012
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Ron Paul for President !!
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What are you anarchist bitching about now.
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But he’s already handed over the savings of a generation over to Wall Street!
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dont be trusting no babylon poll
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