Paul: “I’m trying to protect America so I don’t think we should be in the weapons business, the foreign aid business, and I don’t think we should have our foreign policy dictated by any single country.” The Texas Congressman spoke with TAAN prior to Wednesday’s debate in his hotel room near Oakland University.  PHOTO: Nafeh AbuNab/TAAN

Dr. Paul is a longtime U.S. Congressman from Texas who has gained grassroots popularity    through his outspoken criticisms of the Federal Reserve private banking system in the U.S. and his strong anti-war stances, among other viewpoints. 

Here is what he had to say leading up to his appearance: 

RP: I first got in contact with Michigan when I studied medicine here for two years back in the early 60s. We’ve been in and out over the years, certainly we were here four years ago for the debates and we’re back this time as well.

RP:  It’s a lot different now than it was four years ago even though there was a lot of enthusiasm back then. But some of the things we talked about have come about, you know like the deep recession, the financial situation is much worse, and also the foreign policy has changed a bit because the American people at large, the majority are tired of what we’re doing in the Middle East, and they’re tired of Afghanistan so we’re getting a lot more support in that area.

RP:  I don’t think politicians ever think they get a fair shake, we get a fair number of interviews but we don’t get mentioned in the news. We had a rally the other day near Minneapolis and we had 3,000 people come out something like that never would make a national news item but it seems like that could be significant, so a lot of times we’re ignored that way but we get a lot of support and enthusiasm from debates as well as the Internet.

RP:  It’s always been helpful from four years ago up until now because after the debates there’s always more enthusiasm, more people calling in, more people introduced to what I’m doing and it usually helps fund raising a lot too.

RP:  Well, they’re getting closer to my position because they’re sick and tired of the failures, the perpetual wars and all the money that’s being spent in the bad economy that we have. From studying our history and realizing the failure of our foreign policy ever since I was in the service in the 1960s during the Vietnam era, I’ve just come to a stronger conclusion all the time that we’re in too many places, we can’t afford it anymore, it doesn’t do us any good and probably does us a lot of harm. I just think that we shouldn’t be in these countries and the Constitution doesn’t give us the authority to do it, the founders were very wise in advising us to stay out of the internal affairs of other nations and not get involved in these entangling alliances which so often we get involved in and we obligate ourselves. That I think is just a totally failed policy and has to come to an end.

RP:  Well we always should be open to talking to people, that’s why we have thousands of diplomats, diplomats are supposed to be diplomatic (laughing) and I remember so clearly when I was drafted in 1962 at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, our government including Kennedy, they talked to the Soviets and they talked to (former Soviet Premier Nikita) Krushchev and they were on the brink of nuclear war and they had an agreement, the Soviets would take their missiles out of Cuba and we’d take our missiles out of Turkey and Eastern Europe and the whole thing got settled down. 

There’s nothing like that existing now, even with these recent reports they claim there’s a lot of information but they have no proof that they’ve actually transferred any nuclear material to weaponry, they’ve found some computer evidence that they work on it, which is probably true, that’s hardly any reason to go and start a war. I think people overreact when they get this information but a war would do nobody any good, I think it would be devastating to the Middle East, devastating to the price of oil, devastating to our budget and devastating to a lot of lives including many American lives.

RP:  I don’t single out Israel, I don’t want to send any money or weapons to anybody, it just so happens that ironically it would benefit Israel because all the nations around Israel get money and weapons and I don’t believe in any of that so people who try to build up fear that I’m just gunning for Israel isn’t a case, I’m trying to protect America so I don’t think we should be in the weapons business, the foreign aid business, and I don’t think we should have our foreign policy dictated by any single country.

RP:  I think that’s been a consequence of 9/11, you might understand it but it’s certainly not fair…putting everyone in one category but I think it’s led to a lot of problems but it hasn’t been good for us at all.

RP:  I always get compliments because I’ve said the same thing for 30-some years, I’ve been talking about the Fed since the 1970s, that’s what motivated me to run for office so my position has really been the same, I talk about it all the time.

RP:  It depends on what the individuals think because it’s mixed. Some want to punish free markets, the others want to punish businesspeople who get benefits from big government like bank bailouts, people with TARP funds, people who live off the government. When they criticize the Federal Reserve and people who get benefits I’m with them, but when they criticize free markets alone just because somebody was successful in providing products for us and lump them together I think it’s very dangerous. I think we have to distinguish the businesspeople and banking people who get benefits from government and who get special privileges that to me needs looking at and curtailment and we ought to stop doing this, that’s why we’re so strong against the bailouts because it actually does bail out a lot of people on Wall Street but everybody who’s ever earned a living they haven’t necessarily done it by living off the taxpayer and off the government.

RP:  I don’t think anybody should have control over us, that’s our responsibility and the President’s responsibility to have control and to understand what national sovereignty is all about.

RP:  The area of foreign policy is where you have the most prerogatives as a president. You can move troops, end the wars and come home, that’s rather easy, to change the Federal Reserve you have to do legislation. My approach has always been to legalize competition to the Fed, legalize gold and silver as a legal tender, I would work on that but you’d have to get the Congress to pass it…Money can originate in the marketplace as long it’s something of real value. If people want to use gold and silver as the Constitution says, that’s not a problem, the government does not have to issue that. We have to have something that has real value behind it.

RP:  I’ve voted against it, it should be abolished, people shouldn’t be searched without a warrant, right now there’s no protection of the Fourth Amendment, nobody has any privacy left but yet our government has a lot of secrecy and it should be the other way around. It’s going to get much worse without changes in the Presidency and Congress…even today they were trying to send a message out on every radio and television station, I understand it didn’t work too well, it might be a sign that they’re too inept to do it and maybe that will be a blessing in disguise.