Paul talks money, war in NH
Posted: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 3:52 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ's Mike MemoliNASHUA, NH --
Ron Paul talked about money at a local high school this morning. No, not his record one-day fundraising haul, but the impact of a weakening U.S. dollar.
“We have this bizarre idea … that when Washington comes up short, whether it’s to fight a war or run the welfare state, you know what we do? We print the money,” he told about 100 students at Nashua South High School. “Now how much sense would it have to take to figure out that if you could just print money at will, maybe the value of money is going to go down.”
The result, he told the students, is a greater debt that they will inherit. And today, the impact is being seen in things like gas prices. “When you fill up your car," Paul said, "and it’s $3 a gallon, or $4 or $5 a gallon, don’t blame price gouging. Blame the government for a bad monetary policy and a bad foreign policy."
He warned that if no action is taken, “the dollar can lose a lot more value, which means prices can go up a lot more, the economy can get a lot weaker, the stock market could crash.”
All of his ideas were rooted in the Constitution, Paul said. But he recognizes that some -- like eliminating the IRS, and returning all funding of education to the states -- are unlikely to be achieved as president. So he said he’d focus on the one area a president has more leverage -- foreign policy.
“Very simply, we can come up with a program of saying mind our own business, bring our troops home, have a strong national defense,” he said. “At the same time, be stronger and wealthier, save this money, take care of the people that are needy, follow the Constitution, protect personal liberty, have a prosperous economy.”
He noted that war-making powers are given in the Constitution to the Congress. “We’ve never declared another war since World War II,” he said. “And lo and behold, what has happened? We haven’t won a war since.” Continuing commitments abroad, especially in Iraq, have made the military weaker and made us more vulnerable to a terrorist attack domestically. He also warned students that, with the administration seemingly preparing for war in Iran, there would likely need to be a draft.
Asked later by a student how he would withdraw troops, Paul said the sooner the better, but that it would likely take three to six months. “Just announcing that we were gonna leave, and that we were serious," he said, "I think there would be a de facto peace agreement."
An interesting note on the location -- Clinton is due to hold an event at the same high school later this evening.
