Paul thought George W. Bush would go down "as the most fiscally liberal president in our history."
You know, my dad's a fiscal conservative. My dad voted against every one of George Bush's pledges. Every one of George Bush's pledges has been hugely in debt. George Bush has added $2.5 trillion of debt. George Bush will go down in history as the most fiscally liberal president in our history, because of the huge amount of money spent overseas and all the money spent domestically. Some say, oh, it was spent on the war on terror. Untrue. About a trillion on the war on terror and a trillion and a half of deficits spending on domestic programs. The Republicans turned out to be worse than the Democrats.
Paul thought all the other Republican candidates were "crazy" for wanting to continue the Iraq War.
All the other Republican candidates are for continuing the war. John McCain said he'd continue the war for another hundred years, for goodness sake. He would keep troops in Iraq for a hundred years. I don't think the independent voters in New Hampshire are for being in Iraq for a hundred years. And if they're thinking about John McCain or Ron Paul, they need to think: Do you want to be in Iraq for a hundred more years? That's crazy.
Paul said Republicans wanted to invade Iran and were just as bad as Democrats.
Republicans are getting killed everywhere. They don't understand it. It's the war, it's the war, it's the war. They want to go into Iran next. They're all bellicose and beating their chests to go into Iran. And they'll oppose the Democrats on every spending bill once they're out of power. But when they're in power, they're just as bad as the Democrats. Some of that's a part of our system, that people get in power, and then all of their friends want favors from government too.
Paul said Dick Cheney enriched himself "hundreds of millions of dollars" by giving Haliburton contracts as secretary of defense in the 1990s and then going to work for them.
And, you know, my dad has proposed as a campaign finance reform idea that if you do business with government, if you're Halliburton and you get a billion dollar contract, part of it should be voluntary signing a contract that says, "I will not contribute to campaigns, my PACs won't, my corporate officers won't," because that's where it's coming from. Look at Halliburton. When Dick Cheney was vice president, the last thing he did, when he was secretary of defense under the first Bush, the last thing he did was got a $4 billion contract for Halliburton. Who'd he go to work for? Halliburton. Did he enrich himself? Hundreds of millions of dollars....
Paul thought his dad's supporters and Dennis Kucinich's would get along really well.
I think if we put all my dad's supporters in a room with Dennis Kucinich supporters, and I think they'd be drinking beer and having a good time. And they're polar opposites in some ways, but come together on the war.
Paul said his dad's supporters were the "leave-me-alone coalition" and many "drink non-pasteurized milk"
But what I say about our supporters is it's the leave-me-alone coalition. People want to be left alone for several different reasons. We have supporters. A lot of them are home schoolers. They drink non-pasteurized milk and don't want the government to tell them about their milk. They want to teach their kids at home. They are very fearful that the government will be involved with their religion. So many evangelical Christians support my dad.
Paul said his dad had many pro-pot supporters because his dad would leave them alone.
We also have people who have multiple sclerosis living in California who want to use medical marijuana. We have some who might even want to use it recreationally, and they support him because my dad's for leaving them alone.
Paul said his dad supported freedom and tolerance.
My dad says with freedom comes responsibility, but with it also comes tolerance: You have to tolerate people who don't have the same lifestyle as you, look like you, who have a different color of skin, a different philosophy. Freedom is about toleration, and that's what Constitution is about. But you have to tolerate people of other things, but you have to give them the freedom to let them do things.
