Eric Moizuk
At the Republican National Convention this week, Ron Paul, one of the larger and more controversial figures of the party, was absent. On Sunday he spoke at the University of South Florida instead. Paul brought up something he saw on the internet. Somebody said that if he were president, then Osama bin Laden would still be alive. Paul responded to that notion, saying “But you know what I think the answer is? So would the 3000 people on 9/11, be alive!”
Now I always thought Ron Paul was interesting and controversial if nothing else, but saying he could have single handedly stopped 9/11 is a ridiculous idea. Unless Paul is a 9/11 conspiracy supporter, I don’t think any reasonable person could have done anything more than President Bush did. We were attacked by a group of terrorists, and sure there were some red flags that we probably should have spotted, but could someone who supports smaller government really spot that? That sounds oxymoronic if you ask me.
This is not the only crazy thing Ron Paul has ever said. The 12-term Congressman from Texas (who, ironically, supported term limit legislation for Congressmen) is a (Pro-Life) medical doctor, wants to eliminate Medicare, does not think the government should fund medical research (instead taking a laissez-faire view on the matter), and says that the law requiring emergency rooms to treat patients regardless of ability to pay or not is unconstitutional, saying “the professional skills with which one earns a living are property,” and that they should be protected by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. He also says that the cost of those visits, if paid for initially by the hospital, should be reimbursed to the hospitals via the federal government; doesn’t that go against his larger concept of small government?
And Ron Paul has some interesting ideas about foreign policy too. He supports some George-Washington-esque non-intervention policies which frankly would seem to only put the world into further disarray. I fully admit that our country’s spending is out of control, but the financial harm that would happen in the world is almost unimaginable if the U.S. were to cut all of its monetary aid to foreign nations around the world.
And speaking of money, Ron Paul also thinks that our country should go back to the gold standard, which in many ways makes him appear to be a 21st century William Jennings Brian; a man who makes a lot of noise about gold and silver, despite the fact that our current financial system has been working (at least most of the time) since the 1920s, when our current system was implemented by Woodrow Wilson.