FORA-TV: U.S. Representative Ron Paul- 'The Government's Role'

Source:FORA-TV- U.S. Representative Ron Paul (Libertarian, Texas) talking about the role of government, n 2008.

"U.S. Congressman (R-TX) and self-professed libertarian Ron Paul argues that the United States government has not been behaving as the framers of the Constitution originally intended.

Texas Congressman and Republican Presidential Candidate Ron Paul spoke in Gaston Hall during a speech sponsored by the Georgetown University Lecture Fund.

He argues that the United States Constitution has been progressively weakened in recent decades and suggests some possibilities for reinforcing it - Georgetown University

Ronald Ernest Paul is a Republican United States Congressman from Lake Jackson, Texas, a physician, a bestselling author, and a former 2008 U.S. presidential candidate. 

Complete video at:FORA-TV." 

From FORA-TV

The problem with our debt and deficit, is a bad economy and the fact that our Federal Government does too much. (As far as I'm concern) We are over committed at home and abroad. And we have people collecting social insurance for too long, Unemployment and Welfare Insurance being pretty good examples of this. And I would add Public Housing and Food Assistance to that list, with these people collecting this assistance for too long. (As far as I'm concern) 

What we should be doing instead is trying to move these people to become self-sufficient instead. Which would save the Federal Government a lot of money right there alone, because instead of people collecting from these social insurance Programs, they would be paying into them instead saving people who are self- sufficient a lot of money. 

We also don't educate our students well enough while they are still minors and they end up not getting a good enough education to go to a good college to get the skills that they need to be successful in life. (And thats just assuming they bother to finish high school) 

And a lot of people who don't even finish high school end up in prison or on public assistance because they don't have enough skills that they need to take care of themselves as adults. 

And if we just educated our students while they are young well and this is why public education reform is so important in America, then these people wouldn't end up on public assistance as adults. Which would save the Federal Government a lot of money in the future, because these people wouldn't need public assistance at all, because they would have the skills that they need in order to take care of themselves as adults and be self-sufficient. 

So what we need to do is the Federal Government get its debt and deficit under control in the short-term and we won't be able to do that without a strong economy. But we need to cut back what the Federal Government is currently doing and get it to a manageable size and then reform it in the future, so it's doing and less and doing better at what its need to do for the country.

They way I would reform the Federal Government for the future is in the areas of national defense and social insurance to start with: bring our troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, keep them out of other countries as well and not committing anywhere thats not in our national interest. No more ground troops in Libya and Syria. (To use as examples) And then bring our troops home from developed nations that we care currently defending as well: Europe, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Korea and demand that these developed nations defend themselves. NATO should be converted into the European Defense Alliance or something. 

And we also need to reform our social insurance programs for the short-term and long-term. Fix the financing in all of them to save them and then provide the social insurance programs that don't have their own revenue sources with their own revenue. Welfare Insurance, Food Assistance, Disaster Relief, Medicaid. (To use as examples) And then get them off of the Federal and state budgets. And convert them into semi-private, non-profit, independent community services to serve the less-fortunate that would have to serve anyone thats eligible for them. 

We have two duel threats to our economy and financial system: a bad economy with not enough economic growth and not enough people working. And then a debt and deficit issue where we are borrowing too much money, spending too much money and are overcommitted at home and abroad. And we have to address these issues.