problems here at home. we're spending too much money overseas. we are getting into much trouble. our obligation is to take care of the people at home and long time before we are to be the policeman of the world. [cheers and applause] so this means i've made a modst suggestion. that is cut spending by $1 trillion the first year. [applause] >> this would take some change in attitudes. like i said, we have to have a change in foreign policy. stop spending so much money overseas. that should be a lot easier for we, the people, to come

together, both liberals and mod rats, conservatives, if they want to concentrate on america, why don't we stop the spending overseas? i would think this would be the easiest place to cut spending. but it would mean we would bring the troops home from overseas, germany and japan! [applause] >> there may well be an immediate economic benefit for the military spending their money here at home instead of germany and japan. [applause] >> but that still wouldn't be

enough cutting. you'd have to cut some more, so i have picked five departments. five departments to cut. and then also go back on the budget levels to 2006. you know, government wasn't like it was too small back in 2006. just go back to 2006. that gets you down to the budget being balanced. the only reason that this doesn't happen is people in washington are in denial. they don't think there's a spending problem today. guess what, the president announced he's going to ask the congress to raise the national debt by $1.2 trillion. oh. no. absolutely not. but guess what kind of trickery they have and guess who did it? it was the congress last summer when they had this resolution you know when they created this

super committee that was going to solve all our problems. they made a deal with the president. the president goes to the congress and says i need to trays national debt $1.2 trillion. and if congress doesn't do anything -- if the congress doesn't reject the request, in 15 days it becomes law, automatic. they have to reject it. and guess what? he's going to ask for this increase while they are on christmas vacation. so in a way the debt is going to go up automatically. they are on autopilot and this economy is not going to sustain this much longer. this is a dollar phenomenon and monetary phenomenon and it's intertwined. we are very much engaged right now in bailing out europe. we're doing this through the federal reserve.

the federal reserve does it on the books. we don't even get to know what they are doing and congress ought to force them to tell us what they are doing. [applause] >> we're approaching a crisis time economically and politically speaking. our liberties are at let the, too,. not by an outside invader. we have the strongest military. we've done a great job militarily. but we've also taken that oath that says we should be weary of

enemies both foreign and domestic. and we have a lot of our freedoms under threat right now. but we are at a crossroads, and we need to make a decision right now and it's a decision our founders had to make because they got sick of soldiers being in our house because of privacy. and we have to make our decision once again what should the role of government be? the role of federal government should be at least very, very minimal. right now, though, the federal government is very, very large, which means that every power and authority the federal government gets, undermines your personal liberty. the goal and all political action from my viewpoint should be the promotion and preservation of individual liberty. [applause]

>> if our military has been so successful and we don't have to worry about anybody invading us, then what are our concerns about? to me, it is our economy and the way we've lived beyond our means and the way we've become careless with our liberties that we have allowed our government to do too much. we have had a major crisis and event that was so terrible for us to with stand. that of course happened on 9/11. 9/11 was a very bad episode, and a lot had to be done, but we didn't do exactly the right things at the right times. for instance, one of the first things they did within days before they decided who did what and where to go, they

passed a piece of legislation that had been floating around for years and shoved it on the floor and that was the patriot act and that took away your fourth amendment right that we don't need. the patriot act. [applause] >> and of course just recently we have had some other changes. as a matter of fact, earlier this year, the president announced a policy change he said now that it was proper with his -- it was proper for him to have the authority to assassinate an american citizen even if they have not been charged with anything.

he thought it was -- if he thought it was necessary. very bad. now of course the person they picked out, probably a very bad guy he talked about stirring up violence. he was never charged with it. he never had a trial, and yet it was decided that he would be assassinated that we use a drone and assassinate him in yemen. so he's gone. but the principle. his son look like a shady character, too, so they sent another missile over to get his son. they got him. he was at his cousin's and the son was 16 years old. this is not the way americans are supposed to be. we're supposed to be a nation of laws. rule of law is what we want.

[applause] so in one sense we go to the military and take the oath and fight and endanger ourselfs to protect our constitution, but at the same time our constitution is being eroded right here at home. just this last week. two weeks ago, the national defense authorization act. that act has in it audience: boo. >> i'm amazed so many people know about it. that means we have a healthy society and the internet is work. [applause] >> but that bill essentially eliminates -- it's institution alizing military law. it can arrest an american citizen and be denied an attorney and be held

indefinitely even in a foreign prison. this is not good for us. fortunately, we are able to get some information out, and a lot of what we've done in our campaign makes use of the internet. but also there's an attack on the internet right now. you know? it's stopping the bill that says they are going to stop the -- all theft on the internet, which means they are opening up the doors to know everything you do and measure everything you do to protect you from yourself. let me tell you, the government can't protect you from yourself, and they don't need to be taking over the internet either. [applause] of course all these things are

done to take away the fourth amendment. they call that the patriot act for the internet. to stopline piracy act. all -- always these good things. when the patriot act was being voted on. i i remember so clearly, because i sat next to another member and he was voting for it. guess what? i was voting against it. [applause] >> i said to him, why are you voting for this? probably don't even know what's in it? going to be some bad stuff in there? why are you going to vote for it? the conditions are we just had this attack and people want us to do something and how can i vote against the patriot act? how can i go home and explain to them -- i said that's your job. go home and explain to them why you're doing it.

[applause] >> we will have to make a decision real soon whether it's six months or two years. but it's real soon. we are able to predict certain events will come. we can't tell when. austrian economics tell we fully understood there was a housing bubble and a nasdaq bubble. we didn't know when it was going to burst but we knew it would come in a day or week or year but the foundation of the system has been eroded so the collapse of the system -- the financial system is on shaky legs and the militarism is on shaky legs because there are plans right now to spread the war in this area and then how soon can we start bombing iran?

and that's very precarious. so now we have a system where our personal liberties aren't being protected, and there could be problems in the street. we have had cases where people are speaking out. whether it's the tea party movement or up a movement, they are just desperate because they are dissatisfied with the government and looking for answers. but what we have to work for is to try to prevent the violence and respect and honor the rule of law and respect all individuals to protect everybody, not just certain people from all these crimes. [applause] >> i talk a lot about the wars going on overseas. i remember the feathers speech i gave on the house floor about trying to stop something in iraq. it didn't happen in 2001 or

2002. it happened in 1998. that's when they passed a bill that said it is now our policy to have regime change in iraq. i said that's going to lead to war. so we know what they are trying to do. and we have to try to stop and work our way out economically. but i want to take care of the people who have become so dependant on government. even though it would have become a better way of taking care -- you take the social security contract. we can't keep honoring that contract if we keep spending the money overseas. so i would take care of those on medicare and medicaid and social security. but we can't do it the way we've been doing it today. nobody's going to have anything and you're going to have violence in the streets. that will be dangerous. we are not immune from that. what i see happening is we're seeing something very wonderful

slip away from us. something that we have all benefited by. you and i and our families and for years, even today we still have a lot of apparent wealth. but our wealth today is all based on debt. all the bills, if they had to be paid, there would be no wealth. what if we had to pay everything we owed to everyone? you can't have everything regarding wealth based on debt. we had natural resources protected by the oges, and we got sobbed. we then as a people concentrated more on the wealth than our liberties. and we got careless, and our liberties have slipped away and our wealth will slip away as

well. if you do not have true liberty, your wealth will slip away as well. i do my share of criticizing the president. i've already done that this eengs. it's not just this administration or just the previous administration. it's been decades of bad economic ideas and bad foreign epolicy and bad monetary policy. that's where the problem is. [applause] but what this system did was it read the interest in government being taken over by special interests. did better -- besides producing products became more difficult because overtaxation -- it became such that lobbiests and

-- medical reforms. when they have new legislation. guess who gets involved in it's the medical and insurance companies. people aren't represented. they might tell you that, but you're really not represented because in a free society you don't have the government involved. just think of this effort to give everybody a house. if everybody who wanted a house lost their house and everybody on wall street got bailed out? i think it was a bad idea. i don't even think we should have a department of education. [applause] but the results have not been good, because we've become more dependant on the government and the government would provide for us whether it's medicine or

education. so in the old days, the old days like when i was in college and medical school, i was able to work my way through school and it wasn't so expensive. but today how difficult is it? so expensive and hard to get a job, so it's hard to do it. so the enticement is become an endentured servant to the government and o'the government for years and not be trained to take the jobs today. so we're graduating these thousands and thousands of students, and right now the studentso a trillion the students ow trills of dollars. people are giving up, and i think it's a healthy attitude. don't depend on the government. the government is supposed to protect us and give us our freedoms and let us take care of ourselves and not be dependant on the government.

[applause] >> there's one other war i want to mention that i think has been detrimental to our liberties. it's a war much near home. we have some problems on our southern border. i know that's a long way off from iowa, but we live down there in texas, and we have a problem on our borders. in the last five years it's estimated 45,000 individuals, probably mostly mexicans have been killed on the border. so there's a border war going on down there. but here we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars and losing our troops over trying to decide where the boundary line is between afghanistan and pakistan. i think we should be more concerned about our own borders here at home. [applause]

>> but the war we have on our southern boarder is complex. my argument on illegal immigration. if you didn't subsidize it, you'd have a lot less of it. but another war that has not played well for us is the war on drugs. it's been very detrimental to our excuse to invade our privacy and did many things to invade our privacy and doesn't solve the problem. before 1914 there were no federal rules or regulations on drugs. the real modern war drug was in

the 1970's. we spent over a trillion dollars on the war on drugs and a lot of times they are using prescription drugs more so than legal ones but prohibition of alcohol didn't work. alcohol is a very dangerous drug, but there's something we should think about on this. if it isn't working, why are we doing this? and the one basic principle i think is wrong is alcohol is a very deadly drug. if a person becomes an alcoholic and asks for help, we show a little empathy, and they treat them as a patient and we have centers where they go to, but if somebody is caught using a drug that they have made illegal arbitrarily, you become a "criminal." and i think maybe because i'm in a position. i'd like to think of the drug problem more as a medical

problem than throwing people in prison for using it. [applause] >> but freedom is a wonderful sfarmente. it hasn't been tried that much. most has been run by dictators and tyrants and pharaohs and i feel our government getting more tyrannical and we don't have property rights and they don't need search warrants to come into our houses, so we're losing a whole lot. but freedom to me is so wonderful because people use freedom in different ways. you don't have to decide what your religions are. there was a time when the government decided what religion you should be. but people understand pretty well that you can pick and choose your religion, you can

pick and choose your intellectual material but anything we want to put in our payout, it seems the government has to give us permission. so if we're expected to deal with our eternity and intellectual life, why aren't we responsible for our own bodies and make our own decisions on this? [applause] >> the encouraging part is that a lot of people are listening and a lot of people are excited about some of the things we're talking about tonight talking about where america went wrong and the greatness of our constitution and what sound money is about and sensible foreign policy is about and we don't have to give up anything. we don't have to give up our defense, and for you to be safe you don't have to give up your liberties.

this idea that you have to give up so many of your liberties to be safe is nonsense. you don't have to give up any of your liberties to be safe. [applause] >> the other warning some others give is it's bad. we have to do all this, but you're going to have to sacrifice. now if i can -- if i can wave the wand and have any way and have enough people to come into the congress to change it and i give you back our liberty. your life is your own, your responsibilities is your own and give you back your freedom to act as you choose and tell you where you can use your money where you please, that's not a sacrifice. that's what you need. [applause]

>> but there's a lot of excitement going on. and i'm encouraged about next week. i hope everybody comes out and votes. [applause] but as important as the election is and what we've dealt with and i've been doing it for a long time, and the interest is growing out of great need, because we need some answers. but this is something that is an intellectual fight. we have to know what want and we have to be convinced that freedom works and we have to be convinced that we cannot we don't have to depend onos and we don't have any right to tell other people what to do, and in we used that golden rule on intrapersonal relationship we ought to know how to use the golden rule on international

relationship. if we don't want other countries doinging things to us, we shouldn't do it to them either. [applause] but because of the crisis we're facing, there's a lot of independent thinking. people now consider themselves more independent than belonging to parties. but two areas, one, with the students. the students, the young people in college and military people, they know what liberty is all about and that's what they want. [applause] then there's also another group. styles i forget about them, but i might -- some people of a little bit older age that have been around and they remember a little bit about what it was like to have more personal

freedom and personal responsibility. some of them have been around and they sort of dropped out. they haven't been voting and they haven't been interested, because they have been stung one too many times and the candidates they vote for didn't do what they said. no matter how bad the society. just think of what it was like in communism. they had the part of the remnant that held the troops together. so there is a large number of people coming together saying maybe we see a chance for a real change. and it's galvanizing and i think it's getting exciting. i don't think for a minute it's going to be easy. but i know one thing, if we don't put our mind to it and go along with the status quo and continue to do things we're doing right now, believe me,

it's worth the fight. because that would be very bad. that's what i'm here for. that's what i'm here to ask you for help for. but we don't need the stat status quo. we need to restore the greatness of american freedom and the wonderful freedom we live in. thank you, very much. [applause]

my hero and i hope he is yours as well. >> if you want to work this way, we will give you an opportunity to have a photograph. all right.

>> hello. got to meet snevb ok, here we go. >> hi.

>> ron paul will be on the january -- on the jan michaels show this morning. and a smull cast of the radio show will air at 10:00 eastern. "washington journal" is next live with your phone calls then the broadcast of the jan mickalson radio show. also campaign appearances by rick perry and mitt romney. in about 45