Ron Paul Compares Obama to Bush

Congressman Ron Paul confessed he's not much of a football fan, blaming his disinterest on a preoccupation with less sports-oriented issues.

"I get fascinated with the Exchange Stabilization Fund, and things like that" confessed the 2008 Republican Presidential hopeful. Um. Yeah. Us too.

Paul, who was born in Pittsburgh but represents Texas, was not sure about Frank Rich's suggestion in yesterday's New York Times that Wall Street poses more of a danger to working-class Americans than Al-Qaeda does.

"I don't know if you compare military danger to financial danger," he said. "I'm not afraid of big companies, and Wall Street, and even a big bank if they're making it on their own and providing a service."

The real danger, he added, is providing corporations with government benefits and protections through the monetary system. "You create bubbles," he explained. "And the bubbles burst, and lot of people suffer."

And people are suffering still, which led to the false urgency to pass the stimulus bill and bailout financial institutions, two actions that Paul did not support.

"I think all that did was delay the inevitable," said Paul. "Which means we have a long way to go before the correction actually happens."

The so-called stimulus, he added, failed to create jobs because it took government money away from individuals. Paul thinks the government should have cut taxes so that people would have been able to pay down their debt, and go back to work sooner.

As for health care, Paul is uniquely qualified to speak about the reform bill Congress will likely pass soon. He is, after all, an OB-GYN.

"Well, if you're going to be a doctor," said Imus. "Be that one."

Paul wondered why health care costs continue to go up while quality of care continues to spiral downward, an inverse relationship that does not apply across all sectors.

"With a cell phone or a computer, the quality keeps going up and the prices keep going down," he pointed out.

Of his failed Presidential bid, Paul said he was shocked that his message resonated with young people. "College kids became fascinated with sound money, talking about the Federal Reserve, talking about personal liberties, and especially talking about a different foreign policy," he said.

Which is something Obama has not brought to the table, in Paul's view. He accused Obama of following the same foreign policy as, of all people, George W. Bush.

"Those are issues that should be really debated," said Paul, frustrated at the media's preoccupation with inanity. "But they're fluffed over."

-Julie Kanfer