Rep. Ron Paul, a Republican who wants the federal government “out of Americans’ lives and wallets,” spoke to more than 1,000 people in the McKimmon Center Monday night.
The Texas congressman orated to applause and cheers throughout his speech, which covered topics ranging from U.S. offensive action on Libya to the causes of and cures for the current U.S. financial crisis. Paul, who ran for president in 2008, said he is considering running for president in 2012, a decision that will be based on the value of the dollar.
Paul supports the abolition of the Federal Reserve, an institution that stands alone from the U.S. government, which has no say over its actions and decisions. Event attendees chanted “End the Fed” at the beginning of Paul’s speech.
Evidenced by rising food prices at the grocery store, the purchasing power of the dollar is currently in decline. Economists call the decline in purchasing power inflation. Paul said the Federal Reserve, which is responsible for the stable purchasing power of the dollar, wants inflation to hover somewhere around 2 percent.
Paul disagreed with Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, and the Fed’s goal of 2 percent inflation.
“The monetary crisis is still yet to come, and it will get worse,” Paul said. “The only thing that can restore stability is sound money.”
The U.S. tied the value of its money to the value of gold until Richard Nixon fully abolished the “gold standard” during his presidency. The U.S. currently employs the system of fiat money, in which the credibility and value of the U.S. dollar lies only the holders’ confidence in the currency. Paul wants the U.S. to return to the gold standard.
Higher prices worldwide are due to the international belief in fiat currencies, according to Paul.
“Your dollar is going to go down in purchasing power,” Paul said. “All empires [such as the U.S.] end for financial reasons.”
Paul, who said U.S. support of the bombing of Libya is an “act of war,” disagreed with the way President Obama went about taking offensive action on Libya. He said Obama should have come to Congress before making any decision to act against Libya, instead of getting permission from the United Nations alone.
“We’re getting into too many wars. We’re doing them carelessly,” Paul said.
Paul went on to say that due to his belief in national sovereignty, the U.S. should not be in the United Nations.
Paul called U.S. support of bombing in Libya an offensive action because the U.S. is not acting in its direct defense. He called the Libyan action a “preventive war.”
“People on the receiving end of our preventive wars view it as an act of aggression,” Paul said.
The fact that college graduates cannot get jobs is not the fault of capitalism, according to Paul. He said that although deficit spending may have prevented an economic depression, the current administration should have let the depression come.
The depression would have come to “the right people,” Paul said, speaking on the bailout money that bankers and big business people received around 2008. The amount of funding poor people get through welfare transfers from the federal government is “puny” compared to the money big business has received, according to Paul.
The N.C. State chapter of Young Americans for Liberty hosted the event. They sought out 2,300 signatures to petition Paul to speak. YAL member and freshman in chemical engineering Ryan Vest said the University is lucky to have such an influential person speak on campus.
“It’s definitely a big deal when a possible Presidential candidate comes to visit your campus to give a free speech,” Vest said. “I think a lot of [Paul’s] views are shared by college students.”
The speech was delayed several minutes because event coordinators had to add seats to the more than 1,000 that were already in the room.
Paul said college campuses have always been a haven for him.
“I’m very happy with what’s happening on campuses,” Paul said. “I always went to the campuses, because I believed that’s where the action was.”
