Reagan Dinner Speaker Ron Paul Talks Monetary Policy

U.S. Congessman Ron Paul speaking at the Reagan Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines, Iowa – U.S. Congressman Dr. Ron Paul was first to take the stage at the Reagan Dinner at Hy-Vee Hall in Des Moines Friday night.

“I’m also very pleased to be here on this very important event. Of all the Presidents I have met over the many decades, President Reagan was the one I knew the best and visited with the most and had most in common,” Paul said after a video introduction by his son, Senator Rand Paul.

Paul, who was on President Reagan’s Gold Commission, recalled an opportunity he had to share a ride on Marine One with the President to Andrews Air Force Base and engage in a one on one conversation. Paul recalled a conversation of the gold standard coming up, where he says Reagan stated “There has never been a great nation that gave up the gold standard that remained great.”

Paul said that Reagan “he saw money issue as being a very important issue and he saw the danger of not having any restraint on the monetary authorities.” Paul. who has consistently campaigned and spoken about the Federal Reserve and gold standards over the years, stated that he and Reagan’s thoughts on the issue were similar, going on to say that “guess what, we’re in a situation today that demonstrates what happens when you have no control of the monetary authorities.”

Paul continued. “The tragedy here is it causes the growth of governments because some conservatives like to spend money on one issue. Liberals like to spend their money on other issues, but inevitably without restraints on the monetary authority, governments grow and governments grow, the people’s liberties are diminished, and this is where we are today.”

“We have to change policy. How can we cut and still take care of some of the priorities? The program I have, I say protect the priorities. The elderly who’ve become dependent, people who are getting child health care who have become dependent, but we still have to cut,” Paul said in talking about runaway spending.

Speaking on foreign policy, Paul talked about the U.S. and her allies who he states have 70% of the worlds weapons. “We don’t need more weapons. We need a wiser foreign policy. We do not need to be the policemen of the world. We do not need to be nation building. We need to have a strong national defense. We need to mind our own business, end these wars, and start bringing our troops home.”

“What we’re seeing on the streets of Athens and around the world, even in our own country, is the reflection of runaway government spending and too much debt, and people aren’t willing to admit it. They’re not willing to admit the truth, we’ve spent too much. We’re in too much debt and the solution is guess what, cut spending. That is what has to be done.” Paul saidwhile finishing up with his pledge to cut one trillion dollars from the budget in his first year if elected president.

He says that he would look to the constitution to see what is authorized and what is not when looking for items to trim from the budget. “Now you can’t get ride of everything that’s unauthorized the first year, but I thought a good start would be to get rid of five departments the first year. There’s no need for us to have the Department of Education,” Paul said.

Paul says that after spending hundreds of billions of dollars with the department that it has given us “a poorer educational system,” that he says leaves many college students that are unemployed and facing debt.

Paul continued on his monetary policy march by saying, “the liberals wanted to give a house to everybody and what did it do? It caused a housing bubble which collapsed,” saying then that the wealthy got bailed out with TARP funds and Federal Reserve funds. “The middle class lost their jobs and they lost their houses,” Paul said.

Paul closed his speech with, “If you believe in liberty, free markets and contracts, sound money, and sensible foreign policy we could be back on our feet rather shortly. That is what I advocate and that is what I work for.”