He says it here.
Isn’t protecting the President and his/her family a matter of national security? Considering how expensive it is, do we really only want men and women with vast wealth to consider the office?
I think Mr. Paul has his head up his behind on this one.
Ron Paul didn’t say (or imply) that the President of the United States shouldn’t be protected. He was eschewing protection for himself on the basis that he is an “ordinary citizen”.
Listening again, it seems to me that his implication is that Secret Service protection is Welfare, because it’s taxpayer money going to protect an individual. But he doesn’t mention the office of President specifically, so he might just mean for candidates.
Hopefully he’ll clarify this at some point.
Before taking the oath of office I should hope!
Any time he clarifies it will before he takes the oath. I stand a better chance of being elected President than Paul does.
And once again Ron Paul is full of sh!t. The US has an interest in protecting serious candidates for president from being assassinated in order to maintain the integrity of the electoral process. As much as it pains me to admit it, Paul certainly fits the broad definition of serious candidate; he is not strictly an “ordinary citizen”.
He certainly has the right to refuse protection. But consider the reaction of his supporters if (God forbid, and I mean that honestly) some nut tries to kill him a la Gabrielle Giffords.
Isn’t that where he usually has his head?
So was Robert Kennedy.
The country has an interest in people being able to run for political office without being murdered. Its not really for their welfare, its for ours. Having leading candidates blown away disrupts the political process, discourages otherwise good candidates from running and conceivably makes candidates who do run less likely to espouse views that would encourage a lone nut to kill them.
Yes, it is welfare. General welfare. Which I thought was a constitutional principle.
You know you’ve written the constitution in your own script when it hates all the same people you do…
And George Wallace.
However, Paul can say this because he is sure all the gun-toting loons are on his side.