http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0903/07/dlh.01.htmlHUGHLEY: You know, first off, I did not -- I was having a conversation but I didn't mean for this to happen. And I like Michael Steele a lot. I'm supporting him on my cup. I don't think he should resign. This is like -- I started all of this. This is like black-on-black crime. That's what it is. I want him to keep his job. But since then Michael Steele has apologized which, I hate. I think if you say something you mean, you should just stand by it. He said, "I respect Rush Limbaugh. He's a national conservative leader. And in no way, do I want to diminish his voice."
Why is the name Steele? You should call him aluminum. He folded that fast. I don't understand. Does Rush Limbaugh run the GOP? It seems like it to me. Here now to talk about the Grand Old Party is Texas Congressman Ron Paul. How are you doing, Ron?
You see, it's amazing. You are probably the most -- the favorite Republican of everybody that I know, man. You talk sensibly. You're very reasonable. You're very pragmatic in your approach. Can I ask you an honest question, is Rush Limbaugh the Republican Party leader? REP. RON PAUL, (R) TX: Philosophically, he has a lot to do with it. But technically, no, he's not an elected leader. But philosophically, he's filling a void, I think there is a void in the Republican Party. And in some ways he's filling it. But there are philosophic influences and that's what Rush Limbaugh does.
HUGHLEY: Then let me ask you probably a more direct question. Why do so many people insist on kissing his ass like that? Why is he so -- Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina apologized. Congressman Phil Gingrey apologized. Now you have the chairman of the RNC apologizing to him. I don't think they said anything that was unreasonable. Why would they insist on ...
PAUL: I have no idea. I can't quite figure out all of this excitement about this event.
HUGHLEY: Me neither.
PAUL: Because in a way, I just wonder about the liberals and Democrats wanting to help Rush Limbaugh so much. He's making a lot more money. You know what I suspect that's going on, and this has nothing to do with the conspiracy, but I think what they want to happen is Rush Limbaugh make a whole lot of money and then they're going to tax him and limit his income to about $250,000 a year, and they're going to put a tax on all of the entertainers and we're going to bail out everybody in the country and take care of all of the poor people.
HUGHLEY: Hey, man, the word conspiracy is going to be used, let the black guy do it. I want to do that. But he does represent -- Rush Limbaugh does represent a pretty large segment of the Republican Party.
PAUL: I think -- the poll, nobody knows the exact number. I think I saw a poll that said 11 percent but they are energetic and they know about it. But he doesn't represent a lot of people involved with social values. He certainly doesn't represent me.
HUGHLEY: Now, Rush did say that he wanted President Obama to fail. Do you feel the same way?
PAUL: No, no, not really. And I didn't hear his exact words. But, you know, if a person's goal is to help poor people and take care of and improve the world and bring peace, want them to be successful. But if they want to be -- if they want to socialize the country and -- and nationalize everything, no, you don't want them to be successful there. But you can support their goals, and you hope they do, but I don't want any authoritarian to be successful. I don't want people to be successful in their foreign policy, even if we go off to another war, like Obama's doing right now in Afghanistan. You know, if you say oh, great, let's have great success over there and then he can go on and take on Pakistan.
HUGHLEY: Thank you, Ron. We're going to be right back. Next, we have more with Ron Paul. We'll be right back.
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HUGHLEY: We are back with Republican Congressman Ron Paul. Ron, you ran for president. When you dropped out, you did not back John McCain. Obviously, you have some issues with some members of your party, right?
PAUL: Yeah, when they don't live up to their promises, if they call themselves fiscal conservatives and then they double the size of the budget and the deficit, then I can't with a clear conscience support them.
HUGHLEY: So you were against George Bush's big spending, too?
PAUL: Oh, absolutely. And certainly I was against his foreign policy and his violation of personal civil liberties, the privacy that he was invading and the secrecy of government. I didn't like any of that. I'm sort of an old-fashioned conservative that believes in the Constitution.
HUGHLEY: Now, you voted against -- also voted against President Obama's stimulus package. Obviously, you had reservations about that. Why was that?
PAUL: Well, I don't think it's going to do any good. Most of that money so far hasn't helped the little guy. Going to Wall Street, if they would have taken all of that money and just sent checks out, we would have been better off. I would like to get the money into the hands of the people. I don't trust the government and don't trust the politicians and the bureaucrats because they bail out their buddies. What we want is to get more money in the hands of the people. That's why should suspend the income tax and everybody would get a pay raise immediately. There are still a few people employed. So this would be a big boost to the economy. And the people make the decisions rather than bailing out corporate giants and banks, and then they take their money and they get billions of dollars worth of bonuses. It's absolutely out of control.
HUGHLEY: But, Ron, OK, I, too, was against the bailout. But some aspects of the stimulus package, I see like as far as extending unemployment benefits to people, making those a little longer and things like that, other attributes of the stimulus package. I agree with some of those. But the bailout, I have to say, I was totally against it. I didn't think we should bail out G.M.. I thought some of the banks, I could see how that was necessary. But honestly, what do we do then?
PAUL: Well, you had -- you have to understand how we got into this mess. We got into this mess because ...
HUGHLEY: Because we spent like there was no tomorrow. We all spent like there was no time.
PAUL: Right. We elected the Republicans to back up from big government and they doubled the size of everything and ran up the deficit. So we spent too much, we borrowed too much. And then we started putting pressure on the fed. The fed acts on their own and they started inflating, that is creating credit out of thin air, they're the ones who really caused the boom and really bring about the bust. After the depression ended after World War II, the spending went down two-thirds and taxes went down one-third, and that's when the depression finally ended in the late '40s.
HUGHLEY: Why? The amazing thing is you almost -- you don't seem like a Republican to me that I have ever heard. You seem so reasonable. No, honestly, you really do. You seem to make sense, which I don't attribute to very many politicians.
PAUL: OK. Go ahead.
HUGHLEY: But the government does have to do something. I think we're very panicked. I think the electorate is clearly nervous. The government has to do something to kind of allay their fears or we'll never get on track, right?
PAUL: That is true. And we could if we had some sensible people here. And I, even though I'm a strict constitutionalist, I don't believe in most of these programs, I still have an interim set of priorities. I would cut $400 billion, $500 billion from overseas. I don't think it makes any sense to blow up bridges in Iraq and then pay a no-bid to rebuild them through no-bid contracts where the corporations never rebuild. I would say spend all of that money back here at home. We would save enough money by changing our foreign policy, cutting down on our deficit and still take care of people we have taught to be so dependent. We spent over a trillion dollars a year maintaining an American empire but nobody wants to give up on the empire, not even this new administration.
They're pursuing the Bush policies in the Middle East and are not cutting back. And yesterday a gave a speech on the House floor, and I literally bet the troops will not be out of Iraq in 2011, because the -- we're going to have a big amnesty
[NOTE: RP said Embassy, but the CNN transcribers wrote amnesty, what an oversight] and we're going to have 56 military bases. Believe me, that is very offensive to the people of Iraq.
HUGHLEY: Ron, you are -- you are too human to be Republican.
Now, I was on Bill Maher about a year and a half ago or so. And you came on, and you came on by satellite, and you were explaining about the Civil War, how it didn't need to be fought. I was at first, like, is he saying it didn't need to be fought? But when you explained it to me, I thought it was one of the most pragmatic, reasonable things I have ever heard a politician say.
PAUL: You know, the other nations in the west that had slavery all got rid of slavery without a civil war. And the motivation behind the Civil War had more to do than just the slavery issue.
HUGHLEY: Right.
PAUL: So we lost 600,000 Americans and a lot of residual, probably some leftover today. There's still residual. So you could have for a small fraction of the money and no deaths just bought the slaves, you know, and freed the slaves. That's what Britain did and some other nations. And that just makes a lot more sense than fighting a war and killing each other.
HUGHLEY: I tell you what ...
PAUL: I don't like this war as a solution to our problems.
HUGHLEY: I tell you what, you make way too much sense. You can't be Republican. I will say it again. Are you going to run again in 2012?
PAUL: Well, I might be running from somebody or running for Congress. Or who knows what?
HUGHLEY: Thank you, Congressman Ron Paul. It was a pleasure, man. A real pleasure. Wow.
