Ron Paul: ‘The country is bankrupt, the people are being bamboozled’

Speaking with CNBC earlier this week, former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul had some wise words to say about the recent government shutdown and the upcoming fight over the debt ceiling.

“The American people are being bamboozled into believing that you have to keep spending forever,” stated the libertarian bestselling author. He added that both sides are not looking to make any cuts in spending and the only solution they will come up with are spending increases because anything else would not persist with the status quo.

Paul further explained that the United States should not be playing the blame game due to the fact that Republicans and Democrats are “rigid with bad ideas.” “It is a philosophy of government that is to blame; Keynesianism, Militarism, and Interventionism, and the funny-money system that we use. All that has come together and the country is bankrupt and nobody wants to amid it.”

The founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity pegged an important question: why can’t the American people just opt out of the system? He noted that there is a movement towards limiting the size and scope of the federal government. However, Paul conceded that “there is still an appetite for big government – people are afraid to give up on it.”

Indeed, the “champion of the constitution” is correct that the American people are being “bamboozled,” but the argument could be made is that it’s the citizenry’s fault. For decades, they accepted the premise that the government can solve every problem, it can afford to maintain the warfare-welfare state and can remain as the crusader of international justice.

Unfortunately for them, reality is starting to sink in and the nation’s economic and financial outlook is looking bleaker with each passing day. No longer will the U.S. be able to intervene into the domestic affairs of other nations. No longer will the federal government subsidize every facet of our lives. No longer will the incumbent president or White House hopeful promise goodies for all on the election trail.

The country is crumbling…and here are final words from Dr. Paul:

“The only thing that really counts is what the American people believe the role of government should be… and if deficits don’t matter, it will not be a shutdown of government but a breakdown of government that occurs”