Ron Paul's 'Mini-Convention'

Ron Paul's 'Mini-Convention'
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

This is a rush transcript from "Your World with Neil Cavuto," June 10, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Well, the Republican National Convention just got some competition, not from the Democrats, but from another Republican — Ron Paul just announcing he's holding a convention of his own. It will be the same day and in the same city as the RNC Convention.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul joins me now.

What are you — what are you up to, Congressman?

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don't know whether we'll call it a convention. We're certainly going to have a meeting.

• Video: Watch Neil's interview with Ron Paul

But we're sort of following up on what happened early in the presidential primary races. As you recall, early on, I was excluded from a forum out in Iowa. It happened to be a tax group. And I have no idea why I was singled out and excluded. But we went and had a rally next door. We didn't crash the party. We didn't try to cause any problems. We just went next door. And our rally was a lot bigger than the presidential forum was.

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Neil Cavuto's Bio E-mail the Show: cavuto@foxnews.com Common Sense Archive Interview Archive So, at the national convention, we believe, since we won't have very much of a role to play there, that we will see what kind of numbers that we have, where Republicans could come together to remind the party of its promises for limited government.

That's the roots of the Republican Party, and I still think there are still a lot of Republicans that believe that government ought to be small and balanced budgets and free markets and all these principles that, for so long now, we have been neglecting.

CAVUTO: Now, how much of this is your anger at the way you were treated?

PAUL: Oh, I don't think — I don't look like an angry person. I'm not an angry person, because I deal in philosophy. It's a challenge in philosophy. I am determined, but it's all philosophic. It's all philosophic.

And I think that we've lost our way. Our party is weak. We're losing our numbers. We're losing the election. And I think it's because we've lost our way.

I mean, we've changed our foreign policy. We essentially act like Democrats. So, no, I'm not driven in any way by anger, as much as frustration out of the fact that I think the Republican Party doesn't even live up to its platform. If you look at what I stand for and how I vote, I really am pretty darn close to the Republican platform and what they profess they believe in.

CAVUTO: So, philosophically, the argument is, you're going to be hurting John McCain doing this. Do you care?

PAUL: Yes, but we're not going to hurt our philosophy. I mean, we're going to be asking them to reconsider their positions on taxes, on the environment, on immigration, and all these positions that the party has drifted from.

And, certainly, I have always challenged the foreign policy of the last several years. I'm still defending George Bush's foreign policy of the year 2000, where he wanted a humble foreign policy and no nation- building and no policing the world.

So, all I'm asking is for people, the Republicans and conservatives, to look at what we are saying and ask our party to come back to its roots.

CAVUTO: Well, Congressman, you're closer to these guys than I am, but I don't think they're going to do that. And, so, they're going to nominate a candidate who is diametrically opposed to you on a lot of these issues.

What are you going to do?

PAUL: But they're secondary to the people. I mean, when you deal in ideas and philosophy, you appeal to the people. And when the attitude of the people changes, the governments will be forced to. Whether we can be successful at the convention and have them change their platform, you're exactly right. It might not occur that quickly.

But, if our movement is for real, which I believe it is, this is going to continue. And the precinct organizations will continue. And, as time goes on, we will have an influence on the Republican Party. Otherwise...

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Would you run — would you run, Congressman, as a third- party candidate — I guess now, with Barr in the race, a fourth-party candidate?

PAUL: No, I have never planned to do that, never intended to do that. And the democratic process in this country is very biased against that. So, no, I still think...

CAVUTO: Well, I don't know, Congressman. I got a lot of e-mail. We've been, you know, promoting that you're going to be on our show. You're — you're very good for ratings, Congressman.

And, not kidding, but a lot of the people say, "Tell him we want him to run. We want him to run."

(LAUGHTER)

CAVUTO: What do you say?

PAUL: Well, I think that's encouraging, and it's flattering, but I also know that it's hard to get on ballots. If I had not run in the Republican primary, you wouldn't be talking to me today, most likely, and I wouldn't have ever gotten into the debates.

So, there's a lot of exclusion of the third parties.

Bob Barr, I'm hopeful, will do a better job as a third-party candidate than average, but he's going to have a tough time.

CAVUTO: But your basic premise — and the reason why you don't like what the Democrats are saying, why you don't like what the Republicans are saying, leaving foreign policy out for the time being — it's just that the role of government, they're both bigger on bigger government, right?

PAUL: Sure. Sure, bigger spending. They compromise down here. And everybody is supposed to compromise. But, you know, the Democrats want to spend on one area and the Republicans on another area.

So, when they come up with a bill, like this week on the supplemental, they will come up, they will raise military spending and all the foreign aid expenditures. At the same time, they're going to raise domestic spending. So, that's the compromise.

The compromise has to be, we have to cut back, balance the budget, strengthen the dollar, stop the inflation, and get back to a market economy.

Otherwise, you know, all we're going to have is trying to survive from the breaking up and the — of these bubbles. And now we're suffering through the housing bubble collapse.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: So, I assume with these collapses and, real quickly, on the oil companies, you would not be for windfall profits taxes, as Democrats were shot down today, or federal bailout programs of any sort, right?

PAUL: Absolutely not.

CAVUTO: OK.

PAUL: And, hopefully that's one area where we may influence John McCain, is to be a little bit better on taxes.

CAVUTO: OK.

PAUL: But, in the past, he hasn't been that good on taxes.

CAVUTO: Alrighty.

Congressman, always a pleasure having you. Thank you for joining us again.

PAUL: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

CAVUTO: Ron Paul, who could cause a dustup this summer. We shall see.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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