Ron Paul: 'Cut, Cap and Balance' Perpetuates the Status-Quo

While Republicans -- including Florida's leading contenders for U.S. Senate -- have ballyhooed their support of the "Cut, Cap and Balance Act," an early adopter now says it's much ado about nothing.

Speaking on the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said, "This bill only serves to sanction the status quo by putting forth a $1 trillion budget deficit and authorizing a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit."

Paul, the GOP's most fiscally conservative presidential candidate, blasted HR 2560, saying:

• "It purports to eventually balance the budget without cutting military spending, Social Security, or Medicare. This is impossible."
• "It further entrenches the ludicrous Beltway concept of discretionary versus nondiscretionary spending.America faces a fiscal crisis, and we must seize the opportunity once and for all to slay Washington's sacred cows -- including defense contractors and entitlements.To allow otherwise is pure cowardice."
• "The Act applies the nonsensical narrative about a 'Global War on Terror' to justify exceptions to its spending caps."
• "Finally, and most egregiously, this Act ignores the real issue: total spending by government."

Citing economistMilton Friedman's injunction to limit taxes and spending, not simply to balance the budget, Paul wants to bring spending back "at least to where it was a decade ago."

The congressman concluded:

"Allowing government to spend up to a certain percentage of GDP is insufficient. It doesn't matter that the recent historical average of government outlays is 18 percent of GDP, because in recent history the government has way overstepped its constitutional mandates.All we need to know about spending caps is that they need to decrease year after year."

View Paul's address here.