STEIN: A bit of a personal question then, are you on Social Security? Do you get Social Security checks?
PAUL: I do.
STEIN: Well, I mean, is there — you just told younger generations that they should ween themselves off this social contract.
PAUL: That is true.
STEIN: But you haven’t done it yourself…Don’t you think you chould have set a good example for the future generations. You’re not the wealthiest man in congress, I know that, but you have enough means to take care of yourself in retirement…Couldn’t you have set an example?
PAUL: No. I think the programs are so designed, just as I use the post office too, I use government highways, I do that too, I use the banks, the federal reserve system, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t work to remove this in the same way on Social Security.
via GOP Rep. Ron Paul Admits He Takes Social Security, Which He Once Likened To Slavery | ThinkProgress.
Hypocrite
Seriously? What’s the point of this exactly? His radical unradicalness?
That he’s not so unrealistic as to think that we need a complete and immediate overhaul?
You’d castigate him for being a heartless reactionary if he said that. Instead, he actually lives out what he says — which is that although the system is harmful, it won’t go away without being gradually phased out. If we completely opted out of every government benefit we thought was ill-advised and ultimately deleterious (see his remarks about the post office and highways), there’d be chaos for sure. This is nothing new or newsworthy: just gotcha nonsense.
You old coot.
Wait… i never said it didn’t need overall. I do, actually.
But for him to rant and rave against it and then take it… well…. yes, being a hypocrite is not old news.
Not really, since he paid into it for years. Do you expect a libertarian to not take back what he paid in?
Bingo. It’s not as though he was given the option of opting out of paying into it — why should he then be called a hypocrite for not getting back a fraction of what he paid into it (which is all anyone gets)?
Keep hypocrisy hunting, man. Maybe one day you’ll find that magic bullet his opponents are looking for that completely invalidates everything about the guy.
Wait… Paul says something that is valid 😉
(I mean besides his foreign policy stuff)
I expect someone one who is against it to be against it.
I think gas powered engines are inefficient, but I still use one. If they had an affordable water powered car let’s say, then I’d drop the gas powered car like a bad habit. He wanted social security to be optional, not mandatory. If I was forced to pay into a system for 40 years, I would be stupid if I didn’t use it now. Paying Social Security is not optional (I don’t think. In both Germany and Austria I can elect NOT to pay into their socialized medical system, however if I need it, I won’t be able to use it.
difference in says gas powered engines are inefficient and then still using one and saying that they enslave you and still us one.
Not really. You HAVE to pay social security tax. He wants to make it optional, not mandatory.
Taking it is just as optional.
So if he didn’t take it after paying into it for 60 years, he’s be a moron, right?
Nope. He’d be honest
No doubt he also thinks hamburgers are unhealthy but eats one every day.