Great idea, but could it happen?

I'm in his district. He will be Congressman until the day he dies, and will be missed.

I hope he moves in 2012!

Man it would be crazy if that happened. I think he's too old though...And the press would destroy him I think.

As they should he has some pretty wacky ideas.

Just say no to war? Yeah, that will work .

Read up on his website. He has detailed plans there, much more detailed than "throw more money at it".

Wars *are* funding health care.

Where do you think all those US jobs in the military and jobs with companies that build equipment for the military, companies that make MREs and uniforms etc. come from?

Who do you think pays taxes?

What do you think funds health care?

Read 1984. It's painfully relevant.

I think perhaps you are misunderstanding what Ron is suggesting. War costs how much money every day? Now, imagine if all of that money were instead used to fund healthcare *for everyone*.

The benefits that come from the jobs associated with war are nothing in comparison to the amount of money we spend every day on continuing the various wars that we are involved in.

That's like saying eating fast food isn't all that bad for you because you use a lot of energy standing in line, carrying the food, lifting each morsel to your mouth, and chewing.

It's not "say no to war."

It's non-interventionism. Basically we run our own country, and our own country only.

If someone attacks us or threatens us (not just *poses* a threat) then we get involved. Otherwise we stay out.

It's a simple solution actually.

Double POST

Ooops... forgive me... Ron gets me excited ;)

Are we all living on the same planet?

It is totally impossible to realistically think we can be isolationist. Pie in the sky dreaming that we can avoid conflict by declaring we are not going to play anymore is as realistic as an Alabama Miss America saying she wishes for world peace.

I would love to believe it's possible, maybe in a movie someday.

If you haven't seen it yet... Ron Paul had a nice cameo in Bruno. Hilarity ensues.... not for Ron... who gets pissed and runs out the door.

It's probably possible, other countries have stayed neutral (see Switzerland). In order to do this though you need to still have a strong military, or else you become a victim.
The US however would have a difficult time changing now. You can't just state "we're neutral now" when you have the kind of international influence that the US now has. Although I don't know what all a shift of power like this would mean, but I imagine it would mean some major alliance changes.

Exactly. We would have to maintain our armed forces in any case.

The Star Wars missile defense should have been scrapped years ago. That could have been an enormous saving. That saving would have started in the Reagan administration.

Switzerland was in a unique and fortunate geographical location that discouraged Hitler from being involved with intervention. However, they still maintain an armed force of 500,000 for a total population of 3,500,000.

It WAS scrapped years ago. The missile shield now is a totally different concept. That one was supposed to use lasers in space. This one uses multiple methods.

I wasn't specific enough. I'm referring to the concept and not just the old SDI program.
We're spending 10 billion a year, at least 100 billion so far for an experimental and questionable system.

It keeps changing because military systems that take long to develop become useless by the time they are activated. But we'll keep pumping money in because it's just the nature of politics.

What we really need is a giant force-field! That can't be too expensive can it? Plus added bonus...keeps out illegal aliens.