CNN 2011-12-25

I take it you're not with John or Mitch,you don't,you wouldn't vote to extend the payroll 1 tax cut for another year.No,no,I wouldn't,look,I believe in the social security system.We got a fixed 2 social security system,so it's there and it's solvent 3 and it's there for future generations,and we've,so many years,I've heard we are taking the social security tax dollars and spending it on other things.Here we are,_social security tax dollars and spending it on other things.In this case,a tax cut for Americans,that's a good thing to spend it on,but it either is social security trust fund,it either is money to pay for social security benefits,and it's lovely for that purposes or it's not and in this case,you see,the President advocating and pushing to undermine the stability of the social security system and I'm against that.What is Ron Paul bringing to this race that's exciting a lot of the potential caucus 4 goers in Iowa? A lot of money.He's been running,been here in Iowa for 2 weeks and there's a commercial break that passes that Ron Paul doesn't have an ad and of course he has a lawyer follow him,he's got a very grassroot organization and really nobody's talking about it.All the negative ads from governor Perry and from Mitt 5 Romney have been focused on Newt Gingrich.I think the point is that this ad,this poll was taken as a lot of these other polls were taken before the last debate and I think both Michele Bachmann and I did a pretty good job of showing how dangerous Ron Paul would be as a nominee 6 for our party where he would be in the position where he be to the left,in fact,far to the left to President Obama on the issue of national security.It would be a great thing if you're running as a liberal democrat 7 but he's not,he's running as a republican.I think more people who see the clear contrast of someone like myself who has been out there,who understands the threats that face this country,someone who has a clear idea how we can make America safer and it isn't by guarding our defense 8 department and making us a third world,third great power in the world.There're a lot of folks who are very concerned that between Michele Bachmann and myself,we're gonna split the conservative vote and someone like Gingrich and Romney now even a poll could end up winning the Iowa caucuses 9 and we could be left with someone who's not particularly conservative as the standard bearer of the party.There was a lot of conversations.Several people called me and saidwould you consider,maybe,getting out,or supporting someone else and we're gonna call the other candidates to do the same.My response to that is you know,let the people of Iowa vote,this race is gonna be over after one caucus.This is a long process,let the people there decide who the best person that carrys the conservative banner is;I believe that they are gonna select me,I feel very confident about that,but you know what,if it's someone else,that's fine.We have to trust the voters instead of some deal being made between the candidates,I rejected that and thankfully so did all the other candidates rejected that.It's just people good intention as it was and I think it was good intention because they're concerned about their issues being front-and-center in this debate,but It was just not,it was not a proper idea.