Des Moines

The conventional case against Ron Paul’s fiscal policy is that it’s unrealistic because it’s too bold. That’s true enough: Ronald Reagan couldn’t abolish one department, Ron Paul wants to abolish five (Education, Energy, HUD, Interior, and Commerce). But there’s a much stronger case to be made that Paul’s fiscal policy is not that bold at all. It is, in fact, timid to the point of being cowardly.

All across Iowa this week, Ron Paul, the great libertarian hope, has been promising voters that we’ll have plenty of money to protect the crown jewels of the New Deal and the Great Society–Medicare and Social Security–if we simply cut “overseas spending.”