Paul would ax five agencies, hits focus on Romney’s lawn

Touting his own jobs plan to eliminate five Cabinet agencies and cut a trillion dollars from the budget, presidential candidate Ron Paul complained of trivial infighting between his GOP rivals at a time when the nation faces monumental challenges he thinks would be solved by a virtual government upheaval.

“The uselessness of some of this rhetoric,” Mr. Paul told David Gregory in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The Texas congressman was referring to a Republican debate last week where Texas Gov. Rick Perry repeatedly accused Mitt Romney of hiring illegal immigrants to do yardwork.

“Arguing over who mows Mitt Romney’s lawn, I mean, in the midst of a crisis,” Mr. Paul said. “Sovereign debt, worldwide crisis, the biggest in the history of the world, and the financial system of the world is about to collapse … we have to quit worrying about who’s mowing Mitt Romney’s yard.”

Mr. Paul also tried to place Mr. Romney, the arguable front-runner, in the same camp as the president, saying that voters would see no significant difference between the two if they elected the former Massachusetts governor next year.

“Would there be a change in foreign policy, would either one work on a true audit of the Fed? No,” Mr. Paul said. “The regulatory system, the spending, the deficits, the printing of money, they’d stay the same.”

Mr. Paul also criticized U.S. involvement in Libya and the ongoing occupation of Iraq, although Mr. Obama last week announced a complete withdrawal of American troops by the end of the year.

And when asked by Mr. Gregory whether his plan to eliminate the Department of Education would include eliminating federal student loans, Mr. Paul said he’d end the program if elected president.

“[Students are] a trillion dollars in debt, we don’t have any jobs for them, the quality of education has gone down, so it’s a failed program,” he said.

Mr. Paul spent Saturday in Iowa, where he joined other candidates in speaking at the Faith and Freedom Coalition Banquet, a gathering of conservative Christian activists. While Mr. Paul has built his following around monetary policy and reducing the size of government, he is holding his own among the state’s socially conservative voters.

A little more than two months away from the caucus, more Iowans have given money to Mr. Paul than to any of his GOP opponents, according to a report published Sunday by the Des Moines Register.

And Mr. Paul took third place last week in a Rasmussen Reports poll of Iowa voters. Ten percent said they would vote for Mr. Paul, putting him behind Mr. Romney and Herman Cain but ahead of Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Mr. Perry, who were originally viewed as conservative favorites but have been dropping in polls.

While all of the candidates say they will cut government spending, Mr. Paul has promised to go further by eliminating the departments of commerce, education, energy, interior and housing. He would reduce the federal workforce by 10 percent. He says he would accept only a $39,336 salary, the median income of an American worker.