Taxation is theft - Ron Paul

“Taxation is theft when you take money from one group to give it to another, when you transfer the wealth.” Ron Paul at Meet The Press, October 2011. Source: PresidentObama3's channel YouTube channel.

Transcript:

David Gregory:

Let me, let me ask you about the role of government. You’ve said about taxation, in a way that doesn’t minces words, the following: “Taxation is immoral,” you told the Libertarian Party News. Would you scrap the tax code altogether?

Ron Paul:

That would be a pretty good idea, a pretty good start. I can qualify it if I’m allowed. Taxation is theft when you take money from one group to give it to another, when you transfer the wealth. Now, taxation could be accomplished with user fees, and highway fees, and gasoline taxes, and import taxes. But the income tax is based on the assumption that the government owns you, owns all of your income and provides the conditions on which they allow you to keep a certain percentage. That, to me, is immoral, and the founders didn’t like it. That’s why the Constitution had to be amended in 1913.

David Gregory:

Social Security, you talk in your plan about allowing young people to opt out. Would you – is your ultimate goal that Social Security should go away?

Ron Paul:

I think there is a much better chance that it would be solvent. It’s totally insolvent now. But my plan explicitly protects the elderly and the sick in the transition to be taken care of. The young get out, but the only way we can guarantee that the elderly will be taken care of is cut spending. That’s why offer a trillion dollars. So the elderly now are reassured. “Well, he’s serious. He’s not going to waste all this money overseas and all this foreign aid and expenses.”

David Gregory:

But – so you cut benefits?

Ron Paul:

No.

David Gregory:

Eventually, would you have to do that?

Ron Paul:

Not, not if you…

David Gregory:

If young people are opting out and not paying in…

Ron Paul:

I would balance the budget. There would be no inflation, no reason for increase in cost of living increase. And, in time, I think you could raise this age. Mine was 25 and under, but it should – the only complaint I’ve gotten so far is somebody came up to me and says, “I’m 26. Why don’t you let me get out?” And, and I think that’s what the move will be because they want to – people want to assume responsibility for themselves.