Ron Paul 2012: What Are His Positions?

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But while he has been very clear that he thinks entitlement programs are unconstitutional, Paul said more recently that he would phase the programs out gradually in order to minimize the impact on people who are already receiving benefits. Workers would be able to opt out of the current Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid programs and set up private, tax-exempt savings accounts instead, he told the Republican Congressional Health Care Caucus this month. "I'd be willing to work toward sanity by not cutting health care benefits until we solve our problems with this horrendous financial crisis," he said.

Health care:

Paul, a physician, argues that the best way to reduce health care costs and the uninsured rate is through "the doctor-patient relationship" and individual decision-making rather than through "one-size-fits-all policies" in which "excessive regulation, immoral mandates and short-sighted incentives have created a system where no one is happy, doctors pass quickly from one patient to the next, insurance is expensive to get and difficult to maintain, and politicians place corporate interests ahead of their constituents," according to his Web site. "Probably the worst thing that we ever did was make medical care the responsibility of the government," he said of Medicare and Medicaid.

He has called for the repeal of President Barack Obama's health care law and condemned the individual mandate that requires all Americans to obtain insurance, calling it unconstitutional. To make insurance more affordable, he has proposed allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines, creating new tax credits and deductions for medical expenses, exempting employees who are terminally ill from payroll taxes and giving a payroll deduction to any employee who is caring for a terminally ill family member.

In terms of federal policy, he wants to prevent taxpayer contributions to Medicare and Medicaid from being used for other purposes; eliminate government restrictions on health savings accounts, which are privately owned savings accounts with no taxes on deposits; and ensure that agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission do not "interfere with Americans' knowledge of and access to dietary supplements and alternative treatments."

Job creation:

Paul has proposed several measures to strengthen the economy and create jobs. He wants to strengthen the dollar by eliminating the Federal Reserve, which he argues has "enabled the over 95 percent reduction of what our dollar can buy and continues to create money out of thin air to finance future debt," according to his Web site. He also wants to "legalize sound money, so the government is forced to get serious about the dollar's value" -- an apparent reference to, once the Federal Reserve is gone, returning to something like the gold standard in order to stop inflation.

He also supports offshore drilling and a variety of other measures to reduce gas prices: eliminating highway fuel taxes, increasing mileage reimbursement rates and creating new tax credits for people and businesses that use energy-efficient vehicles. He would also eliminate the income tax altogether, along with the capital gains and estate taxes, and "oppose all unfunded mandates and unnecessary regulations on small businesses and entrepreneurs."

Taxes: