Republican presidential candidates Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich haven’t agreed on much thus far in the Republican primary race, but during Monday night’s debate in Florida they found common ground on some monetary policies.
Although much of the night was dominated by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s attacks on Mr. Gingrich, the former House speaker said that he did agree with Mr. Paul’s views on drastically reducing the Federal Reserve System’s role as the central bank in the U.S.
One of Mr. Paul’s key policies that he says he wants to implement if elected president is audit legislation that would give American taxpayers alternatives to “the Fed’s inflated paper money” according to his presidential campaign website. At the debate Monday night Mr. Gingrich complimented the Texas lawmaker on regarding his “end the Fed” policy.
“Congressman Paul is right. There’s an area — I think what he has said about the Federal Reserve and what he has said about the importance of monetary policy,” said Mr. Gingrich Monday.
Mr. Paul essentially wants to see a firm value placed on the American dollar, and he and Mr. Gingrich also agreed on another one of his policies regarding gold.
The former House speaker has proposed a gold commission for the government to reconsider how to implement gold into the U.S. monetary policy. Mr. Paul and Mr. Gingrich would essentially like to see the U.S. implement somewhat of a gold standard, a policy that draws from the Gold Standard Act of 1900, which established gold as the only standard for redeeming paper money. The act was signed into law by then President William McKinley, but was largely abandoned by the U.S. by the 1930s.
“The proposal I’ve issued for a gold commission, which hearkens back to something that he and Jesse Helms helped develop, on which he served on in 1981,” said Mr. Gingrich Monday. “And the fact that we have people of the caliber of Lew Lehrman and Jim Grant, who have agreed they would chair such a commission, I think they’re areas we can work on.”
Mr. Paul was part of a 17 member panel created in 1981 by Congress to consider how to implement gold into the U.S. monetary policy. The Texas lawmaker was one of only two of the panel members to vote yes in favor of returning the U.S. to the gold standard policy. The Texas congressman has stated that he believes if the U.S. returns to the gold standard, it would lead to the end of the Federal Reserve System, with the exception of having policymakers to determine interest rates.
In his 1981 book “Gold, Peace and Prosperity: The Birth of a New Currency,” Mr. Paul argues that the gold standard lead to “startling economic growth,” The Washington Post reports.
Although they do agree on the Federal Reserve and the importance of reintroducing gold into the U.S. monetary policy, the two Republican presidential candidates greatly differ in their foreign policies.
The debate moderators asked Mr. Gingrich what his policy toward Cuba would be and he stated that he would want to “overthrow the regime” there.
Mr. Paul responded candidly, and said he believes the U.S. is still “living in the dark ages” when it comes to Cuba.
“ I — I have a little bit of work to do yet on him on foreign policy,” said Mr. Paul referring to Mr. Gingrich’s views on U.S.-Cuba relations. “It’s not 1962 anymore.”
Although Mr. Paul will not be campaigning in Florida this week, he will attend the next presidential debate there on Thursday. Recent polls of Florida voters place the Texas congressman in fourth place behind rival Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
