Scott Horton Show - Just the Interviews - 8/18/26 Ron Paul on the Iran War, the National Debt and Flock Cameras

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Ron Paul joins the show to talk about Iran, the economy, Flock cameras and the prospects for liberty in the years ahead. Discussed on the show: The Ron Paul Institute Former congressman and American hero Ron Paul is the host of the Ron Paul Liberty Report and director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Dr. Paul is the author of numerous books, including Swords into Plowshares and The Revolution: A Manifesto. Follow him on Twitter, @RonPaul.  Sign up for the Scott Horton Academy of Foreign Policy and Freedom at scotthortonacademy.com For more on Scott's work: Check out The Libertarian Institute: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org Check out Scott's other show, Provoked, with Darryl Cooper https://youtube.com/@Provoked_Show Read Scott's books: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine https://amzn.to/43D82oY (The audiobook of Provoked is being published in sections at https://scotthortonshow.com) Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism: https://amzn.to/4eMQblu Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan https://amzn.to/4a5fKvx Follow Scott on X @scotthortonshow And check out Scott’s full interview archives: https://scotthorton.org/all-interviews This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Tax Attorney Matt Sercely https://agoristtaxadvice.com; Moon Does Artisan Coffee https://scotthorton.org/coffee; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom https://www.libertyclassroom.com/dap/a/?a=1616 and Dissident Media https://dissidentmedia.com; and Crowdhealth https://www.joincrowdhealth.com/ (use promocode Horton) You can also support Scott’s work by making a one-time or recurring donation at https://scotthorton.org/donate/ or https://patreon.com/scotthortonshow Audio cleaned up with the Podsworth app: https://podsworth.com Use code HORTON50 for 50% off your first order at Podsworth.com to clean up your voice recordings, sound like a pro, and also support the Scott Horton Show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ladies and gentlemen of the press have been less than honest. Reporting to the American people, what's going on in this country? Because the babies are making this. We're dealing with Hitler Revisited. This is the Scott Horton Show. Libertarian foreign policy, mostly. When the president visit, that means that it is not illegal. We're going to take out seven countries in five years.

They don't know what the fuck they're doing. Negotiate now. End this war. And now, here's your host, Scott Porton. All right, you'll, introducing once again,

world famous baby deliverer and correct position taker, Dr. Ron Paul. He was also a congressman for quite a while, off and on there. And he runs the Ron Paul Institute of Peace and Prosperity

with the great Dan McAdams, who's also his co-host on his daily show, The Liberty Report. And Chris Rossini, wonderful Chris Rossini is his other great co-hosts there on The Liberty Report. So great to have you back on the show. Dr. Paul, how are you today? I'm doing fine. And Scott, thank you for having me on your program.

Great to have you here. Hilarious show this morning. A great quote from Dan McAdams. He says, we're not crazy, but it looks like Trump is trying to drive us crazy with all of his statements back and forth about the war in Iran compared to what's actually happening there. Can you give us sort of the thumbnail sketch of your take on where we are in this current conflict, sir, that you weren't against for so many years? In a big mess, predictable mess, mainly because people don't give a darn about the Constitution. They don't care of how we go to war, just so we do. So the military industrial complex are very powerful.

The people who want to spend money are very powerful. So it's unpredictable. and I think one of the most significant things happening today is the discrediting of the administration. And they've lost all credibility. And but Daniel and I talk about it, it was like, oh, it's terrible, terrible. And I always have to add, Scott, you know,

with something positive. And I'll say, yes, but that's good news. People are going to hear about this, and they're going to find out, and they're going to convert to a more sense policy. So no matter how bad the do's is, I always think that has to convert a few more supporters for the cause of liberty. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. So now it mostly just goes without saying in Washington, right, that we can't come home because essentially America is just holding the

world together. And if we let go, the whole thing would spin apart. And you've always said that we should just come home, even in the middle of it. of the worst disruption and destabilization that our own government has caused, the best we can do is just call it quits on any given day because we don't only get worse from here. But what do you say to kind of allay the concerns of people who think that the world had just been out of control

if Washington wasn't in charge of it? Well, you know, you can find some pretty good statistics if you look at countries as a whole, an individual, and rate that. The freer they are, the less militant they are, the less war they have, and the more prosperity. I can't understand why everybody shouldn't say, hey, that's what we want. We want peace and prosperity.

And yet they're influenced by the propagandists, the money people that make a lot of money, the people, you know, are dependent on largesse from the government, so they don't go along with it. And that to be is a real reason and the problem is a predictable consequence. What we're having now, people should realize that happens all the time. Whether you have socialism or fascism or communism, most people say, oh, we're not there. But we should be dividing the number of political reasons into non-intervention and intervention. And in a free society, it should be a chair of cheering for non-intervention and a recognition that individuals, you know, own their lives, and it's up to them to obey the rules.

And as long as they do, and that's why lately, Scott, I've been talking a lot more about natural law as a solution trying to say, how we get into this mess. And to me, the solution is very simple. People have to be committed to, you know, a natural law. You're not alive, cheat, steal, and kill people. So why in the world do we let the government do it? You know, that would solve a lot of problems, and that means it's always better off to aim for that. So that's why I believe, no matter what the conditions are,

it's better just to come home. Because the other people who want to pursue it, because I was drafted in the 60s, and Vietnam was always this. We can't lose a war. Johnson was the worst one. He says, I don't want to be the president and has lost the first war. So everything is, even what we're doing now in Iran, you know, they probably were ridiculous enough to believe their own rhetoric that, yeah, you know,

Venezuela was an easy deal. We own it now. And then the advice the president was getting, yeah, I think we can do the same thing with Iran. And who knows what the really deep thinking is and who's the influencer. One thing is, if you have crisp understanding, you don't need a lot of advisors. If you believe in non-interventionism and responsibility and volunteerism and property, things just kind of. together and they're always better. So yes, there can be transitions.

You know, one of the big transitions, eventually we'll have to face up to is away from this funny money system we have because the dollar will, maybe you will hear about dollars in 20 years, but it won't be a dollar that we're thinking of, which is rapidly, you know, shrinking in value. So I think it's the confidence that one has in freedom that you can, the group that opposes us, they think, oh, that would be too risky. We can't do it. The people won't take care of themselves.

We have to take care of people. And I think the opposite is what we believe in, and that is that it's a much better world when people assume responsibility for themselves and commit themselves to not. non-violence and people will make mistakes. But, you know, people always make mistakes. They're imperfect. That's one of the reasons about what in Washington telling us what to do. But people are imperfect and why we turn so much decision making over to the government,

even though, you know, I don't buy into this argument that, oh, we have a socialist government now, who's socialists or whatnot? I've kind of separated by saying, are we allowing the government to intervene excessively in our personal life, our economic life, our religious life, are they, you know, getting too much involved? And it's always, to me, way too much. What would happen if we quit?

Magic would happen. You know, I claim, I claim, Scott, that if we did what we like, you know, get rid of the fan, and all these things, it would be very chaotic. But what I tell people, the chaos will come anyway. So, yes, there will be an adjustment. Quite frankly, I don't expect it ever to do it. We just cut it off, you know, cut this all off.

And I think there would be turmoil, a lot of people would go bankrupt and all this. But then in a year, if you put all the points I make about liberty, I think in a year, just think if you didn't have to pay any taxes, what an incentive it would be to people to get back on their feet again? What if we had a sound currency? I mean, it would be magic. Maybe it wouldn't even take a year because under conditions when there are revolutions, you know, the people who do have facilities to reinstitute, you know, some of these processes, things get, they can get over pretty fast. But right now,

Now they don't have the confidence. The people don't have the confidence that they can do it on their own. And the people who are in power that could do it aren't interested in it because the people I knew in Washington, their main interest was power, power and control. And that is control. So this corporatism we have now, I consider, you know, more dangerous than people talking about, you know, socialism because as bad as it is they get a socialist in New York City I think they're missing the point I mean New York City they either wake up or they just totally collapse anyway

but I don't I don't think that we have to worry about what would happen I have I have tremendous confidence in how free people would voluntarily get along much better and I think that would filter over into an attitude between our countries In your famous, you know, Giuliani moment, as it's known now, your fight with him in the Republican primary debate in I believe it was May 2007. The first instance of blowback that you cited there was the overthrow of Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, leading to then the hostage crisis. And so I wonder now, I mean, just kind of speculating forward to the next 30, 40 years. I mean, I sort of cringe to imagine what America's relationship with Iran going to be like from here on after attacking them in the middle of negotiations twice and in such a deceitful way and based on lies and with just such consequences for the whole Middle East and everything. Whether it's Donald Trump or under any other presidency, it seems like we're going to have really bad consequences going forward just in an economic sense.

right? All other things being equal, we just really disrupted Southwest Asia. You know, it depends on how it's done. We're taught in Austrian economics, you could predict trends, but you can't predict how the people are going to react. That's human action, and it's not fixed in, you know, in cement. Because it's unpredictable.

But if you do the right things, I think you can make predictions. If you have sound money and you honor it, you know, the value of the dollar will be maintained. Even though our gold standard was never perfect, it did a lot better job than what it's doing now. So you can make these predictions. But it's hard to know exactly what will happen. But people will say, yeah, you don't know if, you know, even if you change it, you're going to have a tough time. But even if we don't do it in a gradual way, you know, things are going to get real bad.

But with my experience in Washington, I don't think we'll ever get a Congress and a president that will do it deliberately and calmly and in a way gradually and just within a one year cut off all this spending. It's not going to happen. It's going to hang. I think the fight is where, Scott, you use your time up. That is teaching people what is right in the area of freedom. Because we have to get that attitude in place of the socialist. The socialists know chaos in the streets is a very big benefit. So we should be very worried about that.

I mean, New York City is a concern. But I also think that there are a lot of scar heartens around, a lot of people who have talk show hosts that I never dreamed about. When I first started in this, I was still practicing medicine, and I was influenced by the breakdown of the Brett Wood. So I would look for a speaking engagement of a college. If I got 15 or 20 key libertaries together, I thought that was pretty good. But today there are hundreds of little groups.

And the Internet, as bad as it is in some areas, it's wonderful, I think, in reaching people. And so that's why I'm the optimist because every day I jump into somebody that has a radio program or an organization or they have a talk show, who knows what. And you can't measure. You have no idea. and I think that when the time has come, nobody can stop the ideas. And that's why I'm working in the area of ideas. And that's where, Scott, you've done such a great job because you have, you know, really put the emphasis on the right place.

Well, thanks very much for saying so. Oh, man, I was so nervous interviewing Dr. Paul today. And luckily, my head's kind of blocking it. I was so nervous that he was going to notice that I have a bust of him behind me. books mostly blocking it today is books um but as you guys often see i've got this great bust of dr ron paul the greatest american hero ever i keep on my shelf behind me it's the same when you see on tom woods counter on his great show and where you get those is from the great sculptor rick casally and he does custom work and all kinds of things but you want to rom paul bust you just go to

actually go to my website scott horton dot org and then just look for the rompaul bust in the right-hand margin there. Use promo code Horton and you get some free shipping or big discount or some kind of cool thing. So go check that out. Expanddesigns.com. The problem is with most webmasters is they come and go and they don't do what they say and you don't understand and you can't reach them. But that ain't the case with expanddesigns.com. Expanddesigns.com, they do what they say they're going to do when they say they're going to do it and it works. And you can get a hold of them later and it's great. Expanddesigns.com. They'll have run your website. You guys know I have another show, right? Yeah. provoked podcast every Thursday night, me and Daryl Cooper talk about stuff. Well, you know,

wars mostly. So if you were, you know, had some influence on on policy up there, if they would finally listen to you, what do we do about the national debt? You know, the interest payment on the national debt is now more than the entire world empire every year. Well, by the official numbers anyway, I'm not sure if they tell the truth, but some were right around there. And it's just to think that such a huge proportion of the population of the population of the country is paying income tax just to pay interest on the debt. It just seems so cruel and immoral and just and it just seems out of control. But then so do you repudiate the debt or do you really just pay it down? You just absolutely through a stark fiscal and monetary, you know,

restraint. You just pay that debt down as fast as you can or you just, you know, inflate the currency and chop zeros off the dollar. Or how do you get out of that? this mess, you know, with sound economics, this mess that people with terrible economics got us into here. I do not think we'll work our way out of it. And, you know, there are some corporations and individuals that get so big foreign debt. They'll never work their way out of it. I mean, it's just beyond that. So there's, the debt has to be liquidated, though.

and it's how it's being liquidated will be the charge. You could just write off the debt, you know. That's what people do in the private sector, and that would be, there would have to be a change. You write off the debt. But the debt is going to be liquidated. And it's just a question of how it's done and when it's done, because it's not only the debt that's bad,

it's the liquidation of the malinvestment. So in all these years, especially in these last five, ten years, with interest rates, interest rates should guide us on how we spend and invest and run the economy. It's the most important price that we have to deal with. And yet it's totally controlled in secrecy that Congress, people in the banking committee, I was never allowed to know what they were doing.

about the money. And so it's something that has to change. It will change and it will be liquidated. And it will liquidate the ballot investment plus the debt. And the big thing is, is they have, people have to understand, you know, there is an alternative. And there has to be right now, you know, one thing, one thing that happened, you know, in the 1970s after Broughton Woods, and then that was when I was working hard to get gold coins

minted again. And I think that one of the big things, can you, I still blows my mind. Since 1933, up until 1975, we weren't even allowed at home gold. So in a way, a lot of gold standard. And so that is the biggest threat right now to mess around some of this transition stuff is that the government will interfere once again in people who hold gold. That was the first thing Roosevelt did. Steal the gold, take the gold. And that temporarily helps things. But that is the problem that's going to exist.

But the one thing I've convinced off totally, it will be liquidated. It will not be paid off in real money. And that's why the political ramifications of that shows what happens in the inner cities. Because every day there's more discrepancy between the rich and the poor. And that's going to lead to the political battles. And I think politics are so important now because superficially, you know, there are people who are out front. We believe in socialism. Look at what they've done.

But in spite of all that, I think that the people who believe, as we do, are big in number. It makes more sense. And that's the only place I can go is trying to change people's mind. But I believe it, you know, even if it's not magic and we get what we want, it's going to be different. You know, this whole thing about, you know, legalizing gold, you think that will have us no. big deal. No, it's a big deal. And so what is the next big deal? Keep them from taking our gold away from us and over-regulating it or over-taxing it.

And that gives the people a chance to protect themselves. So it's not always easy to say there's enough people out there. But just from my personal experience and how popular freedom is, because that's what impressed me the most, Scott, when I was doing my campaign. and I was shocked. You know, I went from having 15 people on a college campus to talk to more than 15, more than 100, more than a thousand people coming out on liberal campuses. And they were hungry for the information on the truth. And I was really impressed that young people especially will be more open-minded than if you've been involved in lobbying efforts in the,

the Chamber of Commerce and all the establishments. But that's coming to an end. We don't have to, we don't have to work. That's coming that we have to work on what is going to replace it. Yeah, I mean, I'll never forget those kids at the University of Michigan when they're burning their dollar bills and chanting in the Fed. I'm almost certain it was in the autumn, but it was definitely in the year 2007 a year before the crash.

This was still ostensibly the inflationary boom, but they understood that it was fake and they understood the fall that our entire society had been set up for as you were explaining at the time. So the fact that that message was so popular,

still during the boom phase, before the bust, it just goes to show, you know, and especially it ought to be appealing now that everybody lived through that bus and now they're living through the massive price inflation now is just stressing everybody to the errands,

as you say, pushing people toward socialism because they don't know where else to go when, you know, TV tells them this is capitalism and they think, well, they've got to find the opposite of whatever this is. And they end up racing that way. But let me ask, I didn't even realize this. I had to search it this morning. But the oldest zoomers, that is the members of Generation Z, are 29 this year.

And so I was wondering, with all of your deep wisdom and experience from, you know, being an Austrian economist, but also being an Austrian economist for so long in a row and really seeing all the ebbs and flows come and go. the way that they have through the eyes of somebody who already had read nieces and understood real economics, you know, way back in the 60s or whenever it was. What is your advice to the young Zoomers now who are trying to build their life? What did they do with, if they have any investment income at all

or any kind of savings income or household income, what does somebody do to protect themselves in times that are as inflationary as these? Well, I can answer that question not as directly as you would like at this moment. But afterwards, what I would give a talk about, you know, defending the cause of liberty, a lot of young people knows audience would come up to me and they'd say, well, what should I do? What do you want me to do?

What should be my job? I said, do whatever you want to do. Do whatever you're capable to do it. I said, I always wanted to be a great singer. I didn't make it. But everybody has a talent. It's the desire to do it. So who knows what it is?

And it's all relative, even if you don't get to talk to 1,000 people. You know, one at a time, Leonard Reed, who I thought was a great teacher, he argued the case for smaller groups. And we had a campaign for Liberty and RPI. We have our conferences, but we don't. we're not aiming, you know, to get thousands of people out there as much as we're getting people who are very sound. And that's where Daniel does such a good job at reaching out and having, you know, courses of understanding. And that's what I think is great about the modern age of electronics and communications. I don't know very much about I still pretty clumsy with a computer at all.

But I do know the value of that. And I also know there's good and bad in almost all of that. There's good and bad in nuclear energy. And there's good and bad, especially in all this technology that goes on. But I think the good outweighs the bad, because it depends on not so much the machinery as the desires of the people. And that's why I think the radio talk shows and what people like you do, who, Scott, has the influence,

you're reaching out to people, and they find things to do. So I don't have an answer, but there are lots of things to advise, but you have to, you have to, you know, find it. You have to use your talents. There's still a lot of opportunities in this country. You know, I think that, you know,

from grass cutting to who knows what. If you want a job, there's a job out there right now. Right now it's distorted because government moves in, steals more money for one group, gives it to the other group, it diminishes the desire to, you know, really find something. And I think that's one of the harms done is that people, you know, are taught that they could be taken care of by the government. And yet I still believe, though, with the technology now that more and more people are understanding what we're talking about and how important it is. It is historic. You know, some of the things I talk about, you know, when it started, it was a beginning of time when good and evil was first discovered, you know.

And there's a difference between the two, and it's going to continue that way. So, and I think the United States went through a period where they did emphasize a truth. and honesty a lot better than they do today. But that doesn't mean there isn't some smoldering, smoldering group of people still there. You can't kill good ideas, especially when they become popular. You know, the armies become irrelevant.

Just think of the stupidity of our armies over the years, and we were always bragging, we're spreading democracy, who weren't doing all this. And it was a bunch of evil we're spreading around. And we're destroying ourselves. The war that I'd like to stop is the war against ourselves. That's the one that we should stop and let the people decide how they're going to solve these problems. The Scott Horton Show is brought to you by Matt Sersely, tax attorney.

And this guy, he's anti-government like you. Only he's a tax attorney. And so if you own a small business or you're a high-saloried professional and you're trying to avoid paying the revenues, he'll help you. No gimmicks here. You have to follow the law, but nobody knows it better than him. And he will make sure that you don't pay one red cent, whatever that's worth, more than you have to to the revenues every year.

So check out Matt Sersely at agoristtaxadvice.com and Tom Scott sent you. Hey, guys. Let me here for crowdhealth at join crowdhealth.com slash Horton. And the deal is this, you need health care, but you can't afford health insurance because who possibly can. I can't. But so here is a great solution and alternative to health insurance. Basically, the way it works is you join up, you pay a monthly fee, and then you pay cash for the first $500 of your health care costs on any one thing. But then you get to crowdsource the rest.

And then when it's somebody else's turn, you help crowdsource for them. And the more you help others, the more they help you. It's just a great alternative to health insurance in these insanely. highly regulated and inflationary time. So learn all about it at join crowdhealth.com slash Horton. All right. So last point before I let you go here, sir, was I'm sure you'd probably take a note that there's this widespread rebellion around the country

against these flock cameras, these license plate readers. And we've had these cameras. You know, the government cameras really first started going up all over the roads in the late 1990s. And I used to always remark about how, isn't it funny, how we never had a vote on this? No one ever ran on this. there was no public debate.

They just put up cameras everywhere. And yet somehow I'm not exactly sure what it is. Maybe it's just the name or the level of sophistication of these flock cameras. But they have just absolutely captured the imagination of the American people who are in total revolt against them. There's widespread sabotage. You have city councils rescinding their contracts. And, you know, you have Trump promising to look into it and all. It's a major controversy now, whether we're going to allow these George Orwell cameras in our neighborhoods or not.

And I just saw a real positive note to see, you know, obviously it's in response to something very negative, but just to see how many people around the country would fit now in our broader liberty movement, you know, for what they're fighting for. What do you think? Yeah, well, it can be sold easily because if we know what's going on, it might help us catch a bad guy. But I think that, I think what we should be doing, though, is, is sticking to private property. You know, when I deal with immigration problems, I talk about property and what's to deal with,

whose property and what, how things are handled. But in property, you know, we have people that would, you know, understand how many Americans would you think, even a poor person that has a little old run-down house. wouldn't they understand, I don't want anybody coming in my house. I don't want this. My house is my castle. And they sit at their home is their castle.

And most Americans would not argue and say, oh, no, the government should be able to. That was one of the reasons we had a revolution. The British walked into our houses. So that is anything. So what I would say is if somebody walked into your house, and just marched around. Well, we're taking pictures, but we're not going to tell you why. And maybe if anybody robs you, we'll put this camera up there,

and we're going to protect you. Always protection, make you safe. And I would say your automobile is just an extension of your, just like your body, you're an extension of your property, your house, and your automobile. So they should be allowed, you know. they certainly shouldn't be legalized. But, you know, I lived in a condo in Washington,

and we had a lot of cameras. But that was private, and I was pleased to see the cameras there because it was a neighborhood. You know, people would steal from you if they had their chance, but the cameras were used in a positive manner. If I didn't like it, I didn't have to live there. But to do this in a gross way,

It's just another violation of property rights. I think the First Amendment can be understood completely and totally through property rights. You know, people argue over religious things and social things and all this. But I don't think we have to do that. We should be able to say that our home is our castle. believe everything it was. If we don't hurt people, no lie, cheating, stealing, or killing.

Believe me, it's simple. And that is what we would have. It would never be achieved because there'll be too many that won't listen. But I'll tell you what. There's been times when this country thought for seriously about those issues, and there's countries in this world today

that they do not suffer from wars going on and suffering, and they live in relatively peaceful, by just following those rules. So although it seems real complex, I see it in a simplistic way, and I hope I'm on the right direction. Yeah, I think so. All right, everybody, check out the Ron Paul Institute

for Peace and Prosperity. And, of course, you know that my academy is named after your book, Foreign Policy of Freedom. It's the Scott Horton Academy of Foreign Policy and Freedom. a little homage to you there. Your great book, which is a collection of speeches that you gave.

And of course, over here's the great Ron Paul is my collection of interviews to Dr. Paul going back to 2004. You see those behind me there on the shelf. And then here is The Liberty Report with Dr. Paul and the great Dan McAdams and the wonderful Chris Rossini there.

Five days a week for you, 11 o'clock, Texas time. And then coming up in September, September the 5th, they're having another event at the Double Tree by Hilton in Washington, D.C. at the Dulles Airport there, front row at the Revolution. And you can find out all about that. Just click the link at the Ron Paul Institute.

And thank you very much, sir, for coming back on the show again. And happy birthday. Very good. Good to be with his shot. Thank you. The Scott Horton show is brought to you by the Scott Horton Academy of Foreign Policy and Freedom, Roberts & Roberts, Brokerage, Inc., Moondos, Artisan Coffee, Tom Woods Liberty Classroom and APS Radio News.

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