For Rep Ron Paul (R-TX), education and medical care are not rights but rather “things that you have to earn.”
In an exchange about U.S. credit policy with MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur on Wednesday, Paul was asked whether people should be able to borrow money to buy a house, or car. “Oh, in a free market, you can do that,” Paul said, but only so long as that credit is backed up by real money, and not something that “comes out of thin air.”
Uygur asked the Congressman if students who can’t afford tuition should be able to get government loans. “No one has a right to anyone’s wealth, I don’t have a right to come to you and say my poor kid needs 500 dollars for an education,” Paul replied, “an education is not a right, medical care is not a right.”
The potential 2012 presidential candidate said Uygur was asking the wrong question about student loans: “Kids today as soon as they work, we tax them. If they’re a waitress or waiter, we tax their tips. We encourage them to work, then they don’t have enough money. Prices go up on the tuition and then we give them grants and then they get out of the college and they owe $200,000. It makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t think how anybody can justify it.”
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