Ron Paul: Time to stop spending trillions on war

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Monday that America could save trillions of dollars if the country cut funding from wars - "and all the nonsense that we do around the world."

The Texas Representative argued in Monday's Republican presidential debate that, rather than eliminating programs like Social Security and prescription drug benefits for seniors, America could reduce trillions' worth of spending in conflicts abroad .

"I agree that Social Security is broke. We spent all the money and it's on its last legs unless we do something," Paul said, when asked if he thought Social Security was a "Ponzi scheme" - a phrase his GOP contender and fellow Texan Rick Perry has used to describe the entitlement program.

But Paul stopped short of suggesting Social Security should be eliminated, noting instead that "One bill that I had in congress never got passed was to prevent the congress from spending any of that money on the wars and all the nonsense that we do around the world."

Indeed, when asked about repealing a prescription drug benefit plan for seniors, Paul said that despite his initial opposition to the plan, its repeal "sure wouldn't be on my high list" when there were cuts to be found elsewhere.

"We should never have started it; I voted against it," Paul said, of the program. "But that sure wouldn't be on my high list."

"I'd find a lot of cuts a lot of other places," he said. "As a matter of fact, on Social Security, it is already being reformed because the cost of living increases aren't there, so the value is going down. So no, there's places we should cut."

He continued: "I'm not sure I can get anybody to agree with me on this panel, but we spend $1.5 trillion overseas in wars that we don't need to be in and we need to cut there."

Lucy Madison

Lucy Madison is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.

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