Ron Paul Institute Chairman Ron Paul declared on Fox Business Tuesday that he opposes any compromise of liberty in the face of US government efforts to defeat encryption used to protect Americans’ private information.
Asked by host Liz Claman “what’s the compromise?” in the battle between privacy and prying government, Paul responded in part:
Well, I don’t like the idea of compromising. I don’t think you ever have to give up liberty for safety. They said there should be always a balance. No, there should always be a bias. If there is any question at all whatsoever, it has to be a bias toward liberty. And, right now, I think the bias is away from liberty and [toward] the sacrifice of liberty.
Continuing, Paul notes that “safety” is not mentioned in the Constitution. Instead, Paul explains, the Constitution “exists to protect our liberties.” Paul also analogizes the protection of encryption and the protection of gun rights, saying that guns were viewed by the Founders as important to protect Americans from tyrannical government and that now “encryption is there to protect us against a tyrannical government that is going to spy on every single thing that we do.”
Watch Paul’s complete interview here:
