CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: State of the Union

Interview

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REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: It's good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Should there be two Republican, in effect, responses, two Republicans responding on television tonight to the president, as Michele Bachmann is joining Paul Ryan in separate responses? Is that a good idea?

PAUL: Well, there's going to be a lot of people doing a lot of talking. I'll be talking about it afterwards, too, for a fairly long time, but it won't be in competition. So I don't think too much of that.

I mean, it's certainly, you know, something that people can do if they want to do it. I haven't heard that many people worrying about it, but I do think it does symbolizes, you know, that doing what we're trying to do -- and that is get this budget under control -- is no easy task. And you're not going to have unanimous agreement, you know, immediate on exactly what to do and when.

I mean, it took us about 40 years to get into this mess. It's not going to take one election to get us out of it.

BLITZER: How pleased or not pleased are you by the president's apparent move to the center since the midterm election, bringing in big business leaders like Bill Daley and others, and willing to compromise on taxes? How pleased are you by that?

PAUL: Well, I mean, it's better than being more, you know, argumentative. It sounds like there's a little bit of help, but I don't think it's going to do any good. Sometimes when I see them bringing in, you know, CEOs of certain companies that are very much involved in the military industrial complex and big government, then that suggests to me that corporatism is alive and well for both the Republicans and Democrats. But just bringing business people in doesn't satisfy me. I want less government, I want more freedom.

And, you know, they talk so much about the budget and balancing the budget. That's very, very important, and I've never voted for an appropriation. I don't vote for these budgets. But more importantly is the size of the government.

If we care about our freedoms and our policies, we have to have a smaller government. We shouldn't over-concentrate on a balanced budget.

You know, if we could cut our budget in half, and it wasn't balanced, it would be better than having today's budget balanced, because that would mean you'd have to raise a lot of taxes. So I try my best to make sure that we understand what we're talking about and get the semantics correct.

BLITZER: Are you going to be sitting tonight with a Democrat or a Republican? In other words, do you have a date?

PAUL: No, I do not. I haven't made a decision on that.

BLITZER: Why not? Everybody else seems to be making decisions on that.

Do you think it's a good idea that they divide it up into -- they used to divide it up, the Democrats on one side, the Republicans on the other side. This year, a lot of people, after Tucson, they want to sit together.

PAUL: I think it's a bunch of fluff.

BLITZER: A bunch of what?

PAUL: Fluff.

BLITZER: Fluff.

PAUL: I don't think it has a lot of meaning. But I sit with Dennis Kucinich and other progressive Democrats when we want to talk about civil liberties and foreign policy. And we do it routinely in the middle of the auditorium, middle of the House. So I think that's the only thing that counts.

I think sitting together tonight because the media has gotten hold of this and is making a big deal of it, I -- you know, I'm not against it. I hope it does a lot of good, but I still think it's a lot of fluff.

BLITZER: A lot of fluff. All right. One final question. I know you're living, at least in Washington, with your son, the newly-elected senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul. He's going to be joining us tomorrow.

How is that working out, sharing a House with your son?

PAUL: Well, it's still pretty new, you know. And on your program once I said I wasn't going to be the cook, and now I'm trying to decide on what the chores have to be.

But, no, it's working fine, and it will be fine. And I think he'll have a decision to make in about six months or so, what he'll do with his family, and where he'll have more permanent places to stay. So this is going to work out fine. It works for his schedule, and it fits my schedule OK as well.

BLITZER: He's lucky to have his dad in Washington with him. Lucky in more ways than just that.

PAUL: Thank you.

BLITZER: Congressman, thank you very much.

PAUL: Appreciate it, Wolf.

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