Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) argued unnecessary bipartisanship among Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress is leading to U.S. involvement in fruitless wars and more debt.

“They [Republicans and Democrats] both endorse big government. There’s way too much bipartisanship. They never argue on the big issues. They agree on the big issues – on spending, on deficits, on interference, economic planning, favoritism, on wars, the Federal Reserve fixing interest rates. They agree on everything. Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner – they were good friends,” Paul said during the Nexus Conference in Aspen, Colo., last weekend.

“You’d never believe it, but they always came together and got to write the budget at the end,” he added. “And they’d come in and it would be that big at the end of the year and nobody is going to read it and they got to match it all up. But they’re a reflection of what we’ve allowed to happen. The educational system – it was OK to do it and the people said, ‘well, if it’s for free, it’s OK,’ and so it went onward until we got to this point.”

The U.S. national debt recently surged to $20.2 trillion.

Paul sarcastically said Russian President Vladimir Putin “rigged” the 2016 U.S. presidential election “all by himself.”

“Since we are so wonderful and perfect and it’s something that we would never do. We would never get involved in another person’s election. We’ve only done it 137 times and we’ve murdered about 15 of them and we’re in nation-building all the time and one of the most recent ones was the coup that we pulled off in Ukraine,” he claimed. “Then we wonder what the problems are but, no, it’s all Putin’s fault for what’s going on.”

The former Republican presidential candidate said there isn’t enough congressional oversight of the CIA right now.

“What about the CIA? The CIA is probably one of the most ruthless, out-of-control parts of our government ever. I actually believe it probably is involved in some assassinations now and then, domestic and foreign, and that to me is very, very bad and that is not ever discussed,” he said. “NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act], the ability for governments to arrest American citizens and assassinate them is now established law.”

Paul also said he would like to see the Republican-led Congress eliminate the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

“That’s one outfit I would like to get rid of for good, but they say, ‘well, then it would be unsafe.’ No, it is unsafe now, you know. You lose all your dignity if you put up with going through that stuff, you know, it’s just really horrible,” he said.

According to Paul, there are more than 110,000 “bureaucrats from Washington, D.C.” allowed to carry firearms.

“That means we do have a police state and the founders didn’t really want that but they carry guns. So when people ask me, ‘well, what about gun control? Are you going to fight for gun control?’ I say, ‘you are absolutely right. I’m going to take guns away from all the federal government bureaucrats. They are not allowed to carry a gun,’” he said.