Paul says reports of 1,000 U.S. deaths from the H1N1 may be true but ....

Just another government grab for more federal power, as he puts it in a video (see it just below here), newly posted for supporters by his Campaign for Liberty. Paul calls this year's vaccine distribution "a total failure" because some 120 million doses were to have been available by mid-October and only about 10% of that were.

A medical doctor himself, Paul, who at 74 is older even than John McCain , sees the Obama administration's oft-delayed H1N1 swine flu immunization plan as typical of many government-run programs -- poorly planned, overloaded, inefficient, too expensive, late and quite possibly not even necessary.

Rep. Ron Paul , the 11-term Republican congressman from Texas who mobilized millions of supporters and about $35 million for his unsuccessful presidential run last year, has added the federal government's faltering flu immunization program to his list of things worthy of denunciation.

...come from the same federal government running the vaccine program and remain unverified.

And anyway, the doctor asks, is that really such a "catastrophe" worthy of declaring a national emergency as President Obama did last weekend? The onetime Libertarian says that last winter, 13,000 Americans died from the regular flu, which he says few people mention while approving of a vast new wasteful federal H1N1 program that then fails.

As The Ticket reported here recently, a new poll indicated that 62% of adult Americans say they have no intention of getting the new vaccine anyway.

Paul says he also believes there is....

...much to be concerned over natural immune systems "being knocked down" by immunization. And he has criticized some previous immunization programs for actually endangering those receiving the vaccine. He does admit, however, that the polio vaccine wiped out that dreaded disease during his lifetime.

Unlike most presidential candidates, Paul's 2008 campaign not only ran no deficit, it ended up with about a $5-million surplus, which Paul is using to organize and support like-minded libertarian-style candidates around the country and making some bids to seize control of local Republican operations.

As The Ticket reported here the other day, Paul is gearing up for a speaking campaign in coming days, including South Carolina and Iowa (yes, that Iowa, where Mike Huckabee surprised Mitt Romney in the GOP 2008 caucus.) And all this has added up to speculation that Paul is planning another hopeless presidential run in 2012, when he would be 77, still older than John McCain.

In a new opinion column published by CNN, Paul warns that the expansionist policies of the Federal Reserve, a frequent, favorite target of his, is endangering the entire fiscal position of the United States.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has embarked on an ambitious program of monetary expansion, more than doubling the monetary base to almost $1.9 trillion and doubling the size of its balance sheet to over $2 trillion, placing the American economy in a precarious position.



If all this excess money begins to be loaned out, the Fed risks creating a hyper-inflationary crisis similar to 1920s Germany.



Warning of "a complete collapse of the dollar," Paul also calls for "a strict audit" of the Fed and all of its actions, if not outright abolition of the institution, which Paul considers way too powerful, corrupt and unconstitutional.

In fact, not coincidentally, Paul has a new book just out titled "End the Fed," which makes just that argument. The book costs $21.99 (or $26.99 if you're a Democrat -- or Canadian).

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press