[Rick Lee]

Ok, I don't know Ron Paul specific plans for abolishing a lot of the things he says he wants to abolish. But as for federal agencies, my guess is he'll never get Congress to cooperate with him, so he'd just defund them by executive order. I think Clinton and Bush have both toyed with this idea since the SCOTUS killed the line item veto. It's a narrow reading of the law and I forget the specifics. But I don't see how else Ron Paul could, for example, kill the Dept. of Education. That dept. was created by Carter as a payback to the NEA for their support. And like all gov't. programs, they're not too hard to create, but they are impossible to end. Paul would have to just refuse to direct the Treasury to release funds for Dept. of Ed. I don't recall the exact manner in which the Fed. Reserve gets its authority. I guess they would always be free to set their discount rate at whatever they want it. But they'd need the cash to be able to lend at that rate. So I guess a Pres. Paul could technically defund the Fed too.