Ron Paul: Secret Service 'a form of welfare'

Rep. Ron Paul is the only remaining Republican presidential candidate who does not have Secret Service protection -- and he doesn’t want it, either.

Appearing on the Tonight Show on Tuesday, Paul told Jay Leno that the service is “a form of welfare,” and costs taxpayers too much money.

“It’s a form of welfare,” he said. “You know, you’re having the taxpayers pay to take care of somebody, and I’m an ordinary citizen and I would think I should pay for my own protection and it costs, I think, more than $50,000 a day to protect those individuals. It’s a lot of money.”

But if he does receive protection, he already has a code name picked out for himself: “Bulldog,” he said without hesitating. Obviously the Texas Republican had thought about this before.

Paul also addressed issues concerning a brokered convention and his opponents' records, but the mood remained light. Earlier in the program, Paul joked about whether he should become a czar or the head of the Federal Reserve, to which Leno responded, “Then you can eliminate your own job.”