Dr. Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas and 2012 Republican presidential candidate, has a plan to rein in this problem. Libertarian policies, which are the policies that Paul both practices and preaches, are difficult to explain in our increasingly socialist society. The root of the problem is systemic, not cosmetic as President Obama would have you believe.

The Federal Reserve needs to be audited and ended in order to curb inflation, specifically on the education front. The Obama plan simply places further burden on the American taxpayer while the Ron Paul plan executes basic notions of liberty and more importantly, constitutionality.

In a USA Today piece penned by Paul on Oct. 27, he said, “This is what happens when we print money out of thin air and couple it with government intervention in education … In the name of ‘helping’ students through federal loans, the government has really hurt them in the long run by drastically driving up the overall cost of education.”

The Ron Paul remedy would abolish the Department of Education over time, along with the Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, and Commerce.

With the abolition of such departments and cabinet positions, their former authority will be devolved to states and local governments or to people themselves, as per the 10th Amendment.

The Ron Paul plan makes no immediate or short-term cuts to student loans, Medicare or Social Security programs. They will be phased out, as instituting those changes immediately would be extremely detrimental to American society.

These seem like wild proposals, but at their core is the most strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution that you can find when looking at each person wishing to hold the highest office in the said country. They are indeed sad times when the only person wishing to lawfully execute the office of president of the United States is written off as crazy and unelectable.

President Obama wishes to once again overstep his authority as president, and issue an executive order to change the parameters of the law passed by Congress. As president, Paul would never issue an executive order. Instead he would use the lawful means of Congressional approval.

There is a large movement of fearmongering by the left that is usually only executed by the likes of Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. It claims Paul would somehow run this country into the ground by taking the federal government out of places where it does not belong. Paul says it best himself; “[C]onstantly frightening Americans anytime someone dares to offer serious solutions is the easiest way to make sure there is never any transition, never any real reform, and never any recovery.”