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Rand Paul to government: 'Get out of the marriage business.' Is that possible?

The presidential candidate broke his silence on Friday鈥檚 Supreme Court ruling dealing with the legality of same-sex marriages.

"Government should get out of the marriage business altogether," Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Monday in an .

The presidential candidate was voicing his opinion on a landmark Supreme Court ruling, which on Friday made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

Sticking to his libertarian roots, he wondered whether, 鈥淭he time has come to examine whether or not governmental recognition of marriage is a good idea, for either party.鈥� Senator Paul believes that the case against federal involvement is clear, writing, 鈥淭he Constitution is silent on the question of marriage because marriage has always been a local issue.鈥�

In his essay, Paul asks 鈥淲hat does government convey along with marriage, and should it do so? Should the government care, or allocate any benefits based on marital status?鈥�

The sheer volume of benefits offered to married Americans may make it difficult for the United States to disentangle itself from the "marriage business." In the US, there are granted under legal marital status, based on federal law, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Benefits of marriage extend to areas of Social Security, tax law, immigration, employee benefits for federal workers, and health coverage to name a few.

Paul has addressed a few of these complexities in the past. Under the current US tax code, areas of income, estate and gift, and payroll taxes are subject to benefits through marriage. In , saying, 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 have marriage as part of the tax code鈥� if the tax code were to be reformed to the flat-tax system he supports. He also spoke to the complexity of health insurance , 鈥淚 think there is a way to write it where it would be neutral and you wouldn't bring marriage into the whole idea of health insurance."

The issue of immigration is closely linked to marriage under current immigration law, which allows spouses of US citizens or permanent residents聽to much more easily. On immigration, Paul's the senator 鈥淸does] not support amnesty, but rather [he] support[s] a legal immigration process.鈥澛�

Under current Social Security law, surviving spouses are eligible to receive Social Security payments, among other benefits. Paul's current that he is 鈥渃ommitted to fixing the Social Security program,鈥澛爄ncluding 鈥減reserving the system for seniors鈥� and 鈥渋mplementing reforms to save the program for younger generations.鈥� However, the presidential candidate has not yet explained how removing government from marriage would impact his plans for current and future聽Social Security benefits. 聽

滨苍听, Paul argued that the decision of the legality of same-sex marriage should be left to the states. Since then, he has largely maintained this stance, particularly when combining this argument with opposition to federalization, characteristic of his libertarian roots.

However, Paul has also stated that he believes in " to marriage. This past March, Paul spoke with a group of pastors, saying that a聽 in the United States has聽"

But "I for one will stand ready to resist any intrusion of government into the religious sphere."聽