Ron Paul
Encyclopedia
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party
candidate in the 2012 presidential election
. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district
, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes Galveston
. Paul serves on the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services
, and on the Joint Economic Committee
. He is the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
, where he has been an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policy.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College
and Duke University School of Medicine
, where he earned his medical degree
. He served as a flight surgeon
in the United States Air Force
from 1963 until 1968. He worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist
during the 1960s and 1970s, delivering more than 4,000 babies, before entering politics during 1976.
Paul is the initiator of the advocacy group
Campaign for Liberty and his ideas have been expressed in numerous published articles and books, including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom
(2011), End The Fed
(2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto
(2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship
(2007), and The Case for Gold (1982). According to University of Georgia
political scientist Keith Poole, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. His son Rand Paul
was elected to the United States Senate
for Kentucky
in 2010, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child of his in the Senate.
Paul has been termed the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement
. He has become well known for his libertarian
ideas for many political issues, often differing from both Republican and Democratic Party stances. Paul has campaigned for President of the United States
twice before, first during 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party
and again during 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination. On May 13, 2011, he announced formally that he would campaign again during 2012 for the Republican presidential nomination. On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek another term in Congress in order to concentrate on his presidential bid
.
, and his mother was of German and Irish ancestry. As a junior at suburban Dormont High School
, he was the 220-yard dash
state
champion
.
He received a B.S.
degree in biology
at Gettysburg College
during 1957. He was a member of the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha
. After earning a Doctor of Medicine
degree from the Duke University School of Medicine
during 1961, Paul relocated with his wife to Michigan
, where he completed his medical internship at the Henry Ford Hospital
in Detroit. He then served as a flight surgeon
in the United States Air Force
from 1963 to 1965 and then in the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.
During 1968, Paul and his wife relocated to Texas, where he continued his medical work. Trained in obstetrics and gynaecology
, Paul then began his own private practice
.
Paul has been married to Carol Wells since 1957. They have five children, who were baptized
Episcopalian
: Ronald, Lori, Rand
, Robert, and Joy. Paul's son Rand is the junior senator from the state of Kentucky. Raised a Lutheran, Paul later became a Baptist.
As a physician, Paul routinely lowered fees or worked for free and refused to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments. As a member of Congress, he continues to refuse to sign up for the government pension that he would be entitled to in order to avoid receiving government money, saying it would be "hypocritical and immoral."
's The Road to Serfdom
, which caused him to read many publications by Ludwig von Mises
and Ayn Rand
. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz
and Murray Rothbard
well, and credits to them his interest in the study of economics. He came to believe that what the Austrian school
economists wrote was becoming true on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon
"closed the gold window"
by implementing the U.S. dollar's complete departure from the gold standard
. That same day, the young physician decided to enter politics, saying later, "After that day, all money would be political money
rather than money of real value. I was astounded."
and caused by excessive government spending on the Vietnam War
and welfare
, Paul became a delegate to the Texas Republican convention
and a Republican candidate for the United States Congress
. During 1974, incumbent Robert R. Casey
defeated him for the 22nd district. When President Gerald Ford
appointed Casey to direct the Federal Maritime Commission
, Paul won an April 1976 special election to the vacant office. Paul lost some months later in the general election
, to Democrat
Robert Gammage
, by fewer than 300 votes (0.2%), but defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch, and was reelected during 1980 and 1982.
Paul was the first Republican representative from the area; he also headed the Texas Reagan delegation at the national Republican convention. His successful campaign against Gammage surprised local Democrats, who had expected to retain the seat easily due to the Watergate scandal
. Gammage underestimated Paul's popularity among local mothers: "I had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he'd delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner."
legislation multiple times, first in the 1970s while serving four terms in the House of Representatives where he also declined to attend junkets or register for a Congressional pension. His chief of staff (1978–1982) was Lew Rockwell
. During 1980, when a majority of Republicans favored President Jimmy Carter
's proposal to reinstate draft registration, Paul argued that their views were inconsistent, stating they were more interested in registering their children than they were their guns. He also proposed legislation to decrease Congressional pay by the rate of inflation; he was a regular participant of the annual Congressional Baseball Game; and he continued to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire 22nd district career.
During his first term, Paul initiated a "think tank
", the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education
(FREE). Also during 1976, the foundation began publication of the first monthly newsletter associated with Paul, Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report (or Special Report). It also publishes radio advertisements, monographs, books, and (since 1997) a new series of the monthly newsletter, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, which promote the principles of limited government.
On the House Banking Committee, Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for inflation, and spoke against the banking mismanagement that resulted in the savings and loan crisis
. The U.S. Gold Commission created by Congress during 1982 was his and Jesse Helms
's idea, and Paul's commission minority report was published by the Cato Institute
in The Case for Gold; it is now available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute
, to which Paul is a distinguished counselor.
During 1984, Paul chose to campaign for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election to the House, but lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm
, who had switched parties the previous year from Democrat to Republican. Another candidate of the senatorial primary was Henry Grover
, a conservative former state legislator who had lost the 1972 gubernatorial general election to the Democrat Dolph Briscoe, Jr.
Paul then resumed his full-time medical practice and was succeeded by former state representative Tom DeLay
. In his House farewell address on September 19, 1984, Paul said, "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders
had for general welfare. Vote trading
is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic
." Paul submitted his resignation letter addressed to Frank Fahrenkopf, then chairman of the Republican National Committee.
, and received votes there only when written in, due to what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
termed a "technicality".
The Libertarian party was split between a Conservative and Liberal wing. Ron Paul represented the Conservative wing, which was successful in fundraising, while the Liberal wing claimed to have received ten times more (and more favorable) press coverage—which, some argued, was a hundred times more important. Nevertheless the nomination went to Paul. Ron Paul argued, "Pro-life libertarians have a vital task to perform: to persuade the many abortion-supporting libertarians of the contradiction between abortion and individual liberty; and to sever the mistaken connection in many minds between individual freedom and the 'right' to extinguish individual life."
According to Paul, his presidential campaign was about more than obtaining office; he sought to promote his libertarian ideas, often to school and university groups regardless of vote eligibility. He said, "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents." He traveled the country for a year speaking about issues such as free market
economics and the rising government deficits: "That's why we talk to a lot of young people. They're the ones who are paying these bills, they're the ones who are inheriting this debt, so it's most likely these young people who will move into this next generation in government."
After the election, Paul continued his medical practice until he returned to Congress. He also co-owned a coin dealership, Ron Paul Coins, for twelve years with Burt Blumert, who continued to operate it after Paul resumed office. He spoke multiple times at the American Numismatic Association
's 1988 convention. He worked with FREE on such projects as establishing the National Endowment for Liberty, producing the At Issue public policy series that was broadcast on Discovery Channel
and CNBC
, and continuing publication of Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report.
Paul resumed his private medical practice as well as taking part in other small business ventures. For 1992, RP&A earned $940,000 and employed Paul's family as well as Lew Rockwell
(its vice-president and occasional editor) and seven other workers. Murray Rothbard
and other libertarians believed Rockwell ghostwrote
the newsletters for Paul; Rockwell later acknowledged involvement in writing subscription letters, but attributed the newsletters to "seven or eight freelancers".
Paul considered campaigning for President during 1992, but instead chose to endorse Pat Buchanan
that year, and served as an adviser to his Republican presidential campaign against incumbent President George H. W. Bush.
, Paul entered the campaign hopeful that his Constitutionalist policies of tax reductions, terminating federal agencies, and curbing the U.N. would have more support than during the past. The Republican National Committee
emphasized instead encouragement of Democrats to switch parties, as Paul's primary opponent, incumbent Greg Laughlin
, had done during 1995. The party endorsed Laughlin, including assistance from House Speaker Newt Gingrich
, Texas Governor George W. Bush
, and the National Rifle Association
. Paul responded by running newspaper advertisements quoting Gingrich's harsh criticisms of Laughlin's Democratic voting record 14 months earlier. Paul won the primary with assistance from baseball pitcher, constituent, and friend Nolan Ryan
(as honorary campaign chair and advertisement spokesman), as well as tax activist Steve Forbes
and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan
(both of whom had had presidential campaigns that year).
Paul's Democratic opponent in the autumn general election, trial lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, received assistance from the AFL-CIO
, but Paul's wider contributor base out-raised Morris two-to-one, giving the third-highest amount of individual contributions received by any House member (behind Gingrich and Bob Dornan
). While Paul was able to describe Morris as a stooge of trial lawyers and big labor
, Morris ran numerous advertisements about Paul's advocacy of federal drug law repeal.
Morris also accused Paul of authoring questionable statements in past newsletters, some of which were characterized as racially charged. Paul's congressional campaign countered the statements were taken out of context. and that voters might not understand the "tongue-in-cheek, academic" quotes out of context. Further, the campaign rejected Morris' demand to release all back issues.
Paul won the election by a close margin. It became the third time Paul had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. Upon his returning to Washington, Paul quickly discovered "there was no sincere effort" by Republicans toward their declared goal of small government
.
, rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge, running advertisements warning voters to be "leery of" Sneary. Paul accused Sneary of voting to increase his pay by 5%, increasing his travel allotment by 400% during one year, and using increased taxes to start a new government bureaucracy
to administer a license plate fee he enacted. Sneary's aides said he had voted to increase all county employees' pay by five percent in a cost-of-living increase. Paul countered that he had never voted to increase Congressional pay. In both campaigns, the national Democratic Party and major unions continued to spend much money against Paul. Paul continued to refrain from congressional benefits and in 2009 was featured by CBS
on Up to the Minute
as one of two members of the U.S. Congress that had pledged not to receive a pension from the United States government. The other was Howard Coble
of North Carolina
.
An online "grassroots
" petition to draft Paul for the 2004 presidential election
garnered several thousand signatures. On December 11, 2001, he told political independents that he was encouraged by the fact that the petition had spread the message of Constitutionalism, but did not expect a White House win at that time. Further prompting in early 2007 caused him to enter the 2008 presidential election campaign
.
Unlike many political candidates, Paul receives the overwhelming majority of his campaign contributions from individuals (97 percent during the 2006 cycle), and receives much less from political action committee
s (PAC's) than others, ranging from two percent (2002) to six percent (1998). The group Clean Up Washington, analyzing from 2000 to mid-2006, listed Paul as seventh-lowest of PAC receipts of all House members; one of the lowest in lobbyist receipts; and fourth-highest in small-donor receipts. He had the lowest PAC receipts percentage of all the 2008 Republican presidential candidates.
Paul was re-elected to his tenth term in Congress during November 2006. In the March 4, 2008, Republican primary for his Congressional seat, he defeated Friendswood city councilman Chris Peden
, obtaining over 70 percent of the vote. On the 2008 ballot, Paul won his eleventh term in Congress running unopposed. In the 2010 Republican primary for his Congressional seat, Paul defeated three opponents with 80 percent of the vote.
, with 675 miles (1,086.3 km) of Gulf of Mexico
coastline between Houston and Rockport
, Texas, including some 22 counties. Paul opposes federally funded flood insurance
. In a rural region known for ranching and rice
farms, Paul opposes farm subsidies. Paul's devotion to reducing government is popular with 14th district voters: in a survey, 54% of his constituency agreed with his goal of eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.
Paul has added earmarks
, such as for Texas shrimp promotion, but routinely votes against most spending bills returned by committee. Paul compared his practice to objecting to the tax system yet taking all one's tax credit
s: "I want to get their money back for the people."
In The Revolution: A Manifesto
, Paul says: "The real problem, and one that was unfortunately not addressed in the 2007's earmark dispute, is the size of the federal government and the amount of money we are spending in these appropriations bills. Cutting even a million dollars from an appropriations bill that spends hundreds of billions will make no appreciable difference in the size of government, which is doubtless why politicians and the media are so eager to have us waste our time on [earmarks]."
Paul spends time in the district to compensate for "violat[ing] almost every rule of political survival you can think of," traveling more than 300 miles (482.8 km) daily to attend civic ceremonies for veterans, graduates, and Boy Scouts
, often accompanied by his grandchildren. His staff helps senior citizens obtain free or low-cost prescription drugs through a little-known drug company program; procures lost or unreceived medals for war veterans, holding dozens of medal ceremonies annually; is known for its effectiveness in tracing Social Security
checks; and sends out birthday and condolence cards.
During 2001, he was one of only eight doctors in the House of Representatives; even fewer had continued to practice while in office. He is occasionally approached by younger area residents to thank him for attending and assisting their deliveries at birth.
seizure of a church in New York, and a bill transferring ownership of the Lake Texana
dam project from the federal government to Texas. By amending other legislation, he has helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification, International Criminal Court
jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax
, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment
activities by citizens.
During March 2001, Paul introduced a bill to repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution
(WPR) and reinstate the process of formal declaration of war by Congress. Later during 2001, Paul voted to authorize
the president, pursuant to WPR, to respond to those responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks. He also introduced "Sunlight Rule" legislation, which requires lawmakers to take enough time to read bills before voting on them, after the Patriot Act was passed within 24 hours of its introduction. Paul was one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, and (with Oregon
representative Peter DeFazio
) sponsored a resolution to repeal the war authorization during February 2003. Paul's speech, 35 "Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq," was translated and published in German
, French
, Russian
, Italian
, and Swiss periodicals before the Iraq War began.
Paul says his fellow members of Congress have increased government spending by 75 percent during the presidency of George W. Bush. After a 2005 bill was touted as "slashing" government waste, Paul wrote that it decreased spending by a fraction of one percent and that "Congress couldn't slash spending if the members' lives depended on it." He said that during three years he had voted against more than 700 bills intended to expand government.
Paul has introduced several bills to apply tax credits to education, including credits for parental spending on public
, private, or homeschool students (Family Education Freedom Act
); for salaries for all K–12 teachers, librarians, counselors, and other school personnel; and for donations to scholarships or to benefit academics (Education Improvement Tax Cut Act). In accord with his political opinions, he has also introduced the Sanctity of Life Act
, the We the People Act, and the American Freedom Agenda
Act.
During June 2011, Paul co-sponsored a bill with U.S. Representative Barney Frank
that is intended to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
hosted by the Library of Congress
. All the specifics and actions done for each individual bill Ron Paul has either sponsored or cosponsored can be reviewed further there. "Original bills" and "Original amendments" indicate instances where Ron Paul had pledged to endorse the legislation at the time the bill was initially introduced rather than at some other phase of the legislative process of the bill.
Note: The numbers for the current session of Congress may no longer represent the actual numbers as they are still actively in session.
of the Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology subcommittee, and Vice-Chair of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee).
Paul was honorary chairman of, and is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus
, a political action committee that describes its goal as electing "liberty-minded, limited-government individuals". Paul also hosts a luncheon every Thursday as chairman of the Liberty Caucus
, composed of 20 members of Congress. Washington DC area radio personality Johnny "Cakes" Auville gave Paul the idea for the Liberty Caucus and is a regular contributing member. He is an initiating member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues, and the 140-member Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus
. He remains on good terms with the Libertarian Party and addressed its 2004 convention. He also was endorsed by the Constitution Party's 2004 presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka
.
Paul was a member of a bipartisan coalition of 17 members of Congress that sued President Bill Clinton
during 1999 due to his conduct of the Kosovo war
. They accused Clinton of failing to inform Congress of the action's status within 48 hours as required by the War Powers Resolution
, and of failing to obtain Congressional declaration of war. Congress had voted 427–2 against a declaration of war with Yugoslavia
, and had voted to deny assistance for the air campaign in Kosovo. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that since Congress had voted for funding after Clinton had actively engaged troops in the war with Kosovo, legislators had sent a confusing message about whether they approved of the war. Paul said that the judge's decision attempted to circumvent the Constitution and to authorize the president to conduct a war without approval from Congress.
With the election of the 112th Congress, and a resulting GOP majority in the House, Ron Paul became the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
starting in January 2011.
. His campaign had intense grassroots
support—his supporters were said to "always show up"—- and he had dozens of wins of GOP "straw poll
s". Additionally, Ron Paul garnered much popularity among college students, with about 500 Students for Ron Paul groups formed across the United States. Few major politicians endorsed Paul, but he won the endorsement of Houston political activist Clymer Wright
, the main promoter of the municipal term limits imposed in Houston during 1991.
Paul's campaign showed "surprisingly strong" fundraising with several record-breaking events. He had the greatest rate of military contribution for 2008, and donations coming from individuals, aided significantly by an online presence and very active campaigning by endorsers, who organized "moneybomb
" fundraisers acquiring millions of dollars during several months. Such fundraising earned Paul the status of having raised more than any other Republican candidate during 2007's fourth-quarter. Paul's name was a number-one web search term as ranked by Technorati
, beginning around May 2007. He has had more YouTube subscriptions since May 20, 2007, than any other candidate.
Paul was largely ignored by traditional media, including at least one incident such that FOX News did not invite him to a GOP debate featuring all other presidential candidates at the time. One exception was Glenn Beck
's program
on Headline News, where Beck interviewed Paul for the full hour of his show.
Though projections of 2008 Republican delegate
counts varied widely, Paul's count was consistently third among the three candidates remaining after Super Tuesday, 2008
. According to CNN
and The New York Times
, by Super Tuesday Paul had received five delegates in North Dakota
, and was projected to receive two in Iowa
, four in Nevada
, and five in Alaska
based on caucus results, totaling 16 delegates. Paul's campaign projected 42 delegates based on the same results, including delegates from Colorado
, Maine
, and Minnesota
.
In the January 2008 Louisiana caucus
, Paul scored second after John McCain, but uncommitted delegates outnumbered both candidates' pledged delegates, since a registration deadline had been extended to January 12. Paul said he had the greatest number of pledged Louisiana
delegates who had registered by the original January 10 deadline, and formally challenged the deadline extension and the Louisiana GOP's exclusion of voters due to an outdated list; he projected three Louisiana delegates. The Super Tuesday West Virginia caucus
was won by Mike Huckabee
, whose state campaign coordinators reportedly arranged to give three Huckabee delegates to Paul in exchange for votes from Paul's endorsers. Huckabee has not confirmed this delegate pledge.
Paul's preference votes in primaries and caucuses began at 10 percent in Iowa
(winning Jefferson County
) and eight percent in New Hampshire
, where he had the endorsement of state sovereignty champion, State Representative
Dan Itse
; on Super Tuesday they ranged from 25 percent in Montana
and 21 percent in North Dakota caucuses, where he won several counties, to three percent in several state primaries, averaging under 10 percent in primaries overall. After sweeping four states on March 4, McCain was projected widely to have a majority of delegate
s pledged to vote for him in the September 2008 party convention
. Paul obliquely acknowledged McCain on March 6: "Though victory in the political sense [is] not available, many victories have been achieved due to hard work and enthusiasm." He continued to contest the remaining primaries, having added, "McCain has the nominal number ... but if you're in a campaign for only gaining power, that is one thing; if you're in a campaign to influence ideas and the future of the country, it's never over." Paul's recent book, The Revolution: A Manifesto
, became a The New York Times
and Amazon.com
bestseller immediately upon release. His newest book, End the Fed, has been released.
On June 12, 2008, Paul withdrew his bid for the Republican nomination, citing his resources could be better spent on improving America. Some of the $4 million remaining campaign contributions was invested into the new political action and advocacy group called Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty
. Paul told the newsmagazine NOW on PBS
the goal of the Campaign for Liberty is to "spread the message of the Constitution and limited government, while at the same time organizing at the grassroots level and teaching pro-liberty activists how to run effective campaigns and win elections at every level of government."
Paul had given his own account of the newsletters during March 2001, stating the documents were authored by ghostwriters, and that while he did not author the challenged passages, he bore "some moral responsibility" for their publication.
At the end of 2007, both the New York Sun
and The New York Times Magazine
reprinted passages from early 1990s publications of Paul's newsletters, attacking them for content deemed racist. These were the same newsletters that had been used against Paul during his 1996 congressional campaign.
On January 8, 2008, the day of the New Hampshire primary, The New Republic
published a story by James Kirchick
quoting from selected newsletters published under Paul's name.
Responding to the charges in a CNN interview, Paul denied any involvement in authoring the passages. Additionally, Paul's campaign claimed through a press release that the quotations had come from an unnamed ghostwriter and without Paul's consent. Paul again denounced and disavowed the "small-minded thoughts", citing his 1999 House speech praising Rosa Parks
for her courage; he said the charges simply "rehashed" the decade-old Morris attack. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer
said that the writing "Didn't sound like the Ron Paul I've come to know." Later, Nelson Linder, president of the Austin
chapter of the NAACP, also defended Paul.
The newsmagazine Reason republished Paul's 1996 defense of the newsletters, and later reported evidence from "a half-dozen longtime libertarian activists" that Lew Rockwell
had been the chief ghostwriter
. Rockwell denies this charge, and "has characterized discussion of the newsletters as 'hysterical smears aimed at political enemies.'"
removed Chuck Baldwin
from their presidential ticket, replacing him with Ron Paul for president and Michael Peroutka
for vice president. Paul made an announcement stating that he "was aware that the party planned to do this, and has said that as long as he can remain passive and silent about the development, and as long as he need not sign any declaration of candidacy, that he does not object." Paul requested on September 11 that Montana eliminate his name from the ballot, stating that he did not "seek nor consent" to the Montana Constitution Party's nomination. He also suggested the Party list official Constitution Party nominee Baldwin on the Montana ballot instead. Five days later the Montana Secretary of State denied Paul's request for withdrawal, stating that the request was sent to them too late. On September 4, 2008, a list of electors in Louisiana using the name "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" filed papers and paid $500 with the Secretary of State's Office. They are pledged to Paul for President and Barry Goldwater, Jr.
for Vice President.
The same day, Paul's staff released a brief press statement: "On the heels of his historic three-day rally in Minneapolis that drew over 12,000 attendees, Congressman Ron Paul will make a major announcement next week in Washington at the National Press Club." The congressman had reportedly invited presidential candidates Chuck Baldwin
, Bob Barr
, Cynthia McKinney
, and Ralph Nader
to the press conference, causing some people to speculate that they would endorse Paul campaigning for president on the ticket of either the Constitution, Libertarian or other third party.
On September 10, 2008, Paul confirmed his "open endorsement" (CNN) for the four candidates at a press conference in Washington D.C. He also revealed that he had rejected a request for an endorsement of John McCain. He later appeared on CNN
's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer with Nader where they presented and briefly described the four principles that all the independent candidates had agreed on as the most important issues of the presidential campaign.
On September 22, 2008, in response to a written statement by Bob Barr
, Paul abandoned his former neutral stance and announced his endorsement of Chuck Baldwin
in the 2008 presidential election.
In the 2008 general election, Paul still received 41,905 votes despite not actively campaigning. He was listed on the ballot in Montana
as the Constitution Party
candidate, and in Louisiana
on the "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" ticket, and received write-in votes in California (17,006), Pennsylvania (3,527), New Hampshire (1,092), and other states. (Not all U.S. jurisdictions require the counting or reporting of write-in votes.)
in Washington, D.C., speaking for 20 minutes on topics including monetary theory and policy in the United States, in addition to the War in Iraq, and international foreign policy. Paul's Campaign for Liberty sent 140 volunteers to CPAC 2009 to distribute materials, and significantly increased that number the next year.
In the 2009 CPAC Straw Poll for the 2012 presidential election
, Paul tied 2008 GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
for third place with 13% of the vote, behind fellow former candidate Mitt Romney and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
. In the 2010 CPAC straw poll, he scored first, decisively winning with 31%, followed distantly by Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty
of Minnesota
, among others. In the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll, Paul finished second place with 24% of the vote (438 votes), behind only Mitt Romney (with 439 votes). An April 2010 Rasmussen poll among likely voters found that Ron Paul and President Obama were statistically tied in a hypothetical 2012 presidential election.
in the 2012 election
.
Beginning during 2010 there was speculation among pundits and journalists
regarding the prospect of Paul campaigning for president again during 2012. When Paul's wife, Carol, was asked if he would campaign during 2012 her response was "If you would ask him now he would probably say 'no', but he did say... things are happening so quickly and fast in our country, if we're at a crisis period and they need someone... with the knowledge he has... then he would do it."
Paul won several early straw polls and began raising funds for an exploratory committee. In mid-April, 2011, Paul announced the formation of a "testing-the-waters" account, and stated that he will make a decision on whether to enter the campaign officially no later than May. In late April, he formed an official exploratory committee to campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He participated with the first Republican presidential debate on May 5, 2011. and on May 13, 2011, Paul formally announced his candidacy in an interview on ABC
's Good Morning America
. He placed second in the 2011 Ames Straw Poll
, missing first by 0.9%.
An August scientific poll of likely voters across the political spectrum by Rasmussen Reports
held a contest between Paul and Barack Obama
, in which the two were "almost dead even." Obama led Paul by one percentage point at 39% to 38% - a significantly smaller margin than July (41% - 37%). Paul moved up to 3rd in a late-August poll of likely Republican primary voters, trailing Rick Perry
and Mitt Romney
and passing Michele Bachmann
, climbing from fourth to third position.
Paul has been described as conservative, Constitutionalist, and libertarian
. He has been nicknamed "Dr. No", representing both his medical degree and his insistence that he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution", and "Mr. Republican". One scoring method published in the American Journal of Political Science
found Paul the most conservative of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002. Paul's foreign policy of nonintervention made him the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution during 2002. He advocates withdrawal from the United Nations
, and from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty. He endorses free trade
, rejecting membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization
as "managed trade". He endorses increased border security and opposes welfare for illegal aliens, birthright citizenship and amnesty
; he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006
. He voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
in response to the September 11 attacks, but suggested war alternatives such as authorizing the president to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal targeting specific terrorists. An opponent of the Iraq War and potential war with Iran, he has also criticized neoconservatism
and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, arguing that both inadvertently cause terrorist reprisals against Americans. Paul has stated that "Israel is our close friend" and that it is not the place of the United States to "dictate how Israel runs her affairs".
Paul is a proponent of Austrian school
economics; he has authored six books on the subject, and displays pictures of Austrian school economists Friedrich Hayek
, Murray Rothbard
, and Ludwig von Mises
(as well as of Grover Cleveland
) on his office wall. He regularly votes against almost all proposals for new government spending, initiatives, or taxes; he cast two thirds of all the lone negative votes in the House during a 1995–1997 period. He has pledged never to raise taxes and states he has never voted to approve a budget deficit. Paul believes that the country could abolish the individual income tax by scaling back federal spending to its fiscal year 2000 levels; financing government operations would be primarily by excise taxes and non-protectionist tariff
s. He endorses eliminating most federal government agencies, terming them unnecessary bureaucracies. Paul has a consistent record as an inflation hawk, having warned of the threat of hyperinflation
as far back as 1981. While Paul believes the longterm decrease of the U.S. dollar's purchasing power by inflation
is attributable to its lack of any commodity backing, he does not endorse a "return" to a gold standard - as the U.S. government has established during the past - but instead prefers to eliminate legal tender
laws and to remove the sales tax on gold and silver, so that the market may freely decide what type of monetary standard(s) there shall be. He also advocates gradual elimination of the Federal Reserve System
.
Paul endorses constitutional rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms, and habeas corpus
for political detainees. He opposes the Patriot Act, federal use of torture, presidential autonomy, a national identification card
, warrantless domestic surveillance, and the draft
. Citing the Ninth
and Tenth Amendments
, Paul advocates states' rights
to decide how to regulate social matters not cited directly by the Constitution. Paul terms himself "strongly pro-life", "an unshakable foe of abortion", and believes regulation or ban on medical decisions about maternal or fetal health is "best handled at the state level". He says his years as an obstetrician led him to believe life begins at conception; his abortion-related legislation, like the Sanctity of Life Act
, is intended to negate Roe v. Wade
and to get "the federal government completely out of the business of regulating state matters." Paul also believes that the notion of the separation of church and state
is currently misused by the court system: "In case after case, the Supreme Court has used the infamous 'separation of church and state'
metaphor to uphold court decisions that allow the federal government to intrude upon and deprive citizens of their religious liberty."
He opposes federal regulation of the death penalty
(although he opposes capital punishment), of education, and of marriage, and endorses revising the military's "don't ask, don't tell
" policy to concern mainly disruptive sexual behavior (whether heterosexual or homosexual). As a free-market environmentalist, he asserts private property rights in relation to environmental protection and pollution prevention. He also opposes the federal War on Drugs
, and believes the states should decide whether to regulate or deregulate drugs such as medical marijuana. Paul pushes to eliminate federal involvement with and management of health care
, which he argues would allow prices to decrease due to the fundamental dynamics of a free market. He is an outspoken proponent for increased ballot access
for 3rd party candidates and numerous election law reforms which he believes would allow more voter control.
Referring to the federal government, Ron Paul has also stated that "The government shouldn't be in the medical business." He is also opposed to federal government influenza inoculation programs.
Paul was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
, arguing that it sanctioned federal interference in the labor market and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964
not only violated the Constitution
and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society".
On April 15, 2011, Paul was one of four Republican members of Congress to vote against "The Path to Prosperity
".
Congress
Presidential campaign
Other
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate in the 2012 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2012
The United States presidential election of 2012 is the next United States presidential election, to be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It will be the 57th quadrennial presidential election in which presidential electors, who will actually elect the President and the Vice President of the United...
. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district
Texas's 14th congressional district
Texas's 14th district for the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that covers the area south and southwest of the Greater Houston region, including Galveston, in the state of Texas. The district was created as a result of the 1900 U.S. Census and was first contested...
, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
. Paul serves on the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services
United States House Committee on Financial Services
The United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
, and on the Joint Economic Committee
United States Congress Joint Economic Committee
The Joint Economic Committee is one of four standing joint committees of the U.S. Congress. The committee was established as a part of the Employment Act of 1946, which deemed the committee responsible for reporting the current economic condition of the United States and for making suggestions...
. He is the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
The U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services...
, where he has been an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policy.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
and Duke University School of Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
The Duke University School of Medicine is Duke University's medical school operating under the auspices of the Duke University Medical Center. Established in 1925 by James B...
, where he earned his medical degree
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
. He served as a flight surgeon
Flight surgeon
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer assigned to duties in the clinical field variously known as aviation medicine, aerospace medicine, or flight medicine...
in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
from 1963 until 1968. He worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist
Obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and gynaecology are the two surgical–medical specialties dealing with the female reproductive organs in their pregnant and non-pregnant state, respectively, and as such are often combined to form a single medical specialty and postgraduate training programme...
during the 1960s and 1970s, delivering more than 4,000 babies, before entering politics during 1976.
Paul is the initiator of the advocacy group
Advocacy group
Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
Campaign for Liberty and his ideas have been expressed in numerous published articles and books, including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom
Liberty Defined
Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom is a best-selling 2011 non-fiction book by Congressman Ron Paul .The book came out on April 19, 2011. On release, it was fifth on Amazon's best-selling non-fiction books and nineteenth for all books. For the week ending April 29, 2011, it...
(2011), End The Fed
End the Fed
End the Fed is a 2009 book by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. The book debuted at number six on the New York Times Best Seller list and advocates the abolition of the United States Federal Reserve Bank.-Summary:...
(2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto is a New York Times #1 best seller by Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. According to Paul, the book is based on written notes during his 2008 presidential campaign....
(2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship
A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship
A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship is a 2007 compilation by congressman Ron Paul of his foreign policy speeches to the U.S. House of Representatives over a 30-year period, published as an accompaniment to his campaign for the presidency of the United States in the...
(2007), and The Case for Gold (1982). According to University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
political scientist Keith Poole, Paul had the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. His son Rand Paul
Rand Paul
Randal Howard "Rand" Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian...
was elected to the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
for Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
in 2010, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child of his in the Senate.
Paul has been termed the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
. He has become well known for his libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
ideas for many political issues, often differing from both Republican and Democratic Party stances. Paul has campaigned for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
twice before, first during 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
and again during 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination. On May 13, 2011, he announced formally that he would campaign again during 2012 for the Republican presidential nomination. On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek another term in Congress in order to concentrate on his presidential bid
Ron Paul presidential campaign, 2012
U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas is running for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Although he was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate, Paul stopped short of a full-fledged candidacy before May 2011. Prior to that, he had only indicated that he...
.
Personal life and medical career
Paul was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Howard Caspar Paul and Margaret (née Dumont) Paul. His paternal great-grandparents emigrated from GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and his mother was of German and Irish ancestry. As a junior at suburban Dormont High School
Keystone Oaks High School
Keystone Oaks High School, built in 1969, is a public high school in the South Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the only high school in the Keystone Oaks School District...
, he was the 220-yard dash
200 metres
A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...
state
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
champion
Championship
Championship is a term used in sport to refer to various forms of competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.- Title match system :...
.
He received a B.S.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
at Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College is a private four-year liberal arts college founded in 1832, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, United States, adjacent to the famous battlefield. Its athletic teams are nicknamed the Bullets. Gettysburg College has about 2,700 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women...
during 1957. He was a member of the fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's secret general fraternities in North America, having initiated more than 280,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference and was founded by Warren A. Cole, while he was a...
. After earning a Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
degree from the Duke University School of Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine
The Duke University School of Medicine is Duke University's medical school operating under the auspices of the Duke University Medical Center. Established in 1925 by James B...
during 1961, Paul relocated with his wife to Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, where he completed his medical internship at the Henry Ford Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital
Henry Ford Hospital, the flagship facility for , is an 805-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex located in Detroit ....
in Detroit. He then served as a flight surgeon
Flight surgeon
A flight surgeon is a military medical officer assigned to duties in the clinical field variously known as aviation medicine, aerospace medicine, or flight medicine...
in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
from 1963 to 1965 and then in the United States Air National Guard from 1965 to 1968.
During 1968, Paul and his wife relocated to Texas, where he continued his medical work. Trained in obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and gynaecology
Obstetrics and gynaecology are the two surgical–medical specialties dealing with the female reproductive organs in their pregnant and non-pregnant state, respectively, and as such are often combined to form a single medical specialty and postgraduate training programme...
, Paul then began his own private practice
Medical practice
A medical practice or practice of medicine is the practice of medicine, as performed by a medical practitioner—a physician...
.
Paul has been married to Carol Wells since 1957. They have five children, who were baptized
Infant baptism
Infant baptism is the practice of baptising infants or young children. In theological discussions, the practice is sometimes referred to as paedobaptism or pedobaptism from the Greek pais meaning "child." The practice is sometimes contrasted with what is called "believer's baptism", or...
Episcopalian
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
: Ronald, Lori, Rand
Rand Paul
Randal Howard "Rand" Paul is the junior United States Senator for Kentucky. He is a member of the Republican Party. A member of the Tea Party movement, he describes himself as a "constitutional conservative" and a libertarian...
, Robert, and Joy. Paul's son Rand is the junior senator from the state of Kentucky. Raised a Lutheran, Paul later became a Baptist.
As a physician, Paul routinely lowered fees or worked for free and refused to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments. As a member of Congress, he continues to refuse to sign up for the government pension that he would be entitled to in order to avoid receiving government money, saying it would be "hypocritical and immoral."
Early congressional career
While still a medical resident during the 1960s, Paul was influenced by Friedrich HayekFriedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
's The Road to Serfdom
The Road to Serfdom
The Road to Serfdom is a book written by the Austrian-born economist and philosopher Friedrich von Hayek between 1940–1943, in which he "warned of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning," and in which he argues...
, which caused him to read many publications by Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...
and Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
. He came to know economists Hans Sennholz
Hans Sennholz
Hans F. Sennholz was an economist of the Austrian school of economics who studied under Ludwig von Mises. After serving in the Luftwaffe in World War II, he took degrees at the universities of Marburg and Köln. He then moved to the United States to study for a Ph.D. at New York University...
and Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the...
well, and credits to them his interest in the study of economics. He came to believe that what the Austrian school
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...
economists wrote was becoming true on August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
"closed the gold window"
Nixon Shock
The Nixon Shock was a series of economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1971 including unilaterally cancelling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange.-Background:By...
by implementing the U.S. dollar's complete departure from the gold standard
Gold standard
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard...
. That same day, the young physician decided to enter politics, saying later, "After that day, all money would be political money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
rather than money of real value. I was astounded."
First campaigns
Inspired by his belief that the monetary crisis of the 1970s was predicted by the Austrian SchoolAustrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...
and caused by excessive government spending on the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and welfare
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
, Paul became a delegate to the Texas Republican convention
Political convention
In politics, a political convention is a meeting of a political party, typically to select party candidates.In the United States, a political convention usually refers to a presidential nominating convention, but it can also refer to state, county, or congressional district nominating conventions...
and a Republican candidate for the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. During 1974, incumbent Robert R. Casey
Robert R. Casey
Robert Randolph "Bob" Casey was a member of the United States House of Representatives. He was a Democrat from Texas.-Early life:...
defeated him for the 22nd district. When President Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
appointed Casey to direct the Federal Maritime Commission
Federal Maritime Commission
The United States Federal Maritime Commission is an independent federal agency, based in Washington D.C., responsible for the regulation of oceanborne transportation in the foreign commerce of the U.S.-Mission:The FMC:...
, Paul won an April 1976 special election to the vacant office. Paul lost some months later in the general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
, to Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Robert Gammage
Robert Gammage
Robert Alton "Bob" Gammage is a politician from the U.S. state of Texas, having served as a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas State Senate, and the United States House of Representatives....
, by fewer than 300 votes (0.2%), but defeated Gammage in a 1978 rematch, and was reelected during 1980 and 1982.
Paul was the first Republican representative from the area; he also headed the Texas Reagan delegation at the national Republican convention. His successful campaign against Gammage surprised local Democrats, who had expected to retain the seat easily due to the Watergate scandal
Watergate scandal
The Watergate scandal was a political scandal during the 1970s in the United States resulting from the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and the Nixon administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement...
. Gammage underestimated Paul's popularity among local mothers: "I had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he'd delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner."
House of Representatives
He has served in Congress three different periods totaling 12 two-year terms: first from 1976–77, after he won a special election, then from 1979–85 and finally from 1997 to today. On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek re-election to the House in order to pursue the 2012 presidential election. Paul proposed term-limitTerm limit
A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms a person may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method to curb the potential for monopoly, where a leader effectively becomes "president for...
legislation multiple times, first in the 1970s while serving four terms in the House of Representatives where he also declined to attend junkets or register for a Congressional pension. His chief of staff (1978–1982) was Lew Rockwell
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.-Life and work:...
. During 1980, when a majority of Republicans favored President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
's proposal to reinstate draft registration, Paul argued that their views were inconsistent, stating they were more interested in registering their children than they were their guns. He also proposed legislation to decrease Congressional pay by the rate of inflation; he was a regular participant of the annual Congressional Baseball Game; and he continued to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire 22nd district career.
During his first term, Paul initiated a "think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
", the Foundation for Rational Economics and Education
Foundation for Rational Economics and Education
The Foundation for Rational Economics and Education is an American nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation dedicated to public education on the principles of the U.S. Constitution, free-market economics, sound money, limited government, and foreign policy. It was founded in 1976 by U.S...
(FREE). Also during 1976, the foundation began publication of the first monthly newsletter associated with Paul, Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report (or Special Report). It also publishes radio advertisements, monographs, books, and (since 1997) a new series of the monthly newsletter, Ron Paul's Freedom Report, which promote the principles of limited government.
On the House Banking Committee, Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for inflation, and spoke against the banking mismanagement that resulted in the savings and loan crisis
Savings and Loan crisis
The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and 1990s was the failure of about 747 out of the 3,234 savings and loan associations in the United States...
. The U.S. Gold Commission created by Congress during 1982 was his and Jesse Helms
Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
's idea, and Paul's commission minority report was published by the Cato Institute
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
in The Case for Gold; it is now available from the Ludwig von Mises Institute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Ludwig von Mises Institute , based in Auburn, Alabama, is a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Its scholarship is inspired by the work of Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises...
, to which Paul is a distinguished counselor.
During 1984, Paul chose to campaign for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election to the House, but lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
, who had switched parties the previous year from Democrat to Republican. Another candidate of the senatorial primary was Henry Grover
Henry Grover
Henry Cushing "Hank" Grover , was a conservative politician from the U.S. state of Texas best known for his relatively narrow defeat as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1972. Grover was born in Corpus Christi. He died in Houston of Alzheimer's disease.Grover lived as a youth in San Antonio...
, a conservative former state legislator who had lost the 1972 gubernatorial general election to the Democrat Dolph Briscoe, Jr.
Dolph Briscoe
Dolph Briscoe, Jr. was a Uvalde, Texas rancher and businessman who was the 41st Governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979....
Paul then resumed his full-time medical practice and was succeeded by former state representative Tom DeLay
Tom DeLay
Thomas Dale "Tom" DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Texas's 22nd congressional district from 1984 until 2006. He was Republican Party House Majority Leader from 2003 to 2005, when he resigned because of criminal money laundering charges in...
. In his House farewell address on September 19, 1984, Paul said, "Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founders
Founding Fathers of the United States
The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...
had for general welfare. Vote trading
Vote trading
Vote trading is the practice of supporting someone else's initiative in exchange for their support of one's own initiative. It frequently takes place in legislative bodies. An example would be Congressman A voting for a dam in Congressman B's district in exchange for Congressman B's support for...
is seen as good politics. The errand-boy mentality is ordinary, the defender of liberty is seen as bizarre. It's difficult for one who loves true liberty and utterly detests the power of the state to come to Washington for a period of time and not leave a true cynic
Cynicism
Cynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
." Paul submitted his resignation letter addressed to Frank Fahrenkopf, then chairman of the Republican National Committee.
1988 presidential campaign
In the 1988 presidential election, Paul was on the ballot in 46 States as the Libertarian Party candidate. Paul scored third in the popular vote with 432,179 votes (0.5%). Paul was kept off the ballot in MissouriMissouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and received votes there only when written in, due to what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...
termed a "technicality".
The Libertarian party was split between a Conservative and Liberal wing. Ron Paul represented the Conservative wing, which was successful in fundraising, while the Liberal wing claimed to have received ten times more (and more favorable) press coverage—which, some argued, was a hundred times more important. Nevertheless the nomination went to Paul. Ron Paul argued, "Pro-life libertarians have a vital task to perform: to persuade the many abortion-supporting libertarians of the contradiction between abortion and individual liberty; and to sever the mistaken connection in many minds between individual freedom and the 'right' to extinguish individual life."
According to Paul, his presidential campaign was about more than obtaining office; he sought to promote his libertarian ideas, often to school and university groups regardless of vote eligibility. He said, "We're just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they'll go home and talk to their parents." He traveled the country for a year speaking about issues such as free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
economics and the rising government deficits: "That's why we talk to a lot of young people. They're the ones who are paying these bills, they're the ones who are inheriting this debt, so it's most likely these young people who will move into this next generation in government."
After the election, Paul continued his medical practice until he returned to Congress. He also co-owned a coin dealership, Ron Paul Coins, for twelve years with Burt Blumert, who continued to operate it after Paul resumed office. He spoke multiple times at the American Numismatic Association
American Numismatic Association
The American Numismatic Association was founded in 1891 by Dr. George F. Heath in Chicago, Illinois. The ANA was formed to advance the knowledge of numismatics along educational, historical and scientific lines, as well as enhance interest in the hobby.The ANA national headquarters and museum is...
's 1988 convention. He worked with FREE on such projects as establishing the National Endowment for Liberty, producing the At Issue public policy series that was broadcast on Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
and CNBC
CNBC
CNBC is a satellite and cable television business news channel in the U.S., owned and operated by NBCUniversal. The network and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets. The combined reach of CNBC and its siblings is 390 million viewers...
, and continuing publication of Dr. Ron Paul's Freedom Report.
Inter-congressional years
Ron Paul & Associates (RP&A), Inc. was initiated during 1984 by Paul, who served as President. Llewellyn H Rockwell Jr. served as Vice President, Ron Paul's wife Carol served as Secretary and Lori Pyeatt as Treasurer. The corporation was dissolved during 2001. In 1985 Ron Paul & Associates began publishing The Ron Paul Investment Letter and The Ron Paul Survival Report; it added the more controversial Ron Paul Political Report during 1987. Many articles lacked a byline, yet often invoked Paul's name or persona.Paul resumed his private medical practice as well as taking part in other small business ventures. For 1992, RP&A earned $940,000 and employed Paul's family as well as Lew Rockwell
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.-Life and work:...
(its vice-president and occasional editor) and seven other workers. Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the...
and other libertarians believed Rockwell ghostwrote
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
the newsletters for Paul; Rockwell later acknowledged involvement in writing subscription letters, but attributed the newsletters to "seven or eight freelancers".
Paul considered campaigning for President during 1992, but instead chose to endorse Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
that year, and served as an adviser to his Republican presidential campaign against incumbent President George H. W. Bush.
Later congressional career
1996 campaign
During 1996, Paul was re-elected to Congress after the most difficult campaign he had experienced since the 1970s. Because Republicans had gained control of both houses of Congress in the 1994 electionUnited States House elections, 1994
The 1994 U.S. House of Representatives election was held on November 8, 1994, in the middle of President Bill Clinton's first term. As a result of a 54-seat swing in membership from Democrats to Republicans, the Republican Party gained a majority of seats in the United States House of...
, Paul entered the campaign hopeful that his Constitutionalist policies of tax reductions, terminating federal agencies, and curbing the U.N. would have more support than during the past. The Republican National Committee
Republican National Committee
The Republican National Committee is an American political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. It is...
emphasized instead encouragement of Democrats to switch parties, as Paul's primary opponent, incumbent Greg Laughlin
Greg Laughlin
Gregory H. "Greg" Laughlin is a politician from the state of Texas. He is a former member of the United States House of Representatives....
, had done during 1995. The party endorsed Laughlin, including assistance from House Speaker Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
, Texas Governor George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, and the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
. Paul responded by running newspaper advertisements quoting Gingrich's harsh criticisms of Laughlin's Democratic voting record 14 months earlier. Paul won the primary with assistance from baseball pitcher, constituent, and friend Nolan Ryan
Nolan Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan, Jr. , nicknamed "The Ryan Express", is a former Major League Baseball pitcher. He is currently principal owner, president and CEO of the Texas Rangers....
(as honorary campaign chair and advertisement spokesman), as well as tax activist Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
(both of whom had had presidential campaigns that year).
Paul's Democratic opponent in the autumn general election, trial lawyer Charles "Lefty" Morris, received assistance from the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
, but Paul's wider contributor base out-raised Morris two-to-one, giving the third-highest amount of individual contributions received by any House member (behind Gingrich and Bob Dornan
Bob Dornan
Robert Kenneth "Bob" Dornan is a Republican and former member of the United States House of Representatives from California and a vocal advocate of pro-life and social conservative causes....
). While Paul was able to describe Morris as a stooge of trial lawyers and big labor
Big labor
Big labor is a term used to describe large organized labor unions, particularly in the United States....
, Morris ran numerous advertisements about Paul's advocacy of federal drug law repeal.
Morris also accused Paul of authoring questionable statements in past newsletters, some of which were characterized as racially charged. Paul's congressional campaign countered the statements were taken out of context. and that voters might not understand the "tongue-in-cheek, academic" quotes out of context. Further, the campaign rejected Morris' demand to release all back issues.
Paul won the election by a close margin. It became the third time Paul had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent. Upon his returning to Washington, Paul quickly discovered "there was no sincere effort" by Republicans toward their declared goal of small government
Small government
A Small government is one which minimizes its own activities. It is a concept important to classical liberalism and libertarianism.-In Hong Kong:...
.
Later campaigns
During 1998 and again during 2000, Paul defeated Loy Sneary, a Democratic Bay City, TexasBay City, Texas
Bay City is a city in Matagorda County, Texas, United States. The population was 18,667 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Matagorda County. The current mayor is Mark Bricker.-Geography:Bay City is located at...
, rice farmer and former Matagorda County judge, running advertisements warning voters to be "leery of" Sneary. Paul accused Sneary of voting to increase his pay by 5%, increasing his travel allotment by 400% during one year, and using increased taxes to start a new government bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
to administer a license plate fee he enacted. Sneary's aides said he had voted to increase all county employees' pay by five percent in a cost-of-living increase. Paul countered that he had never voted to increase Congressional pay. In both campaigns, the national Democratic Party and major unions continued to spend much money against Paul. Paul continued to refrain from congressional benefits and in 2009 was featured by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on Up to the Minute
Up to the Minute
Up to the Minute is a CBS overnight broadcast which offers hard news, features, interviews, weather, sports, business and commentary. Up to the Minute draws from the full resources of CBS News, including the CBS Evening News, Newspath, affiliate stations, the CBS Radio Network and Reuters Television...
as one of two members of the U.S. Congress that had pledged not to receive a pension from the United States government. The other was Howard Coble
Howard Coble
John Howard Coble is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1985. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education, and pre-political career:Coble was born in Greensboro, North Carolina...
of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
.
An online "grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
" petition to draft Paul for the 2004 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2004
The United States presidential election of 2004 was the United States' 55th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. Republican Party candidate and incumbent President George W. Bush defeated Democratic Party candidate John Kerry, the then-junior U.S. Senator...
garnered several thousand signatures. On December 11, 2001, he told political independents that he was encouraged by the fact that the petition had spread the message of Constitutionalism, but did not expect a White House win at that time. Further prompting in early 2007 caused him to enter the 2008 presidential election campaign
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
.
Unlike many political candidates, Paul receives the overwhelming majority of his campaign contributions from individuals (97 percent during the 2006 cycle), and receives much less from political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
s (PAC's) than others, ranging from two percent (2002) to six percent (1998). The group Clean Up Washington, analyzing from 2000 to mid-2006, listed Paul as seventh-lowest of PAC receipts of all House members; one of the lowest in lobbyist receipts; and fourth-highest in small-donor receipts. He had the lowest PAC receipts percentage of all the 2008 Republican presidential candidates.
Paul was re-elected to his tenth term in Congress during November 2006. In the March 4, 2008, Republican primary for his Congressional seat, he defeated Friendswood city councilman Chris Peden
Chris Peden
Chris Peden is a Friendswood, Texas, City Councilman and served as Mayor Pro Tem. Peden was elected to the Friendswood City Council in 2005, receiving over 67% of the vote. One year after he was elected to City Council, Peden was elected Mayor Pro Tem by his fellow council members.Peden was a...
, obtaining over 70 percent of the vote. On the 2008 ballot, Paul won his eleventh term in Congress running unopposed. In the 2010 Republican primary for his Congressional seat, Paul defeated three opponents with 80 percent of the vote.
Relationship with district
Paul's congressional district is larger than MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, with 675 miles (1,086.3 km) of Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
coastline between Houston and Rockport
Rockport, Texas
Rockport is a city in Aransas County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,385 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Aransas County. The coastal community has approximately 8000 citizens. Large windswept live oaks are a dominating feature of the area and the state's oldest live oak,...
, Texas, including some 22 counties. Paul opposes federally funded flood insurance
National Flood Insurance Program
The National Flood Insurance Program is a program created by the Congress of the United States in 1968 through the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 . The program enables property owners in participating communities to purchase insurance protection from the government against losses from flooding...
. In a rural region known for ranching and rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...
farms, Paul opposes farm subsidies. Paul's devotion to reducing government is popular with 14th district voters: in a survey, 54% of his constituency agreed with his goal of eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.
Paul has added earmarks
Earmark (politics)
In United States politics, an earmark is a legislative provision that directs approved funds to be spent on specific projects, or that directs specific exemptions from taxes or mandated fees...
, such as for Texas shrimp promotion, but routinely votes against most spending bills returned by committee. Paul compared his practice to objecting to the tax system yet taking all one's tax credit
Tax credit
A tax credit is a sum deducted from the total amount a taxpayer owes to the state. A tax credit may be granted for various types of taxes, such as an income tax, property tax, or VAT. It may be granted in recognition of taxes already paid, as a subsidy, or to encourage investment or other behaviors...
s: "I want to get their money back for the people."
In The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto is a New York Times #1 best seller by Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. According to Paul, the book is based on written notes during his 2008 presidential campaign....
, Paul says: "The real problem, and one that was unfortunately not addressed in the 2007's earmark dispute, is the size of the federal government and the amount of money we are spending in these appropriations bills. Cutting even a million dollars from an appropriations bill that spends hundreds of billions will make no appreciable difference in the size of government, which is doubtless why politicians and the media are so eager to have us waste our time on [earmarks]."
Paul spends time in the district to compensate for "violat[ing] almost every rule of political survival you can think of," traveling more than 300 miles (482.8 km) daily to attend civic ceremonies for veterans, graduates, and Boy Scouts
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
, often accompanied by his grandchildren. His staff helps senior citizens obtain free or low-cost prescription drugs through a little-known drug company program; procures lost or unreceived medals for war veterans, holding dozens of medal ceremonies annually; is known for its effectiveness in tracing Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
checks; and sends out birthday and condolence cards.
During 2001, he was one of only eight doctors in the House of Representatives; even fewer had continued to practice while in office. He is occasionally approached by younger area residents to thank him for attending and assisting their deliveries at birth.
Legislation
Paul authors more bills than the average representative, such as those that impose term limits, or abolish the income tax or the Federal Reserve; many do not escape committee review. He has written successful legislation to prevent eminent domainEminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...
seizure of a church in New York, and a bill transferring ownership of the Lake Texana
Lake Texana
Lake Texana is a reservoir on the Navidad River, 8 miles east of Edna, in Jackson County, Texas. The reservoir is formed by the construction of Palmetto Bend Dam, begun in 1968 and completed in 1979. The dam and lake are managed by the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority, and supply drinking water to...
dam project from the federal government to Texas. By amending other legislation, he has helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification, International Criminal Court
International Criminal Court
The International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .It came into being on 1 July 2002—the date its founding treaty, the Rome Statute of the...
jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax
Tobin tax
A Tobin tax, suggested by Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin, was originally defined as a tax on all spot conversions of one currency into another...
, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
activities by citizens.
During March 2001, Paul introduced a bill to repeal the 1973 War Powers Resolution
War Powers Resolution
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a federal law intended to check the power of the President in committing the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a United States Congress joint resolution; this provides that the...
(WPR) and reinstate the process of formal declaration of war by Congress. Later during 2001, Paul voted to authorize
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists , one of two resolutions commonly known as "AUMF" , was a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on September 14, 2001, authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the attacks on...
the president, pursuant to WPR, to respond to those responsible for the September 11, 2001, attacks. He also introduced "Sunlight Rule" legislation, which requires lawmakers to take enough time to read bills before voting on them, after the Patriot Act was passed within 24 hours of its introduction. Paul was one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, and (with Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
representative Peter DeFazio
Peter DeFazio
Peter Anthony DeFazio is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1987. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes Eugene, Springfield, Roseburg and part of Corvallis. As Oregon's most senior member of Congress, he is the dean of Oregon's House of Representatives delegation...
) sponsored a resolution to repeal the war authorization during February 2003. Paul's speech, 35 "Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq," was translated and published in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, and Swiss periodicals before the Iraq War began.
Paul says his fellow members of Congress have increased government spending by 75 percent during the presidency of George W. Bush. After a 2005 bill was touted as "slashing" government waste, Paul wrote that it decreased spending by a fraction of one percent and that "Congress couldn't slash spending if the members' lives depended on it." He said that during three years he had voted against more than 700 bills intended to expand government.
Paul has introduced several bills to apply tax credits to education, including credits for parental spending on public
Public education
State schools, also known in the United States and Canada as public schools,In much of the Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, the terms 'public education', 'public school' and 'independent school' are used for private schools, that is, schools...
, private, or homeschool students (Family Education Freedom Act
Family Education Freedom Act
The Family Education Freedom Act is a bill initially introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Representative Ron Paul in 1998. It would allow tax credits for education expenses....
); for salaries for all K–12 teachers, librarians, counselors, and other school personnel; and for donations to scholarships or to benefit academics (Education Improvement Tax Cut Act). In accord with his political opinions, he has also introduced the Sanctity of Life Act
Sanctity of Life Act
The Sanctity of Life Act was a bill first introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Rep. Steve Stockman on July 20, 1995, and cosponsored by Rep. Barbara Cubin . It was reintroduced with similar text by Rep. Ron Paul in 2005 in the 109th United States Congress, 110th United...
, the We the People Act, and the American Freedom Agenda
American Freedom Agenda
The American Freedom Agenda is a United States organization established in March 2007 by disaffected libertarian-oriented conservatives demanding that the Republican Party return to its traditional mistrust of concentrated government power...
Act.
During June 2011, Paul co-sponsored a bill with U.S. Representative Barney Frank
Barney Frank
Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...
that is intended to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
List of bills sponsored and cosponsored
The following tables link to the Congressional RecordCongressional Record
The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published by the United States Government Printing Office, and is issued daily when the United States Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks...
hosted by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. All the specifics and actions done for each individual bill Ron Paul has either sponsored or cosponsored can be reviewed further there. "Original bills" and "Original amendments" indicate instances where Ron Paul had pledged to endorse the legislation at the time the bill was initially introduced rather than at some other phase of the legislative process of the bill.
| Years covered | All bills sponsored | All amendments sponsored | All bills cosponsored | All amendments cosponsored | Original bills cosponsored | Original amendments cosponsored | Bill support withdrawn | Amendment support withdrawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 32 | 7 | 223 | 0 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1999-00 | 51 | 8 | 316 | 0 | 119 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2001–02 | 64 | 4 | 323 | 0 | 104 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2003–04 | 68 | 8 | 354 | 0 | 150 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005–06 | 71 | 8 | 393 | 0 | 141 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007–08 | 70 | 0 | 443 | 0 | 160 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2009–10 | 41 | 0 | 120 | 0 | 69 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Note: The numbers for the current session of Congress may no longer represent the actual numbers as they are still actively in session.
Affiliations
Paul serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee (having been on the Western Hemisphere and the Asia and Pacific subcommittees); the Joint Economic Committee; and the Committee on Financial Services (as Ranking MemberRanking member
In United States politics, a ranking member is the second-most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the majority party. Another usage refers to the most senior member of a congressional or state legislative committee from the minority party. This second usage, often...
of the Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade and Technology subcommittee, and Vice-Chair of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee).
Paul was honorary chairman of, and is a member of the Republican Liberty Caucus
Republican Liberty Caucus
The Republican Liberty Caucus is a political action organization dedicated to promoting the ideals of individual liberty, limited government and free market economics within the Republican Party in the United States. It is part of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party...
, a political action committee that describes its goal as electing "liberty-minded, limited-government individuals". Paul also hosts a luncheon every Thursday as chairman of the Liberty Caucus
Liberty Caucus
The Liberty Caucus is a group of Republican members of the United States House of Representatives. It hosts a luncheon in Washington, D.C., every Thursday....
, composed of 20 members of Congress. Washington DC area radio personality Johnny "Cakes" Auville gave Paul the idea for the Liberty Caucus and is a regular contributing member. He is an initiating member of the Congressional Rural Caucus, which deals with agricultural and rural issues, and the 140-member Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus
Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus
The Congressional Wildlife Refuge Caucus is a large bi-partisan Congressional Member Organization in the U.S. House of Representatives formed to support the National Wildlife Refuge System through legislation, funding, and education.-History:...
. He remains on good terms with the Libertarian Party and addressed its 2004 convention. He also was endorsed by the Constitution Party's 2004 presidential candidate, Michael Peroutka
Michael Peroutka
Michael Anthony Peroutka is a Maryland lawyer, the founder of the Institute on the Constitution. He once held a position in the United States Department of Health and Human Services and was the Constitution Party candidate for president in 2004. He is co-host of The American View radio...
.
Paul was a member of a bipartisan coalition of 17 members of Congress that sued President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
during 1999 due to his conduct of the Kosovo war
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
. They accused Clinton of failing to inform Congress of the action's status within 48 hours as required by the War Powers Resolution
War Powers Resolution
The War Powers Resolution of 1973 is a federal law intended to check the power of the President in committing the United States to an armed conflict without the consent of Congress. The resolution was adopted in the form of a United States Congress joint resolution; this provides that the...
, and of failing to obtain Congressional declaration of war. Congress had voted 427–2 against a declaration of war with Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, and had voted to deny assistance for the air campaign in Kosovo. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that since Congress had voted for funding after Clinton had actively engaged troops in the war with Kosovo, legislators had sent a confusing message about whether they approved of the war. Paul said that the judge's decision attempted to circumvent the Constitution and to authorize the president to conduct a war without approval from Congress.
Committee assignments
Rep. Paul serves on the following committee and subcommittees.- Committee on Financial ServicesUnited States House Committee on Financial ServicesThe United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
- Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and TechnologyUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and TechnologyThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services...
(Chairman) - Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and TradeUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and TradeThe United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy and Trade is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services...
- Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
- Committee on Foreign Affairs
- Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
With the election of the 112th Congress, and a resulting GOP majority in the House, Ron Paul became the chairman of the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
United States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology
The U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services...
starting in January 2011.
2008 presidential campaign
Republican primary campaign
Paul formally declared his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination on March 12, 2007, on C-SPANC-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
. His campaign had intense grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
support—his supporters were said to "always show up"—- and he had dozens of wins of GOP "straw poll
Nationwide opinion polling for the Republican Party 2008 presidential candidates
This article is a collection of nation-wide public opinion polls that have been conducted relating to the 2008 Republican presidential candidates, typically using standard statistical methodology...
s". Additionally, Ron Paul garnered much popularity among college students, with about 500 Students for Ron Paul groups formed across the United States. Few major politicians endorsed Paul, but he won the endorsement of Houston political activist Clymer Wright
Clymer Wright
Clymer Lewis Wright. Jr. , was a Texas conservative political activist and a crusading journalist later credited with bringing term limits to Houston municipal government and encouraging Ronald W...
, the main promoter of the municipal term limits imposed in Houston during 1991.
Paul's campaign showed "surprisingly strong" fundraising with several record-breaking events. He had the greatest rate of military contribution for 2008, and donations coming from individuals, aided significantly by an online presence and very active campaigning by endorsers, who organized "moneybomb
Moneybomb
Moneybomb is a neologism coined in 2007 to describe a grassroots fundraising effort over a brief fixed time period, usually to support a candidate for election by dramatically increasing, concentrating, and publicizing fundraising activity during a specific hour or day...
" fundraisers acquiring millions of dollars during several months. Such fundraising earned Paul the status of having raised more than any other Republican candidate during 2007's fourth-quarter. Paul's name was a number-one web search term as ranked by Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
, beginning around May 2007. He has had more YouTube subscriptions since May 20, 2007, than any other candidate.
Paul was largely ignored by traditional media, including at least one incident such that FOX News did not invite him to a GOP debate featuring all other presidential candidates at the time. One exception was Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck
Glenn Edward Lee Beck is an American conservative radio host, vlogger, author, entrepreneur, political commentator and former television host. He hosts the Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks...
's program
Glenn Beck (TV program)
Glenn Beck is a United States cable news show hosted by Glenn Beck that aired weekdays on Fox News Channel. The program, originally on CNN Headline News , premiered on FNC on January 19, 2009 and aired weekdays at 5:00 PM EST...
on Headline News, where Beck interviewed Paul for the full hour of his show.
Though projections of 2008 Republican delegate
Delegate
A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization at a meeting or conference between organizations of the same level A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization (e.g., a government, a charity, an NGO, or a trade union) at a meeting or conference...
counts varied widely, Paul's count was consistently third among the three candidates remaining after Super Tuesday, 2008
Super Tuesday, 2008
Super Tuesday 2008, Super Duper Tuesday, Mega Tuesday, Giga Tuesday, Tsunami Tuesday, and The Tuesday of Destiny are names for February 5, 2008, the day on which the largest simultaneous number of state U.S. presidential primary elections in the history of U.S. primaries were held...
. According to CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, by Super Tuesday Paul had received five delegates in North Dakota
North Dakota Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 North Dakota Republican caucuses took place on February 5, 2008. Romney won with 8 of the 23 national delegates.- Results :- See also :* North Dakota Democratic caucuses, 2008* Republican Party presidential primaries, 2008...
, and was projected to receive two in Iowa
Iowa Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses took place on January 4, 2008. The Iowa Republican caucuses are an unofficial primary, with the delegates to the state convention selected proportionally via a straw poll...
, four in Nevada
Nevada Republican caucuses, 2008
The Nevada Republican caucuses, 2008 was held on January 19, the same day as the 2008 South Carolina Republican primary, with 31 delegates at stake. Mitt Romney was the winner in Nevada with 51% of the votes, with Ron Paul in second place. Half of Romney's votes came from Mormons, while two-thirds...
, and five in Alaska
Alaska Republican caucuses, 2008
The Alaska Republican caucuses, 2008, was held on February 5 and has a total of 26 delegates at stake. Mitt Romney won the state and, as the winner in Alaska's congressional district, was awarded all of that district's delegates. All results are from the presidential preference poll held at the...
based on caucus results, totaling 16 delegates. Paul's campaign projected 42 delegates based on the same results, including delegates from Colorado
Colorado Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 Colorado Republican caucuses took place on February 5, 2008, with 2 national delegates.Colorado chose 21 other delegates during district conventions from May 24 to June 7, 2008.-Results:-See also:* Colorado Democratic caucuses, 2008...
, Maine
Maine Republican caucuses, 2008
The Maine Republican caucuses, 2008 were held on February 1, February 2, and February 3 at various locations throughout the state of Maine. The results were used to apportion 21 delegates for the state...
, and Minnesota
Minnesota Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 Minnesota Republican caucuses took place on February 5, 2008, with 38 national delegates at stake. The caucuses were considered a non-binding straw poll, since Minnesota officially chose 24 delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention during district conventions from May 3 to May...
.
In the January 2008 Louisiana caucus
Louisiana Republican caucuses, 2008
The Louisiana Republican caucuses, 2008 were held on January 22, 2008, and unofficial delegate assignment results have been made available on the homepage of the Republican Party of Louisiana. The official results have been released, but the results only indicate which delegates garnered the most...
, Paul scored second after John McCain, but uncommitted delegates outnumbered both candidates' pledged delegates, since a registration deadline had been extended to January 12. Paul said he had the greatest number of pledged Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
delegates who had registered by the original January 10 deadline, and formally challenged the deadline extension and the Louisiana GOP's exclusion of voters due to an outdated list; he projected three Louisiana delegates. The Super Tuesday West Virginia caucus
West Virginia Republican caucuses, 2008
The West Virginia Republican caucuses took place on February 5, 2008 to select 18 delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention. An additional nine delegates were selected in a primary election on May 13, 2008, for a total of 27 delegates to the national convention...
was won by Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee
Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...
, whose state campaign coordinators reportedly arranged to give three Huckabee delegates to Paul in exchange for votes from Paul's endorsers. Huckabee has not confirmed this delegate pledge.
Paul's preference votes in primaries and caucuses began at 10 percent in Iowa
Iowa Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses took place on January 4, 2008. The Iowa Republican caucuses are an unofficial primary, with the delegates to the state convention selected proportionally via a straw poll...
(winning Jefferson County
Jefferson County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 16,843 in the county, with a population density of . There were 7,594 housing units, of which 6,846 were occupied.-2000 census:...
) and eight percent in New Hampshire
New Hampshire Republican primary, 2008
The 2008 New Hampshire Republican primary took place on January 8, 2008, with 12 national delegates being allocated proportionally to the popular vote...
, where he had the endorsement of state sovereignty champion, State Representative
New Hampshire House of Representatives
The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members coming from 103 districts across the state, created from divisions of the state's counties. On average, each legislator represents about 3,300...
Dan Itse
Dan Itse
Daniel C. Itse, known as Dan Itse , is a conservative Republican member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. A native of San Francisco, California, Itse is a professional engineer who resides in Fremont, New Hampshire...
; on Super Tuesday they ranged from 25 percent in Montana
Montana Republican caucuses, 2008
The 2008 Montana Republican caucuses took place on February 5, 2008, with 25 national delegates.The first caucuses were scheduled for midday in Sheridan County and Judith Basin County....
and 21 percent in North Dakota caucuses, where he won several counties, to three percent in several state primaries, averaging under 10 percent in primaries overall. After sweeping four states on March 4, McCain was projected widely to have a majority of delegate
Delegate
A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization at a meeting or conference between organizations of the same level A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization (e.g., a government, a charity, an NGO, or a trade union) at a meeting or conference...
s pledged to vote for him in the September 2008 party convention
2008 Republican National Convention
The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008...
. Paul obliquely acknowledged McCain on March 6: "Though victory in the political sense [is] not available, many victories have been achieved due to hard work and enthusiasm." He continued to contest the remaining primaries, having added, "McCain has the nominal number ... but if you're in a campaign for only gaining power, that is one thing; if you're in a campaign to influence ideas and the future of the country, it's never over." Paul's recent book, The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto
The Revolution: A Manifesto is a New York Times #1 best seller by Republican U.S. Congressman Ron Paul. According to Paul, the book is based on written notes during his 2008 presidential campaign....
, became a The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
bestseller immediately upon release. His newest book, End the Fed, has been released.
On June 12, 2008, Paul withdrew his bid for the Republican nomination, citing his resources could be better spent on improving America. Some of the $4 million remaining campaign contributions was invested into the new political action and advocacy group called Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty
Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty
Campaign for Liberty is a political organization founded by twelve-term United States Congressman Ron Paul. The Campaign for Liberty focuses on educating elected officials and the general public about constitutional issues, and currently provides a membership program. Its legal status is that of a...
. Paul told the newsmagazine NOW on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
the goal of the Campaign for Liberty is to "spread the message of the Constitution and limited government, while at the same time organizing at the grassroots level and teaching pro-liberty activists how to run effective campaigns and win elections at every level of government."
Newsletter controversy
Controversial claims made by an unidentified author in Ron Paul's newsletters, written in the first person narrative, included statements such as "Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day." Along with "even in my little town of Lake Jackson, Texas, I've urged everyone in my family to know how to use a gun in self defense. For the animals are coming." Two other statements that garnered controversy were "opinion polls consistently show only about 5% of blacks have sensible political opinions". In an article titled "The Pink House" the newsletter wrote that "Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities."Paul had given his own account of the newsletters during March 2001, stating the documents were authored by ghostwriters, and that while he did not author the challenged passages, he bore "some moral responsibility" for their publication.
At the end of 2007, both the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
and The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
reprinted passages from early 1990s publications of Paul's newsletters, attacking them for content deemed racist. These were the same newsletters that had been used against Paul during his 1996 congressional campaign.
On January 8, 2008, the day of the New Hampshire primary, The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
published a story by James Kirchick
James Kirchick
James Kirchick is a reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist. He is a fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington; prior to this he was writer-at-large for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty....
quoting from selected newsletters published under Paul's name.
Responding to the charges in a CNN interview, Paul denied any involvement in authoring the passages. Additionally, Paul's campaign claimed through a press release that the quotations had come from an unnamed ghostwriter and without Paul's consent. Paul again denounced and disavowed the "small-minded thoughts", citing his 1999 House speech praising Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
for her courage; he said the charges simply "rehashed" the decade-old Morris attack. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...
said that the writing "Didn't sound like the Ron Paul I've come to know." Later, Nelson Linder, president of the Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
chapter of the NAACP, also defended Paul.
The newsmagazine Reason republished Paul's 1996 defense of the newsletters, and later reported evidence from "a half-dozen longtime libertarian activists" that Lew Rockwell
Lew Rockwell
Llewellyn Harrison "Lew" Rockwell, Jr. is an American libertarian political commentator, activist, proponent of the Austrian School of economics, and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.-Life and work:...
had been the chief ghostwriter
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
. Rockwell denies this charge, and "has characterized discussion of the newsletters as 'hysterical smears aimed at political enemies.'"
Assistance for third-party candidates
On September 5, 2008, the Constitution Party of MontanaConstitution Party of Montana
The Constitution Party of Montana is a third party. It was founded as the American Heritage Party state affiliate for Montana by Michael Heit of Elmo, Montana, but changed its name in 2000. It was a state-party affiliate of the national Constitution Party until it disaffiliated from the national...
removed Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin
Charles Obadiah "Chuck" Baldwin is an American politician and founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for U.S. vice president in 2004...
from their presidential ticket, replacing him with Ron Paul for president and Michael Peroutka
Michael Peroutka
Michael Anthony Peroutka is a Maryland lawyer, the founder of the Institute on the Constitution. He once held a position in the United States Department of Health and Human Services and was the Constitution Party candidate for president in 2004. He is co-host of The American View radio...
for vice president. Paul made an announcement stating that he "was aware that the party planned to do this, and has said that as long as he can remain passive and silent about the development, and as long as he need not sign any declaration of candidacy, that he does not object." Paul requested on September 11 that Montana eliminate his name from the ballot, stating that he did not "seek nor consent" to the Montana Constitution Party's nomination. He also suggested the Party list official Constitution Party nominee Baldwin on the Montana ballot instead. Five days later the Montana Secretary of State denied Paul's request for withdrawal, stating that the request was sent to them too late. On September 4, 2008, a list of electors in Louisiana using the name "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" filed papers and paid $500 with the Secretary of State's Office. They are pledged to Paul for President and Barry Goldwater, Jr.
Barry Goldwater, Jr.
Barry Morris Goldwater, Jr. , is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California, 1969–1983. He is the son of the late Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee who ran against Lyndon B. Johnson for President of the United States during...
for Vice President.
The same day, Paul's staff released a brief press statement: "On the heels of his historic three-day rally in Minneapolis that drew over 12,000 attendees, Congressman Ron Paul will make a major announcement next week in Washington at the National Press Club." The congressman had reportedly invited presidential candidates Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin
Charles Obadiah "Chuck" Baldwin is an American politician and founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for U.S. vice president in 2004...
, Bob Barr
Bob Barr
Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of...
, Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia Ann McKinney is a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States...
, and Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
to the press conference, causing some people to speculate that they would endorse Paul campaigning for president on the ticket of either the Constitution, Libertarian or other third party.
On September 10, 2008, Paul confirmed his "open endorsement" (CNN) for the four candidates at a press conference in Washington D.C. He also revealed that he had rejected a request for an endorsement of John McCain. He later appeared on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer with Nader where they presented and briefly described the four principles that all the independent candidates had agreed on as the most important issues of the presidential campaign.
On September 22, 2008, in response to a written statement by Bob Barr
Bob Barr
Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of...
, Paul abandoned his former neutral stance and announced his endorsement of Chuck Baldwin
Chuck Baldwin
Charles Obadiah "Chuck" Baldwin is an American politician and founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida. He was the presidential nominee of the Constitution Party for the 2008 U.S. presidential election and had previously been its nominee for U.S. vice president in 2004...
in the 2008 presidential election.
In the 2008 general election, Paul still received 41,905 votes despite not actively campaigning. He was listed on the ballot in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
as the Constitution Party
Constitution Party (United States)
The Constitution Party is a paleoconservative political party in the United States. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party by Howard Philips in 1991. Phillips was the party's candidate in the 1992, 1996 and 2000 presidential elections...
candidate, and in Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
on the "Louisiana Taxpayers Party" ticket, and received write-in votes in California (17,006), Pennsylvania (3,527), New Hampshire (1,092), and other states. (Not all U.S. jurisdictions require the counting or reporting of write-in votes.)
Post–2008 presidential campaign activities
On February 26, 2009, Ron Paul was a major speaker at the Conservative Political Action ConferenceConservative Political Action Conference
The Conservative Political Action Conference is an annual political conference attended by conservative activists and elected officials from across the United States....
in Washington, D.C., speaking for 20 minutes on topics including monetary theory and policy in the United States, in addition to the War in Iraq, and international foreign policy. Paul's Campaign for Liberty sent 140 volunteers to CPAC 2009 to distribute materials, and significantly increased that number the next year.
In the 2009 CPAC Straw Poll for the 2012 presidential election
United States presidential election, 2012
The United States presidential election of 2012 is the next United States presidential election, to be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It will be the 57th quadrennial presidential election in which presidential electors, who will actually elect the President and the Vice President of the United...
, Paul tied 2008 GOP Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin
Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency.She was...
for third place with 13% of the vote, behind fellow former candidate Mitt Romney and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal
Piyush "Bobby" Jindal is the 55th and current Governor of Louisiana and formerly a member of the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party....
. In the 2010 CPAC straw poll, he scored first, decisively winning with 31%, followed distantly by Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Tim Pawlenty
Tim Pawlenty
Timothy James "Tim" Pawlenty , also known affectionately among supporters as T-Paw, is an American politician who served as the 39th Governor of Minnesota . He was a Republican candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election from May to August 2011...
of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, among others. In the 2010 Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll, Paul finished second place with 24% of the vote (438 votes), behind only Mitt Romney (with 439 votes). An April 2010 Rasmussen poll among likely voters found that Ron Paul and President Obama were statistically tied in a hypothetical 2012 presidential election.
2012 presidential campaign
Ron Paul is a candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United StatesPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in the 2012 election
United States presidential election, 2012
The United States presidential election of 2012 is the next United States presidential election, to be held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It will be the 57th quadrennial presidential election in which presidential electors, who will actually elect the President and the Vice President of the United...
.
Beginning during 2010 there was speculation among pundits and journalists
regarding the prospect of Paul campaigning for president again during 2012. When Paul's wife, Carol, was asked if he would campaign during 2012 her response was "If you would ask him now he would probably say 'no', but he did say... things are happening so quickly and fast in our country, if we're at a crisis period and they need someone... with the knowledge he has... then he would do it."
Paul won several early straw polls and began raising funds for an exploratory committee. In mid-April, 2011, Paul announced the formation of a "testing-the-waters" account, and stated that he will make a decision on whether to enter the campaign officially no later than May. In late April, he formed an official exploratory committee to campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. He participated with the first Republican presidential debate on May 5, 2011. and on May 13, 2011, Paul formally announced his candidacy in an interview on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
. He placed second in the 2011 Ames Straw Poll
Ames Straw Poll
The Ames Straw Poll is a presidential straw poll taken by Iowa Republicans. It occurs in Ames, Iowa on the campus of Iowa State University, on a Saturday in August of years in an election cycle in which the Republican presidential nomination seems to be undecided...
, missing first by 0.9%.
An August scientific poll of likely voters across the political spectrum by Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
held a contest between Paul and Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, in which the two were "almost dead even." Obama led Paul by one percentage point at 39% to 38% - a significantly smaller margin than July (41% - 37%). Paul moved up to 3rd in a late-August poll of likely Republican primary voters, trailing Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
and Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
and passing Michele Bachmann
Michele Bachmann
Michele Marie Bachmann is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing , a post she has held since 2007. The district includes several of the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities, such as Woodbury, and Blaine as well as Stillwater and St. Cloud.She is currently a...
, climbing from fourth to third position.
Political positions
Libertarianism in the United States
Libertarianism in the United States is a movement promoting limited government and individual liberties. Although libertarianism exists in two major forms worldwide, right-libertarianism and left-libertarianism, right-leaning libertarianism tends to be the dominant form in the United States...
. He has been nicknamed "Dr. No", representing both his medical degree and his insistence that he will "never vote for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution", and "Mr. Republican". One scoring method published in the American Journal of Political Science
American Journal of Political Science
The American Journal of Political Science is published by the Midwest Political Science Association. It was formerly known as the Midwest Journal of Political Science. According to the 2008 edition of the Journal Citation Reports, its impact factor is 2.397...
found Paul the most conservative of all 3,320 members of Congress from 1937 to 2002. Paul's foreign policy of nonintervention made him the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution during 2002. He advocates withdrawal from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, and from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, for reasons of maintaining strong national sovereignty. He endorses free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
, rejecting membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement
North American Free Trade Agreement
The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
(NAFTA) and the World Trade Organization
World Trade Organization
The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...
as "managed trade". He endorses increased border security and opposes welfare for illegal aliens, birthright citizenship and amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
; he voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006
Secure Fence Act of 2006
On October 26, 2006 President George W. Bush signed The Secure Fence Act of 2006 into law stating, “This bill will help protect the American people. This bill will make our borders more secure. It is an important step toward immigration reform."...
. He voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists , one of two resolutions commonly known as "AUMF" , was a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress on September 14, 2001, authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those responsible for the attacks on...
in response to the September 11 attacks, but suggested war alternatives such as authorizing the president to grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal targeting specific terrorists. An opponent of the Iraq War and potential war with Iran, he has also criticized neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, arguing that both inadvertently cause terrorist reprisals against Americans. Paul has stated that "Israel is our close friend" and that it is not the place of the United States to "dictate how Israel runs her affairs".
Paul is a proponent of Austrian school
Austrian School
The Austrian School of economics is a heterodox school of economic thought. It advocates methodological individualism in interpreting economic developments , the theory that money is non-neutral, the theory that the capital structure of economies consists of heterogeneous goods that have...
economics; he has authored six books on the subject, and displays pictures of Austrian school economists Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
, Murray Rothbard
Murray Rothbard
Murray Newton Rothbard was an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define capitalist libertarianism and popularized a form of free-market anarchism he termed "anarcho-capitalism." Rothbard wrote over twenty books and is considered a centrally important figure in the...
, and Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian economist, philosopher, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern Libertarian movement and the "Austrian School" of economic thought.-Biography:-Early life:...
(as well as of Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States. Cleveland is the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
) on his office wall. He regularly votes against almost all proposals for new government spending, initiatives, or taxes; he cast two thirds of all the lone negative votes in the House during a 1995–1997 period. He has pledged never to raise taxes and states he has never voted to approve a budget deficit. Paul believes that the country could abolish the individual income tax by scaling back federal spending to its fiscal year 2000 levels; financing government operations would be primarily by excise taxes and non-protectionist tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....
s. He endorses eliminating most federal government agencies, terming them unnecessary bureaucracies. Paul has a consistent record as an inflation hawk, having warned of the threat of hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
as far back as 1981. While Paul believes the longterm decrease of the U.S. dollar's purchasing power by inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
is attributable to its lack of any commodity backing, he does not endorse a "return" to a gold standard - as the U.S. government has established during the past - but instead prefers to eliminate legal tender
Legal tender
Legal tender is a medium of payment allowed by law or recognized by a legal system to be valid for meeting a financial obligation. Paper currency is a common form of legal tender in many countries....
laws and to remove the sales tax on gold and silver, so that the market may freely decide what type of monetary standard(s) there shall be. He also advocates gradual elimination of the Federal Reserve System
Federal Reserve System
The Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created on December 23, 1913 with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely in response to a series of financial panics, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
.
Paul endorses constitutional rights, such as the right to keep and bear arms, and habeas corpus
Habeas corpus
is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations...
for political detainees. He opposes the Patriot Act, federal use of torture, presidential autonomy, a national identification card
REAL ID Act
The REAL ID Act of 2005, , was an Act of Congress that modified U.S. federal law pertaining to security, authentication, and issuance procedures standards for the state driver's licenses and identification cards, as well as various immigration issues pertaining to terrorism.The law set forth...
, warrantless domestic surveillance, and the draft
Conscription in the United States
Conscription in the United States has been employed several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War...
. Citing the Ninth
Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution.-Text:-Adoption:When the U.S...
and Tenth Amendments
Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791...
, Paul advocates states' rights
States' rights
States' rights in U.S. politics refers to political powers reserved for the U.S. state governments rather than the federal government. It is often considered a loaded term because of its use in opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation...
to decide how to regulate social matters not cited directly by the Constitution. Paul terms himself "strongly pro-life", "an unshakable foe of abortion", and believes regulation or ban on medical decisions about maternal or fetal health is "best handled at the state level". He says his years as an obstetrician led him to believe life begins at conception; his abortion-related legislation, like the Sanctity of Life Act
Sanctity of Life Act
The Sanctity of Life Act was a bill first introduced in the United States House of Representatives by Rep. Steve Stockman on July 20, 1995, and cosponsored by Rep. Barbara Cubin . It was reintroduced with similar text by Rep. Ron Paul in 2005 in the 109th United States Congress, 110th United...
, is intended to negate Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade
Roe v. Wade, , was a controversial landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion. The Court decided that a right to privacy under the due process clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution extends to a woman's decision to have an abortion,...
and to get "the federal government completely out of the business of regulating state matters." Paul also believes that the notion of the separation of church and state
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
is currently misused by the court system: "In case after case, the Supreme Court has used the infamous 'separation of church and state'
Separation of church and state
The concept of the separation of church and state refers to the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the nation state....
metaphor to uphold court decisions that allow the federal government to intrude upon and deprive citizens of their religious liberty."
He opposes federal regulation of the death penalty
Capital punishment in the United States
Capital punishment in the United States, in practice, applies only for aggravated murder and more rarely for felony murder. Capital punishment was a penalty at common law, for many felonies, and was enforced in all of the American colonies prior to the Declaration of Independence...
(although he opposes capital punishment), of education, and of marriage, and endorses revising the military's "don't ask, don't tell
Don't ask, don't tell
"Don't ask, don't tell" was the official United States policy on homosexuals serving in the military from December 21, 1993 to September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while...
" policy to concern mainly disruptive sexual behavior (whether heterosexual or homosexual). As a free-market environmentalist, he asserts private property rights in relation to environmental protection and pollution prevention. He also opposes the federal War on Drugs
War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is a campaign of prohibition and foreign military aid and military intervention being undertaken by the United States government, with the assistance of participating countries, intended to both define and reduce the illegal drug trade...
, and believes the states should decide whether to regulate or deregulate drugs such as medical marijuana. Paul pushes to eliminate federal involvement with and management of health care
Health care in the United States
Health care in the United States is provided by many separate legal entities. Health care facilities are largely owned and operated by the private sector...
, which he argues would allow prices to decrease due to the fundamental dynamics of a free market. He is an outspoken proponent for increased ballot access
Ballot access
Ballot access rules, called nomination rules outside the United States, regulate the conditions under which a candidate or political party is either entitled to stand for election or to appear on voters' ballots...
for 3rd party candidates and numerous election law reforms which he believes would allow more voter control.
Referring to the federal government, Ron Paul has also stated that "The government shouldn't be in the medical business." He is also opposed to federal government influenza inoculation programs.
Paul was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
, arguing that it sanctioned federal interference in the labor market and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: "The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
not only violated the Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society".
On April 15, 2011, Paul was one of four Republican members of Congress to vote against "The Path to Prosperity
The Path to Prosperity
The Path to Prosperity was the Republican Party's budget proposal for the year 2012. It competed with budget proposals outlined separately by President Barack Obama. and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The Republican proposal was formalized and passed by the House of Representatives on...
".
External links
- Ron Paul's personal website, books, articles, links to political sites connected with Ron Paul
Congress
Presidential campaign
- NOW on PBS "Ron Paul and Internet Politics". Also, a September 2008 NOW on PBS interview with Ron Paul
- PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer — Vote 2008: Ron Paul
- Ron Paul TV. Ron Paul Presidential Candidate Media and Internet Video Campaign.
Other
- DailyPaul.com, unofficial blog and forum on Ron Paul