This is a series of articles which gives voting record information about 2012 presidential candidates. Most of the references given are from thomas.loc.gov, an official government website which is part of the Library of Congress. Hopefully, this information will help you to make a decision about who you are going to vote for. Also included is a brief biography and information about endorsements made by the candidate. Today's candidate is Ron Paul.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul is an OB/GYN and has delivered over 4000 babies. He has been married to his wife for over 50 years. He was an Air Force flight surgeon during the Vietnam War. (He is one of only two candidates who have ever been in the military.) He has served 11 terms in Congress and has run for President twice before (1988 and 2008). He received more campaign contributions from those active in and veterans of military than any other candidate in both 2008 and in this election [1]. He was recently chosen to be the chairman of the House Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee. His son Rand, a Tea Party favorite, was recently elected to the U.S. Senate in Kentucky.
He has never voted for a Congressional pay raise and has never taken a government-paid junket. He doesn’t participate in the lucrative congressional pension benefits program. He always returns unused portions of his congressional office budget to the treasury.
One criticism I have of Mr. Paul is that he has missed several important votes.
Ron Paul has announced that he will not run for reelection to Congress.
Abortion
Ron Paul is the author of the Sanctity of Life Act of 2011, which would define human life and personhood as beginning at conception and would nullify Roe v. Wade. [1] He used to cosponsor the “Right to Life Act” (now known as the Life at Conception Act), but has not in the last several congresses. [2] He is not a cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act in the current congress. [3] (See also Judicial Activism.)
He has never voted for any budget that includes funding for Planned Parenthood. He has never voted for a Department of Health and Human Services appropriations bill. These bills always make federal funds available for abortion providers. Although, if these bills did not pass, some people would likely have their Medicare and/or Medicaid benefits cut off. [4] He has introduced the Taxpayers’ Freedom of Conscience Act to cut off all taxpayer funding of abortions (both domestic and foreign) and so-called “family planning”. [5] He has supported many other measures which limit the access of funding to abortion providers. [6-10] He voted for the Stupak-Pitts amendment to Obamacare. (This would have prevented most abortions from being funded with Obamacare money.) [11, 12] He said, “I will veto any spending bill that contains funding for Planned Parenthood, facilities that perform abortion and all government family planning schemes.” [13]
[4] You have to check through a lot of records to verify these facts since so there have been so many of these bills voted on over Ron Paul’s 20+ years in Congress.
Constitutional Separation of Powers
Ron Paul is a cosponsor of the Sunset All Czars Act. [1] He is also a cosponsor of the Enumerated Powers Act which would require Congress to specify the source of authority under the United States Constitution for the enactment of laws. [2]
Drugs
Ron Paul is outspoken critic of the war on drugs. He has sponsored bills to legalize hemp [1] and marijuana [2]. He also cosponsors legislation which would eliminate the legal distinction between crack cocaine and other forms of cocaine. [3, 4] He was a cosponsor of a bill in the last two congresses that would allow federal tax money to be used to distribute syringes to drug addicts for the purpose of preventing the spread of AIDS and hepatitis. [5]
Economy and Jobs
He has been a consistent supporter of the National Right to Work Act which would prevent workers from being forced to join a union. [1, 2] (See also the Monetary Policy and Taxes, Spending, and Budget Issues sections.)
Education
He is the sponsor of the Family Education Freedom Act [1] which would give a tax credit of up to $5000 per year to anyone who spends their own money on K-12 education of their children. Another bill [2] he introduced would give the same $5000 tax credit to those who donate to charitable organizations which use the money to provide scholarships or instructional materials for K-12 education.
Energy and the Environment
Ron Paul has introduced legislation to stop unnecessary regulations on offshore oil drilling and the building of refineries. [1-5] He voted no on Cap and Trade [6] and cosponsored a bill to prevent the EPA from enacting it without the approval of Congress. [7] He has supported many other bills to prevent the regulation of greenhouse gases. [8-10] He is a cosponsor of Michele Bachmann’s bill to repeal the ban on incandescent light bulbs.
Gun Rights
Ron Paul has never voted for any bill to outlaw any type of weapon. [1] He has voted several times (as far back as 2001) to make it legal for airline pilots to carry guns to prevent to terrorists attacks. [2]
[1] Again, you have to check through a lot records to prove this.
Healthcare
Ron Paul voted no on Obamacare and voted for bills to repeal it [1,2,3,4] and several bills to repeal parts of it [4,5,6,7] and to allow states to opt out of it [8]. He supports legislation to eliminate the provision that federal officials are exempted from Obamacare. [9] He supports legislation to make it easier for Americans buy prescription drugs from other countries. [10] He supports legislation to repeal the mandate portion of Obamacare. [11, 12] He supports a bill to allow Medicare recipients to elect (instead of regular Medicare benefits) to receive a voucher for a health savings account.[13] He supports tax deductions for medical related expenses [14] and ending federal excise taxes on medical devices [15, 16].
Illegal Immigration and Border Control
Ron Paul voted “no” on the DREAM act, which would have allowed some illegal immigrants to receive financial aid for college and other federal benefits paid for by American taxpayers. [1, 2] Ron Paul voted for Secure Fence Act of 2006. [3, 4] He introduced a bill called the Terror Immigration Elimination Act of 2007, which would have limited the issuance of student and diversity immigrant visas to aliens who are nationals of Saudi Arabia, countries that support terrorism, or countries not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts. [5]
Judicial Activism
Ron Paul is the sponsor of the most aggressive anti-judicial activist bill to be introduced into the Congress. The “We the People Act” would prevent federal judges from striking down state laws against abortion, prevent them from forcing states to accept gay marriage, and would prevent them from prohibiting religious freedom and freedom of speech in public places. The bill authorizes the removal of any judge who would defy it. [1] He is a cosponsor of legislation which would prevent foreign law from being used in federal courts. [2]
Marriage and Gay Rights
Ron Paul supports the Defense of Marriage Act [1] and the Marriage Protection Act. [2-4] He voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. [5] He voted “no” on hate crimes legislation which would have protected homosexuals from “hate speech”. [6, 7] He voted against a Defense Appropriations bill which contained a hate crimes amendment. [8] He voted to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy which had prevented the openly gay from serving in the military. [9]
[1] Ron Paul was not in the congress at the time that the Defense of Marriage Act was enacted, but has on numerous occasions verbally indicated his support for this bill. His support is further indicated by his cosponsorship of the Marriage Protection Act, described in the next note.
[2] The Marriage Protection Act is a bill which would make the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act not subject to judicial review.
Monetary Policy
While no one else has supported Ron Paul’s bill to abolish the Federal Reserve [1], his bill to audit the Fed [2] was very popular in last Congress. He got the support of every Republican in the House of Representatives plus over 100 Democrats. But the bill didn’t pass because the Senate rejected it. He voted against the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which gave the Federal Reserve more power. [3, 4] He introduced legislation to solve the debt crisis without raising the debt ceiling. His solution was to cancel the $1.6 trillion debt that the Federal Government owes to the Federal Reserve. There is no need for the taxpayer’s to pay this money back since the Federal Reserve simply printed the money out of thin air anyway. [5] He has introduced legislation to repeal legal tender laws. [6]
National Sovereignty
Ron Paul is the sponsor of a bill which would get the U.S. out of the U.N. [1] He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. [2, 3] He voted against the Peru Free Trade Agreement. [4, 5]
Religious Freedom and Freedom of Speech
In addition to the “We the People Act”, Ron Paul also voted for the Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005, which would have prevented the ACLU and other similar groups from receiving lawyer’s fees from the taxpayers when they win cases having to do with supposed violations of the “Separation of Church and State”. [1] He is a cosponsor of a bill to preserve freedom of speech on the internet. [2] In the 105th Congress (1998), he cosponsored a resolution to make an amendment to the Constitution of the United States clarifying the meaning of religious freedom, but then voted against it. [3, 4]
Social Security
Ron Paul supports legislation to prevent illegal aliens from receiving Social Security benefits. [1,2] He supports legislation to stop taxing Social Security benefits. [3] He is in favor of repealing a law which says that senior citizens are ineligible to receive Social Security benefits if they decide not to participate in Medicare. [4] He supports legislation to make it illegal for the government to spend FICA taxes for anything but Social Security benefits. [5]
Taxes, Spending, and Budget Issues
Ron Paul voted “no” on Obama’s economic stimulus bills. [1, 2] He voted for the Bush tax cuts [3, 4] and the 2010 extension [5-7] of them. [3] He has cosponsored legislation to end federal inheritance taxes. [8-9] He has cosponsored a bill to end the Alternative Minimum Tax on individuals. [10] Ron Paul has sponsored a bill to eliminate taxes on tips. [11] He has cosponsored the Telephone Excise Tax Repeal Act of 2011. [12] He voted for the Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011. This repealed the law which would have required you to file a 1099 every time you buy something for $600 or more from a small business. [13-15]
He always votes “no” on raising the debt ceiling. [16-18]
He has cosponsored a bill to cut congressional pay by 5%. [19] He cosponsored a bill that would require that unused portions of each congressman’s budget be used for federal deficit or debt reduction. [20] He voted to end taxpayer funding of Presidential campaigns. [21] He supports legislation (the End the Stimulus Advertisement Act) to ban the use of taxes for highway signs that indicate that a project is funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Obama’s Economic Stimulus Bill). [22]
[5] I know that Ron Paul voted for the tax cut extension from word of mouth. The vote for this particular bill was done by voice vote and was not recorded in the archives of the Library of Congress because Congress passed a measure to suspend the rules regarding voting procedure for this bill. Below are a link to the text of the legislation and an alternative link which has the unofficial vote tally.
Veterans
Ron Paul supports the Retired Pay Restoration Act [1] and the Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act [2, 3] which would allow veterans to receive both disability and retirement pay and would provide tax relief from them.
War on Terrorism
Ron Paul voted for the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) in Afghanistan immediately following the September 11th attacks. [1] A month later, he introduced a bill to issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal against Al Qaeda. [2] He voted against the AUMF in Iraq in 2002 [3] and has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq and the handling of the war in Afghanistan. He has voted to withdraw troops from Iraq as early as 2007 [4] and now supports an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Afghanistan. [5-7] He voted in favor of legislation requiring a withdrawal of troops from Pakistan in July of 2010 [8, 9] and also has recently voted against funding the wars several times. [10] He supports legislation to order Barack Obama to immediately withdrawal troops from Libya. [11, 12] He is one of ten congressmen who are actually suing Barack Obama for unconstitutionally invading Libya without congressional approval. [13]
He is generally against sanctions. He is not a cosponsor of the bill to continue sanctions against Iran until they give up their nuclear program. [14]
Ron Paul voted against the both the Patriot Act and the Protect America Act. [15-17] He opposes the use of government mandated body scanners and pat downs at airports. He has sponsored the American Traveler Dignity Act which would have made it illegal for TSA agents to do anything to anybody which would be illegal if anybody else did it (i.e. groping people, etc.). [18] Ron Paul voted to allow prisoners at Guantanamo Bay to be tried in U.S. courts. [19, 20]
Paul’s (Worst) Endorsements
Ron Paul endorsed San Francisco Republican and gay-marriage supporter John Dennis in the 2010 election for Congress. [1, 2]
Ron Paul sent out emails in support of Congressman Lamar Smith despite the fact that Smith voted for the war in Iraq and the bailouts. Smith was running against an opponent whose positions were perfectly aligned with Paul’s. [3] When confronted about this, he said, “I made an agreement with the Republican Party to support the [Texas] incumbents.” [4]
But the two example cited above are not typical. In 2008, Ron Paul endorsed about 30 candidates for Congress. Michele Bachmann was one of these candidates and was typical of the others on list. [5]
[5] I can’t find this list on the internet, but it did appear on the website of one of Ron Paul’s Political Action Committees (the Liberty PAC) during the 2008 election.
