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Posted on 10/10/2007 9:18:03 AM PDT by traviskicks
If Rep. Ron Paul had his way, a lot of things would change. Abortion would be illegal. There would be no federal income tax, nor even an IRS.
The United States would be out of the United Nations. The U.S. Supreme Court wouldn’t be messing with state law. The Federal Reserve and World Bank would disappear. And there would no longer be background checks to buy handguns.
And should the Texas Republican win the White House, as he’s trying to do now, the war in Iraq would end, as would the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Pain Relief.” Iran would be safe from U.S. attack. The Patriot Act would be history. Federal spending would fall dramatically as government bureaucracy (including the Pentagon) was slashed.
And that’s just for starters.
Paul’s quixotic quest for the Republican presidential nomination, and his mix of old-school libertarianism and populism, has failed to attract much support in national polls.
He’s largely dismissed by the mainstream press and Beltway establishment as a gadfly, or an also-ran, who has no chance of winning.
And his policy positions don’t attract the same kind of analysis given to those of the leading contenders of either party, such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) or former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).
But Paul’s staunch opposition to the Iraq war (he has refused to support any military action against Iraq going back to 1998) and a rabid following on the Internet helped him raise $5.1 million during the last quarter, nearly as much as the much-higher-profile Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and more than Sens. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), both of whom get far more coverage than Paul does.
Paul has also impressed some viewers during the Republican presidential debates. He has repeatedly railed that the GOP has “lost its way,” that the war in Iraq is wrong and must be ended, and that federal spending, which soared under President Bush and during Republican control of Congress, has to be reined in.
Along the way he has attracted a legion of fans for whom his call for “moral clarity” and repeated references to the virtues of the Founding Fathers are refreshing, rather than empty clichés.
Paul’s prescription for what is wrong with America, and how he would fix it, is laid out in an extensive series of articles and speeches that he has published during the past decade, since he returned to Congress as the representative from the 14th District in Texas after a failed run for the Senate and the White House.
Paul is also the author of several books, including “Freedom Under Siege,” “Challenge to Liberty,” “The Case for Gold” and “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.”
A survey of the bills that he has introduced during the past several years and public statements he has made show that the congressman believes “freedom,” defined in a quasi-libertarian vein, is the key to continued American prosperity and success, and the federal government is the biggest obstacle to achieving that goal.
He calls himself the “leading advocate for freedom in our nation’s capital,” boldly declaring he “never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.”
To Paul, freedom “is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference,” and any government involvement in a citizen’s life is “inherently coercive.”
Asked to list Paul’s legislative highlights, Rachel Mills, spokeswoman for his congressional office, points to a few signature moments:
His collaboration in 2000 with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) in having a lake returned to the control of Texas from the federal government; a 2002 amendment to the State Department reauthorization barring the International Criminal Court from having jurisdiction over members of the U.S. military; a 2005 measure banning U.S. compliance with any U.N. “global tax”; an amendment to the 2006 Patriot Act reauthorization banning surveillance on any U.S. citizen engaged in activities protected under the First Amendment, such as peaceful protest; and a long-running battle to prevent the issuing of medical identification numbers to Americans.
Mills also points to Paul’s work as part of the Congressional Liberty Caucus as another way he “has affected the debate” on Capitol Hill.
Paul incorporates the concept of freedom directly into many of the legislative proposals he introduces, although few, if any, of those ever get a vote on the House floor, much less get signed into law.
The list of bills unveiled by Paul this year alone (largely similar to previous legislative proposals in past years) include the Voter Freedom Act, TV Consumer Freedom Act, Health Freedom Protection Act, Agriculture Education Freedom Act, Seniors’ Health Care Freedom Act, Taxpayers’ Freedom of Conscience Act and Family Education Freedom Act, among others.
Paul also wants the U.S. government to stop treating Americans like children. He even said so explicitly in the preamble to one of the bills he introduced this year, the Freedom to Bank Act:
“To sunset federal laws and regulations which treat the American people like children by denying them the opportunity to make their own decision regarding control of their bank accounts and what type of information they wish to receive from their banks, and for other purposes.”
An obstetrician who has delivered more than 4,000 babies, Paul sees a litany of enemies to personal freedom lurking everywhere:
The Food and Drug Administration, “supranational organizations” like the U.N., the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization, “illegal immigrants,” “wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare and governments collecting foreign aid,” manufacturers of genetically modified foods and pesticides, “globalists,” opponents of home schooling, abortion providers, insurance companies, drug makers, federal bureaucrats and gun-control advocates, to name but a few.
Paul’s legislative proposals, which are short and to the point, would address the problems caused by these individuals and organizations by cutting back on the federal government’s power, adopting a “noninterventionist foreign policy” that includes ending the war in Iraq immediately, and a return to robust fiscal restraint.
But the congressman is clearly not interested in the compromises usually expected of members of Congress, which explains why his record of legislative achievement is so paltry compared with other lawmakers who have served in Congress for as long as he has.
For Paul, the principle is everything. Compromise is for those willing to sell out freedom. None of the bills or amendments that he has introduced during the first session of this 110th Congress has been voted on, either in committee or on the House floor.
The current political skirmish over the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, where President Bush and congressional Democrats are fighting over how many billions of dollars to spend on expanding the program, is another example of Paul’s different track.
SCHIP’s expansion is wrong, he says, because it is like universal mental health screening for schoolchildren. Since that program led to more kids being diagnosed with emotional problems, more drugs were administered to children to address those problems.
The only winner, in Paul’s view, is drug makers, since “pharmaceutical companies stand to increase their customer base even more,” according to a release he issued last month.
Congress, the White House and federal bureaucrats are impinging on Americans’ freedoms by enacting such programs, not helping combat a problem, he says.
“We don’t need a village, a bureaucrat or the pharmaceutical industry raising our children,” Paul declared. “That’s what parents need to be doing.”
Libertarian ping! To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here.
And the garbage nutbag spamfest continues.
ping
He is a traitor!!
PAUL/LAROUCHE 08 !
Well, at least Ron Paul wants to go to war against somebody — too bad that somebody is our federal gov’t
You were looking for concrete proposals, this article goes into some nice detail and specifics about some things.
WHACKJOBS, KOOKS, FRINGE LUNATICS, CONSPIRACY NUTCASES
Wow.
You do realize our military is part of the federal gov't and right this second they are defending your right to post asinine comments like the one above.
Ron Paul is from the government, and he is here to help.
No s—t, Dick Tracy!
Nice caption of George Washington describing Ron Paul supporters.
We could use about 230 Ron Pauls in the House and 51 in the Senate, but the White House isn't the place for him.
Thanks, Noam Chomsky.
I hope America's fighting forces appreciate your view that they - federal employees all - are "our" enemy.
To Paul living in freedom means to appease all of our enemies enough that they will not bother us. Then when that does not work we must surrender.
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