In Ron Paul’s latest round of political adverts, he attempts to paint the new front runner, Newt Gingrich, as a “flip-flopper”. OK, sure, I’ll concede Newt has had his share of “changes of opinion”, but who hasn’t.
Coming from Ron Paul, I find this particularly offensive. This from the man who requests the earmarks, votes against them, and meanwhile his fellow Reps. in the House pass his earmarks. I’ll take someone who can learn from their mistakes over someone who is disingenuous any day of the week. If we weren’t in polite company I’d call him a liar.
Meanwile, during the interview on the Laura Ingraham show today. Ron Paul stated he believes Newt is not a conservative. This coming from a Libertarian that runs on a Republican ticket because his constituents can’t even spell libertarian, much less knows what it means. We do give credit where credit is due, and we do applaud Mr. Paul for his relentlessness on keeping fiscal policy on the front burner, but there are many other things we disagree with him about.
On Defense and National Security:
Paul’s record on defense is, he does not believe in defense spending. He has voted no to every defense appropriation bill since he has been in office.
Voted NO on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
On Crime:
Opposes death penalty at state and federal level. (Jan 2008)
Voted NO on constitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration. (Jun 2003)
Voted NO on establishing nationwide AMBER alert system for missing kids. (Apr 2003)
On Energy:
Ron Paul has been pretty solid on energy policy, and supportive of domestic production of energy. To his credit:
Voted YES on scheduling permitting for new oil refinieries. (Jun 2006)
Voted NO on keeping moratorium on drilling for oil offshore. (Jun 2006)
Voted NO on prohibiting oil drilling & development in ANWR. (Aug 2001)
On Education:
Eduation is one of the few areas where I have no complaints with Ron Paul. He supports students right to prayer, home schooling, abstinence, creationism and faith based schools. He did, however:
Vote NO to on allowing vouchers in DC schools. (Aug 1998)
Vote NO on requiring states to test students. (May 2001)
and contradictory:
Tax-credited programs for Christian schooling. (Sep 2007)
Encourage homeschooling & private school via tax writeoff. (Dec 2007)
His Pro-Life Record:
The bellwether of the Pro-Life movement is the National Right to Life Committee whose goal is to restore legal protection to innocent human life and related matters of medical ethics which relate to the right to life issues of euthanasia and infanticide. Ron Paul is rated 56% by the National Right to Life Committee, a score that indicates he has a mixed record on abortion.
Voted NO on restricting interstate transport of minors to get abortions. (Apr 2005)
Voted NO on federal crime to harm fetus while committing other crimes. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on barring transporting minors to get an abortion. (Jun 1999)
On Marriage:
On the Defense of Mariage Act, and constitutional amendment Ron Paul stated “If you believe in federalism, it’s better that we allow these things to be left to the state. My personal belief is that marriage is a religious ceremony. And it should be dealt with religiously. The [government] really shouldn’t be involved. The government got involved mostly for health reasons 100 years or so ago. But this should be a religious matter. All voluntary associations, whether they’re economic or social, should be protected by the law. But to amend the Constitution is totally unnecessary to define something that’s already in the dictionary. We do know what marriage is about. We don’t need a new definition or argue over a definition and have an Amendment. To me, it just seems so unnecessary to do that. There’s no need for the federal government to be involved in this.” – 2007 GOP primary debate in Orlando, Florida Oct 21, 2007
Ron Paul voted NO on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)
On Drugs:
Pon Paul’s stance on drugs should come as no surprise to anyone with knowledge about the Libertarian Party. Decriminalizing drugs is one of their main tenents. When asked “all drugs should be decriminalized. Drugs should be distributed by any adult to other adults. There should be no controls on production, supply or purchase for adults”?
“Yeah, It’s sort of like alcohol. Alcohol’s a deadly drug, kills more people than anything else. And today the absurdity on this war on drugs has just been horrible. Now the federal government takes over and overrules states where state laws permit medicinal marijuana for people dying of cancer. The federal government goes in and arrests these people, put them in prison with mandatory sentences. This war on drugs is totally out of control. If you want to regulate cigarettes and alcohol and drugs, it should be at the state level. That’s where I stand on it. The federal government has no prerogatives on this.” – Meet the Press: 2007 “Meet the Candidates” series Dec 23, 2007
Ron Paul has been rated A by VOTE-HEMP since December of 2003. He has sponsored numerous bills trying to legalize industrial hemp. He truly believes that the “War on Drugs” has abused Bill of Rights. In July of 2001, Ron Paul sponsored a Bill to legalize medical marijuana. Paul. at one time, was against federaly funded needle exchange programs until January of 2009 when he signed onto the Community AIDS and Hepatitis Prevention Act to distribute sterile syringes to reduce AIDS and hepatitis. (Jan 2009)
Voted NO on subjecting federal employees to random drug tests. (Sep 1998)
Sponsored bill letting states legalize industrial hemp. (Apr 2009)
