http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/1/30/151713.shtml?s=lh

Rep. Ron Paul: Running to Win in 2008

WASHINGTON -- Libertarians and conservatives alike, frustrated by their early options among the so-called 2008 front-runners, may turn to a familiar face in pursuit of the White House: Rep. Ron Paul.

Paul, R-Texas, has been a fervent advocate of limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies based on commodity-backed currency. He's now considering taking his no-nonsense show on the road in an under-the-radar run for the White House.

Paul is an absolute original — never voting for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. It's an iron rule that sometimes annoys his Republican colleagues.

A medical doctor by training and certification, Paul is nothing if not a thinking man. When he voted against authorizing military force against Iraq, his rationale read like a lawyer's analysis:

"This resolution is not a declaration of war, however, and that is an important point: This resolution transfers the constitutionally-mandated congressional authority to declare wars to the executive branch. This resolution tells the president that he alone has the authority to determine when, where, why, and how war will be declared. It merely asks the president to pay us a courtesy call a couple of days after the bombing starts to let us know what is going on. This is exactly what our Founding Fathers cautioned against when crafting our form of government . . ."
The Libertarian Party nominee for president in the 1988 election, Paul favors a non-interventionist foreign policy, is critical of civil liberties being curtailed in the name of the war on terror, voted twice against the Patriot Act, wants no part of a military draft, and would like to see the U.S. pull out of the United Nations.

Such stances by Paul seem to square with the basic libertarian political philosophy that sees every person as the absolute owner of his or her own life — free to do whatever with person or property — as long as such action does not infringe upon the liberty of others.

But this independent thinking man is no slave to a strict libertarian agenda — voting against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (bigger government, he says), supporting border security, and opposing illegal immigration — all postures that would rattle the Libertarian core.

His strongest appeal may be his unblemished and consistent record of opposition to the Iraq War, but is that enough to propel him along with that storied political commodity known as "momentum?"

Spokesman Kent Snyder, the chairman of Paul's exploratory committee and a former staffer on Paul's Libertarian campaign, says that while the congressman knows he's a long shot, his boss is running to win.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa., Paul graduated from Gettysburg College and the Duke University School of Medicine, before serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. He and his wife Carol moved to Texas in 1968, where he began his medical practice in Brazoria County as a specialist in obstetrics/gynecology.

While serving in Congress during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Paul's limited-government ideals were not popular in Washington. He served on the House Banking committee, where he was a strong advocate for sound monetary policy and an outspoken critic of the Federal Reserve's inflationary measures. He also was an outspoken member of the Gold Commission, advocating a return to a gold standard for our currency.
The Libertarian View

With the mood of the nation today however, Paul's sharp rhetoric may find an eager ear. Here's how a President Ron Paul would address some of the telling issues of the day:

Foreign Aid

"Our annual foreign aid bill is one of the most egregious abuses of the taxpayer I can imagine. Not only is it an unconstitutional burden on America's working families, but this yearly attempt to buy friends and influence foreign governments is counterproductive and actually results in less goodwill toward the United States overseas."

Corruption on Capitol Hill

"Laws addressing bribery, theft, and fraud, already on the books are adequate to deal with the criminal activities associated with lobbying. New laws and regulations are unnecessary.

"Get rid of the evil tax system; the fraudulent monetary system; and the power of government to run our lives, the economy, and the world; and the Abramoff-types would be exposed for the mere gnats they are. There would be a lot less of them, since the incentives to buy politicians would be removed."

Middle East Policy

"Practically speaking, our meddling in the Middle East has only intensified strife and conflict. American tax dollars have militarized the entire region. We give Israel about $3 billion each year, but we also give Egypt $2 billion. Most other Middle East countries get money too, some of which ends up in the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Both sides have far more military weapons as a result. Talk about adding fuel to the fire! Our foolish and unconstitutional foreign aid has produced more violence, not less."

Deficit Spending and Social Security

"Congress [must] stop spending. When Congress outspends federal revenues, it raids Social Security funds to cover the difference. Unless Congress makes real cuts in spending — and stops spending Social Security taxes on completely unrelated programs — millions of Americans simply will not receive even a fraction of the money they paid into Social Security..."

"Under my [plan], your Social Security contributions are set aside in an interest-bearing account and cannot be spent. In other words, your Social Security account would be treated as your account and not a slush fund for Congress."

The Totalization Plan with Mexico

"Our Social Security system already faces trillions of dollars in future shortages as the baby boomer generation retires and fewer young workers pay into the system. Adding hundreds of thousand of non-citizens to the Social Security rolls can only hasten the day of reckoning.

"Social Security never was intended to serve as an individual foreign aid program for non-citizens abroad. Remember, there is no real Social Security trust fund, and the distinction between income taxes and payroll taxes is entirely artificial. The Social Security contributions made by non-citizens are spent immediately as general revenues. So while it's unfortunate that some [non-citizen immigrants] are forced to pay into a system from which they might never receive a penny, the same can be said of younger American citizens."

The Military Draft

"I believe wholeheartedly that an all-volunteer military is not only sufficient for national defense, but also preferable. It is time to abolish the Selective Service System and resign military conscription to the dustbin of American history. Five hundred million dollars have been wasted on Selective Service since 1979, money that could have been returned to taxpayers or spent to improve the lives of our nation's veterans."

Monetary Policy

"Americans must realize that Congress, and the Federal Reserve system that permits the creation of new money by fiat, are the real culprits in the erosion of your personal savings and buying power. Congress relentlessly spends more than the Treasury collects in taxes each year, which means the U.S. government must either borrow or print money to operate — both of which cause the value of the dollar to drop. When we borrow a billion dollars every day simply to run the government, and when the Federal Reserve increases the money supply by trillions of dollars in just 15 years, we hardly can expect our dollars to increase in value."

The NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) Superhighway

"The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union — complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether . . .

"[T]he United States should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA superhighway, or enter into any agreement that advances the concept of a North American Union. I wholeheartedly support this legislation, and predict that the superhighway will become a sleeper issue in the 2008 election."

Iran's Nuclear Ambitions

"Rumors are flying about when, not if, Iran will be bombed by either Israel or the U.S. — possibly with nuclear weapons. Our CIA says Iran is 10 years away from producing a nuclear bomb and has no delivery system, but this does not impede our plans to keep ‘everything on the table' when dealing with Iran.

We should remember that Iran, like Iraq, is a third-world nation without a significant military. Nothing in history hints that she is likely to invade a neighboring country, let alone do anything to America or Israel. I am concerned, however, that a contrived Gulf of Tonkin-type incident may occur to gain popular support for an attack on Iran."

Gun Control

"Tortured interpretations of the Second amendment cannot change the fact that both the letter of the amendment itself and the legislative history conclusively show that the Founders intended ordinary citizens to be armed. The notion that the Second amendment confers rights only upon organized state-run militias is preposterous; the amendment is meaningless unless it protects the gun rights of individuals."

Universal Health Care

"The problems with our health-care system are not the result of too little government intervention, but rather too much. Contrary to the claims of many advocates of increased government regulation of health care, rising costs and red tape do not represent market failure. Rather, they represent the failure of government policies that have destroyed the health care market.

"It's time to rethink the whole system of HMOs and managed care. This entire unnecessary level of corporatism rakes off profits and worsens the quality of care. But HMOs did not arise in the free market; they are creatures of government interference in health care dating to the 1970s. These non-market institutions have gained control over medical care through collusion between organized medicine, politicians, and drug companies, in an effort to move America toward ‘free' universal health care."

Privacy

"The history of abuse of personal information by government officials demonstrates that the only effective means of guaranteeing American's privacy is to limit the ability of the government to collect and store information regarding a citizen's personal matters. The only way to prevent the government from knowing this information is preventing them from using standard identifiers [such as the Social Security number]."

Tax Reform

"Most people understandably want a simpler income tax system, but it's useless to discuss tax reform without spending reform. Who wants a 40 percent flat tax? Who wants a national sales tax if it adds 50 percent to the retail price of everything we buy? In other words, why change the tax structure if spending stays the same? Once we accept that Congress needs $2.7 trillion from us, the only question is how it will be collected.

"The current answer is the labyrinthine tax code, which pits taxpayers against each other in a political scramble to make sure the other guy pays. The truth is that Congress does not need $2.7 trillion, or anything close to it, to fund the proper constitutional functions of the federal government.

"The only tax reform needed is to lower or abolish existing taxes."

Stem Cell Research

"The question that should concern Congress is: Does the U.S. government have the constitutional authority to fund any form of stem cell research? The clear answer to that question is no. A proper constitutional position would reject federal funding for stem cell research, while allowing individual states and private citizens to decide whether to permit, ban, or fund this research."

Emergency Management

"Congress reacted to Katrina in typical Washington-knows-best fashion. It immediately appropriated over $60 billion with no planning or debate, mostly to show that government was "doing something." Political grandstanding masqueraded as compassion.

"As with all rapid government expenditures, the money was spent badly. Every member of Congress must have known that throwing $50 billion at FEMA, the very agency that failed so badly to prepare for Katrina, would not turn out well.

"All federal aid for Katrina should have been distributed as directly as possible to local communities, rather than through wasteful middlemen like FEMA and Homeland Security."

For sure, there's no scratching one's head figuring out where Paul is coming from. His great strength may be in his straight-shooting message — but will he be able to sound his clarion call for what seems like good old honest common sense around the country?

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