Constitutional scholar refutes anti-Paul claims

The Daily Iowan

By Tom Woods

Wednesday August 31st 2011

A good rule of thumb I’ve discovered is that critics who claim Rep. Ron Paul doesn’t understand the Constitution are themselves the ones whose knowledge is deficient.

For example, Scott McKeag, a teacher in the Iowa City School District, came down hard on the congressman in these pages for denying that the federal government has a role in education according to the Constitution. The congressman further believes that education is better managed by states, localities, and parents.

McKeag cites the Constitution’s “necessary and proper” clause to justify the federal Department of Education, which opened its doors in 1980.

Let’s tick off the problems with this howler.

First, Alexander Hamilton noted in Federalist No. 33 that the necessary and proper clause was inserted merely for clarification and did not augment federal power at all. He even said the Constitution would be exactly the same if that clause were “entirely obliterated.” Appealing to the clause to carry the burden of justifying federal involvement in education — which is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution — is asking it to do much heavier lifting than even Hamilton, the broadest of constitutional constructionists, thought it could bear.

Second, George Nicholas, future attorney general of Kentucky, told the Virginia ratifying convention (and remember, according to James Madison, it is to the ratifying conventions that we turn for constitutional interpretation) that the clause “only enables it [Congress] to carry into execution the powers given to it, but gives it no additional power.” Many other statements to this effect can be found in the documentary records of the ratifying conventions.

In other words, citing this clause for authority to establish a Department of Education only begs the question, since McKeag has not first established education as one of “the powers given to it.”

Third, in numerous state ratifying conventions, the people were assured the federal government would have only the powers “expressly delegated” to it. Power over education is obviously not expressly delegated.

Fourth, Thomas Jefferson explained in 1791 that “necessary and proper” had to mean really necessary, as opposed to merely convenient, in carrying out the enumerated powers if the clause were not to swallow up the whole Constitution and defeat its very purpose. Because education is nowhere listed among the enumerated powers, it wouldn’t survive even the first stage of Jefferson’s test.

McKeag only makes things worse when he appeals to Jefferson: “President Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, championed this idea from his time in the Virginia Legislature.”

Ouch. Here’s what Jefferson actually said: “An amendment to our Constitution must here come in aid of the public education.”

Got that? An amendment to our Constitution. That means federal involvement in education is unconstitutional given the text of the document as it stands. In other words, Jefferson held precisely the view that Ron Paul holds today.

McKeag has no better luck when he tries to claim Madison. Madison warned people in 1792 that if they interpreted the general welfare clause too broadly, we’d wind up with the federal government taking “into its own hands the education of children,” an outcome he considered absurd. Ouch again, Mr. McKeag.

 

 

The rest of the article argues from the precedent, “Hey, lots of politicians have thought the people were too stupid to run their own schools and needed to be taxed for the privilege of being bossed around by their Washington betters.” Maybe so, but that doesn’t answer the question: Is it constitutional?

Before filling the heads of Iowan children with any more nonsense, Scott McKeag might consider leaving Ron Paul alone and spending a teensy bit more time reading.

Thomas E. Woods Jr., who holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University, is a New York Times bestselling author of 11 books.

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As his numbers continue to improve, Ron Paul presents challenge to Obama, other GOP candidates

Natural News.com
By J.D. Heyes
Wednesday August 24th 2011

(NaturalNews) President Barack Obama's campaign has dismissed his candidacy as a Tea Party fringe, much the same way as his fellow Republican presidential contenders have, but that's par for the course. Ron Paul knows he has always been an underdog.
But new polling data is showing Paul in a close race with Obama and other leading GOP contenders. Is it an anomaly? No, it's not and it shows clearly how Paul's message is increasingly resonating with a larger percentage of the American people, making him much less the underdog now than during any of his previous presidential bids.

According to Gallup, Paul is statistically tied with Obama, with the president leading slightly 47-45 percent. Paul out polls Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann (she's behind Obama 48-44 percent), and just under former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (he leads Obama 48-46 percent) and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who splits with the president 47-47 percent).

Not bad for a "fringe" candidate who has been virtually ignored by Big Media. And while other Republican presidential contenders Romney and Perry generally poll better, Paul continues to do well.

That's what the pundits call "the right message," and it just could be that a perfect political storm is brewing that will sweep him into office in 2012.

For one, his message has never changed. An obstetrician by training who is pro-life, Paul has espoused a small government, personal liberties and freedom platform since practically his first days in office. So there's the consistency factor; what you see is what you get, and what you get from Paul you've been getting for decades.

Also, Paul is the only major candidate calling for an end to what he has labeled unwinnable wars. His call comes as Americans support for the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya are at all time lows.

As early as November 2010, support for the war in Afghanistan in particular began plummeting, with respondents to a Quinnipiac University survey saying they opposed it in general, 50-44 percent.

Almost three quarters of Americans, or 72 percent, support efforts to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, and only one in five Americans support continued U.S. involvement in Libya.

As the economy and unemployment remain stagnant, the current administration's solution is to raise taxes and increase government regulation. But recent surveys show most of us oppose such "solutions," and neither of those is favored by Paul.

In fact, his solution is to eliminate income taxes altogether, along with the so called "death tax" and capital gains taxes that stifle the free market. He wants to dump the Federal Reserve altogether, and he has pledged never to vote to raise the debt ceiling again.

Just a month ago, Obama held a 41-37 percent lead over Paul, but that's since been cut to 39-38 percent, a statistical tie. Paul's lack of coverage in the media is hurting him nationally, and his genuine small-government mindset is alienating most mainstream members of his own party.

But the fact remains that Obama's regime is collapsing, just like the economy and the free market. And despite what the other GOP candidates espouse, more Americans are learning that Paul is the real deal when it comes to offering a legitimate choice to change the direction the nation is headed. The polls show that Paul is gaining ground on everyone, so much so that he could be too hard to ignore for much longer.

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Ron Paul spreading same message as always, resonating finally

Tampa Bay.com
By Alex Leary
Thursday August 11th 2011

Ron Paul framed it as "a fight that could literally change our country" and laid out a plan: Return to the gold standard, end U.S. military interventions overseas, demolish the Federal Reserve and stop bailouts.

"Overwhelmingly, people said they wanted a man of principle in Washington," his campaign manifesto read. "They said they want someone who was really against budget deficits, big spending and high taxes, not someone who says one thing and does another."

The fundraising letter could have arrived yesterday.

But it was written in 1984.

As he seeks the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, the Texas congressman is spreading the same message — and people are finally listening.

His persistent bleating about federal spending and the national debt, for years ignored by both Democrats and Republicans, has proven prophetic. Paul's Republican rivals today sound like he did in 2008, when he was viewed as the kooky older guy on the campaign trail warning about an impending crash.

"People kid me now about going mainstream," Paul said in an interview. "Maybe the mainstream came in my direction."

Anti-Washington from the day he stepped foot on Capitol Hill in 1976, Paul was the tea party before the tea party.

People are drawn to Paul — or at least respect him — because he has been consistent in an era of finger-in-the-wind politics.

"Many political campaigns devolve into personality cults — 'Vote for me. I'm the kind of guy you want to have a beer with,' " said former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Orlando, a liberal Democrat who teamed up with Paul last year to pass a measure requiring an audit of the Fed. "That is completely foreign to him. He'll only talk about issues.

"He's actually a bit shy and isn't particularly fond of being in front of large crowds or cameras. But that preoccupation with the issues and internal revulsion toward personality politics is exactly what makes him so popular."

Paul, who turns 76 next week, is hoping a top-three finish in Saturday's straw poll in Ames, Iowa, will thrust him into the upper level of contenders.

For the past two years, Paul has won the straw poll at the American Conservative Union's annual gathering in Washington, his raucous supporters looked on with some disdain by establishment Republicans in the crowd.

He concedes that he is best positioned to affect the debate rather than win, but he holds an underdog's hope.

"How come I think I have a chance? My name's on the ballot," he said. "And the country's shifting my way."

Paul is an anti-war, anti-abortion Republican who was the Libertarian nominee for president in 1988. He burst from obscurity in the last election with a boisterous following and prolific fundraising.

On a single day in December 2007 — the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party — he raised $6 million as part of a "money bomb." His visions of small government, personal responsibility and strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution have become tenets of the tea party movement.

Paul remains a loner in his party, and even now some of his views remain on the fringe. During a GOP debate in South Carolina in May, Paul said that if a person wants to shoot up with heroin, it's that person's choice, and the federal government should stay out of it.
The audience boomed with applause.

So rigid are his views that his routinely is the lone dissenting vote in Congress. He opposes most programs not authorized in the Constitution or those he considers a waste of time or money.

Paul votes against resolutions honoring Boy Scout troops and civil rights leaders. He voted against a congressional medal for former President Ronald Reagan because of its $30,000 cost. He has voted against constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and flag burning, believing in individual expression. And he opposes farm subsidies that benefit constituents in his rural Texas district because he wants the free enterprise system to work.

A retired obstetrician who delivered 4,000 babies and fathered five (including son Rand, who in 2010 became a U.S. senator from Kentucky), Paul says no so often that he has a nickname in Washington: Dr. No.

In his 2008 run for president, Paul drew accusations of hypocrisy for requesting hundreds of millions in budget earmarks, or pork, for his district while voting against the final bill. Paul said he does not endorse the system but puts in earmarks because he represents people who want some of their money back.

A follower of Austrian economics, Paul said his political awakening came on Aug. 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon ended the last tie between gold and U.S. currency. Paul said that opened the floodgates for both parties to spend and print money and run up debt.

Returning to the gold standard has been his burning cause. Most economists dismiss that as unrealistic and say the gold standard helped cause the Great Depression by limiting how much money could be generated.

But over the years, Paul has gained legions of believers.

Paul was one of only six Republicans to vote against giving President George W. Bush the authority to wage war in Iraq and has long bemoaned U.S. intervention overseas.

"We should spread our values, but we can't spread our values through guns and bombs and occupations," he said. "We should do it through following good economic policy and understanding what personal liberty is all about and set a good example. Maybe the rest of the world would want to follow us."

Paul demurs when asked about his longtime warnings about the debt, once ignored but no longer. His son, campaigning with him in Iowa on Wednesday, said it was something to highlight.

"We should do some gloating," Rand Paul told reporters. "The slogan for the campaign should be, 'Ron Paul was right!' "

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Ron Paul supporters blast back with over $1 million and counting

The Examiner.com
By Lori Stacey
Saturday August 20th 2011

The Ron Paul birthday money bomb is well underway and they have already raised over $1 million today.  It will be going on until midnight. This event was billed as "a fundraiser the establishment would never forget". Whatever the reason, part birthday celebration and perhaps part firing back after the lack of media coverage following his dead-heat finish in Iowa; the Ron Paul campaign is full-speed ahead.

The only thing the mainstream media has been able to keep beating the drums on is saying that he is unelectable.  For a 12-term Congressman from Texas to be constantly criticized about electability, it is ironic that his 11 re-elections makes him the most elected candidate in the Presidential field.

As the media keeps attacking or ignoring, his support continues to soar.  The Congressman spent the weekend at the 3rd Annual Liberty Summit in Orlando, Florida this weekend where the focus was on "The Future of Conservatism in America".  Paul was a keynote speaker at the event with a packed, standing room only crowd.

Can this momentum continue to build?  One thing is for sure, the worst thing the mainstream media can do at this point is continue to anger his supporters.

Continuous updates on the money bomb throughout the evening can be found here.
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Ron Paul Wins NH Straw Poll

Hampton-North Hampton PATCH
By Kyle Stucker
Saturday August 20th 2011

The Texas congressman won Saturday's New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll by a commanding margin.

Ron Paul got a great birthday present Saturday, as the 76-year-old defeated 11 other Republicans in Saturday's New Hampshire Young Republicans Straw Poll.

Paul, a congressman from Texas, won a commanding 45 percent of the vote and bested runner-up Mitt Romney by 35 percent votes despite not actually attending the event, which was held in New Castle and also included a lobster bake.

There were 302 ballots cast Saturday, and the full vote results are as follows, in the order the candidates were listed on the ballot: Jon Huntsman - 3 percent ; Herman Cain - 5 percent; Rick Perry - 8 percent; Fred Karger - 0 percent ; Paul - 45 percent; Mitt Romney - 10 percent; Thaddeus McCotter - 8 percent; Rick Santorum - 3 percent; Michele Bachmann - 5 percent; Buddy Roemer - 3 percent; Gary Johnson - 6 percent; and Newt Gingrich - 1 percent.

Rudy Giuliani and Paul Ryan each received 1 percent of the vote as write-in candidates, while another 1 percent was comprised of candidates who received less than 1 percent, according to event officials.

Gingrich, Perry, Romney and Santorum all were unrepresented at Saturday's event, as no one spoke on their behalf and none had a table at the event.

State Sen. Jim Forsythe spoke on behalf of Paul.

Saturday's event, which drew roughly 350 people, also featured a vote for New Hampshire governor

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Ron Paul galore!

Concord Monitor
By Felice Belman
Friday August 19th 2011

The woman on the other end of the phone had never called a newspaper editor before, but she was angry. She had traveled to Concord from Connecticut to get a gander at Ron Paul on Wednesday night and was frustrated that Thursday morning’s edition of the Monitor included no story on Paul’s appearance. Yes, there were two large photographs from the event by photographer John Tully, but no accompanying news article. To make matters worse, a full story on Rick Perry appeared on the front page.

What the caller couldn’t have known was that our plan for this morning’s edition was a virtual Paul-a-palooza: two front-page stories, a photograph and an editorial. On concordmonitor.com, there is a video from Paul’s Thursday interview with the Monitor editorial board. Additionally, Sunday’s Viewpoints section will include more outtakes from the interview – and a terrific new caricature of Paul by longtime Monitor cartoonist Mike Marland.

Our goal between now and the presidential primary election is to give readers as much coverage of the presidential candidates as possible – while also keeping track of local news. We won’t achieve perfect parity among the candidates in column inches or number of photographs – nor are we trying to. But, with luck, by February Monitor readers will have a good sense of what each of the Republican candidates stand for and how that compares to their opponents – and to President Obama.

How do we do that? We send journalists to scads of campaign events: in the Concord area and, when the news merits it, out of the area. (Earlier this week, for instance, reporter Karen Langley filed a story about Mitt Romney from Berlin.) We’ll publish profiles of the candidates – including these on Paul and Bachmann from earlier in the summer. We’ll check the veracity of their statements. We’ll talk to voters. We’ll dissect the big issues of the campaign. We’ll let readers know when and where the candidates are appearing.

Additionally, we’ll invite all the candidates for long sit-downs and use those conversations to help inform our news coverage as well as the newspaper’s eventual endorsement of a candidate. Editorial board interviews with presidential candidates are among the joys of working here –  and yesterday’s interview with Paul was particularly fun. He speaks his mind and – though he’s been saying the same thing for years and years – his performance is remarkably refreshing.

Here’s one more tidbit from yesterday’s interview: Asked whether his age would be a detriment to getting elected (he turns 76 tomorrow), Paul smiled and dismissed the hypothesis:

“That’s an old-fashioned idea. In this day and age, what really counts are your ideas and my ideas are promoting liberty – and that’s a very young idea and young people love it.”

He went on to challenge anyone worried about his senior-citizen status to a physical competition. “Anytime any other running candidate wants to come to Houston at 12 o’clock noon when the temperature is 100 and the humidity is 102, I’ll ride 20 miles with them on a bicycle.”

Any takers?
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Ron Paul: Rick Perry makes me look moderate

The Ticket
By Chris Moody
Thursday August 18th 2011

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, the national drumbeater against the Federal Reserve, said Wednesday that compared to "some southern governor" (a clear reference to fellow contender Rick Perry) Paul looks more like a moderate.

"I'll tell you what, he makes me sound like a moderate," Paul said at a campaign stop in Concord, New Hampshire. "I have never once said Bernanke has committed treason. But I have suggested very strongly that the Federal Reserve system and all the members have been counterfeiters for a long time." The remarks were first reported by NBC News.

The title of Paul's book is End the Fed.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said earlier this week that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would be "almost treasonous" if he increases the money supply before the elections in November.

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