Continuing our primary coverage: By Aaron Joseph. Well, let us see. Ron was an obstetrician and gynecologist during the 1960s and 1970s! In fact, Ron delivered more than 4,000 babies before entering politics in 1976. Today he represents Texas’s 14th congressional district, which covers parts of Houston including Galveston, Texas. He also serves on the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services amongst others. Notably in today’s Congress, Ron is the chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology. He very enthusiastically uses this position to be an outspoken, very sharp critic of American foreign and monetary policy.

Ron has become well known for his libertarian ideas on many political issues, often differing from both Republican and Democratic Party stances. He also has the distinct ‘honor’ of having the most conservative voting record of any member of Congress since 1937. Also of distinction, Ron’s son, Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2010, making the elder Ron the first Representative in United States history to serve concurrently with a child of his in the Senate.

Ron has campaigned for President of the United States twice before, first during 1988 as the nominee of the Libertarian Party and again during 2008 as a candidate for the Republican nomination. This year, Ron announced that he would campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. A bit after that announcement came a second all important one, Ron announced that he would not seek another term in Congress in order to concentrate on his presidential bid

BACKGROUND/EDUCATION
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, His paternal great-grandparents emigrated from Germany, and his mother was of German decent. He attended Dormont High School, in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania were he was a known for his athletic abilities. He later received a B.S. degree in biology at Gettysburg College during 1957 Ron went on to graduate Duke University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. Ron also served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968

Ron married Carol Wells in 1957. Together they have five children. Ron’s son Randal is the junior United States senator from the state of Kentucky. Raised a Lutheran, Ron later became a church-going Baptist

In 1968, Ron and his wife moved to Texas, where he continued his medical work. Ron trained in obstetrics and gynecology while living down south, were he began his own private practice. As a physician, Ron made some waves when he routinely lowered fees or worked for free yet absolutely refused to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments from patients. Tellingly, and rather radically, as a member of Congress, Ron continues to refuse to sign up for the government pension that he would be entitled to in order to avoid receiving government money. Ron calls it, “hypocritical and immoral.”

POLITICS/FIRST ROUND IN CONGRESS

During 1971, when President Richard Nixon unpegged the U.S. dollar from the gold standard, Ron decided to enter politics. Later he was quoted as saying that, “After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded.”

Soon after, Ron became a delegate to the Texas Republican convention and a Republican candidate for the United States Congress. Losing a few elections, Ron finally defeated his Democratic contender in a 1978 rematch of an election he had lost before. He thereby became the first Republican congressman from that part of Texas. Democrats had expected to retain that seat in congress due to the Watergate scandal, yet came to understand an unusual political science in Ron’s district and his popularity among local mothers. Ron’s opponents had real difficulty down in Brazoria County, where he practiced, because he’d delivered half the babies in the county. There were only two obstetricians in the county, and the other one was his partner. Ron continued to deliver babies on Mondays and Saturdays during his entire 22nd district career

Ron has served in Congress three different periods totaling 12 two-year terms: first from 1976–77, after he won a special election, then from 1979–85 and finally from 1997 to today. During 1984, Ron chose to campaign for the U.S. Senate instead of re-election to the House, but lost the Republican primary to Phil Gramm, who had switched parties the previous year from Democrat to Republican. Ron then resumed his full-time medical practice, and was succeeded in his congressional seat by former state representative Tom DeLay.

1988 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND THE YEARS FOLLOWING:

Ron ran in the 1988 presidential election, and was on the ballot in 46 States as the Libertarian Party candidate. Ron scored third in the popular vote with 432,179 votes. During the campaign, Ron argued, “Pro-life libertarians have a vital task to perform: to persuade the many abortion-supporting libertarians of the contradiction between abortion and individual liberty; and to sever the mistaken connection in many minds between individual freedom and the ‘right’ to extinguish individual life.”

Throughout the 1988 campaign, Ron said his presidential campaign was about more than obtaining office; he said he sought to promote his libertarian ideas. Very often he would address schools and universities regardless of vote eligibility. Ron said, “We’re just as interested in the future generation as this election. These kids will vote eventually, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll go home and talk to their parents.” He traveled the country for a year speaking about issues such as free market economics and the rising government deficits

After the 1988 election, Ron continued his medical practice until he returned to Congress in 1996. Ron also co-owned a coin dealership, Ron Paul Coins, for twelve years with a partner, Burt Blumert, who continued to operate it after Ron resumed office Ron considered campaigning for President during 1992, but instead chose to endorse Pat Buchanan that year, and served as an adviser to his Republican presidential campaign against incumbent President George H. W. Bush.

1996 RETURN TO CONGRESS:

During 1996, Ron was re-elected to Congress after the most difficult campaign he had experienced since the 1970s.

The Republican Party initially endorsed Laughlin, a politician who had switched over from the Democratic party to become a Republican, and Ron’s opponent. His opponent had much assistance including from House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor George W. Bush, and the National Rifle Association.

Ron responded by running newspaper advertisements quoting Gingrich’s harsh criticisms of Laughlin’s Democratic voting record 14 months earlier. Ron won the primary with assistance from baseball pitcher, constituent, and friend Nolan Ryan (as honorary campaign chair and advertisement spokesman), as well as tax activist Steve Forbes, and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (both of whom had had presidential campaigns that year).

Ron won the election by a close margin. It became the third time Ron had been elected to Congress as a non-incumbent.

Ron spends much time home in his district. He sometimes travels more than 300 miles daily. He attends civic ceremonies for veterans, graduates, and Boy Scouts, often accompanied by his own grandchildren. Ron is known as a congressman that procures lost or unreceived medals for war veterans, holding dozens of medal ceremonies annually, and for sending out birthday and condolence cards!

POLITICAL POSITIONS:

Hold on to your hats, as this man, with his ever colorful positions has many views that are surely “different” and perhaps even entertaining: Ron Paul is on the record for or proudly totes the following:

* Had never voted to increase Congressional pay.

* While in congress Ron has added earmarks, such as for Texas shrimp promotion, but routinely votes against most spending bills returned by committee.

* Has proposed term-limit legislation multiple times.

* When Republicans favored President Jimmy Carter’s proposal to reinstate draft registration, Ron argued against it.

* While on the House Banking Committee, Ron blamed the Federal Reserve for inflation.

* Has spoken against the banking mismanagement that resulted in the savings and loan crisis.

* In his first House farewell address on September 19, 1984, Ron said, “Special interests have replaced the concern that the Founding Fathers had for general welfare.”

* Tried to abolish the income tax and the Federal Reserve

*** Has helped prohibit: ***

* Funding for national identification numbers

* Funding for federal teacher certification

* International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military

* American participation with any U.N. global tax

* and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment activities by citizens

* Ron says his fellow members of Congress have increased government spending by 75 percent during the presidency of George W. Bush, and has also said that “Congress couldn’t slash spending if the members’ lives depended on it.”

* Has introduced several bills to apply tax credits to education, including credits for parental spending on public, private, or homeschool students.

* His Foreign policy of nonintervention made him the only 2008 Republican presidential candidate to have voted against the Iraq War Resolution in 2002.

* Advocates withdrawal from the United Nations, and from the NATO.

* Has rejected membership in the North American Free Trade Agreement

* and the World Trade Organization.

* He endorses increased border security and opposes welfare for illegal aliens, birthright citizenship and amnesty.

* An opponent of the Iraq War and potential war with Iran, he has also criticized neo-conservatism and U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, arguing that both inadvertently cause terrorist reprisals against Americans.

* Ron has stated that “Israel is our close friend” and that it is not the place of the United States to “dictate how Israel runs her affairs”. Although of late reports have surfaced claiming that Ron has told close aids many time throughout his congressional years that Israel is the biggest problem in the middle east, and should cease to exist and go back to the arabs.

* He has pledged never to raise taxes has never voted to approve a budget deficit.

* He believes that the country could abolish the individual income tax.

* He endorses eliminating most federal government agencies, terming them unnecessary bureaucracies.

* He advocates gradual elimination of the Federal Reserve System

* He is known to consider himself “strongly pro-life”, and “an unshakable foe of abortion.

* He believes regulation of or ban on medical decisions about maternal or fetal health is “best handled at the state level”

* He says his years as an obstetrician led him to believe life begins at conception

* He opposes federal regulation of the death penalty

* He endorsed revising the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy

* In 2009, he claimed that climate change is a hoax

* He also opposes the federal War on Drugs, and believes the states should decide whether to regulate or deregulate drugs such as medical marijuana

* He advocates for eliminating federal involvement with and management of health care and stated that “The government shouldn’t be in the medical business.”

* Ron was critical of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that it sanctioned federal interference in the labor market and did not improve race relations. He once remarked: “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 not only violated the Constitution and reduced individual liberty; it also failed to achieve its stated goals of promoting racial harmony and a color-blind society”. Ron opposes affirmative action.