Ron Paul's political views.

Paul is a staunch constitutionalist (small government) and a liberal. He opposed almost all government spending, bills or tax cases in various votes in Congress. In many votes, he is often the only congressman and party whose position is different from that of the party group, which makes him complained by some colleagues in Congress and won him the nickname "Mr. No". For example, Paul was one of the few delegates who voted against Sarbanes-Oxley. Congressman Paul firmly supports the foreign policy of non-interventionism. He voted against the Iraq resolution authorizing war against Iraq and opposed the American invasion of Iraq from beginning to end. He also criticized the Bush administration for violating civil liberties in many actions in the war on terror. In his recent speech, he expressed concern about the tension between the United States and Iran, fearing that war would break out between the two countries. He voted against the USA PATRIOT Act on 200 1, which severed his relationship with * * * and the leading party group. He also voted against a draft bill in 2005. He supported the withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations.

Most of Paul's supporters came from conservatives and liberals, but after the 9 1 1 incident, Paul also attracted the support of some Democrats in central Texas because he had always opposed the Iraq war. For example, Austin Chronicle, a liberal newspaper in Austin, originally criticized Paul's political stance in 2000, but after the 9 1 1 incident, it began to affirm Paul's performance and praised him for resolutely opposing the Iraq war.

Recently, Paul has been expressing his concern about the tension between the United States and Iran, fearing that the United States may invade Iran. He said that the current situation is quite similar to that before the Iraq war broke out, and urged Congress not to authorize war against Iran.

Although Paul firmly supports free trade, he voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), arguing that free trade does not require ratification of such an agreement, and criticized the agreement for increasing the size of the government and violating the Constitution.

However, some of Paul's positions on foreign policy are different from those of some liberals. For example, he supports strengthening border security and preventing illegal immigrants from entering the United States. Paul opposes almost all government intervention in the market on economic issues. He supports the abolition of income tax, the abolition of most presidential cabinet departments, and the abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank. He believes that the Federal Reserve Bank is not only unable to effectively stop inflation, but also a murderer of inflation. Paul believes that the excessive printing of money by the Federal Reserve Bank leads to the hollowing out of personal savings value, which in turn leads to inflation, artificially creates the illusion of economic prosperity, and finally leads to disasters such as economic panic. This statement comes from the business cycle theory of the Austrian school of economics. Paul believes that the government's manipulation of the central bank (Federal Reserve Bank) is the main reason for inflation and even economic depression and recession. He pointed out that most of his colleagues in Congress are reluctant to abolish the central bank because it is the source of government funds. He said that the inflation deliberately created by the government is like a "hidden tax rate", because if the government does not do so, Congress and the president will have to offset the deficit by raising the tax rate or reducing government spending, both of which will damage their political reputation. Paul also supports the privatization of the medical insurance system. His campaign slogan in 2004 was "taxpayer's best friend!" "

John Berthoud, chairman of the National Taxpayers' Union, which aims to reduce the tax rate, said: "Ron Paul has proved that he has always been a leader in fighting for taxpayers' rights and emphasizing the control of government spending ... no one has more voting records than him. "Paul is also considered an advocate of small business groups. Jack Farris, chairman of the National Independent Business Alliance (NFIB), also said: "Congressman Paul is really a good friend of small business groups ... He has always supported the policies of small business groups, advocating limited medical insurance, lower tax rates, tort law reform and the elimination of all kinds of annoying government controls. "In many public speeches, Paul expressed his expectation of re-implementing the gold standard. This reform will make the US government buy a lot of gold. After that, all currencies must have the same proportion of gold stock before they can be issued. Paul believes that the gold standard can effectively avoid inflation.

Paul also called for the abolition of all gold trade taxes. In 2002, he proposed abolishing the Federal Reserve Bank. He believes that only in this way can the United States "return to the financial system designed by the original founders: all currencies are valuable because they are supported by commodities like gold." Paul's personal financial report shows that he invested a lot of gold and silver bars, which were purchased through various legal gold banks.

Paul believes that the current US administration's attempt to maintain the hegemonic position of the US dollar-especially the US policy of stopping exchanging US dollars for gold since the collapse of the 197 1 Bretton Woods Agreement-will eventually lead to the outbreak of war. Similarly, he believes that when some oil-producing countries, such as Iraq, Iran or Venezuela, choose not to exchange oil for dollars, but for euros, this will further devalue the dollar, and eventually the dollar will lose its position as the most powerful currency in the world. According to Paul, America's demand for oil and its plan to "transform the Middle East" are the potential main reasons why the United States will wage war with Iraq and even Iran. As a former presidential candidate of the Liberal Party, Paul has always advocated the reform of the regulatory bill on electoral qualifications and emphasized the importance of electoral law reform on many occasions.

In 2002, Paul gave a speech in Congress, opposing the campaign fund-raising reform bill that restricted ordinary citizens and businessmen from donating money to candidates based on the First Amendment to the Constitution. In 2003, Paul put forward the Freedom of Voting Act of 2003 with the code name of H. R. 194 1, which will create a fairer and more unified threshold for voting qualification and make it easier for candidates from the third party to enter the election. In 2003, Paul also opposed a bill that authorized members of Congress to fill vacant seats by appointment rather than election after they died in terrorist attacks.

In 2004, Paul expressed his opposition to abolishing the electoral college system. He also said that if there is no electoral college system, it will "weaken the voting rights of those States that are eager for freedom."

In a speech in New Hampshire in February 2007, Paul called for the repeal of the constitutional amendment 17, which stipulated that US senators should be directly elected. Paul advocates that members of the federal parliament should be elected by local state councils. He believes that this can increase the influence of local states on the affairs of the federal government, thus balancing the power gap between the state government and the federal government. Paul believes that greater state power will balance the actions of the federal government more effectively. Paul has always taken a stand against abortion. However, Paul believes that the US Constitution does not authorize the federal government to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal. He believes that abortion is "not a constitutional issue" and should be left to the state legislatures to decide for themselves. Despite this view, Paul voted to ban abortion in late pregnancy in 2003. He also proposed a bill code-named H.R. 4379, which prohibited the Supreme Court from making all kinds of judgments related to abortion, birth control, defining marriage or homosexuality, and all previous Supreme Court judgments no longer had reference effect.

Paul supports the consistency between life and ethics, so he opposes all killing without justifiable defense. His opposition to abortion also stems from his adherence to the principle of non-interventionism, which is why he opposes the death penalty. Paul also proposed the Sacred Life Act of 2005, trying to remove all cases of abortion judgments made by the Supreme Court that would affect local states, and at the same time allowing local courts in various states to make judgments contrary to the precedent of federal courts. Congressman Paul's position on same-sex marriage is that defining or recognizing marriage is not the power of the federal government or the constitution and should be left to the States to decide for themselves. 1993, voted for Burnod. H.R. 2587, same-sex couples in the District of Columbia are prohibited from adopting children.

In 2004, he voted against the federal marriage amendment. However, in a speech in 2004, he also expressed support for replacing the federal marriage amendment with the Federal Defense of Marriage Act. On many issues, Paul often clashed with * * * and the party group or the mainstream public opinion in order to safeguard the principle that he thinks it conforms to the Constitution and small government.

Paul's tough attitude in the voting also attracted some criticism. For example, he was the only member of Congress who voted against giving the Congressional Gold Medal to John Paul II, Rosa parks and Mother Teresa. According to an interview with Texas Monthly, when he was criticized for voting against awarding medals, he asked his colleagues in the House of Representatives who criticized him to donate $65,438+000 for casting medals for himself, but no one was willing to donate, so Paul said, "It is obviously quite easy to give generously to taxpayers' money. "

In a speech on June 25th, 2003, Paul criticized the decision of Congress to award Tony Blair the Gold Medal. He said, "These medals are designed to reward lifelong contributions and leadership performance, and there is no political motivation. For example, Congress once awarded a gold medal to President Reagan and his party without any objection from both parties. These medals are usually awarded to individuals who really deserve to be rewarded, so I often personally donate $65,438+000, plus the money donated by other members to cast these gold medals. "

When the US Census Bureau updated a demographic questionnaire for all families, Paul criticized the questions on the questionnaire as "absurd and insulting". He doesn't think these questions should be asked by the government at all.