Ron Paul, 76, is a Texas congressman who has built a reputation in Washington for cutting his own path -- primarily because he says he doesn’t vote for anything unless it is specifically authorized by the Constitution.
His political beliefs include support for auditing the Federal Reserve, making gold and silver legal tender and withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. His campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination attracted avid online supporters, if few votes.
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Paul graduated from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina. He served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force and in 1968 moved to Texas, where he established a medical practice as an obstetrician.
He was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in an April 1976 special election, lost his seat that November, then was returned to the House in 1978. In 1984, he gave up his House seat for an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate. In 1988 Paul was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for president, winning 431,750 votes, or 0.5 percent of the total.
Paul has written several books, including “Challenge to Liberty,” “The Case for Gold” and “A Republic, If You Can Keep It.” He and his wife, Carol Paul, have five children and 18 grandchildren. Paul’s high profile in Republican politics helped propel one of his sons, eye surgeon Rand Paul, to a U.S. Senate seat from Kentucky in 2010.
Ron Paul News
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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said he will stop spending money to compete in primary elections, while trying to collect more delegates at state conventions that could give him a greater voice in the party.
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After 12 terms in the House, Ron Paul says he’ll retire at year’s end. Though he insists he can still capture the Republican nomination, his presidential runs have always been about forcing other candidates and the public to pay attention to his libertarian arguments.
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U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas reported raising $3.3 million for his presidential campaign in February, trailing at least two of his rivals for the party’s nomination during the month.
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Ron Paul, trailing in delegates needed for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, could be positioning himself to force his party to accept changes in the way the Federal Reserve operates.
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While campaigning on calls to reduce government spending, three of the four Republican presidential candidates are receiving or will be eligible to draw taxpayer-financed pensions. Ron Paul is eligible, but he has opted out of the plan.
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Presidential candidate Ron Paul’s campaign committee sued the unidentified makers of a video attacking ex-Republican rival Jon Huntsman claiming it falsely implies it was made or endorsed by the Texas congressman.
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Polls show that in the U.S. Republican presidential primary two candidates without any personal military experience, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, are running stronger than two veterans, Ron Paul and Rick Perry.
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Four years ago, Ron Paul arrived at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, with just 15 delegates and was shunned by party elites who gave him no speaking role. Paul probably will be a more forceful presence at this summer’s Tampa, Florida, convention, to the consternation of some Republican leaders.
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Ron Paul called former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum a spendthrift with federal money as the Texas congressman began a five-day New Hampshire campaign push he said will highlight his Republican presidential rivals’ backing for “big government.”
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U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas dismissed criticism from Republican presidential rivals that his views are outside the U.S. political mainstream, saying he is “pretty electable.”
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When about 500 voters packed into a New Hampshire town hall last week to hear Ron Paul speak, they saved their biggest applause for something no other Republican presidential candidate is talking about.
Opinion From Bloomberg View
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In almost every recent Republican presidential debate, some candidates have advocated for a "strong dollar." What gets lost in this clamor is any discussion of winners and losers from a strong U.S. currency, and the recent correlation between the greenback's strength and declines in the stock market.
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Here's a fun game to liven up Republican presidential debates: Down a shot of some potent beverage each time one of the candidates mentions the need to return to the gold standard. You might not make it through the evening.
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We haven’t heard much, during the many Republican presidential debates this campaign, about some issues that actually are relevant to the presidency. Here are a few questions I’d like to hear the candidates address.
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The much-maligned Iowa phase of the campaign has been extraordinarily useful at clarifying the ideas, weaknesses and strengths of the Republican field.
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Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts turned to John Sasso for help in getting a health- care bill through the state legislature, may want to solicit the Democratic operative’s advice again, this time on how to handle Ron Paul.
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Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican and a candidate for the presidential nomination, doesn’t mind long odds, and doesn’t mind standing alone.
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It’s betting season in the Republican presidential primaries. Mitt Romney has proposed a $10,000 wager and Newt Gingrich has put $10 on the table. The one certain to remain in the game after the early contests is Texas Representative Ron Paul, who has a fervent following.
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Ron Paul performed a valuable public service when he unveiled a budget plan that shows exactly what balancing the $3.8 trillion budget through spending cuts would look like. Paul's blueprint, released Oct. 17, would balance the books in three years.
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Representative Ron Paul claims he could balance the budget in just three years. It's a radical blueprint, and the scary part is that Paul believes it can be done--without destroying the U.S. economy and its relationships with the rest of the world.
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Debate over the debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with each side trying to outdo the other in a game of political chicken. If you believe some of the things that are being written, the world will come to an end if the U.S. defaults on even the tiniest portion of its debt.
Presidential Campaign News
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Updated 12 minutes ago
By a vote of 221-198, the U.S. House passed legislation that would reset interest rates on federal student loans and avert a scheduled doubling of those rates this summer.
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Updated 29 minutes ago
Republican lawmakers pressed for answers after the first round of congressional hearings on the Internal Revenue Service’s scrutiny of small-government groups failed to show why the practice was started and who was behind it.
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Updated 29 minutes ago
At least 23 people were reported dead in attacks on a Niger military base and a Areva SA uranium mine as one of the Islamist groups that prompted French strikes on neighboring Mali claimed responsibility.
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Updated 49 minutes ago
The U.K. government said a 25-year- old soldier was the victim of a terrorist attack yesterday that Prime Minister David Cameron called a “betrayal of Islam.”
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Updated 27 minutes ago
Democratic Senator Carl Levin said an overhaul of the U.S. tax code would be difficult to accomplish and instead lawmakers should focus on curbing “unjustified” tax breaks.
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Updated 10 minutes ago
Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker, whose fundraising prowess fueled President Barack Obama’s ascent, will confront Republicans’ questions about a bank she led and offshore trusts that benefit her during a hearing on her nomination to be U.S. Commerce secretary.
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Updated 42 minutes ago
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, the eighth time congressional Republicans have advanced a measure promoting the project.
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Updated 1 hour, 16 minutes ago
Bond investors don’t perceive the six biggest U.S. banks as “too big to fail,” according to a report from one of those lenders, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
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Updated 57 minutes ago
Several major U.S. utilities are under “constant” cyberattack and haven’t taken precautions to protect critical systems from Iran, North Korea and other adversaries, according to a congressional survey of more than 100 companies accounting for much of the nation’s power system.
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Updated 15 minutes ago
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco President John Williams, emphasizing the need for policy flexibility, said any move to reduce the pace of the central bank’s bond buying could be followed by an increase should the economy weaken again.
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