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History- Ron Paul "I want to totally disassociate myself from the policies" [ of GOP & Reagan ]
Libertarian Party News, March/April 1987 ^ | March/April 1987 | Dr Ron Paul

Posted on 05/13/2011 6:35:05 PM PDT by NoLibZone

Libertarian Party's Ron Paul Sends "Dear Frank" Letter

from the Libertarian Party News, March/April 1987

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Following is the text of a letter sent to Frank Fahrenkopf, chairman of

the Republican National Committee, by Ron Paul, former member of Congress

from Texas and now a member of the Libertarian Party.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

As a lifelong Republican, it saddens me to have to write this letter.

My parents believed in the Republican Party and its free enterprise

philosophy, and that's the way I was brought up. At age 21, in 1956, I cast

my first vote for Ike and the entire Republican slate.

Because of frustration with the direction in which the country was

going, I became a political activist and ran for the U.S. Congress in 1974.

Even with Watergate, my loyalty, optimism, and hope for the future were tied

to the Republican Party and its message of free enterprise, limited

government, and balanced budgets.

Eventually I was elected to the U.S. Congress four times as a

Republican. This permitted me a first-hand look at the interworkings of the

U.S. Congress, seeing both the benefits and partisan frustrations that guide

its shaky proceedings. I found that although representative government still

exists, special interest control of the legislative process clearly presents

a danger to our constitutional system of government.

In 1976 I was impressed with Ronald Reagan's program and was one of the

four members of Congress who endorsed his candidacy. In 1980, unlike other

Republican office holders in Texas, I again supported our President in his

efforts.

Since 1981, however, I have gradually and steadily grown weary of the

Republican Party's efforts to reduce the size of the federal government.

Since then Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party have given us skyrocketing

deficits, and astoundingly a doubled national debt. How is it that the party

of balanced budgets, with control of the White House and Senate, accumulated

red ink greater than all previous administrations put together? Tip O'Neill,

although part of the problem, cannot alone be blamed.

Tax revenues are up 59 percent since 1980. Because of our economic

growth? No. During Carter's four years, we had growth of 37.2 percent;

Reagan's five years have given us 30.7 percent. The new revenues are due to

four giant Republican tax increases since 1981.

All republicans rightly chastised Carter for his $38 billion deficit.

But they ignore or even defend deficits of $220 billion, as government

spending has grown 10.4 percent per year since Reagan took office, while the

federal payroll has zoomed by a quarter of a million bureaucrats.

Despite the Supply-Sider-Keynesian claim that "deficits don't matter,"

the debt presents a grave threat to our country. Thanks to the President and

Republican Party, we have lost the chance to reduce the deficit and the

spending in a non-crisis fashion. Even worse, big government has been

legitimized in a way the Democrats never could have accomplished. It was

tragic to listen to Ronald Reagan on the 1986 campaign trail bragging about

his high spending on farm subsidies, welfare, warfare, etc., in his futile

effort to hold on to control of the Senate.

Instead of cutting some of the immeasurable waste in the Department of

Defense, it has gotten worse, with the inevitable result that we are less

secure today. Reagan's foreign aid expenditures exceed Eisenhower's,

Kennedy's, Johnson's, Nixon's, Ford's, and Carter's put together. Foreign

intervention has exploded since 1980. Only an end to military welfare for

foreign governments plus a curtailment of our unconstitutional commitments

abroad will enable us really to defend ourselves and solve our financial

problems.

Amidst the failure of the Gramm-Rudman gimmick, we hear the President

and the Republican Party call for a balanced-budget ammendment and a line-

item veto. This is only a smokescreen. President Reagan, as governor of

California, had a line-item veto and virtually never used it. As President

he has failed to exercise his constitutional responsibility to veto spending.

Instead, he has encouraged it.

Monetary policy has been disastrous as well. The five Reagan appointees

to the Federal Reserve Board have advocated even faster monetary inflation

than Chairman Volcker, and this is the fourth straight year of double-digit

increases. The chickens have yet to come home to roost, but they will, and

America will suffer from a Reaganomics that is nothing but warmed-over

Keynesianism.

Candidate Reagan in 1980 correctly opposed draft registration. Yet when

he had the chance to abolish it, he reneged, as he did on his pledge to

abolish the Departments of Education and Energy, or to work against abortion.

Under the guise of attacking drug use and money laundering, the

Republican Administration has systematically attacked personal and financial

privacy. The effect has been to victimize innocent Americans who wish to

conduct their private lives without government snooping. (Should people

really be put on a suspected drug dealer list because they transfer $3,000 at

one time?) Reagan's urine testing of Americans without probable cause is a

clear violation of our civil liberties, as are his proposals for extensive

"lie detector" tests.

Under Reagan, the IRS has grown bigger, richer, more powerful, and more

arrogant. In the words of the founders of our country, our government has

"sent hither swarms" of tax gatherers "to harass our people and eat out their

substance." His officers jailed the innocent George Hansen, with the

President refusing to pardon a great American whose only crime was to defend

the Constitution. Reagan's new tax "reform" gives even more power to the

IRS. Far from making taxes fairer or simpler, it deceitfully raises more

revenue for the government to waste.

Knowing this administration's record, I wasn't surprised by its Libyan

disinformation campaign, Israeli-Iranian arms-for-hostages swap, or illegal

funding of the Contras. All this has contributed to my disenchantment with

the Republican Party, and helped me make up my mind.

I want to totally disassociate myself from the policies that have given

us unprecedented deficits, massive monetary inflation, indiscriminate

military spending, an irrational and unconstitutional foreign policy, zooming

foreign aid, the exaltation of international banking, and the attack on our

personal liberties and privacy.

After years of trying to work through the Republican Party both in and

out of government, I have reluctantly concluded that my efforts must be

carried on outside the Republican Party. Republicans know that the

Democratic agenda is dangerous to our political and economic health. Yet, in

the past six years Republicans have expanded its worst aspects and called

them our own. The Republican Party has not reduced the size of government.

It has become big government's best friend.

If Ronald Reagan couldn't or wouldn't balance the budget, which

Republican leader on the horizon can we possibly expect to do so? There is

no credibility left for the Republican Party as a force to reduce the size of

government. That is the message of the Reagan years.

I conclude that one must look to other avenues if a successful effort is

ever to be achieved in reversing America's direction.

I therefore resign my membership in the Republican Party and enclose my

membership card.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; US: Kentucky; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: coreylewandowski; edrollins; kentucky; morethorazineplease; murrayrothbard; paul; paulkucinich12; paulmanafort; presidentdonaldtrump; presidentreagan; randpaultruthfile; ronaldreagan; ronaldusmagnus; ronpaul; ronpaultruthfile; texas
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1 posted on 05/13/2011 6:35:07 PM PDT by NoLibZone
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To: NoLibZone
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22342301/ns/meet_the_press/t/meet-press-transcript-dec/

MR. RUSSERT: You're running as a Republican. In your--on your Web site, in your brochures, you make this claim: "Principled Leadership. Ron was also one of only four Republican Congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president against Gerald Ford in" '76. There's a photograph of you, Ronald Reagan on the right, heralding your support of Ronald Reagan. And yet you divorced yourself from Ronald Reagan. You said this: "Although he was once an ardent supporter of President Reagan, Paul now speaks of him as a traitor leading the country into debt and conflicts around the world.

"I want to totally disassociate myself from the Reagan Administration." And you go on to The Dallas Morning News: "Paul now calls Reagan a `dramatic failure.'"

REP. PAUL: Well, I'll bet you any money I didn't use the word traitor. I'll bet you that's somebody else, so I think that's misleading. But a failure, yes, in, in many ways. The government didn't shrink. Ultimately, after he got in office, he said, "All I want to do is reduce the rate of increase in size of government." That's not my goal. My goal is to reduce our government to a constitutional size. Completely different. I think that--matter of fact, he admitted in his memoirs that he had a total failure in Lebanon, and he said he relearned the Middle East because of that failure. And so there--he--you know, he...

2 posted on 05/13/2011 6:37:01 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: NoLibZone

Paulistinians...the libtard wing of the libertarians...


3 posted on 05/13/2011 6:42:26 PM PDT by Crim (Palin / West '12)
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To: NoLibZone


Ron II - keep cutting Fed Gov.










4 posted on 05/13/2011 6:43:08 PM PDT by truthfreedom
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To: truthfreedom

Paul’s words speak for themselves...he despised Reagan.

He never got conservatism and he never will. He’s an old kook.


5 posted on 05/13/2011 6:45:01 PM PDT by rbmillerjr (Murdering unborn children is the highest sacrament in the liberal religion.)
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To: NoLibZone

I’m waiting on Ron Paul to disassociate himself from Code Pink.

Still waiting; still not hearing anything but crickets chirping.


6 posted on 05/13/2011 6:45:26 PM PDT by Brookhaven (Ron Paul supports CODE PINK; CODE PINK supports Ron Paul)
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To: truthfreedom

Note ALL those pictures were taken PRIOR to Doctor Demento’s badmouthing and denouncing President Reagan.


7 posted on 05/13/2011 6:45:47 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Amber Lamps !"~~)
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To: NoLibZone

Ron Paul has a point when he criticizes the economics of everyone including that of Reagan. However, Ron Paul is a ZERO on foreign policy. Having said that, he is still better than the pro-terrorist RINOs like JOE BARTON who are part of the Pakistan Caucus. At least Ron Paul is a zero on this front. The members of the Pakistan Caucus can never be forgiven as they have a negative effect . Pakistan’s parliament just yesterday held a prayer meeting for Osama bin Laden.


8 posted on 05/13/2011 6:48:04 PM PDT by JimWayne
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To: NoLibZone
On leaving the party, Ron Paul remarked:

"Ronald Reagan has given us a deficit ten times greater than what we had with the Democrats. It didn't take more than a month after 1981, to realize there would be no changes." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Paul_presidential_campaign,_1988

9 posted on 05/13/2011 6:48:52 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: rbmillerjr

You got that right. Very well said.


10 posted on 05/13/2011 6:50:45 PM PDT by svcw (Non forgiveness is like holding a hot coal thinking the other person will be blistered)
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To: NoLibZone
Finally something I can agree with, with that idiot. We wish you would disassociate yourself from politics as well.
11 posted on 05/13/2011 6:52:22 PM PDT by NWFLConservative (Game On.......Fight Like a Girl!!...............Saracuda in 2012)
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To: FReepers
Why Yes, Mr Obama, We DO Want A Moat Filled With Alligators


Alligators at Fort Pulaski

Support FR

12 posted on 05/13/2011 6:53:45 PM PDT by DJ MacWoW (America! The wolves are at your door! How will you answer the knock?)
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To: truthfreedom
A much more recent photo of Ron Paul and his new philosophical associates.

Ron Paul with owners of Storm Front a White Nationalist site.

13 posted on 05/13/2011 6:54:19 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: truthfreedom
A much more recent photo of Ron Paul and his new philosophical associates.

Ron Paul with owners of Storm Front a White Nationalist site.

14 posted on 05/13/2011 6:56:23 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: truthfreedom

Seeing those pics reminds me just what a wonderful personality Dutch was.

I really miss him. Just knowing he was around gave us a Conservative bedrock.


15 posted on 05/13/2011 6:57:10 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (osama gets 72 virgins. We get 72 versions...)
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To: NoLibZone

Isn’t this guy pushing 80? Perhaps it’s time for him to retire. We don’t need a has been.


16 posted on 05/13/2011 7:00:00 PM PDT by Indy Pendance
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To: JimWayne

Do you agree with his gays in the military vote and position?

Do you agree with his opposition to AZ’s SB1070?


17 posted on 05/13/2011 7:02:53 PM PDT by NoLibZone (Unless Reagan rises from the dead, we can easily find at least one reason to skip a leading GOPer.)
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To: truthfreedom

Note: Photos were taken before the Gipper was aware that Paul was the sort of twit who blames america when someone drives a kiloton of combat power into lower Manhattan on a Tuesday morning.


18 posted on 05/13/2011 7:08:19 PM PDT by Mr. Silverback (Anyone who says we need illegals to do the jobs Americans won't do has never watched "Dirty Jobs.")
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To: NoLibZone

RINOs: viruses infecting the republican party

There are a variety of viruses infecting the republican party, and some of them are easily identifiable:

Ron Paul, Romney, McCain, Mike Huckabee, and a bunch of others...


19 posted on 05/13/2011 7:08:19 PM PDT by adorno
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To: rbmillerjr

1 Picture = 1000 words
4 Pictures = 4000 words

You didn’t read the article did you?

Ron Paul was upset because the Federal Government was not made smaller.

What might strike you as interesting is that Ron Paul was saying exactly the same thing 24 years ago as he is right now.

He was saying Reagan wasn’t Conservative enough, and that the Republican party wasn’t Conservative enough.

It’s almost like he was calling them RINOs.


20 posted on 05/13/2011 7:12:31 PM PDT by truthfreedom
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