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Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Washington — By standard measures, Ron Paul’s legislative career in Washington has been unusually unproductive. In 23 years in office, just one of the 613 bills the maverick Texan introduced in Congress was signed into law, a proposal to sell the customs house in Galveston to a local historical association. Just four measures he authored passed the House of Representatives. Only seven ever emerged from House committees. That’s a futility rate of 99.8 percent. “Conventional wisdom says I didn’t get much done,” the 77-year-old Texas congressman said in an interview. “I didn’t get much legislation passed.” But Ron Paul never has been ...
23 years in political office, introduced 613 bills and only 1 passed into law, and he diden t win a single primary during the 2012 election.
WooT libertarism LoL
Enjoyed the article, but I'm pretty sure Paul has left no legacy worth speaking about. Except for oddball comments. As a matter of fact, he'll pretty much disappear and be forgotten.
He did nothing for this country. All he did was complain; a muttering old man who tried to get some kind of protest movement going. And that was his schtick. To protest, but come up with no solution for anything at all. A poor excuse for a politician. It's probably a blessing he ends up on the political scrap heap.
He'll be lucky to be listed as a minor footnote in American political history text books.
I wonder if Ron Paul would have achieved more by fighting his fights in another arena because his actual record of achievement in office has been dismal.
Politics is the art of compromise. You would think after writing 100 failed bills Paul would have stood back and tried a different approach.
A Senator way ahead of his time. Best wishes.
Rep. Ron Paul showed us who he really is by not questioning the flawed official 911 commissions' report.
Rep. Ron Paul was and still is a Rockefeller republican... voted with his party 90% of the time.
Dr. Ron Paul deserves credit getting younger people exposed to and infected with our rigged 2 party political process... partaking in the process with issues that affect us all and to think outside of entrenched political boundaries.
I hear Somalia is looking for a president to lead its no-tax, no-government, libertarian utopia.
Ron Paul is a religous right bigot. He has tried to remove civil rights and reduce freedom for years.
Roslenda: "A Senator way ahead of his time."
Only if he had lived during the Dark Ages or earlier.
Ron Paul was a longtime representative, not a senator, who enjoyed the advantages of a cushy government job on Capital Hill -- while pretending to hate his government employer. He's basically a typical GOP con man.
He made the effort when other windbags didn't. Including me!
"Leaving Washington, it's in a lot worse shape than when I first came there," he said, thinking back to his first special election victory in 1976. "Everything's worse. Our liberties are less. We are in endless wars. The economy is in shambles. And the government is dysfunctional."
Have to agree with him on this all the way. He will be missed.
"He did nothing for this country."
Colin -- I disagree. He did plenty, he just didn't put on much of a show for the herd. And a legislative career is not rightly measured by how many bills he introduced that made it into law. All legislators are there to represent his constituents' interests by voting and otherwise. In short, he did not join in what has made our current federal government toxic to America and liberty -- maintaining the status quo at the expense of the country's well-being. In that sense "dysfunctional" doesn't come close.
"A Senator way ahead of his time."
Roslenda -- he was in the House, not the Senate
"...Mr. Speaker, my subject today is whether America is a police state. I'm sure the large majority of Americans would answer this in the negative. Most would associate military patrols, martial law and summary executions with a police state, something obviously not present in our everyday activities. However, those with knowledge of Ruby Ridge, Mount Carmel and other such incidents may have a different opinion." -- Rep. Ron Paul, from a June 27, 2002, speech on the floor of the House
Paul walks away with $42 millin dollars. Dick Army got $8 million from "Freedumb Jerks" when he left. Teabaggers you are chumps.
I admire and congratulate him for being able to mobilize many into the political process, who previously had been somewhat alienated, but that's about it. He wasn't effective and didn't produce any meaningful legislation that "made a difference".
Ronn Paul did a disservice to his country when he abandoned his party and joined with the Republicans, despite the fact that the Republican party of 2012 hardly resembles what ot was twenty years ago. The two-party system has failed the United States and is manifesting excessive political polarization. Paul should have stayed with the Libertarian Party and fought for a system that casts a wider net of American political philosophy.