Help! Ron Paul and troop funding.

[Ron Paul Vermont]

Hey I am debating someone on another forum about Ron Paul and she thinks Ron is all nice and everything but the only reason she does not like him is because he voted against troop funding. Anyway I can answer this? Quite frankly I don't know to much about this. Did he vote against it cause it was against the constitution? Most likely. :D Anyways I need to know why he did and how you think I should respond.

[Jeremy]

what do you mean troop funding? the entire war itself is illegal

[MRoCkEd]

Change the terminology from troop funding to war funding.

[JohnMeridith]

On top of him not being a WARmongering supporter, tell her to look at all of the other stupid spending that is shoved into these bills because the people that write them know that the people voting on them don't want the bad press of "Not supporting the troops."

[humanic]

You may want to point out that according to last years Q4 FEC reports (when his campaign was in full swing) Ron Paul received more military donations than any other candidate, Republican or Democrat. That includes Hillary, Obama, and McCain. In fact, he received more from members of the military than all three of them combined.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS65766+03-Feb-2008+BW20080203

Ron Paul: $249k
John McCain: $83k
Mike Huckabee: $37k
Mitt Romney: $24k
Barack Obama: $76k
Hillary Clinton: $41k

[Ron Paul Vermont]

Ok I think you guys have pretty much answered my question. I knew it was a matter of him being against the war so I suppose there is no way of getting around it if she is pro war. Well I guess I will facinate her with those donation statistics. Thanks humanic!

[BagOfEyebrows]

Hey I am debating someone on another forum about Ron Paul and she thinks Ron is all nice and everything but the only reason she does not like him is because he voted against troop funding. Anyway I can answer this? Quite frankly I don't know to much about this. Did he vote against it cause it was against the constitution? Most likely. :D Anyways I need to know why he did and how you think I should respond.

tell them that the Democrat voters elected in Democrat 'leaders' to be a majority specifically to do what Ron Paul did - to end the war by cutting off all funding.

Then the Dems turned around (after elected, of course) and gave Bush more than he asked for - http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/22/obama_defends_votes_in_favor_of_iraq_funding/


http://www.democrats.com/node/16151
"So why, for the first time in 14 years, are defense contractors throwing their money behind the Democrats? Since 2000, for example, they've given roughly 63% of their election contributions to Republicans, but in the 2008 election cycle, a full 52% of defense industry funding has gone to the Dems.

Maybe it's because Clinton and Obama can also be expected to keep defense contractors happy. Both speak of peace but have repeatedly voted to fund war. Both have plans for limited troop withdrawal once in office but neither has strongly argued against keeping tens of thousands of US troops in Iraq for years to come. Neither has fought to stop construction of the gigantic US embassy in Baghdad or to scale back the heavily-fortified Green Zone.

Perhaps more importantly, both Clinton and Obama have said that all options (code language for nuclear weapons) must be on the table for dealing with Iran. "

Link them also to Ron Paul's reasons for voting no, in his own words:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul377.html

[humanic]

Ok I think you guys have pretty much answered my question. I knew it was a matter of him being against the war so I suppose there is no way of getting around it if she is pro war. Well I guess I will facinate her with those donation statistics. Thanks humanic!

Very welcome. If she's a Republican she may be more interested to hear that he received more than all of the other Republicans combined as well (McCain, Romney, and Huckabee). Any way you break it down the financial support he received from the military dwarfed all other candidates. :)