U.S. Rep. Ron Paul | Selective Service |
Selective Service
Selective Service System
5 August 1999 1999 Ron Paul 89:3
I would like to congratulate the Committee on Appropriations for doing something very important in this bill by deleting all the funding for the Selective Service System. I think that is very important.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
5 August 1999 1999 Ron Paul 89:5
I would like my colleagues to consider very seriously not to do that, because there is no need for the Selective Service System. There is only one purpose for the Selective Service System. That is to draft young 18-year-olds. That is unfair.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
5 August 1999 1999 Ron Paul 89:10
So when the time comes in September, please consider that there are ways that one can provide for an army without conscription. We have had the reinstitution of registration of the draft for 20 years. It has been wasted money. We can save the $25 million. We should do it. We should not put this money back in. We do not need the Selective Service System.
Selective Service
The Appropriation For The Selective Service System Should Not Be Reinstated
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 90:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, later today we will be dealing with the VA HUD bill; and I want to compliment the Committee on Appropriations for deleting the $24.5 million for the selective service system. There will be an attempt to put that money back into the bill. I think that is a serious mistake.
Selective Service
The Appropriation For The Selective Service System Should Not Be Reinstated
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 90:2
The military has not asked for the selective service to continue. We do not need it. It is a serious abuse of civil liberties of all 18- and 19-year-old to continue this registration. The registration is totally unnecessary. This $24.5 million could be better spent on veterans’ affairs or some other worthy cause, but to put the money back in is a serious mistake.
Selective Service
The Appropriation For The Selective Service System Should Not Be Reinstated
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 90:3
I would like to remind my conservative colleagues that Ronald Reagan had a very strong position on the draft and selective service. He agreed that it was a totalitarian notion to conscript young people and strongly spoke out against the draft whenever he had the opportunity.
Selective Service
The Appropriation For The Selective Service System Should Not Be Reinstated
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 90:5
I strongly urge that we not fund the selective service system today.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 91:2
Mr. Chairman, I would like to compliment the committee, as well as the chairman of the subcommittee, for deleting the $24.5 million for the selective service system. That was a good move. To me it was a heroic step in the direction of more liberty for the individual.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 91:3
There is no place in a free society to have a program of conscription and drafting of young people to fight unconstitutional wars. It saves $24 million, and I urge my colleagues not to support the funding for the selective service.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 91:4
Ronald Reagan was a strong opponent of the draft. He spoke out against it. We do not need it. It is wasted money. It is absolutely unnecessary. The Department of Defense has spoken out clearly that it is not necessary for national security reasons to have a selective service system, and yet we continually spend $24.5 million annually for this program. So I urge all Members, all my colleagues, to oppose putting this money back in for the Selective Service System.
Selective Service
Selective Service System
8 September 1999 1999 Ron Paul 92:13
We gradually lost our love for individual liberty throughout the 20th century as the people and the Congresses capitulated to the notion of the military draft. The vote on the Selective Service System funding will determine whether or not we are willing to take a very welcome, positive step in the direction of more liberty by rejecting the appropriations for the Selective Service System.
Selective Service
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
31 January 2000 2000 Ron Paul 2:88
Throughout our early history and up to World War I, our wars were fought with volunteers. There was no military draft except for a failed attempt by Lincoln in the Civil War which ended with justified riots and rebellion against it. The attitudes toward the draft definitely changed over the past century. Draftees were said to be necessary to fight in World War I and World War II, Korea and Vietnam. This change in attitude has definitely satisfied those who believe that we have an obligation to police the world. The idiocy of Vietnam served as a catalyst for an antidraft attitude which is still alive today. Fortunately we have not had a draft for over 25 years, but Congress refuses to address this matter in a principled fashion by abolishing once and for all the useless selective service system. Too many authoritarians in Congress still believe that in times of need, an army of teenage draftees will be needed to defend our commercial interests throughout the world. A return to the spirit of the republic would mean that a draft would never be used and all able-bodied persons would be willing to volunteer in defense of their liberty. Without the willingness to do so, liberty cannot be saved. A conscripted army can never substitute for the willingness of freedom-loving Americans to defend their country out of their love for liberty.
Selective Service
Questions for Secretary of State Colin Powell before the House Committee on International Relations
March 8, 2001 2001 Ron Paul 17:9
8. In your earlier remarks before this committee you said that you regard the military as a vital component of U.S. foreign policy. I am wondering if you, as a former military officer, would comment on the antiquated idea of a military draft and selective service registration. I believe you have spoken against the draft in the past. Do you still hold that a draft is unwarranted? Would you support ending draft registration?
Selective Service
Repeal of the Selective Service Act
April 26, 2001 2001 Ron Paul 28:2
* Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to repeal the Selective Service Act and related parts of the US Code. Also, I am placing the attached article from the Taipei Times in today’s CONGRESSIONAL RECORD . I fear that this source is not widely read among many in this body or our nation, so I am hopeful this action will serve to bring this letter to a much wider audience. The person who writes this letter is a law student in Taiwan. His arguments against conscription are similar to those offered by people in the United States who oppose the draft. The student argues that conscription is a violation of civil liberties, a costly and ineffective system that harms society and the economy as well as the rights of the individual conscripted, and a system that harms national defense rather than helping it. While we do not currently have conscription in the US we do have draft registration and each argument against the draft is equally applicable to our current selective service system and the registration requirement. I urge my colleagues to seriously consider the arguments against conscription raised in this article and cosponsor my legislation to repeal the Selective Service Act.
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:2
Selective Service is not even a good way of providing an effective military fighting force. As Mr. Allen points out (paraphrasing former Senator Mark Hatfield), the needs of the modem military require career professionals with longterm commitments to the service, not shortterm draftees eager to “serve their time” and return to civilian life. The military itself recognizes that Selective Service serves no useful military function. In 1993), the Department of Defense issued a report stating that registration could be stopped “with no effect on military mobilization, no measurable effect on the time it would take to mobilize, and no measurable effect on military recruitment.” Yet the American taxpayer has been forced to spend over $500 million dollars on a system “with no measurable effect on military mobilization!”
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:3
I have introduced legislation, H.R. 1597, which repeals the Selective Service Act, thus ending a system which violates the rights of millions of young Americans and wastes taxpayer dollars for no legitimate military reason. I urge my colleagues to read Mr. Allen’s article then cosponsor HR 1597 and join me in ending a system which is an affront to the principles of liberty our nation was founded upon.
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:5
This bill was an excellent proposal that should have never been needed. The dovish Hatfield’s arguments in promotion of the bill constituted what is actually the conservative position on the item. In its defense, Hatfield asserted that we need career military men who can adapt to system changes within the context of weaponry. Short-term draftees, maintained Hatfield, would not be particularly adept at utilizing modern technology. More recent efforts to overturn the Selective Service Act have similarly stressed efficiency.
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:16
There was an effort in June 1997 by President Clinton to use the Selective Service System to recruit potential volunteers in his AmeriCorps program. Such a move is a twofold intrusion on civil liberties: it violates the right of those who were forced to register for the draft to avoid having their addresses and other private information released to another agency; and, of course, it is costly to the taxpayer to pay for a joint system that serves two unconstitutional agencies. Ultimately, though, the administration deferred its plans. This issue has not gone away, as national service plans have considerable support from those people who think that everyone has a duty to the government.
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:17
Free people can resist the draft easily. They need not register at all, or they can flee the country when they are called to serve. After all, they still own their bodies regardless of what the law says. But the change of life necessary to avoid the government allows the government some control of ones life, even when one does not openly submit. One does not need to recognize the right of the government to conscript its citizens for any purpose in order to be disrupted by the institution. If one pays income taxes and expects to get that money back in the form of college aid, he must register for Selective Service. If one wishes to collect the money stolen through the payroll tax for so-called “Social Security,” he must register. Most people are not able to forgo paying taxes if they wish to work, so if they hope to see their tax dollars again they must register for the draft.
Selective Service
Conscription Policies
13 June 2001 2001 Ron Paul 42:18
As a young man of draft age, I could sleep easier if I knew that my life would never have to be disrupted by a government which has given itself the legal ground on which it may attempt to violate my right to own myself. Even as I refuse to recognize the government’s powers, the Selective Service System/ AmeriCorps/Department of Education bloc does not care. To them I am their property, regardless of my feelings. The military and charity draft is indeed one of the most evil institutions in the United States government.
Selective Service
The War On Terrorism
November 29, 2001 2001 Ron Paul 98:79
The proponents of the draft call it “mandatory service.” Slavery, too, was mandatory, but few believed it was a service. They claim that every 18-year old owes at least two years of his life to his country. Let’s hope the American people don’t fall for this “need to serve” argument. The Congress should refuse to even consider such a proposal. Better yet, what we need to do is abolish the Selective Service altogether.
Selective Service
Abolish Selective Service
January 29, 2003 2003 Ron Paul 9:1
Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to repeal the Selective Service Act and related parts of the US Code. The Department of Defense, in response to recent calls to reinstate the draft, has confirmed that conscription serves no military need. This is only the most recent confirmation that the draft, and thus the Selective Service system, serves no military purpose. In 1999, then-Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, in a speech before the National Press Club, admitted that “Today, with our smaller, post-Cold War armed forces, our stronger volunteer tradition and our need for longer terms of service to get a good return on the high, up-front training costs, it would be even harder to fashion a fair draft.”
Selective Service
Abolish Selective Service
January 29, 2003 2003 Ron Paul 9:2
Obviously, if there is no military need for the draft, then there is no need for Selective Service registration. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, Selective Service registration is an outdated and outmoded system, which has been made obsolete by technological advances.
Selective Service
Abolish Selective Service
January 29, 2003 2003 Ron Paul 9:4
Shutting down Selective Service will give taxpayers a break without adversely affecting military efforts. Shutting down Selective Service will also end a program that violates the very principals of individual liberty our nation was founded upon. The moral case against the draft was eloquently expressed by former President Ronald Regan in the publication Human Events in 1979: “...it [conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state -- not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers -- to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea .”
Selective Service
Abolish Selective Service
January 29, 2003 2003 Ron Paul 9:5
I hope all my colleagues to join me in working to shut down this un-American relic of a bygone era and help realize the financial savings and the gains to individual liberties that can be achieved by ending Selective Service registration.
Selective Service
Statement Introducing Repeal Of Selective Service
18 May 2005 2005 Ron Paul 49:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to repeal the Selective Service Act and related parts of the United States Code. The Department of Defense, in response to calls to reinstate the draft, has confirmed that conscription serves no military need.
Selective Service
Statement Introducing Repeal Of Selective Service
18 May 2005 2005 Ron Paul 49:3
This is only the most recent confirmation that the draft, and thus the Selective Service system, serves no military purpose.
Selective Service
Statement Introducing Repeal Of Selective Service
18 May 2005 2005 Ron Paul 49:4
Obviously, if there is no military need for the draft, then there is no need for Selective Service registration. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, Selective Service registration is an outdated and outmoded system, which has been made obsolete by technological advances.
Selective Service
Statement Introducing Repeal Of Selective Service
18 May 2005 2005 Ron Paul 49:6
Shutting down Selective Service will give taxpayers a break without adversely affecting military efforts. Shutting down Selective Service will also end a program that violates the very principals of individual liberty our nation was founded upon. The moral case against the draft was eloquently expressed by former President Ronald Regan in the publication Human Events in 1979: “. . . it [conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state — not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers — to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”
Selective Service
Statement Introducing Repeal Of Selective Service
18 May 2005 2005 Ron Paul 49:7
I hope all my colleagues join me in working to shut down this un-American relic of a bygone era and help realize the financial savings and the gains to individual liberties that can be achieved by ending Selective Service registration.
Selective Service
The War In Iraq
5 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 7:9
But why should we believe this? Look what happened when so many believed the reasons given for our preemptive invasion of Iraq. Selective Service officials admit running a check of their list of available young men. If the draft is reinstated, we probably will include young women as well to serve the God of equality. Conscription is slavery, plain and simple, and it was made illegal under the 13th amendment, which prohibits involuntary servitude. One may well be killed as a military draftee, which makes conscription a very dangerous kind of enslavement.
Selective Service
The War In Iraq
5 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 7:10
Instead of testing the efficacy of the Selective Service System and sending more troops off to a war that we are losing, we ought to revive our love of liberty. We should repeal the Selective Service Act. A free society should never depend on compulsory conscription to defend itself.
Selective Service
Introduction Of Legislation To Repeal The Selective Service Act And Related Parts Of The United States Code
11 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 13:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to repeal the Selective Service Act and related parts of the United States Code. The Department of Defense, in response to calls to reinstate the draft, has confirmed that conscription serves no military need.
Selective Service
Introduction Of Legislation To Repeal The Selective Service Act And Related Parts Of The United States Code
11 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 13:3
Obviously, if there is no military need for the draft, then there is no need for Selective Service registration. Furthermore, Mr. Speaker, Selective Service registration is an outdated and outmoded system, which has been made obsolete by technological advances.
Selective Service
Introduction Of Legislation To Repeal The Selective Service Act And Related Parts Of The United States Code
11 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 13:5
Shutting down Selective Service will give taxpayers a break without adversely affecting military efforts. Shutting down Selective Service will also end a program that violates the very principals of individual liberty our Nation was founded upon. The moral case against the draft was eloquently expressed by former President Ronald Regan in the publication Human Events in 1979: “. . . it [conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state — not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers — to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn’t a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”
Selective Service
Introduction Of Legislation To Repeal The Selective Service Act And Related Parts Of The United States Code
11 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 13:6
I hope all my colleagues join me in working to shut down this un-American relic of a bygone era and help realize the financial savings land the gains to individual liberties that can be achieved by ending Selective Service registration.
Selective Service
Happy Birthday To Muhammad Ali
17 January 2007 2007 Ron Paul 17:3
He is known, of course, for his athletic skills and his humanitarian concerns, and these are rightly mentioned in a resolution like this. But I do want to emphasize this because, to me, it was so important and had such impact, in reality, what Muhammad Ali did eventually led to getting rid of the draft, and yet we as a people and we as a Congress still do not have the conviction that Muhammad Ali had, because we still have the selective service; we say, let us not draft now, but when the conditions are right, we will bring back the draft and bring back those same problems that we had in the 1960s.
Selective Service
In The Name Of Patriotism (Who Are The Patriots?)
22 May 2007 2007 Ron Paul 55:18
Nonviolent protesters of the Tax Code are frequently imprisoned, whether they are protesting the code’s unconstitutionality or the war that the tax revenues are funding. Resisters to the military draft or even to Selective Service registration are threatened and imprisoned for challenging this threat to liberty.
Selective Service
In The Name Of Patriotism (Who Are The Patriots?)
22 May 2007 2007 Ron Paul 55:19
Statism depends on the idea that the government owns us and citizens must obey. Confiscating the fruits of our labor through the income tax is crucial to the health of the state. The draft, or even the mere existence of the Selective Service, emphasizes that we will march off to war at the state’s pleasure.
Selective Service
- Paul's legislation focuses on individual liberty
25 August 1997 Texas Straight Talk 25 August 1997 verse 6 ... Cached
The first is HR 2029, the Selective Service Registration Privacy Act. Put succinctly, this legislation will prohibit Clinton's Americorps program from using any Selective Service Administration resources, including draft registration information. Current law requires 18-year-old males to register with Selective Service.
Selective Service
- Paul's legislation focuses on individual liberty
25 August 1997 Texas Straight Talk 25 August 1997 verse 8 ... Cached
But what we have today is not nearly as bad as what the president and his friends have indicated they hope it will become. First, the president has proposed the "Service to America Initiative' which would allow Americorps to use Selective Service resources to promote his brand of federally subsidized, so-called 'volunteerism' in Americorps. To use Selective Service, ostensibly a program designed to enhance our national security, as a means to bolster President Clinton's liberal, failing Americorps is completely ridiculous. And it sets a dangerous precedent.
Selective Service
- Paul's legislation focuses on individual liberty
25 August 1997 Texas Straight Talk 25 August 1997 verse 9 ... Cached
Letting Americorps get its foot in the door of the Selective Service system now is troubling by what it could portend for the future. I absolutely do not want my grandsons to be drafted into Americorps' "national volunteer service" and be sent to distribute needles in some drug-infested urban area, or be forced to pick-up trash in the national parks, but that is exactly where this could lead; and what the social liberals want. Already the president and his cronies have warped the meaning of the word "volunteer" by instigating this program, and we see school districts around the nation requiring volunteerism or public service as a condition of graduation It is not at all unlikely that this same social-planning crew will try to mandate that all kids 'volunteer' with Americorps.
Selective Service
Draft not needed for protection of liberty
23 August 1999 Texas Straight Talk 23 August 1999 verse 3 ... Cached
Selective Service should be eliminated, funds to Veterans Administration
Selective Service
Draft not needed for protection of liberty
23 August 1999 Texas Straight Talk 23 August 1999 verse 5 ... Cached
In 1994 a Department of Defense document was released saying that the time had come to end the inefficient Selective Service draft registration system. In fact, the report stated draft registration could be stopped "with no effect on military mobilization requirements, little effect on the time it would take to mobilize, and no measurable effect on military recruitment."
Selective Service
Draft not needed for protection of liberty
23 August 1999 Texas Straight Talk 23 August 1999 verse 14 ... Cached
Working with me on this critical issue has been the chairman of the Veterans Administration appropriations subcommittee, Jim Walsh (R-NY), as well as William Clay (D, Missouri), Jack Metcalf (R, Washington) and Gary Ackerman (D, New York). Language has been placed in the Fiscal Year 2000 budget to place the Selective Service system in deep standby, end the registration, and transfer the annual $25 million to the Veterans Administration. The VA is one of the most inadequately funded agencies, and this infusion of cash would make a real difference to thousands of veterans. Conversely, our national readiness would not be affected in the least by the change.
Selective Service
Taking the Next Step
29 November 1999 Texas Straight Talk 29 November 1999 verse 5 ... Cached
Last week I mentioned the success we had with our efforts to derail the proposed "Know Your Customer" regulation and to end the national identification card scheme, as well as our efforts to curtail the activities of runaway agencies like the US Postal Service and the Selective Service Agency.
Selective Service
Conscription is Collectivism
13 January 2003 Texas Straight Talk 13 January 2003 verse 6 ... Cached
I believe wholeheartedly that an all-volunteer military is not only sufficient for national defense, but preferable. It is time to abolish the Selective Service System and resign military conscription to the dustbin of American history. Five hundred million dollars have been wasted on the Selective Service System since 1979, money that could have been returned to taxpayers or spent to improve the lives of our nation’s veterans.
Selective Service
Rethinking the Draft
27 November 2006 Texas Straight Talk 27 November 2006 verse 4 ... Cached
Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel of New York, soon to be a powerful committee chair, has openly called for reinstating the Selective Service System. Retired Army General Barry McCaffrey claims that our ground forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq are stretched far too thin, and desperately need reinforcements. Meanwhile, other political and military leaders suggest that several hundred thousand additional troops might be needed simply to restore some semblance of order in Iraq. We are nearing the point where a choice will have to be made: either decrease our troop commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan significantly, or produce thousands of new military recruits quickly. So a discussion of military conscription is not purely academic.
Selective Service
Rethinking the Draft
27 November 2006 Texas Straight Talk 27 November 2006 verse 9 ... Cached
I believe wholeheartedly that an all-volunteer military is not only sufficient for national defense, but also preferable. It is time to abolish the Selective Service System and resign military conscription to the dustbin of American history. Five hundred million dollars have been wasted on Selective Service since 1979, money that could have been returned to taxpayers or spent to improve the lives of our nation's veterans.
Texas Straight Talk from 20 December 1996 to 23 June 2008 (573 editions) are included in this Concordance. Texas Straight Talk after 23 June 2008 is in blog form on Rep. Paul’s Congressional website and is not included in this Concordance.
Remember, not everything in the concordance is Ron Paul’s words. Some things he quoted, and he added some newspaper and magazine articles to the Congressional Record. Check the original speech to see.