Ron Paul Did Not Vote for MLK Day *
* By: Ta-Nehisi Coates | Posted: January 8, 2012
Ron Paul Did Not Vote for MLK Day
GOP debate (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In a blog entry at Atlantic magazine, Ta-Nehisi Coates examines GOP presidential contender Ron Paul's House voting record and determines that he did not cast a vote in favor of MLK Day. Coates conducted the research after a rumor erupted on Twitter during the GOP debates in New Hampshire on Saturday that Paul voted in favor of the legislation.
... But first here's Ron Paul on Martin Luther King Day in his newsletters:
"Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."... Paul's supporters link to his Yea vote on this 1979 bill as evidence that he supported an MLK Holiday:
"TO AMEND H.R. 5461, MARTIN LUTHER KING HOLIDAY, BY DESIGNATING THE THIRD MONDAY IN JANUARY RATHER THAN JANUARY 15 AS THE LEGAL HOLIDAY."
But this actually isn't the bill for the holiday. The text doesn't even claim that. More importantly, the date is wrong. This vote was taken on December 5, 1979. The vote for the King holiday was actually taken on November 13, 1979:
The bill was called up in the House on Tuesday, November 13, 1979 ... When the final vote was taken, 252 Members voted for the bill and 133 against -- five votes short of the two-thirds needed for passage.
I'm sorry to report that one of those Nay votes, as you can see here, was cast by one Ronald Paul. I'm sorry to further report that Paul again voted no on the 1983 bill that passed.
Read Ta-Nehisi Coates' entire blog entry at the Atlantic.
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