Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul is using his first campaign television ad to highlight his opposition to a compromise on raising the federal debt ceiling.
In the ad, the Texas congressman criticizes both Republicans and Democrats for striking deals in the past, and notes that he always has voted against raising the federal limit on borrowing.
It's an important issue to conservatives who make up the Republican Party's base. The ad is set to air in early primary voting states.
Paul weighed in on contentious negotiations taking place in the nation's capital between President Barack Obama and top congressional lawmakers on the deficit issue in a Daily Caller op-ed published online on Thursday:
It’s exactly this kind of out-of-control irresponsibility that led to the Tea Party revolt in 2010. Unfortunately, while there are occasionally rays of hope, little has changed in Washington, D.C. since.
Now I’m afraid it’s the Tea Party — and all other Americans who are concerned about fiscal irresponsibility — that will get sold down the river should the Republican congressional leadership be foolish enough to strike a “deal” with President Obama.
Paul is running for the Republican nomination for a second time. He also ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988. Reducing the federal budget and the national debt have always been his key issues.
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