Ron Paul Campaign Press Release - Ron Paul Hawaii Team Welcomes Hawaii Bar Owners Association Endorsement

HONOLULU, Hawaii — 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul, who consistently fights against government encroachment into the private sector and who is the sole presidential candidate who champions ending taxes on gratuities, was endorsed today by the Hawaii Bar Owners Association.

The Hawaii Bar Owners Association represents over 100 establishments, and is known for its defense against regulations governing how small businesses and larger establishments are permitted to operate in areas such as licensing, and smoke or smoke-free environment provision.

The endorsement statement is attributed to the organization's spokesman, Bill Comerford, who is a partner in a company that operates three Hawaiian Irish pubs—Kelley O'Neil's, O'Toole's Irish Pub and the Irish Rose Saloon.

The full Hawaii Bar Owners Association statement follows.

The Hawaii Bar Owners Association supports the principles of Ron Paul.  

Though one could support any Republican candidate for President in the need to counter a runaway government, Ron Paul's views on government follow the best solutions to current government interference in our daily business lives.

Simply stated there is too much government involvement in our daily business operations nationally and particularly here in Hawaii. In Hawaii we are most likely the most government-burdened state in the union. We find regulation and ensuing counter-regulation crisscrossing across a bloated City and County, State and Federal Government, none of which care to confer in writing law and each who sees themselves as the most important branch resulting in too many laws, and often laws that conflict with each other.  

As a highly regulated industry this leaves us in the bar industry at the whim of government often waiting more than a year to open at much government-directed expense and then finding a morass of regulations impeding your business forcing you to respond to myriad reactionary laws. And upon complying, you find that those laws change once again. This incurs a huge expense. We all like to play by rules and business relies upon those essential rules remaining the same. This allows you to take the risk of creating and supporting your business plan. Would you risk financial ruin for small returns on a business in Hawaii where the rules change weekly, monthly or annually depending upon which government agency is involved? As children we learn that the rules are important if you keep changing them your friends don't come back to play, such is the case in Hawaii for the business community. We don't make the rules we just have to play by them. Government makes the rules and always changes them to their advantage thus business does not want to "play." Hawaii continues to be the most difficult state in which to operate a business.

Rules exist and they should remain simple that is what we all rely upon. The main framework for rules is the federal and state constitutions. They are the foundations upon which everything is built. Follow the basic rules and eliminate the reactionary interference of all governments to micromanage every issue and create more new and specific law to handle minor situations. The Hawaii legislature introduced more than 2,000 bills this session. Many of these bills would not stand up to constitutional challenges. These new regulations always require monitoring and supervision thus the need for new agencies and new government employees. Government's answer is to create those jobs and fund them through increased taxes and fees. These new agencies demand new laws to empower them and thus more specific law is required. This creates a spiral of continual government, taxes, and regulation. Cut the cord on these issues, simplify government.

Stop feeding unions, non-profit health groups and multiple layers of government through our taxes. Allow simple clean rules and let businesses grow. Fund our government liabilities such as government pension funds and unemployment funds. Don't let our legislatures spend every dollar in front of them and rein in government wastefulness. Reduce the bloat, 1 in 5 adults in Hawaii is on a government payroll or pension the other 4 carry too heavy a burden to support this continually.

Support common sense, constitutionalism and free choice, reduce government, and its expense and debt.

We would invite Ron Paul to run for governor here in Hawaii if he were not running for president. Support candidates like Ron Paul.

Bill Comerford

Spokesman 

Hawaii Bar Owners Association

Providing a strong boost to Ron Paul's Hawaii state operation, such endorsements present Ron Paul as the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney. They also demonstrate that the 12-term Congressman from Texas has the only campaign organization capable of maintaining a 50-state competition with the moderate-establishment Romney.