Ron Paul's flawed count No. 10 among reader favorites

Who’s No. 1?

U.S. voters re-elected Barack Obama.

Texas voters elevated Ted Cruz.

But no fact-checks of either victor made our end-of-year list of reader favorites in 2012.

The top 10 PolitiFact Texas favorites, based on the number of times each Truth-O-Meter article was viewed online, were dominated instead by another Texan--one poised to leave office, though he has a son sticking around the U.S. Senate.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, accounts for the No. 10 reader favorite fact-check of 2012.

Speaking at Texas A&M University, Paul criticized the number of people behind bars, saying he doesn’t think that’s a reflection of how "bad" Americans are. Paul’s explanation: "I think we have way too many laws on the books is what I think. Just on Jan. 1 of this year, there were 40,000 new laws put on the books in one day."
   
Paul, who did not win his party’s presidential nomination or seek another House term, went on to say that he would like to be the first president to "get rid of 40,000 laws." He followed up that hope with a walloping of the Federal Register, where proposed and new regulations are routinely listed.

We suspected that Paul’s figure originated in a group’s press release stating that state legislatures in 2011 passed more than 40,000 bills and resolutions into law.

Paul’s rendition, though, misled, considering that he was stumping for federal office and turned his fire against the Federal Register. Such reasonable clarification was absent.

Besides, we concluded, 40,000 proposals simply didn’t pass into law. We rated this claim as False.

Look for the No. 9 reader favorite tomorrow.