Disclaimer: I am neither a liberal nor a Democrat. I am an independent and there are several Republicans I would consider voting for. Rick Perry is not among them. I have never previously campaigned for or against any candidate. These are observations from a Texan who’s followed Perry’s career as Governor pretty closely and done a little research. Is this the profile of a man we want in the White House?
– Rick Perry is in favor of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in biology classrooms. Whether you believe in intelligent design or not, there’s a glaring separation of church and state problem here.
– He is against same-sex marriage. Texas once had a same-sex anti-sodomy law, which Perry referred to as “appropriate”. One of the biggest proponents of “small government” and “less government interference” believes government has the right to tell you who you can and can’t sleep with and who you can and can’t marry. Ironic, isn’t it?
– Perry opposes abortion. He signed a bill prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood. This is another personal choice that Rick Perry doesn’t think you should be able to make for yourself. But he wants less government.
– Perry advocated Texas’s right to secede from the same Union he now wants to run. Let me say that again: Rick Perry believes Texas, and presumably all states, can secede from the United States.
– Rick Perry is in favor of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in biology classrooms. Whether you believe in intelligent design or not, there’s a glaring separation of church and state problem here.
– He is against same-sex marriage. Texas once had a same-sex anti-sodomy law, which Perry referred to as “appropriate”. One of the biggest proponents of “small government” and “less government interference” believes government has the right to tell you who you can and can’t sleep with and who you can and can’t marry. Ironic, isn’t it?
– Perry opposes abortion. He signed a bill prohibiting funding for Planned Parenthood. This is another personal choice that Rick Perry doesn’t think you should be able to make for yourself. But he wants less government.
– Perry advocated Texas’s right to secede from the same Union he now wants to run. Let me say that again: Rick Perry believes Texas, and presumably all states, can secede from the United States.
– Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonpartisan political watchdog group, named Perry one of the 11 most unethical governors in the country. http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2010/04/perry-named-one-of-worst-governors-by-national-ethics-watchdog-group/
– One thing many people will agree with Perry on (myself included) is his stance on the 10th Amendment. He’ll talk a lot about this. And it’s true that the federal government has infringed on some things that ought to be state issues. But of course Perry wanted more power for states when he was the leader of one. Would he sing the same tune as leader of the nation? Perry’s changed his mind before: he started out as a Democrat.
– One thing many people will agree with Perry on (myself included) is his stance on the 10th Amendment. He’ll talk a lot about this. And it’s true that the federal government has infringed on some things that ought to be state issues. But of course Perry wanted more power for states when he was the leader of one. Would he sing the same tune as leader of the nation? Perry’s changed his mind before: he started out as a Democrat.
– Perry will no doubt flaunt the fact that job growth in Texas has exceeded every other state’s during his tenure as our Governor. What he won’t tell you is that it’s solely because of immigration. More jobs have been “created” simply because there are more people here now. The reality, per Department of Labor statistics, is that the unemployment rate in Texas when Perry was first sworn in was 4.2%. The most recent figure is 8.4%.
– Perry will gladly take credit for Texas’s relatively strong economy. He’ll tell you it’s the biggest feather in his cap, actually. But it’s worth remembering that he didn’t dig the Houston Ship Channel or bring the refining industry to Texas. The economy was actually slightly stronger under his predecessor, but Perry shouldn’t really be blamed any more than he should be credited because the simple fact is that the Texas economy is inherently strong no matter who’s in the Governor’s Mansion.
– But that didn’t stop him from campaigning on that economic strength to win re-election last fall. Then he turned around and cut education funding by $4 billion this year (he wanted to cut $10 billion but gave in to the Senate and “only” cut around $4 billion). Over 70,000 college scholarships are disappearing from Texas in the next two years. If the economy’s so strong, why’s the state broke?
– Texas just spent $3.5 million to renovate the Capitol building last year. The average salary for teachers in Texas is $41,744. So 83 teachers could have kept their jobs this year had that money been spent on them instead of on shining up the Capitol dome. Ah, who cares, we’re 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math SAT scores. That’s good enough, right?
– But that didn’t stop him from campaigning on that economic strength to win re-election last fall. Then he turned around and cut education funding by $4 billion this year (he wanted to cut $10 billion but gave in to the Senate and “only” cut around $4 billion). Over 70,000 college scholarships are disappearing from Texas in the next two years. If the economy’s so strong, why’s the state broke?
– Texas just spent $3.5 million to renovate the Capitol building last year. The average salary for teachers in Texas is $41,744. So 83 teachers could have kept their jobs this year had that money been spent on them instead of on shining up the Capitol dome. Ah, who cares, we’re 49th in verbal SAT scores and 46th in math SAT scores. That’s good enough, right?
– Perry will definitely talk about balancing the budget. It will likely be the central theme of his campaign. He’ll tell you that he balanced the Texas budget and he can do the same at the federal level. The reality is that Perry more than doubled Texas’s budget shortfall to around $27 billion because he gave massive tax cuts to corporations, which led to a massive debt, which he’s now paying for with massive cuts to education and social programs. I don’t want to get into fiscal conservatism or liberalism, but the simple question is this: If it took Rick Perry over 10 years, billions of dollars of federal stimulus money, and wanton disregard for our educational future to finally balance the Texas budget, why should we think he can balance the federal budget within 4 years, and do we really want him to?
Some people may agree with Perry on a couple of the things listed above, and fair enough. No one should agree with what’s below:
– Rick Perry has made a small fortune on shady land deals. Google “Rick Perry shady land deal” and look at how many hits you find. The links are too numerous to list here.
– And Perry has an extensive history of kickbacks to campaign boosters (several examples in this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0816-perry-donors-20110816,0,7718310.story?page=1).
– And Perry has an extensive history of kickbacks to campaign boosters (several examples in this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0816-perry-donors-20110816,0,7718310.story?page=1).
The most recent kickback happened just last year. An Austin businessman named David Nance runs a company called Convergen. He is also a big money donor to Rick Perry’s campaigns. Perry and friends gave Convergen a $4.5 million research grant in the following manner:
“Nance’s application for the money did not follow usual channels for approval. An Austin-area screening board rejected the initial application, and then Nance sidestepped another screening by a board that focuses on life sciences applications.
Instead, he took his application to a 17-member statewide advisory board, made up mostly of Perry appointees, and asked Alan Kirchhoff, Perry’s director of economic development at the time, to intervene.
Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus approved the $4.5 million investment after the advisory board recommended it.
As Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White accused Perry of running an investment slush fund for his friends, Perry denied any wrongdoing, but his office resisted offering contract details before the Nov. 2 election.
Three days after the election, Perry released the contract after first contending it should be kept secret.”
Source: http://www.statesman.com/business/perry-announces-4-5-million-grant-to-convergen-1154942.html
That’s right. Nance applied for the grant and was denied by the committee that legally awards the grant. Then Nance donated money to Perry’s campaign last fall and was approved for the grant by Perry and his allies, who have never had the authority to award that grant. But they did it anyway, and they tried to keep the public from finding out. There are many other articles on this travesty. Kickbacks to campaign boosters are always bad, but when the kickback involves tax dollars, people should be headed to prison.
But even if you somehow manage to find nothing wrong with that, the fact remains that Rick Perry has governed Texas for almost 11 years and has accomplished absolutely nothing worth noting. The economy is not better off than it was when he took office (no matter what he says), unemployment is less than 1 percentage point below the all-time high, illegal immigration is still rampant, we’re 40th in overall health (because we’re 41st in health care spending), we’re #1 in carcinogens released into the air (and he’s done nothing about it), and our educational system is in shambles. Texas is not better off than it was 11 years ago by any measure.
“Nance’s application for the money did not follow usual channels for approval. An Austin-area screening board rejected the initial application, and then Nance sidestepped another screening by a board that focuses on life sciences applications.
Instead, he took his application to a 17-member statewide advisory board, made up mostly of Perry appointees, and asked Alan Kirchhoff, Perry’s director of economic development at the time, to intervene.
Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus approved the $4.5 million investment after the advisory board recommended it.
As Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White accused Perry of running an investment slush fund for his friends, Perry denied any wrongdoing, but his office resisted offering contract details before the Nov. 2 election.
Three days after the election, Perry released the contract after first contending it should be kept secret.”
Source: http://www.statesman.com/business/perry-announces-4-5-million-grant-to-convergen-1154942.html
That’s right. Nance applied for the grant and was denied by the committee that legally awards the grant. Then Nance donated money to Perry’s campaign last fall and was approved for the grant by Perry and his allies, who have never had the authority to award that grant. But they did it anyway, and they tried to keep the public from finding out. There are many other articles on this travesty. Kickbacks to campaign boosters are always bad, but when the kickback involves tax dollars, people should be headed to prison.
But even if you somehow manage to find nothing wrong with that, the fact remains that Rick Perry has governed Texas for almost 11 years and has accomplished absolutely nothing worth noting. The economy is not better off than it was when he took office (no matter what he says), unemployment is less than 1 percentage point below the all-time high, illegal immigration is still rampant, we’re 40th in overall health (because we’re 41st in health care spending), we’re #1 in carcinogens released into the air (and he’s done nothing about it), and our educational system is in shambles. Texas is not better off than it was 11 years ago by any measure.
The only reason Rick Perry is our Governor is because about 60% of Texans would vote for Donald Duck if he had the “R” next to his name.
Let’s not make the same mistake at the federal level.
TexArcher 