Posted on 06/22/2011 3:16:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Foreward By Newt Gingrich – August 2010
I wish this book had never needed to be written.
It almost came too late.
America is recklessly accelerating toward economic disaster. Fed Up! may be the last warning sign to the danger that lies ahead.
Rick Perry, Texas governor for the past decade, is uniquely qualified to offer a firsthand perspective on why the United States—the most successful civilization in human history—is being threatened with economic collapse.
First Principles
Faith, freedom, and free enterprise are the pillars of a strong, safe, prosperous society. Rick knows that when these principles are protected, America succeeds, and when they are undermined, America fails. But the Left has a different belief. The Left believes that most people are not capable of pursuing happiness and that a strong centralized government is best able to provide for them. While claiming compassion for humanity, the Left's policies are destructive to the human beings subject to them—as we have had to learn painfully again and again.
The Left's self-serving solution to every crisis, economic or otherwise, and many of their own doing, is always the same: inflict higher taxes on Americans to create more government programs with more rules and regulations that result in less freedom, less innovation, less safety, and less prosperity.
The problem with the Left’s one solution, as Rick forcefully explains in the pages that follow, is that it doesn't work. It's never worked, and it never will work. The record shows it.
But what the record also shows is that when power and freedom are returned to the people, when people are rewarded for work, and when government holds the line on spending, individuals and opportunity thrive. We have seen that result most spectacularly recently in Texas, and in the mid-1990s with the Contract with America Congress, when I served as Speaker of the House.
The Texas Record
Upon taking office, President Barack Obama repeatedly said that he was open to ideas on health care policy and on reversing the economic crisis. But he had to look no further than Texas to see ideas and policies that work.
Texas has no state income tax, no capital gains tax, and no tax on corporate dividends. In contrast, California taxes all three. It has the highest state income tax rates in the nation, with a top rate of 10.3 percent and with most income earners paying 9.3 percent. The California sales tax stands at 8.25 percent. In Texas, the state sales tax rate is 6.25 percent. With both the highest personal income tax and the highest state sales tax in the nation, California also has the largest budget deficit of any state.
Texas has economically outperformed California by any measure. Since 1998, economic growth in Texas has been nearly 20 percent higher than it is in California. Since the end of the tech boom, the rate of real economic growth in Texas has been 48.5 percent higher than in California. From 1998 to 2007, personal income in Texas grew 21 percent faster than in California. Since 2002, real personal income has grown 46 percent faster in Texas. From 2000 to 2007, California lost a net of 1.2 million residents. Texas, over the same period, gained more than half a million in interstate migration, the third highest in the country.
Prior to 2003, Texas was losing doctors at an alarming rate due to predatory practices of trial lawyers who were driving up the cost of malpractice insurance. In 2003, the Texas legislature passed a measure to limit medical liability. In that same year, a state constitutional amendment was approved by voters to cap noneconomic damages awarded by juries. These two provisions reversed the trend and improved care, accessibility, and the overall economy by making Texas a more attractive place to live, work, and own a business. Malpractice claims dropped, and physician recruitment and retention went up. Doctors saved more than $50 million on insurance premiums, and hospitals' insurance rates went down.
People in Texas, like anyone living in any state, have a choice. They can vote with their feet. Many living in California simply became fed up with their state's high taxes and regulations. Many who moved out moved to Texas, where on average they are safer, freer, and more prosperous. Competition among the states is a powerful incentive for states to keep taxes and the cost of doing business low. And as this California versus Texas example shows, conservative economic policies work and socialist policies don't.
Yet both the Obama administration and the Pelosi-Reid Congress continue to ignore success stories like Texas. They are going in the opposite direction, passing a massive government takeover of health care while planning similarly massive tax increases to pay for it and for the rest of their job-killing agenda.
Now, it may not be surprising that a politician from Chicago would not naturally look to the Lone Star State for solutions. And you wouldn't expect a Texas governor to look in Illinois for answers (thankfully).
And that is precisely the point of this book. States have been called laboratories in democracy precisely because every problem potentially has fifty different approaches to solving it. Some solutions work in some states and not in others. Some states prefer some solutions over others. Some solutions may work in every state, and some just don't work at all. But the best way to find the best solutions is to allow the states to discover what works best for them, without the federal government interfering.
In today' s global economy, each state is competing not only with other states for businesses, workers, and investors but also on a global level. The fact is, with the right principles and policies, you can make any place rich, as happened in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, the opposite applies as well. With the wrong principles and the wrong policies, you can make any place poor, as happened in Detroit. In 1950, 1.8 million people called Detroit home. It ranked first in median income of all major cities in America. But after Detroit's political leaders, ignoring the principles of freedom and free markets, governed with runaway government spending and taxes, Detroit shrank by more than half. Today, the Motor City is number 66 in median household income in a list of 68 major American cities. One-third of its residents are living below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is the highest of any major metropolitan area in the country.
The Record of the Contract with America Congress
The Left's willful ignorance of the historical record concerning principles and policies that work is not limited to Texas. The Left also ignores the success of the Contract with America Congress from just fifteen years ago.
Beginning in 1995, after the Republicans gained the majority in both Houses of Congress, the policies generated by the Contract with America set out to put America back on the road to prosperity and keep it there.
Among the historic accomplishments of this Congress were congressional accountability, welfare reform, fewer regulations, the lowest increase in federal spending since the 1920s, the first tax cuts in sixteen years, and the first four consecutive balanced budgets (reducing the public debt by over $400 billion) since the 1920s.
The federal deficit went from $107.4 billion in 1996 to a $125.6 billion surplus in 1999. During that time, unemployment dropped 1.4 percent, from 5.6 to 4.2 percent, with the creation of 8.4 million new jobs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose 140 percent, from 3,834 to 9,213, between January 1995 and January 1999.
By comparison, since 2008, the Democrat-controlled Congress has added an astonishing $4.6 trillion to the public debt, including $1.6 trillion in 2010 alone. Nearly 7 million jobs have been destroyed under the Pelosi-Reid Congresses between January 2007 and June 2010. Unemployment has risen 4.9 percent, from 4.6 to 9.5 percent. And would be 10.4 percent if it included discouraged workers, those individuals who are unemployed but are not actively seeking employment, usually because they have had no success finding a job after searching for a long time. The total number of unemployed and underemployed workers in July 2010 stood at an astonishing 26 million. Between January 2007 and August 2010, the DJIA dropped 1,823 points.
During the 1990s, at the same time that the Republicans were cutting taxes, we were also cutting spending. As a share of the gross domestic product (GDP), federal spending fell from 20.2 percent in fiscal year 1996 to 18.5 percent in FY 1999. But even as the economy grew dramatically from 1994 to 1999, federal revenue as a percentage of GDP actually increased. That is, even with lower taxes and a higher GDP, more money came into the federal treasury.
The Pelosi-Reid Congresses have increased spending as a share of the GDP from 20.7 percent in FY 2008 to 25.4 percent in FY 2010, the highest since it spiked in FY 1945, at the end of World War II. Between FY 2007 (the last Republican budget) and FY 2011 Congress has increased spending by a total of $1.105 trillion.
Since World War II, the average duration of a recession had been ten months, with the longest lasting sixteen months. July 2010 marked thirty-one months since the current recession began, and we're still losing jobs. Yet despite this fact, the Pelosi-Reid Congress has set in motion comprehensive, across-the-board tax-rate increases for next year on both businesses and investors that will extend the downturn indefinitely.
Moving Power Back to the People
The evidence of what works and what doesn't is empirically irrefutable, yet the ideologically stubborn Keynesians in the Obama administration and the Pelosi-Reid Congress refuse to acknowledge it. They ignore both the Texas success under Governor Perry's leadership and the Contract with America success in the 1990s.
Instead of pursuing the policies that have time and again demonstrated success, the Obama administration and the Pelosi-Reid Congress insist on following job-killing economic policies rather than the job-creating policies that we know work. Chief among these job-killing policies are a failed trillion-dollar stimulus package and the bound-to-fail “Obamacare.”
Unfortunately for America, the Obama administration is creating a job-killing economic system based on an ideology of centralizing power, which most people considered a failure after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These failed policies have brought us to the edge of the cliff. This gets us back to the importance of moving power away from Washington and back to the states and the local level.
For most of our history, Washington was a far-off place that had little inf1uence on the daily lives of most Americans. More recently, the federal government has usurped or seduced enormous power away from local and state governments. There are in the United States today 513,000 elected local, state, and federal officials, but only 537 are elected on the federal level, or about one-tenth of 1 percent. Yet so much power has been consolidated in the hands of federally elected officials, as well as in the hands of unelected bureaucrats and federal judges. We need to reverse this trend or we will suffer lasting consequences.
Devolving power out of Washington is critical to our long-term survival.
Rick has done a great service by explaining how we got here and what we can do about it. His position as governor of Texas gives him a tremendous platform for helping us change course and return to sound conservative fiscal policies. But he can't do it alone. Every American has a duty to rein in the out-of-control federal government. Fed Up! is your handbook. It will arm you with the facts so that you can inform your family, friends, and neighbors. An informed citizenry is the best tool we have in the arsenal to defend our Republic.
Newt Gingrich, August 2010
LLS
I like Sarah Palin.
I like Rick Perry.
From Rush:
June 20, 2011
[break transcript]
GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing for celebrating life.
RUSH: Right on.
GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing —
RUSH: Right on.
GOV. PERRY: — for wanting to protect an individual’s right to build a business.
RUSH: Right on.
GOV. PERRY: We need to stop apologizing about stemming the tide of entitlement mind-set that’s out there. We ought to be proud of our efforts to give local parents and communities a say on how their children are educated, protecting that fundamental right of private property ownership. Our party cannot be all things to all people. It can’t be. And our loudest opponents on the left are never gonna like us so let’s quit trying to curry favor with ‘em!
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: Right on!
GOV. PERRY: Let’s speak with pride about our morals and our values and redouble our effort to elect more conservative Republicans. Let’s stop this American downward spiral!
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, you know what? I now know how you feel when you’re listening to me. I now know how you applaud it. I now know how you get all revved up when you’re listening to me. Damn straight. Finally! Why in the world do we apologize? This comes from this defensive position that you always end up in when you accept somebody else’s premise in an argument. He’s exactly right: Why apologize at all for celebrating life? Stop apologizing for wanting to protect an individual’s right to build a business? Of course, the MSNBC story: “Rick Perry delivered an unapologetically socially conservative speech,” as though he’s supposed to apologize. I just love this bite. We have this one and...let me see... a couple more. And again we’ve edited the applause just in the interests of time.
GOV. PERRY: This administration in Washington that’s in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it’s the most qualified to make essential decisions for every American in every area. That mix of arrogance and audacity that guides the Obama administration is an affront to every freedom loving American and a threat to every private sector job in this country.
AUDIENCE: (applause and cheers)
RUSH: All right. So he’s out there articulating the truth, he’s getting stupendous applause and yet, “Nah-nah-nah can’t have Rick Perry. He’s from Texas. He’s too close to Bush. We don’t want anybody from Texas! Bush is from Texas. We hate Texas — or not ‘we,’ but the voters. The voters don’t want anybody else from Texas.” This is the message from the elites, the inside-the-Beltway geniuses who like to tell us what we will and what we won’t vote for or who we will and won’t vote for. I think Perry understands who we are. We have a choice. We have a decision to make as Americans.
GOV. PERRY: Will history view us as the generation of Americans that kinda collectively shrugged their shoulders and said, “I guess there’s nothing that I can do? Will we just watch our nation continue this slow backwards slide? Will future generations of Americans living a life without any direction or decision that’s not made by some bureaucrat wonder: “Why didn’t somebody do something?” I’ve got more confidence in America’s energy and character. I totally believe it’s time to reconnect with the greatest attributes of our nation, to regain that resiliant spirit and recapture that love of freedom, remembering its true price. We’re all facing the same challenges in America. I stand before you today a disciplined conservative Texan — a committed Republican and a proud American — united with you in the desire to restore our nation and revive the American dream.
AUDIENCE: (applause)
RUSH: Right on, right on. Again, we edited the applause there. Now, this is not sitting well with the Drive-Bys and the State-Controlled Media. We have now a bite here from Scarborough’s show morning on PMSNBC. We had Scarborough, we have Mika Brzezinski, we had a cohost Willie Geist — and Mark Halperin, the TIME Magazine editor-at-large — having this conversation about Rick Perry.
BRZEZINSKI: I watched this, I felt like an alien watching this —
SCARBOROUGH: (guffawing)
BRZEZINSKI: — from the audience —
SCARBOROUGH: Felt like an alien?
BRZEZINSKI: I did. I felt like an alien.
REPORTER: What do you mean? I don’t get it.
BRZEZINSKI: Well, this was the Republican leadership conference in New Orleans.
SCARBORUGH: Right.
BRZEZINSKI: The crowd was chanting, “Ruuuun, Rick, run!”
SCARBOROUGH: You know, I — I think I saw this guy on Broadway.
GEIST: One man show.
SCARBOROUGH: What was it called?
HALPERIN: Uhhh, “Thank you, America?”
GEIST: You’re welcome.
HALPERIN: You’re welcome.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s right, Will Ferrell doing George W. Bush.
RUSH: Do you believe that? Have you seen the Will Ferrell one-man show? It’s juvenile; it’s banal. It’s not even funny. It’s just gratuitous. It’s almost like a comedian impressionist has nothing else left in his act except to impersonate Bush, years after Bush is gone. I guarantee you, George Bush doesn’t say these kind of things. He certainly didn’t say these kind of things in the last two, three years of his administration. But man, oh, man! Here’s Mika Brzezinski saying she feels like an alien listening to this? I think this illustrates the great divide that we face. We feel like she’s from another planet when we listen to her.
We feel like Obama from another star system when we listen to him. Listening to Obama, it feels like Darth Vader has taken over in real life. But they think Rick Perry is alien. This is just, as far as I’m concerned... (interruption) I’m not endorsing the guy. No, no, no, Snerdley. I’m not doing anything of the sort. I’m just telling you what happened. I want to contrast this with Rick Perry with what Jon Huntsman. There are reams and reams and reams of newsprint and copy over Huntsman announcing tomorrow, and they’re excited, and they can’t wait — even the people in the State-Controlled Media.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: One more Rick Perry sound bite here, folks, talking about American exceptionalism, and he does so genuinely here. There might be some other candidates bringing it up. See what you think of this.
PERRY: I see a stronger America, built on the solid foundation of spiritual strength, of individual liberty, of self-determination. We must recapture that vision and begin the hard work of lighting the way for millions of Americans who are adrift in the sea of economic misery. Let’s lead ‘em to the safe harbor of American renewal and the shores of American exceptionalism. (applause.)
RUSH: Rick Perry, they say he looks like an alien, my God, just look at Obama’s Supreme Court nominees for crying out loud. You want me to name ‘em? Sonia Sotomayor, alien anybody? Elena Kagan? Look at some of the czars and look at some of the cabinet members. And of course notice the logic here. Perry, he’s an alien. He’s like Bush, who was elected president twice. George W. Bush was elected president twice, so who is out of the mainstream here? But ultimately it’s a good sign the media feels that Perry is an alien.
[break transcript]
I did not say that Rush ENDORSED Perry. I believe that I agreed with your first post regarding that and shared that I was aware of it.
He STILL said that Perry getting into the race was a good thing because he would spice it up with his unadulterated conservatism.
None of that negates anything that I stated... or that Rush stated. Rush has not and will not endorse perry or anyone else for the primaries... he said so multiple times in the last week. One caller begged him to not endorse anyone and Rush said he had no intention of endorsing anyone... but he will discuss them in detail.
LLS
newt spiced it up too. I do not care who gets in the race... those with little chance will go away sooner rather than later.
LLS
Why are you making that point?
I’ve said nothing of the kind.
Rush is pi$$ed that none of these people are attacking obama directly... and he really attacked hunstman yesterday for his exclaiming that he respects obama and will remain civil and not resort to personal attacks... and then Rush played a speech of Reagan's where Reagan attacked carter both personally and professionally and laid the blame directly on peanut-head's head. You didn't say anything about that either but I think it ties in with the thread discussion.
LLS
I DO care who gets in the race. The more these candidates can focus the attention on Obama’s destruction of this country....the better!
More candidates = more focus
I am also praying that we end up with a virtuous candidate who looks to God and who has common sense and wisdom.
;-))
It does not matter if it was OPT OUT.
Perry is a RINO of the Romney-FASCIST type.
He ordered children to take an untested toxic
substance for his own profit.
Perry is a RINO for RomneyCARE, Medical fascism
if it makes HIM money, and illegal aliens.
I’m sure Perry’s book outlines accurately the economic precipice upon which America totters.
However, most Tea Party Conservatives realized our worst Onada fears were being realized as he bum rushed the Washington ruiling elite into stimulus and Onadacare. That was almost two years ago.
I don’t need politicians like Newt and Perry telling me what’s wrong. I know what’s wrong. I need politicians who will fix the problems. I’ve even tossing those fund raising surveys into the trash. You know, the ones that ask you to check off your main concerns about where the country is heading. If these idiots can’t figure it out on their own why should I give them money.
I’m still waiting for a statement of purpose from these politicians telling me what they believe, what their agenda is and how that will translate into policy. And I especially want to hear from the GOP/conservative field how they differ from one another.
We will... we must.
LLS
You do not need to post propaganda links about perry... I know who perry is and was and still is.
LLS
“It does not matter if it was OPT OUT.”
It certainly DOES matter.
“He ordered children to take an untested toxic
substance for his own profit.”
Proof?
“Perry is a RINO for RomneyCARE”
Proof?
WHO do you plan to vote for?
It does NOT matter to the children who
were injured or killed by the Guardasil FORCED
on them by RINO Perry.
Killing them and injuring them (and the waiting
period is NOT even up yet) is the definition
of toxicity.
SHAME on the RINO PERRY ... and you for defending him.
It was not forced on them. The parents could opt out.
I like Perry and hope he gets into the race.
You can support whomever you’d like. Who would that be, by the way?
Without commenting on the underlying issue:
Gardasil isn’t only to prevent cervical cancers. It is meant to stop HPV, which effects a lot more than just 11,999 women a year.
You’ve chosen one small aspect of the drug’s application, and by doing so have inaccurately minimized it’s indications.
I’d love to discuss the underlying issue of edicts and how government overreach interferes with the medical insurance coverage for vaccines. But that’s a much larger issue; I just wanted to point out the misconception that Gardasil only treats cervical cancers.
It was forced on them.
It put them at RISK at a time of their
life when most of them were chaste.
By the same IDIOCY that drives Romney, Reid and Obama.
Figures the RomneyBOTs are here to support Gardasil-Perry.
Fact: Gardasil does not stop HPV, you fool.
It acts against some subtypes HOWEVER it does
not last forever, AND has a risk about which you care
NOTHING.
Fact: You know nothing to think Gardasil “treats
cervical cancers”.
00.07904% of women were diagnosed with cervical cancer
which is a curable disease to begin with.
100% of the children were put at risk with untested
materials by the RINO Perry for profit.
Go back to defending Obama and Romney.
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