Rooted in the Big Empty, Perry sets his sights on the big job

LAS VEGAS - Rick Perry is sitting comfortably on a plush sofa in a hotel far from the strip that put the sin in "Sin City."

It's the day after another presidential debate, and if the flat-screen in front of him were on, he'd hear plenty of appraisals of whether a new fiery approach helped his pursuit of the highest office in the land or hurt him more.

Instead, he's talking about his boyhood in Texas, his time in the Air Force and a wiener dog named Lucy.

He is, here in suite 6118 of the Red Rock resort, relaxed and confident — not the man Americans have seen on TV these past months, the orator whose flubs became the stuff of late-night comics.

He reminisces about playing piano as a child — "piana," he pronounces it in a sharp twang — before falling while unloading horses and breaking his arm.

He speaks of a once-myopic world view that was shaped by rural Texas before he joined the military and journeyed to foreign lands.

When asked about the tie he's wearing — a red number dotted with tiny dachshunds clad in pink sweaters — he gets his cellphone and shows off a picture of the family pooch.

He's gone from presidential front-runner to underdog in a flash, yet throughout he's acted as if he has nothing to lose.

Maybe it's because he's used to being counted out — so much so that longtime Texas journalist R.G. Ratcliffe (whose blog is called "Rick PerrySphere") has called him "the forever underestimated candidate."

Maybe it's because despite what polls or pundits or even the public may say, Perry has shown he can face any opponent and win. He hasn't lost an election in his 26 years in public office.

WWW.RICKPERRY.ORG

November 16, 2011

Dear Leader Pelosi,

After reading about House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s outburst over my “Overhauling Washington” plan, I wonder if his obstructionism reflects your own opposition and that of the Democratic Caucus to urgent reforms the American people so vehemently demand.

After increasing the debt by $4 trillion in less than three years, no one can believe that Americans are satisfied with business as usual, and that a permanent political class in Washington can get us out of the mess you and your colleagues have created.

A part-time Congress with half the pay would still make $38,000 a year more than the average American family. Do you truly oppose lawmakers spending more time in their districts? Is it so important for the Washington power brokers to build their fiefdoms of influence, including providing bailouts to Wall Street while businesses on Main Street are being boarded up every day?

Here is the fundamental question: do you believe Washington is broken? Before answering that question, consider these facts:

1) the Washington Metro area is now the most affluent metropolitan area in the country because lobbyists, contractors, elected officials and bureaucrats have been insulated from the economic ruin prevalent in the private sector;
2) Congressional office budgets have doubled since 2000 while employers all across America are laying off workers;
3) Our nation’s total debt is nearing the size of our nation’s economy, increasing our dependence on competitors like China;
4) The number of Americans out of work has increased by more than two million since January 2009, despite the massive stimulus package Democratic leaders promised would revive the economy, and;
5) on top of the job-killing spending policies of the previous Congress, employers are faced with a staggering $1.1 trillion in costs related to federal regulatory compliance.

Do you truly believe the answer to massive debt, over-regulation and bloated big-government policies is to continue to protect the status quo, which enriches and empowers Washington insiders at the expense of the American People?

My plan would overhaul Washington, eliminating certain agencies and reducing the size and scope of others. It will force Congress to make the tough decisions to balance the budget or require a further reduction in their pay. It would end lifetime appointments to future appointees to the federal bench. I don’t want to tinker around the edges when the American People demand a complete overhaul of Washington.

Let me conclude with an invitation: I am in Washington Monday and would love to engage you in a public debate about my Overhaul Washington plan versus the congressional status quo. I think it would be a tremendous service to the American public to see a public airing of these differences. Let the people decide. If Monday doesn’t work, perhaps we could find a time in Iowa over the course of the next month to discuss these issues in front of the people of America’s heartland.

Should you choose not to respond or engage in such a healthy discussion, I will take it to mean you will continue your obstructionist ways in the face of much needed Washington reform.

Sincerely,

Rick Perry
Governor of Texas

Gov. Rick Perry: ...........“I’m going to support the Republican nominee. That isn’t even a question,” said Perry. “Our country is on the precipice of a huge economic disaster and foreign policy wise none of our allies know where America is going to be on any given day. We’ve got huge issues facing this country today and [Obama’s] in Burma talking about relations with a country that — I’ll be real honest with you — I don’t know what America’s interest is there.”

He also criticized the president for delaying a decision on the 1,700-mile pipeline from Alberta to Texas until after the 2012 election so a study can be carried out with respect to its impact on an environmentally sensitive area of Nebraska.

“That Canadian oil is going to go one of two ways,” said Perry. “It’s either going to go west to China or it’s going to go south to the United States. That’s not even a question about where that ought to be going. Our national security is in jeopardy with this president.”.......... Perry Pledges to Take Only Half Salary

Rick Perry is the real deal.

The Vetoes of Rick Perry - As Texas governor, he broke records and earned conservative support.....In Texas, they called it the “Father’s Day Massacre.”.....

Betting on Rick Perry - a winner in a GOP year, with no need in the world to win liberal approval ………..”IT WILL BE THE JOBS ISSUE—and Texas’s record in creating them—that will define Rick Perry’s presidential run. Since he became governor in 2001, the U.S. as a whole has had a net loss of private-sector jobs, while Texas—which has only 8 percent of the nation’s population—has had a net gain of 825,000 jobs.

Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Federal Reserve Board, told me that if you look at the number of jobs created since the recession technically ended in June 2009, Texas has accounted for 48 percent of net new jobs created in the U.S.

Fisher also disparages claims that the jobs are all low-paying jobs at McDonald’s or Walmart, paying the minimum wage, or that they were primarily caused by the oil and natural gas boom. According to Tom Pauken of the Texas Work Force Commission, the annual median wage in Texas in 2010 for all occupations was $31,500 a year, only 7 percent below the national average. That difference is easily explained by the fact that Texas has a younger workforce than most states and a higher percentage of workers in lower-pay agriculture jobs near the border with Mexico. [ CW: Cost of living in Texas is lower than many other states; Texas has no state income tax; Texas is a right to work state.]

As for where the job growth has been, three sectors of the economy have grown faster than the energy sector, which alone added 40,500 net new jobs in 2010. Last year, Texas added 57,900 new jobs in trade, transportation, and utilities; a total of 53,400 jobs in professional and business services; and 44,900 net new jobs in the hospitality industry.

For each of the past seven years, CEOs polled by “Chief Executive” magazine have rated Texas first in the nation for economic development climate and job growth. What is the secret of Texas’s success? Rick Perry isn’t shy about his answer. “It’s all about four points,” he told me. “First, don’t spend all the money. Keep the taxes low and under control. Have regulations that are fair and predictable so business owners know what to expect from one quarter to the next. And reform the legal system so that frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers who are trying to create real wealth.”

If there is on issue which Perry has made a personal crusade, it is lawsuit reform. Working with the legislature, he has helped pass curbs on frivolous lawsuits, implemented a first-in-the-nation system under which loser pays all court costs in many lawsuits, and reformed medical malpractice law.

Dick Weekley, the co-founder of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, says Perry showed genuine political courage in resisting calls for watered-down reforms that wouldn’t have addressed the core problem. He recalls that in 2002 Perry vetoed a bill strongly supported by doctors that would have required them to prompt payment from health maintenance organizations. In the eyes of the tort reform advocates, the bill was a Trojan Horse compromise negotiated between doctors and trial lawyers. “There was a huge response from physicians [against the veto],” Kim Ross, the former top lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association, said. TMA went so far as to endorse Tony Sanchez, Perry’s millionaire Democratic opponent in the 2002 election. “Perry sent a signal that he wanted real reform and would stand his ground,” Weekley told me. “Soon the medical lobbyists playing footsie with the trial lawyers were gone and the obstacles to real reform started falling.”………………..

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AND now the TMA is endorsing Gov. Rick Perry. They understand now what he was doing would HELP them.

...."The Texas Medical Association’s political action committee recently endorsed him for president, and its members are helping him raise money and make connections with medical groups in other states.".... source

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