How many of those links are from the 2011 legislative session, when all he was doing was positioning himself as a conservative for the 2012 race? About half of them. Meanwhile, let me fill up the thread like you did with a rebuttal:
In 2007—a bit before he was running for President—Perry issued an executive order to make Gardasil, a vaccine for the human papillomavirus, a cause of cervical cancer, mandatory for girls entering sixth grade. Even if parents were given the option to have their child opt out, Merck, the company that produced the vaccine, had hired his former chief of staff to be its lobbyist. No crony corruption stuff going on here—pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Ol’ conservative Rick’s slush funds for his political pals, the state “tech” and “enterprise” funds, paid for out of state coffers, rankle Texans. Imagine, an executive branch official with a large pool of money spent on his cronies (say, Obama and big brokerage firms and bankers)? Heck, Obama has just the one fund—Perry has all kinds of TARPs in Texas!
For example, ol’ conservative Rick’s set up state funding for sports building expenses, including funds tapped for Formula One track in Austin. Because when you think of conservatives, it’s a given they want their taxes to pay for European race track building!
Perry tried to convince our legislature to use a portion of the Teachers’ Retirement Fund to finance start-up businesses.
In 2003—a bit before he was running for President—Perry decided he’d use Texas condemnation power to take Texans’ private property, have a company from Spain build a toll road on it, for all practical purposes own the property for years and set toll rates themselves, and, of course, charge Texans to use it. Now, of course, he’s all about eminent domain reform. The reform bill he signed was this JUNE!
He tried to privatize—sell—the Texas lottery to get money now so his budget wouldn’t have to have extra taxes or cuts. Never mind that the money it would make in the short run wouldn’t come close to the long run loss to the state. Of course, he’s against gambling in casinos in Texas, though, because he’s well paid by casinos outside Texas to believe that.
He was a Democrat when he endorsed Dukakis and Al Gore. But after he hopped parties, in 2008—a bit before he was running for President—he endorsed...Rudy Giuliani!?!?!? GIULIANI? A well known gay-rights pro-choice liberal Republican is the best the “conservative” governor of Texas can think of?
Rick spoke out against using E-Verify to prevent illegal immigrants from getting jobs as state employees, who get their paychecks from the taxpayers. He insisted it “would not make a hill of beans’ difference.”
He signed the Texas hate crime legislation and made a very big deal about why it was necessary.
In 2000, when small government Rick was elected, total spending by the Texas state government was approximately $49 billion. In 2010, it was approximately $90 billion. According to usdebtclock.org, the debt to GDP ratio in Texas is 22.9% and the debt per citizen is $10,645. In California (a total financial basket case), the debt to GDP ratio is just 18.7% and the debt per citizen is only $9932. The total debt of the Texas government has more than doubled since Rick Perry became governor. But of course, Rick Perry is all about small government—now that he’s running in the GOP presidential primary.
Even with the Texas oil boom, 23 states have a lower unemployment rate. And from December 2007 and April 2011, weekly wages in the U.S. increased by about 5 percent. Texas wages increased by just 0.6% over that same period.
Texas insurance rates in just about every field are TERRIBLE, and it’s largely because government intrusion is all on the side of the insurers, who have their buddy Perry carrying their water. Imagine if Florida had basically let insurers walk away from the Homestead hurricane—Perry was even trying hard to get that to happen in Texas with Ike!
Rick Perry has repeatedly raised taxes and fees while he has been governor. Texans are faced with significantly higher taxes and fees than before Rick Perry was elected. The business margins tax that Rick Perry pushed through in 2007 meant that Texas companies now pay taxes based on the total revenue of their companies, so small companies pay taxes on revenue, not income or profits. So you own a business, you pay Texas corporate taxes even if you are losing money! Of course, this was supposed to drop our property taxes in Texas. But...um...the highest effective property tax rates in the country are in Wisconsin and Texas, where rates exceed $18 per $1,000 of property value! We might not have an income tax, but imagine what that looks like when figured into your monthly mortgage bill!
Perry even supported a statewide law providing for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants. In 2001—a bit before he was running for President—Perry signed the Texas DREAM Act, which allowed children of illegal immigrants to receive in-state aid AND tuition at the state’s universities. In a speech at the time, he underscored the need for children from all backgrounds to receive a quality education. “We must say to every Texas child learning in a Texas classroom, `We don’t care where you come from, but where you are going, and we are going to do everything we can to help you get there,’” he said at the time. Of course, what he didn’t say was that seats in our best universities will be filled by illegals and thus denied to Texas citizens, and American citizens in Texas will be taxed to subsidize the illegals’ state aid as well as their in-state tuition.
And in a 2006 editorial—a bit before he was running for President—Rick called putting a fence along the border with Mexico “cost prohibitive.” But now, of course, this year, he’s against sanctuary cities and illegal immigration.
I’ll eagerly await your response. I can just hear it now: “Yeah, so what, Perry’s a conservative this week!”
When it comes to principles, Perry is no conservative—he’s whatever he thinks will get him a check from the fat cats. Perry would promise the moon then sell us down the river faster than you can say “Dubai ports” if it got him a campaign donation.
And one more thing: for such a supposedly great campaigner, no one seems to remember that Perry in his last gubernatorial bid did about as well against the liberal Bill White as McCain did against Obama in Texas, roughly 12% better. BUT those spreads are from when Obama had an UP year 2008 and Republicans supposedly had an UP year in 2010! If Perry was so loved by Texans, wouldn’t you think that in an up year for Republicans, he’d be up far beyond the 12% a tool like McCain won by? By comparison, in the attorney general’s race, the GOP candidate won statewide by a 30 point spread—as pretty much all other Republicans in statewide races did. What made electable Rick Perry run 18 points closer to a LIBERAL?
Answer: Texas conservatives know Perry, don’t trust him, and won’t vote for him. Just imagine how electable he’ll be in a national election with his track record when conservatives walk. A vote for Perry in the GOP primary is a vote for more Obama in 2012.
