Perry on TARP support: No 'Ma'am'

Politico ^ | 09/16/11 | Ben Smith

[winoneforthegipper]

After an appearance in Newton, Iowa today, Rick Perry denied to an unidentified woman that he'd ever supported the 2008 bank bailout known as TARP.

"No Ma'am," he told her.

"I thought I saw a letter where you had written encouraging the support of TARP legislation," he persisted.

"You saw wrong," he replied flatly, as shown in this video, taken by a tracker, of this morning's event.

This isn't the first time the issue has come up, and the questioner might be excused for having read Perry's October 1 letter that way. The letter, co-signed by then-Gov. Joe Manchin in their capacities as heads of the RGA and DGA, came three days after TARP's failure to pass the House rocked the markets.

The AP covered the letter with the headline, "Governors, Business Up Pressure for Bailout Bill." It's very hard to read otherwise.

"We strongly urge Congress to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package," they wrote. "It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible, an do what's in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy."

Perry, later that day, released a statement that seemed aimed at countering the impression left by his letter without clarifying what he was calling for: "[G]overnment should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America. Congress needs to take off its partisan gloves and work together to bring both short and long term stability to the credit markets....”

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

I was afraid that my sentence construction was going to confuse you.

Write in English instead of high-brow gibberish and you won't have that problem anymore.

[hocndoc]

What do you mean, “that’s what everybody says?” Could it be that “everybody” might be right, at least occasionally?

Haley Barbour, Sarah Palin, and Rick Perry refused large portions of the money, in order to prevent infringing on different State laws.

I believe that they did make a difference.

[EternalVigilance]

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

[FreeReign]

The letter head was for the two associations. The e-mail subject was "RGA and DGA release joint Letter to Congress. The signatures are annotated with the official position of the two signatories as the respective chairs of their organizations. Organizations get very upset when someone in the organization claims to speak for the organization when they are in fact speaking on their own behalf. I did a google search, and found NO objection from ANY governor to the letter -- so I believe it was accepted as the official position of the two associations.

Charles,

The point-of-view in the letter was written as belonging to "we both" -- that would be Perry and Manchin.

[Carling]

Can you point me to anywhere that Perry said he supported TARP?

That’s all that really matters, not some press reports that took liberties with a letter.

Your audio “proof” was laughable as well. Another non-topic that is being beat to death by rapid anti-Perry posters, and you’re jumping on board.