I'm a regular reader of EPJ, and I thought you might be interested to hear about Rick Perry's meet and greet in Iowa City yesterday. I had a chance to shake his hand and ask him about his record (including tripling the Texas state debt, massively increasing spending, and helping out ACORN), and his only response was "you obviously don't know what you're talking about." What a fun day!
Here's Drew's backup for his question:
What I asked Governor Perry was “Considering state debt has nearly tripled and spending has increased by two thirds since you were governor, and also that ACORN considered your help their ‘proudest moment,’ what were the differences between him and the current liberal president?” As you can see, he immediately tried to excuse away the numbers.More details at Drew's site, here.
I found the debt numbers at Politifact from Bill White, who quotes the Texas Bond Review Board. I asked Perry about the raw numbers, which show that in 2000 Texas state debt was $13.7B, and by 2009 that number had grown to over $34B (Mitchell Schnurman found more recent numbers for 2010: $37B.). Bill White at Politifact adjusted for inflation and found the debt merely doubled under Perry.
Perry’s record on spending can be found at Texas Budget Source. In 2000 when Perry took over, Texas spending was $49.7B and the latest numbers the site has available show that spending was $82.1B, a 67% increase. Adjusting for inflation and population growth, the growth in the size of the Texas government during his time as governor is a paltry 36%.
Finally, I found that Perry had good friends in ACORN, a community organization that Republicans love to hate. In 2006, Perry signed into law a bill which benefited low-income homeowners. ACORN called this their “proudest moment.” When Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson opposed funding ACORN in 2007, he attacked her.
This brings me full circle back to my question, what are the differences between him and the current liberal president?
This is the way questioning should be done. Let's dig into the background of the candidates and ask the tough questions that MSM won't.
This is what we need more of,smart Ron Paul supporters confronting the other candidates on the issues.
ReplyDeleteright on, brothers
ReplyDeleteInteresting how Perry put his finger in his chest. You would never see a libertarian put a finger in someone's chest, not even a statist's chest.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I like the warm "finger in the chest". It's how he reaches out to touch the electorate.
ReplyDeletelol finger in the chest, then continues acting nice like he gives a shit.
ReplyDeleteRick Perry supported bonds for everything. He even got a Lance Armstrong Cancer Bond through the voters that raised $3 billion for cancer research - much of it doled out through his "Texas Enterprise Fund" and associated "Technology Fund: which are both nothing more than a pot of slush money that he can use - with no legislative oversight - to reward campaign contributors and other people to whom he owes favors.
ReplyDeleteI would note that Bill White is the former mayor of Houston and was Perry's democratic opponent in the 2010 governor's race. So I would take any figures that he reports with a grain of salt, since he is not exactly impartial.
PAGING MORGAN WRASTLER
ReplyDeleteHa! Ha! The Left is the Right, the Right is the Left, there really is no difference.
ReplyDeletePerry was PISSED. Good job Drew. Hope your chest isn't bruised by that very rude finger jab, but wasn't it soooo worth it?
ReplyDeleteHe is a political terrorist...Why do you think Bilderberg supports him?
ReplyDeletePerry like a pus boil on a neck, he will be popped with consistent factual questioning. This guy is a strict socialist, red/blue, blue/red. What else is new, MSM loves the BS from the appointed donkey.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of the fallacy of believing in external authorities. Self-rule (Autarchy) is another way (CenterForSelfRule.org)
ReplyDeleteWithout external authority like Dear Leader Perry we will all die!
ReplyDelete-A Publik Skewl Grad