Since Rick Perry threw his hat in the ring, much ink has been spilled proclaiming his sterling virtues or warning the innocents of the terrifying thought of dredging up the specter of Bush all over again in the ghastly form of Perry. Let’s talk about some of Perry’s ideas, claims to the presidency, and his unembellished accomplishments.
Omitting the political rhetoric and Perry’s campaign propaganda, let’s review and note some of the things reaching the media and others that somehow got lost. For those who believe that America is too immoral and needs much more religion to educate our children and bring more ethics into government, and that we ought to take government out of business, which needs our loyal and dedicated support to create the jobs we desperately need, Rick Perry is very definitely your boy.
Since most people gloss over the newspaper headlines or sound bytes we get in the media, we can well believe that some of the more telling points being made have sailed over their heads. Take the matter of the Christian Dominionists practically running the campaigns of Perry and Rep. Michele Bachman [who will soon become an also-ran as Perry walks away with the trophy as No. 1 Republican candidate for president]. Many people are well aware of Perry’s invitation to as many people as possible, especially to the moneyed Conservatives, to his religious rally recently, which [only incidentally] was organized by dominionists. But how many people who heard about it or were carried away by it know what the term “dominionist” means?
Some people consider dominionism nothing more than a technical term. Even some dominionists make the claim. It is an academic term for a strain of evangelical Christianity that mandates believers to take over the institutions of society in order to implement God’s law on earth. This thinking flows from the theology of Christian Reconstructionism, whose proponents see as their ultimate goal: the reconstitution of Biblical law as the law of the land. This all began when in the 1960s the religious right saw that it needed the kind of organization that would give it much greater political clout. The work of such leaders as Rousas John Rushdoony, father of Christian Reconstructionism, Francis Schaeffer, dominionist and strong crusader against abortion [major influence on Michele Bachman, as even her son Frank will attest], and Bill Bright, founder of the Campus Crusade for Christ, gave form and substance to this new movement in the 1970s. We should not forget to underscore the object of Perry and his dominionism: take over the institutions of society and to reconstitute the Biblical law as the law of the land. So much for the separation of the Church and State and freedom for non-believers.
One can only wonder, how can they pull this off in such “an enlightened age?” For one thing, that dominionism should have emerged in the 1970s in the first place and to have evolved so far hardly says much for the enlightenment of our electorate. We need also remember how religion played such a telling role during Bush’s watch: he was even hearing the voice of God directing his strategy. There are more ties and similarities connecting Perry with Bush. Note: like Bush, Perry’s chief support by far for his political campaigns and maintenance is Big Oil; denials to the contrary [in an effort to distance himself from the unpopular Bush], their intimate friendship and political association goes back decades; Bush’s former strategist Karl Rove has said in an interview on Fox [where else?] that Bush “moved heaven and earth” to get Perry elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas; like Bush, Perry preaches the smallest government. But that to them doesn’t mean the public sector but the private sector, for the public sector grew twice as large as the private sector: the better to carry out his will, though providing considerably less for government services and programs that would help the needy, children, students, and others.
The Tea Party, another recent phenomenon, since the inauguration of Obama, was lightning fast and effective in the 2010 mid-term elections, installing a large number of conservative Republicans around the country. It is solid in Texas, hence who is there to say “no” to Ricky boy? Whatever good ideas the Tea Party may boast, they are dressed and bent on destroying our country as we knew it before Reagan and their eminence grise appearance. Perry buys the Tea Party philosophy: Halt ALL Regulations, effecting protecting our air, water, and food. Perry asked Obama to put a moratorium on all regulations, which would mean: USDA would stop checking for food safety; NTSB would stop investigating airplane accidents; FDA would stop approving drugs & preventing human experimentation; DHS would stop protecting chemical facilities from terrorist attack; Library of Congress would stop lending materials for the blind; Treasury would stop printing currency; HHS would end Medicare payments, no more patents, copyrights, or trademarks; EPA would stop monitoring for poisons in drinking water; the Federal Reserve System would be shut down. [Doesn’t that get us a bit closer to a Theocracy?]
Perry along with his Tea Party support system not only believes Social Security is a ponzi scheme but totally unconstitutional. Someone brought it to his attention that the Constitution says that “the Congress shall have the Power To lay and collect Taxes . . . to provide for the . . . general Welfare of the United States,” to which Perry unabashedly said, “I don’t think our founding fathers when they were putting the term “general welfare” in there were thinking about a federally operated program of pensions nor a federally operated program of health. What they clearly said was that those were issues that the states need to address. . . . I stand very clear on that.” It may be clear to someone who does not understand English. But it seems that when the Constitution says, “the Congress shall have the Power,” it clearly means to anyone conversant with English “the Congress of the United States,” not of each individual state.
In tandem with the Tea Party, Perry insists also: “I don’t think the federal government has a role in your children’s education.” Among other things such madness would be the total elimination of federal student loans, Pell grants, and billions in federal education funding. Another tiny wrinkle to this kind of thinking means that the countless numbers of students in our poor states would suffer even more than they do now with federal funding, because each state would have “the power” to impoverish the less fortunate generations of our American youth [which means all young Americans in all our states], if we still mean we live in one country. Not to overlook Perry’s performance in Texas education, we should note that Texas boasts one of the lowest universal tests in the country – and only ten years in office. We dread to think what would happen to Texas education if he stayed the course for another ten or more years!
More specifically, we can glance briefly at Perry’s record as governor of Texas. He has been tooting his own horn around the country to advertise to everyone that he is the man to lead our country, because of his magical work that makes Texas great. We don’t want to say he’s disgracefully mistaken or a liar – yet! He is running on a sham record: he boasts that Texas with 10% of the country’s population has created 37% of net new jobs in the U.S. since the recovery. Sounds impressive to be sure. But what are the unadulterated facts about this “job growth? Such mirage growth, for which he can hardly take credit, is due to recent massive increase in the state’s population, much of it the result of Hispanic immigration. Texas’ unemployment rate, however, has risen while those jobs were being created. But what in reality are we talking about when speaking of this “job growth” – lots of professional jobs with big pay and benefits? Nein! Texas leads the nation in poor minimum-wage jobs without benefits! These highly coveted jobs increased by 150% between 2007 and 2010. Is that what we want for America? Something else to which Perry cannot take credit is the boom in energy prices happening in his oil and gas-rich Texas.
Perry boasts that he operates by “just really pretty simple guiding principles”: 1. Don’t spend all the money, 2. Keep the taxes low and under control, 3. Regulatory climate is fair and predictable, 4. Reform the legal system so frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers trying to create jobs. To be expected, some people are going to be sold on this myth, like gullible and propagandist Newt Gingrich who spoke on Fox News [where else?]: “I know how to get the whole country to resemble Texas.” Well, let’s see how well these “pretty simple principles” are working for Perry and his captive state and what Gingrich promises for our country:
1. Texas leads the country in percentage of its population without health insurance.
2. Only one state covered a smaller percentage of its poor with Medicaid.
3. Texas leads also in percentage of children without insurance.
4. Texas is last in the number of women receiving early prenatal care.
5. Ranks sixth highest rate of infectious diseases in U.S.
6. Ranks 35th in number of children being immunized.
7. 40th in overall health services.
8. 9th lowest level of health care spending per person.
9. 36th in the nation in terms of high school graduation are.
10. Lowest rate of the population aged 25 and older with high school diploma.
11. Texas students have the sixth lowest SAT in the nation.
12. Texas boasts fourth in teen pregnancies.
13. Has the 16th highest crime rate.
14. 17th in occupational fatalities.
15. Tied with Missouri for 19th in citizens needing food stamps.
16. Texas sits at the top of recognized carcinogens released into the air.
17. 4th for highest amount of toxic chemicals in the environment.
18. Per capita income growth, Texas was 8th SLOWEST in nation between 1998 and 2008.
19. Ranked 47th in median household net worth (averaged 2007-9).
20. Only seven states have a higher percentage of children in poverty.
21. Only nine states have a higher percentage of people of all ages living BELOW THE POVERTY LINE.
(Compiled by Peter Montgomery at Right-Wing Watch)
Very typically of Conservative government – which consistently provides slow growth, poor social results, greater inequality, and less protection for workers and our environment – Perry’s candidacy is rich in these glowing promises. These statistics speak louder than Perry’s slick words on his campaign hustings and claims of great achievements during his governor’s reign. [Contrary to Perry’s thinking, would not the country gain by having a President who would use that Constitutional Power and Mandate to make all the states of the nation EQUAL to the Number One state in ALL the above-mentioned categories rather than to have such a disgraceful disparity we have today among the states?]
As a short endnote to close the book on brother Perry, we might touch on his handling of his own state budget, which might suggest how we can expect him to handle a much larger one given the one of our country. In his last State of the State speech, he talked about the $27 billion budget shortfall facing the Texas legislature. “Now, the mainstream media and big government interest groups,” he declaimed, “are doing their best to convince us that we’re facing a budget Armageddon.” More than with a touch of braggadocio, he assured his captive audience that, “Texans don’t believe it and they shouldn’t because it’s not true.” Well, is he as big a liar as Bush, or bigger? [You decide from the following.]
The budget shortfall Perry blatantly denied is not only a reality but a consequence of one of his own smoke-and-mirror legerdemain schemes to squeeze money from a stone, where there is none to be had: his “business margins tax.” This came as a result of the fact that Texas is one of nine states without income tax; hence many public services, especially public education, come from property taxes, which are high in this state. Perry, to pull off a bit of razzle-dazzle, called a special session of his [“stacked”] Congress to reduce property taxes with this “margins” tax, which would provide enough revenue to reduce property taxes. No one in his Congress believed it could work. State Comptroller Carole Strayhorn sent him a letter telling Perry that: “your plan [in 2008] is $3.4 billion short; in 2009, it is $5.4 billion short; in 2010 it is $4.9 billion short, and in 2011 it is $5 billion short. She added that these were “conservative estimates . . . The gap is going to continue to grow year by year.” The shortfall the bill created could only be closed by TAX INCREASES “or massive cuts in essential public services – like public education.”
Houston Democratic Rep. Scott Hochberg, Legislature’s resident authority on public-education finance, said in an interview, “Every official document predicting the state’s financial crisis at the time (2006) predicted exactly what happened.” In a small meeting amongst the legislators with Perry, Scott asked him if he was not aware that his tax bill would not produce the revenue promised. Perry answered, “Scott, use your common sense. Don’t you know that when we cut property taxes we will see such an economic boom that you will never even notice the drop in revenue.” Not only did Perry know what a sham his bill was, but that the great vision of his bill has NOT produced anything resembling a “boom” but rather a horrendous depression, especially in the housing industry and has produced a more severe financial crisis than before his brainstorm. Perry and all the people afraid to vote against him [like the Tea Party House members who said en masse, “I’m not going to vote against the governor”], when confronted with the obvious loss of revenue, keep using the escape hatch “we will grow out of it.” Rather than grow out of it, everyone with the courage to say so, talk about how “the gap is growing year by year,” as Strayhorn had predicted. That explains briefly Perry’s method and way of thinking. Even with stimulus money to cover the gap keeps growing as predicted at a rollicking pace.
The gap has been partly covered not with Perry’s economic wisdom and strategy but with Obama’s federal $17 billion stimulus money. But Perry refused to accept the $555 billion federal stimulus money Obama offered designated for the extension of benefits to the unemployed, hiding behind the excuse that it had strings attached. Democrats believed otherwise: that he did not accept this latter stimulus money because it would be too much like helping the worker rather than the employer, the one who is more likely to shell out the big money for his campaigns. The continued shortfalls and loss of stimulus money is costing SO FAR, the loss of 12,000 teachers, 6,000 state employees, many university professors and other university employees [and Perry boasts about creating jobs; he doesn’t mention the jobs lost because of him]; Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals have been cut; and the last four months of Medicaid payments in the fiscal year 2012 were not funded.
Then finally there is the state’s “Rainy Day Fund.” Despite the clamor from the teachers and other employees, to say nothing of cancelling programs and supplies, Perry refused adamantly to use any part of the $9.5 billion Rainy Day Fund; it was absolutely “hands off,” at least in part because it is funded by oil and gas taxes. He finally agreed “to touch” the Fund of $3.2 billion only because even his own minion Republicans urge him to cover part of the current fiscal year’s deficit, but nothing for the next biennium when the state’s public schools will be short $5.7 billion. When the Legislature convenes in 2012, it will face a shortfall of $10-18 billion, plus the $4.8 billion in Medicaid expenses it failed to fund this year. Can we imagine how delighted teachers and many others will be with that additional shortfall? Perry bragged about how Texas was going “to do more with less.” The truth is that he has done much less than ever by taking from the poor to give to the rich. What American voter doesn’t want a president with such magical powers of administration?
Finally, everyone around Perry is up on to his game: collaborates with the private sector to create jobs and to attract jobs from [at the expense of] other states. The Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technologies Fund, his personal brain-children [or monsters], are geared to do this heinous hatchet work – for a hefty price, of course, which operate on a “trickle-up economic theory”: the state takes money from the taxpayers and gives it to corporations to entice them to create jobs. Perry hands over millions to corporations, whose executives have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to his campaigns. With a war chest like that he can buy his way into the White House with taxpayer money and fond wishes – the American way. With all the power in his hands, Perry proposes and Perry disposes, all in closed meetings.
The Texas Enterprise Fund started in 2003 with $285 million from the state’s Rainy Day Fund, the same Rainy Day Fund “off limits” to public schools, then withdrew $161 million from the Unemployment Compensation Fund in 2009. Texans for Public Justice (TPJ) did its own audits of economic development funds in 2009 and found that the number of grant recipients were not fulfilling their obligations from 42 to 66 percent, and found that when companies failed to meet their contractual obligations to provide jobs, the governor’s office with alacrity “discreetly” [so the public would not know] rewrote their contracts. How’s that for doing business the political way? What taxpayer is not delighted to know how honestly his hard-earned money is being spent?
Just two examples to see how well this tax money is spent. Motiva Enterprises is a joint venture of Shell Oil and the Saudi-Arabian oil company Aramco. Texas gave Motiva $2 million to create 300 jobs through a $3.2 billion project at Port Arthur. Motiva was hardly likely to move to another state with such money invested at Port Arthur and operating with such billions, so what desperate need would it have for a mere $2 million, which the Texas taxpayer could have used for needier purposes, especially when Shell’s reported earnings at that moment were $6.3 billion?
In 2005 Texas taxpayers cheerfully gave Washington Mutual $15 million to open a new facility in San Antonio, when WaMu had $300 billion in assets, $188 billion in deposits, and 43,000 employees, and was in the process of dumping its 30-year-fixed-rate mortgage portfolio to clear the books for high-risk subprime loans, a financing of “toxic financial products that sucked equity and wealth out of hundreds of thousands of people, not only in Texas, but nationwide.” Moreover WaMu was also consistently missing its job targets. TPJ not only found that the governor’s office was not only amending its contract, but allowing aggregated part-time jobs to count as full-time jobs. What better qualifications for a U.S. president? We have criticized presidents and politicians at all levels throughout our glorious history, but Perry is if not honest, he is certainly slick, especially with the Dominionists and the frantic Tea Party behind him.
Perry has criticized Washington and pictured himself as anti-Washington during his reign in Austin. When he sits on the throne in Washington, is he still going to be anti-Washington or ensconced comfortably where he has always dreamed of being? Well, supposing that he does get elected and insists on being anti-Washington, does that mean that he is going to operate outside and independently of Congress? Who can do that successfully – but a dictator?
Key words: Perry, Bush, Dominionism, religious-right, Tea Party, Conservative-right, Christian-right, religious rally, budget, deficit, education, Texas, Constitution, federal, power, presidential candidate, Michele Bachman, Democrats, Republicans, corporations, Obama, stimulus money, Rainy Day Fund, jobs, financial crisis, Karl Rove, extremists, big oil, regulations, big government, political rhetoric, teachers, university professors.
