RICK PERRY 's TEXAS
{Just click on the title to go to the original article. }
Several interesting articles on the Internet illuminate the " Stewardship of Rick Perry over the last 12 years and highlight his personal commitment to the state's less fortunate. It will be interesting to see how the media handles this and how Perry answers what is surely coming.
In many respects, Texas is the last place in the Union you would want to be if you are poor:
* 17.3 % of the state lives in poverty.........4.26 million people
* 66 % of Latino children and 59 % of black children live in low income families
* 28 % or 6.1 million people have NO health insurance
* The average monthly benefit for WIC ( Women-Infants-Children ) payments is $ 26.86
That's right, $ 26.86 PER MONTH, the lowest in the nation. But, Texas is not just last in
WIC payments.
* LAST in workman's compensation
* LAST in pre natal care for women
* LAST in non elderly health care for women
* LAST in mental health care
* 49 th in state spending for Medicaid
Now, the crux of my comments. Perry is Governor but many of the policies were the result of legislation attempting to shift the burden of the poor and less fortunate on to faith based groups and individuals and away from the Texas Government. O.K . So , let's see how Rick perry personally has responded to his ongoing mandate to make Texas better for business and how he personally has supported the less fortunate who increasingly are turned away by his state.
Perry lives in a $ 10,000 per month state mansion..........No mortgage
Perry receives free health care from the state
Perry has no transportation costs
Perry receives free utilities
Perry has no property taxes
Perry has no state income tax
Perry receives food free
You would think Rick Perry has a LOT left over each month to help the poor transitioning to his new state environment where the burden of the poor is moved to the support of faith based groups and individuals that he spoke to last Saturday at The Response. Let' s see
In 2007, Perry made $ 1,092,810 according to the IRS. He gave his church $ 90
In 2008, Perry made $ 277,677. He gave his church $ 2,850
In 2009, Perry made $ 200,370. He gave his church.........$ 0
In the entire 10 years from 2000 to 2009, while Governor of Texas with, essentially NO EXPENSES, Rick perry made $ 2,694,253. He gave his church $ 14,293. He also wrote of $ 30,768 to Goodwill.
Curious dichotomy of interests. It says much about the character we watched at The Response on Saturday and that we'll see a lot of over the next 6 months.
CraigS
And More: From this link just click HERE.
TEXANS against Rick Perry: An Open Letter
You’ve probably been hearing a lot lately about Governor Rick Perry as a potential contender for the GOP nomination. Let us in Texas help you cut through the hype: underneath all that pretty hair, the immaculately designed suits with the expensive cufflinks and the custom cowboy boots, there rests a corrupt smooth-talkin’ grifter who manipulates voters while giving high-fives to his special interest pals behind their backs.
You see, the presidential rhetoric isn’t anything new: Rick Perry’s been saying one thing and doing one another in our state for years now. We know that Rick Perry will come to your towns, do a meet-and-greet, and pretend to be a good ol’ Republican with conservative values. Let’s get real, there’s nothing conservative about Perry.
Fiscal Conservative?
Under Perry’s watch, Texas has faced multiple major budget deficits. Perry’s solution has been to divert taxes and fees, balloon state debt, rely on accounting gimmicks that would make Wall Street blush and slash state support for public and higher education.
Small Government Advocate?
Perry took money from the state’s savings account to set up slush funds for his corporate donors, trampled on Texans' property rights by trying to seize millions of acres of land for toll roads in a developer giveaway, and wanted to force a government mandate on Texan parents to vaccinate their little girls against STDs.
10th Amendment Defender?
Perry likes to talk tough against the federal government, but at the end of the day, it’s just talk. After railing against bailouts and federal spending, the very next day he accepted stimulus money. This Texas “bailout” made it possible for him to take the credit for a balanced budget.
Man of the People?
Rick Perry will try to say that he’s just like you, and that he’s tightened the state’s budget just like families have in these tough times. But how many people do you know get to live in a $10,000 rental mansion with a personal chef and wine cellar, all on the taxpayer’s dime? Perry travels all over the world while keeping the expenses of his security detail secret. He’s become a millionaire while holding elected office. He rewards his friends and donors with top-level appointments. Does he still sound like someone who can relate to you?
Is that really the sort of candidate you want for the GOP nomination? Our state is losing ground: we have the most adults without a high school education, the most uninsured children and the greatest share of minimum wage jobs. Don’t let this happen to our country too.
Take it from us Texans. Don’t be taken in by Rick Perry.
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For those of you who want to know his stance on Immigration
Rick Perry’s Immigration Journey Could Haunt Presidential Race
Just click on the link above
"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. "And that vision must include the children of undocumented workers. That's why Texas took the national lead in allowing such deserving young minds to attend a Texas college at a resident rate. Those young minds are a part of a new generation of leaders, the doors of higher education must be open to them. The message is simple: educacion es el futuro, y si se puede."
A decade later in June 2001, Perry traveled to San Antonio to offer an address to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials at their annual convention. This time, however, immigrant rights activists were gathered outside the building to protest and he faced a frosty, even hostile, reception from the guests inside. Perry again emphasized his pride in the state's Hispanic population, but it was no use -- a failed attempt by the governor to crack down on "sanctuary cities" with legislation that would free police officers to question people on their immigration status had poisoned the atmosphere completely. San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, who spoke before the governor, condemned Perry's bill as "easily the most anti-Latino agenda in more than a generation."
As Texas' longest serving governor, Perry has had the unenviable job of balancing his states' Latino population, business community, and border hawks over one of the most tumultuous decades for immigration policy in recent memory. But while his careful triangulation has kept him in office through three elections and a bruising primary in 2010, it's also left a trail of resentment on all sides that could threaten his quest for the presidential nomination.
On the right, anti-immigration conservatives have swung the GOP towards a hardline position, undoing a years-long effort by Perry's predecessor, George Bush, to bring Latino voters into the Republican fold. Once relatively uncontroversial positions by Perry have since become anathema: a bill offering in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants, which passed with near-unanimous margins in Texas, now faces major protests in Maryland.
"There's no justification for it," Mark Krikorian, executive director of the hawkish Center for Immigration Studies, told TPM when asked about the Texas law. "It sends one more signal that being an illegal alien really isn't that bad and that illegal immigrants can be integrated into the institutions of our society."
Many credit the Texas bill with inspiring the federal DREAM Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for similar children. Republican lawmakers have blocked the legislation in the Senate amid fierce opposition from conservative activists. Perry has come out against the national DREAM Act, but continues to defend his support for in-state tuition.
"To punish these young Texans for their parents' actions is not what America has always been about," he told the New Hampshire Union Leader last month.
NumbersUSA, which advocates for low levels of immigration, recently gave Perry a D- grade for his various policy stances. While the grade actually puts him in the middle of the pack among presidential contenders (only Michele Bachmann is in "B" territory), Perry's close association with the border guarantee that he'll receive plenty more attention. According to the group's president, Roy Beck, the biggest knock on Perry is his opposition to mandating the use of E-Verify, a federal electronic system for checking prospective workers' immigration status. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) pushed Perry on the issue hard in her 2010 primary campaign against the governor, pledging in a debate to use the system on all state employees.
"E-Verify would not make a hill of beans' difference when it comes to what's happening in America today," Perry fired back. "You secure the border first, then you can talk about how to identify individuals in an immigration situation."
According to Beck, Perry's quote was a major disappointment. "It's tough because for most of us who are concerned about illegal immigration, taking away the jobs magnet is the most important thing you can do," he said.
The issue hasn't died with his re-election, either: recently, a coalition of Tea Party groups called on Perry to implement E-Verify requirements via executive order.
Perry's potential problems with the right are the more immediate concern in the Republican primary, his recent efforts to shore up his conservative credentials with "sanctuary city" legislation could hobble him with Latino voters in a general election.
That fight began after Arizona passed a first-of-its-kind law requiring local law enforcement officers to question people about their immigration status if they believed they might be in the country illegally. At first, immigrant rights groups were heartened by Perry's reaction: an immediate pledge that he would not pursue a similar path in Texas. "I fully recognize and support a state's right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas," he said in a statement.
But despite his stated concerns about the Arizona bill "taking [police] away from their existing law enforcement duties, which are critical to keeping citizens safe" and using them to enforce immigration laws, he later threw his weight behind passing a bill that critics said would do much the same thing. While not as strong as Arizona's approach, the Texas bill that Perry added to an emergency legislative session this year would take away municipalities' ability to prevent their officers from questioning suspects about their immigration status. Police chiefs and sheriffs in Texas' biggest cities, including Dallas, El Paso, Austin, and San Antonio, strongly opposed the measure, warning it would strain their resources and discourage illegal immigrants from coming forward with information on crimes. According to Perry's camp, officers need more flexibility to confront potentially dangerous illegal immigrants.
"At the beginning he was positioning himself in the middle of the road, or at least not necessarily alienating Hispanic voters," Adriana Cadena, an El Paso activist for the Border Network For Human Rights, told TPM. "He's definitely moved more towards the right in the last couple of years as he's been running for president."
In addition to the sanctuary bill, Perry signed a Voter ID law that Democrats had blocked for years out of concerns it would discourage poor and minority citizens from voting. While civil rights groups noted that documented instances of voter fraud were extremely rare, proponents of the bill argued that it was necessary to ensure illegal aliens didn't vote.
While border issues are sensitive territory, Perry has some upside as well. Like many national Republicans, he has taken to emphasizing security as a necessary prerequisite to passing comprehensive reform. Unlike other candidates, however, Perry can make the case that he's actually contributed towards tightening law enforcement's grip on the border. For example, he's directed state helicopters to bolster federal patrols -- an image that could play well in front of a national audience.
"The fact is there's no governor in the country who has worked as long as he has to secure our borders, who has worked with two administrations to get them to focus on what is literally a war going on along the US-Texas border," longtime Perry strategist Dave Carney told TPM. "It's all about securing our border. That's been very consistent policy."
Another of Perry''s advantages may be that he hasn't staked out clear positions on some hot button federal immigration issues, giving him some flexibility to tailor his pitch to both sides. He toed a careful line during the 2006 immigration debates, supporting a guest worker program to legitimize illegal aliens, but never backing Bush's call for a path to citizenship, a provision conservatives derided as "amnesty."
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More Tidbits:
PERRY IS A STIMULUS HYPOCRITE WHO LOUDLY CRITICIZED FEDERAL RECOVERY MONEY BUT USED IT TO BALANCE HIS STATE’S BUDGET: As the nation struggled to avoid economic collapse in 2009, Perry was a vocal critic of Congress’s recovery package, even advocating that Texas reject the money because “we can take care of ourselves.” Months later, after Perry was able to balance the state’s budget only with the aid of billions in federal stimulus dollars, Perry again repeated that he would reject federal funding, arguing that the government “spends money they don’t have.” Five months later, Perry again took advantage of federal funding to issue $2 billion in bonds for highway improvements in Texas. Even so, the state faces a $27 billion budget deficit.
DESPITE HAVING THE WORST UNINSURED RATE IN THE COUNTRY, PERRY CLAIMS THAT TEXAS HAS “THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE COUNTRY” : On Bill Bennett’s radio show last year, Perry claimed that “Texas has the best health care in the country.” In reality, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents of any state. More than one in four Texans lack coverage; the national average is just 15.4 percent. As such, there are more uninsured residents in Texas than there are people in 33 states. Despite Texas’s low coverage rates, the state has some of the most restrictive Medicaid eligibility thresholds, and Perry has even proposed dropping out of the program. Texas also has an inordinately high percentage of impoverished children, yet Perry opposed expanding the successful State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
Our issues are spending deficit in our budget and he fails miserably in this. That should be enough right there to disqualify Rick Scott from consideration. Yet when you look at the mess in jobs and the misrepresentations there, that shows that he is also not the one to repair the economy. So, if we are being honest here, Rick Perry needs to be scratched from consideration. He shows zero capability of addressing deficit spending or repairing an economy.
But we do have a candidate that does address the budget here . And this same candidate is strong on immigration here . Great in education here . Was great on lowering taxes here .
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