Tag Archives: Perry

April 30, 2013 · 12:05 AM

Rick Perry ‘Disgusted’ By Cartoon Linking Deregulation To Fertilizer Plant Explosion

Cartoon of Texas Governor Rick Perry saying “Business is booming” next to the exploding fertilizer plant

Gov. Rick Perry has been going around the country trying to recruit corporations and manufacturers to Texas.  His selling point has been that Texas has weak regulation rules for Businesses and Manufacturers.

Addicting Info

When Jack Ohman, a cartoonist for The Sacramento (CA) Bee and his editor, Stuart Leavenworth, ran the above cartoon in Sunday’s paper, they must have felt like a couple of kids who’d just set off a stink bomb on their mean and ornery neighbor’s porch, and run somewhere to hide, snigger up their sleeves, and wait for the fun to begin. The cartoon shows Texas Governor Rick Perry bragging about his state’s low taxes and lax business regulations (“Business is BOOMING in Texas!”) while something – presumably the fertilizer plant that exploded in West, TX on April 18 — goes “BOOM!”

Sure enough, Perry took the bait and fumed in a letter to the editor:

It was with extreme disgust and disappointment I viewed your recent cartoon. While I will always welcome healthy policy debate, I won’t stand for someone mocking the tragic deaths of my fellow Texans and our fellow Americans.

Leavenworth sharply retorted:

Jack Ohman’s cartoon of April 25 made a strong statement about Gov. Rick Perry’s disregard for worker safety, and his attempts to market Texas as a place where industries can thrive with few regulations. It is unfortunate that Gov. Perry, and some on the blogosphere, have attempted to interpret the cartoon as being disrespectful of the victims of this tragedy. As Ohman has made clear on his blog, he has complete empathy for the victims and people living by the plant. What he finds offensive is a governor who would gamble with the lives of families by not pushing for the strongest safety regulations.Perry’s letter is an attempt to distract people from that message.

Um, HELLO? Nobody’s mocking the 15 people — mostly firefighters and other emergency responders — who died fighting flames from the atom bomb-like blasts. We’re mocking YOU, Governor Perry, for being a callous, uncaring jerk who cares more about the well-being of your state’s businesses than about the people who live there. When the West Fertilizer Plant exploded, it leveled a four block radius, and witnesses reported that the blast was “like a tornado” or “like a nuclear bomb went off.” Yet, this could have been prevented: The plant was cited for a serious violation back in 2006, after receiving complaints about “a strong ammonia smell.” The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality investigated, but apparently nobody followed up. Furthermore, Theodoric Meyer from Salon reports that plant failed a partial inspection in 2011, and hadn’t had a full inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 1985. Nor did anyone from the facility bother to tell the Department of Homeland Security — as required — about all that potentially explosive fertilizer.

Perry loves talking about getting the government off our backs. In fact, Perry ran a series of radio advertisements throughout California back in February, sneering at the Golden State’s higher taxes and regulations, and urging business owners to move to the Lone Star State:

Building a business is tough, but I hear that building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas governor Rick Perry, and I’ve got a message for California businesses. Come check out Texas. There are plenty of reasons Texas has been named the best state for doing business for eight years running. Visit TexasWideOpenForBusiness.Com, and see why our low taxes, sensible regulation, and fair legal system are just the thing to get your business moving … to Texas.

Yet this hypocrite still has no problem with getting help from the Federal Government when it suits him. After cutting the state’s fire department funding by 75% in 2011 — causing unprecedented levels of fire destruction and loss of life — Perry asked for federal funds to combat wild fires back in 2011. Yep, everything’s cheaper in Texas. Maybe that’s because 33% of people there are uninsured; two of your counties — Cameron and Hidalgo — have the highest poverty rates in the United States (41%); and your legislature cut $5.4 billion from education two years ago (your House’s new budget proposal will barely make a dent in them). Apparently, pro-business folks have forgotten about the old adage, “It takes money to make money.”

Last Thursday, April 25, the president attended a memorial for victims of the explosion, gave a moving speech, and promised that the nation would help the town recover and rebuild. Strange, how you don’t hear Perry and his cohorts howling about government spending now.

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July 10, 2012 · 8:19 AM

Perry ‘proudly’ refuses health care to 1.2 million low-income Texans

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R). Photo: Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com.

Between Governor Rick Scott of Florida and Governor Rick Perry of Texas, their governing is quite questionable to any reasonable person.

The Raw Story

In a statement published Monday morning, Texas Governor Rick Perry (R) “proudly” declared that he will decline to implement key tenets of the Affordable Care Act — a move that will see his state forgo an estimated $164 billion dollars in federal aid and leave over 1.2 million low-income Texans, who would have finally been eligible for health care, helpless and uninsured.

“This is a fiscally stupid decision on the part of Rick Perry,” Texas Democratic Party spokesperson Rebecca Acuña told Raw Story. “Texas would be one of the states that gets the most money from the federal government and the Medicaid expansion would have provided health care to more than a million Texans. It’s… It’s very sad that Rick Perry is willing to play politics with the health of Texans, and that’s exactly what this decision is.”

WATCH: Perry says Medicaid expansion like ‘adding 1,000 people to the Titanic’

With his announcement, Perry becomes the sixth governor to refuse implementing a key aspect of the Affordable Care Act: the Medicaid expansion and the state-based health care exchanges. Republican governors in Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana and Wisconsin have made similar decisions, but Texas is by far the biggest.

Perry would seem to be inviting a political free-for-all thanks to the relative size and power of the Texas hospital industry, which absorbed more than $4.6 billion in unpaid emergency medical costs in 2010. While not seeing it as a cure-all, Texas hospitals largely praised the Affordable Care Act for dramatically expanding health care options for poor people, who are ultimately paid for by others who carry their own insurance. Nearly 25 percent of Texans — 6.5 million people — do not have health insurance, including more than 1.2 million children, and the state’s health care system ranks last in the nation overall.

Continue reading here…

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January 19, 2012 · 2:15 PM

Mario Piperni

Finally.

“I have come to the conclusion that this is no viable path forward for me in this 2012 campaign,” said Rick Perry. “Therefore I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for president of the United States.”

In the end we learned that early comparisons between Perry and Bush were not out of line.  If anything, George W. Bush might be a notch or two up on Perry on the intellect scale.

So while Perry might be gone, his wisdom lives on.

Evolution.

“It’s a theory that’s out there. It’s got some gaps in it. In Texas we teach both Creationism and evolution.”

“I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution.”

BP oil spill…God’s fault.

“From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented.”

On the possibility of Texas seceding from the union – just what you want to hear from a presidential hopeful.

“There’s a lot of different scenarios. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”

Proving that even bigots and liars can aspire to great things.

“But you don‘t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know that there’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas and pray in school.”

Birds of a feather…

“George W. Bush did a incredible job in the presidency, defending us from freedom.”

Oops.

“I will tell you: It’s three agencies of government, when I get there, that are gone: Commerce, Education and the — what’s the third one there? Let’s see. … OK. So Commerce, Education and the — … The third agency of government I would — I would do away with the Education, the … Commerce and — let’s see — I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.”

The saddest part of Perry’s failed presidential run?  We’ll never get to see this…

Thanks Rick.  It was a blast.

 

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January 16, 2012 · 8:57 PM

Gingrich’s Delusional Politics

Mario Piperni

In the contest to determine the winner of the Far-Right Politics gold medal, rack up a few more points for Newt Gingrich.

English: Former Speaker of the House at CPAC in .

“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal employees delivering the right services in a highly efficient way and then wants to get rid of those folks who are in fact wasteful, or those folks who are ideologically so far to the left, or those people who want to frankly dictate to the rest of us.”

Is there no extreme position these people are not willing to adopt to satisfy their rabid base?  And that includes positions which are in direct contravention of the law.

OSC [U.S. Office of Special Counsel] has the authority to investigate and, where appropriate, prosecute claims of “prohibited personnel practices.” There are twelve prohibited personnel practices…which are defined by law at § 2302(b) of title 5 of the United States Code (U.S.C.). [...] Generally stated, § 2302(b) provides that a federal employee who has authority over personnel decisions may not:

(1) discriminate against an employee or applicant based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicapping condition, marital status, or political affiliation;

Combine the above with Gingrich’s call to have U.S. marshals arrest certain (liberal) judges and force them to explain their decisions in front of Congress, and what you have is an out-of-control politician who has lost sight of the Constitution and its intent.  And he’s not alone in that regard.  Perry and Santorum also called for abolishing the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for being too liberal.

Fortunately, Gingrich, Perry and Santorum will never have the opportunity to implement their proposals.  Romney has a lock on this race.  But the fact that such radical positions are being adopted and spoken openly by high profile Republicans is another clear sign that this party has completely lost its grip with reality.

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December 27, 2011 · 1:33 AM

Rick Perry’s Taxpayer-Funded Security Costs Rise

So, when is someone in Texas Governor Rick Perry’s camp going to be honest and tell him it’s time to pack it in and go home?

The Huffington Post

The Texas Tribune:

Aside from President Obama, Perry — the only sitting governor in the 2012 race — has the largest security contingent, and apparently the only one on the Republican side financed by taxpayers.

Read the whole story: The Texas Tribune

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December 20, 2011 · 12:01 AM

Perry Calls Wall Street Bailout “Biggest Theft In U.S. History”

Once again, poor Rick Perry gets the whole thing  backward.  It was the banks who performed the biggest heist in global history.

Rick Perry knows this, but since he’s a member of the 1% club, he blames it on the government…

News One

Seeking a late surge, Texas Gov. Rick Perry sought Monday to tar GOP presidential rivals Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney for supporting the $700 billion Wall Street bailout and said the billions loaned to banks and other financial institutions at the height of the 2008 financial crisis amounted to “the single biggest act of theft in American history.”

Most of the money has been paid back.

In the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, Perry stressed his credentials as a Washington outsider – someone who he says understands Main Street and is not beholden to the wealthy Wall Street set.

Perry said the values he learned growing up in rural Texas shaped his views.

“No one was going to bail out a dry-land cotton farmer” and no one should have bailed out Wall Street, Perry said in northeastern Iowa.

“This Wall Street bailout is the single biggest act of theft in American history,” he told voters at a pizza buffet. “And, you know, Newt and Mitt, they both were for it. That’s one of the reasons I say that if you really want an individual who is an outsider, someone who has not been engaged in part of that process, I hope you’ll take a look at me.”

Romney and Gingrich supported the Wall Street rescue that was shepherded into law in fall 2008 by Republican President George W. Bush. They have since become critics of the program, which conservative voters tend to loathe.

Perry joined the presidential contest in August to great fanfare but lost his luster following what was widely viewed as erratic behavior and lackluster performances in debates. He is hoping to achieve a comeback by pitching himself as “an outsider who truly believes that we’ve got more taxes and more regulation and more government than most Americans want.”

“We need to make the decision that we’re not going to support bailouts and these wasteful earmarks,” he said.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has remained steady in polling and also has a sizable campaign fund. Gingrich, the former House speaker, has surged in recent weeks as voters started watching the race more closely.

Perry is hoping to leapfrog them both by casting former business executive Romney as a Wall Street insider – although his venture capital firm was based in Massachusetts, not New York – and Gingrich as a Washington elite.

“If you’ll have my back on Jan. 3 at the caucuses here in Iowa,” he told voters. “I’ll have your back for the next four years in Washington, D.C.”

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December 12, 2011 · 2:35 PM

Iowan asks Perry: ‘Why do you hate gay people?’

The Raw Story

At the end of his event Sunday afternoon at a coffee house in Ames, Iowa, Texas Governor Rick Perry did not receive a warm endorsement from a few audience members.

Upset over his now infamous ad questioning gays in the military, one audience member decided to offer Perry his true feelings on him, according to the Des Moines Register.

“Why do you hate gay people?” he shouted.

Another member of the audience told the GOP presidential candidate to “Go back to Texas.”

Perry did not take questions at the event and hurriedly exited out the back door.

WATCH: Video from the Des Moines Register, which was published on December 11, 2011.

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December 10, 2011 · 5:46 PM

Perry Admits His Tax Plan Slams Low-Income People And Lets The Wealthy Pay Nothing

The good news is that Rick Perry’s plan may never come to fruition, thanks in part to his stumbling and bumbling over key issues in this year’s campaign season.  Adios amigo!

Think Progress

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), in his quest to win the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, has released a so-called flat tax plan that would institute a 20 percent income tax rate on everyone (minus a few deductions), while completely eliminating all taxes on investment income.

This, of course, would mean a huge tax increase for those Americans who pay less than 20 percent now, and an immense tax cut for those at the top of the income scale. In fact, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, Perry’s plan would cut taxes for millionaires by nearly $500,000 every year. Meanwhile, a family making $10,000-$20,000 would pay $215 more under the plan, while a family making $20,000-$30,000 would pay nearly $500 more.

During an interview yesterday with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register, Perry essentially admitted that this analysis is correct, affirming that a low-income person with no deductions would pay the full 20 percent while someone living entirely off of investments could conceivably pay nothing:

Q: For somebody who has a home and investments and all that, an income level to have all of that, gets those deductions, but a family that doesn’t then still pays 20 percent on their total income? And I’m describing a low-income family.

PERRY: Right. That is correct. [...]

Q: Talk about the difference in where people’s income comes from. The person who works, you know, punches the time clock, they would pay the 20 percent.The person who has the big nest egg from dad or grandpa, whose income derives from capital gains or dividends, would pay nothing?

PERRY: I have a hard time with nothing. I’m sure you could go find an individual or some small number of individuals that meet that characteristic. But again, I don’t think anybody’s going to be able to create a tax system that does not have somewhere an inequity.

When asked if his plan would give millions in tax breaks to the rich, Perry callously replied, “I don’t care about that.” A ThinkProgress analysis found that billionaire investor Warren Buffett could pay as little as 0.2 percent under Perry’s plan. At the same time, Perry not only wants to raise income taxes on lower- and middle-income families, but has come out against extending the expiring payroll tax cut, walloping working families with another $1,000 tax increase next year.

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· 12:53 AM

Rick Perry, when asked why he said Obama had declared war on religion, had little answer

Shaking my head…

America Blog

Keep in mind, George Bush was a bit of a dense Texan too, and he won two terms (depending how you count it). So sad. Perry is so desperate, and all of these eruptions are getting him news, but it’s bad news. He’s coming off as a major him-bo.  It’s also clear that it’s not clear what the man actually believes him.  Every time he gets asked about something he said, he has no explanation for it, as if it were all one big talking point written by someone else.  Because it is.

More from Ian Millhiser at ThinkProgress.

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November 8, 2011 · 7:42 AM

Rick Perry to Occupy Movement: ‘What’s With the Money Hangup, Man?’

Rick Perry is an idiot…

Crooks & Liars

Incredible but true: In a television interview, Rick Perry told the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators not to think about money so much. “Just find your passion,” said Perry. “Stop thinking about money.”

The other day Yours Truly co-hosted The Young Turks with Brian Unger, and in this segment Brian and I show the video and argue whether Perry is a shrewd re-framer of the debate, the last real hippie on Earth … or just has a screw loose. Watch the video and take the poll – is the Governor a canny re-framer of political perceptions, a carefree spirit letting his inner love child out for a stroll, or speaking to us from a state of profoundly altered perceptions?

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