Texas Gov. Rick Perry: It Is Time to Get America Working Again
Announces the launch of presidential campaign
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Determined to get America working again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry today announced his candidacy for president of the United States of America while speaking to an overflow crowd at the RedState Gathering 2011. Perry was joined by his wife, Anita, and their adult children at the announcement.
“It is time to get America working again,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “That’s why, with the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today my candidacy for President of the United States.”
“It is time for Americans to believe again – to believe that the promise of our future is far greater than even the best days of our past. It is time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise, set free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government. And it is time to truly restore our standing in the world and renew our faith in freedom as the best hope of peace in a world beset with strife.”
Perry underscored the urgent need for new leadership in light of the continued uncertainty and instability in the U.S. economy, continued overreach by an increasingly intrusive federal government into the lives of Americans and the rights of the states, and the misguided policies that are harming the future prosperity of our country.
“One in six work-eligible Americans cannot find a full-time job,” Perry continued. “That is not a recovery, that is an economic disaster.”
Perry spoke not only of the need for new leadership to create jobs, but the need to get serious about federal spending, saying, “Mr. President, you can't win the future by selling it off to foreign creditors.”
Last week, that failed leadership, and Barack Obama’s tax, spend and borrow agenda, led to the first ever downgrade in the credit rating of the United States.
“In reality, this is just the most recent downgrade,” Perry said. “The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, downgrading our standing in the world, downgrading our financial stability, downgrading confidence, and downgrading the hope of a better future for our children.”
As president, Perry has pledged to get the federal government’s fiscal house in order, restore the country’s good credit, and repeal Obama’s misguided one-size-fits-all government-run health care plan. He also committed to holding government accountable to the taxpayers, and adhering to the fiscally responsible principles that will lead to job creation, and in turn, wealth, while educating and innovating in science, technology, engineering and math to create the jobs and
progress needed to get America working again.
“I will work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can, and free our families, small businesses and states from a burdensome and costly federal government so they can create, innovate and succeed,” he continued. “With the help and courage of the American people, we will get our country working again.”
After announcing his candidacy in South Carolina, Perry is set to travel to New Hampshire on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday to begin a vigorous campaign in all three early states.
Rick Perry Biography
Champion of Conservative Principles From a Place Called Paint Creek
The 47th governor of Texas, Rick Perry grew up in the small community of Paint Creek located along the rolling plains of West Texas. Rick Perry is the son of Ray Perry, a World War II tailgunner who flew 35 missions over war-torn Europe, and Amelia Perry, who provided a loving, nurturing home for Rick and his older sister Amelia. Ray and Amelia Perry started out as tenant farmers, providing a modest upbringing for their children. Rick Perry grew up without indoor plumbing the first five years of his life, wore clothes hand-sewn by his mother, and was even bathed in a number 2 washtub as a young boy. Perry was one of 13 students in the Paint Creek Rural School’s Class of 1968. He played six-man football, worked on his family farm,
and devoted himself to the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle while in his teens.
Perry was among the first generation in his family to attend college, enrolling at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1968. He joined the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and was elected twice to serve as an Aggie Yell Leader. Perry graduated in August 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.
Upon graduation, Perry took a commission in the United States Air Force, flying C-130 tactical aircraft to destinations around the globe, including South America, Europe and the Middle East.
In 1977, Perry was honorably discharged from the Air Force with the rank of Captain, and he returned home to the family farm, where they grew dryland cotton, milo and wheat. During the next few years, Perry would become one of millions of conservative Reagan Democrats, and marry his high school sweetheart, Anita Thigpen, 16 years after their first date.
In 1983, Rick and Anita Perry welcomed a son, Griffin, and their daughter Sydney arrived in 1986. It was in 1984 that Perry set his sights on public office, running to represent his rural neighbors in the Texas House. Perry would serve three terms in the House, ultimately switching to the Republican Party toward the end of his final term, and taking the bold step of running statewide against populist Democrat Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Perry upset Hightower in 1990 and easily won re-election in 1994.
In 1998, Perry defeated his former Aggie classmate and the strongest Democrat on the ticket, John Sharp, in a close contest for lieutenant governor. Perry became governor in December 2000 after Governor George W. Bush resigned his office weeks before becoming President.
Perry has since won three full terms as governor, vanquishing billionaire Democrat Tony Sanchez by 18 points in 2002, defeating a four-candidate field with a nine-point gap over the second place finisher in 2006, and defeating both Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison by 21 points in the 2010 primary and popular Houston Mayor Bill White by 13 points in the 2010 general election.
The Prosperity Agenda: Jobs, Tax Relief, Spending Cuts
A staunch fiscal and social conservative, Rick Perry has controlled spending and taxes in Texas.
Perry has signed into law state budgets that have invested billions of dollars more in education, and he has successfully advocated for landmark lawsuit reforms.
In the most recent 2011 regular legislative session, Perry set a conservative, fiscally responsible course. He insisted on no new taxes, worked with legislators to cut spending by $15 billion, and protected the “Rainy Day Fund,” which set aside at least $6 billion for future needs.
Perry is the only governor since World War II to reduce state general revenue spending. Perry also signed an historic property tax cut, and a tax cut for small businesses with less than $1 million in gross receipts.
Perry has a strong record on job creation. His support for low taxes, reasonable regulations, a predictable civil litigation system and an educated workforce has produced a business climate consistently ranked among the best in the nation. Perry has actively encouraged employers to relocate to Texas or expand their operations in the state. Since June 2009, more than 40 percent of the net new jobs created in America have been created in Texas, and today, the Lone Star State is a magnet for corporate relocations. For nine straight years, Texas has led the nation in
exports to foreign countries among the 50 states.
With a strong record of job creation, restrained spending and tax cuts, Rick Perry is a committed conservative with the right vision for creating opportunity and prosperity. He has signed into law comprehensive reforms that have made Texas a leader in the fight against lawsuit abuse.
These reforms include a recent loser pay law that will cut down on frivolous lawsuits. His medical liability reforms have increased the number of physicians practicing in the state by the thousands, improving patient access to medical specialists.
The Perry record also includes a significant commitment to border security to stop the in-flow of illegal immigrants, weapons and drugs. Perry has ordered border surge operations that have reduced illegal crossings, and allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for border security operations that put more boots on the ground and utilize technology to detect, track and deter the criminal element.
Liberty, Security, Prosperity
A candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012, Rick Perry not only has a record of conservative reform, but a vision for America based on greater liberty, security and prosperity.
Perry will lead the effort to repeal Obama-care, the greatest intrusion on individual freedom in a generation. This budget-busting, government takeover of health care will rob half a billion dollars from Medicare and saddle America with massive tax hikes and higher costs in the long term.
Recognizing that rising deficits, record debt and failed stimulus spending have jeopardized the future of our country, Perry will take his proven budget-cutting record to Washington. He will reform entitlements and require all federal agencies to engage in a top-to-bottom review to identify and eliminate federal waste by justifying every program and every taxpayer dollar spent.
To stimulate the economy, Perry will take America on a very different course than that pursued by the Obama Administration. Instead of wasting tax dollars on massive spending bills that bloat the federal bureaucracy and slowly deliver funds to a few handpicked industries, Perry will cut taxes. Perry’s pro-growth agenda, combined with real spending reductions, will lead to a new era of economic growth that will get America working again.
Perry’s economic policies stand in stark contrast to the Obama Administration, and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who declared taxes must increase for small businesses, “so the administration does not have to ‘shrink the overall size of government programs.’”
(CNSNews.com, 6/23/11, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/geithner-taxes-small-businessmust-rise).
Not only has Perry cut taxes for small businesses, but his economic policies will
unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of small employers so they can hire and grow again.
Perry will invest in border security and stop the federal intrusion upon states by runaway agencies like the EPA. He will stand for the sanctity of life and the protection of the unborn. He will return our country to constitutional principles, including a renewed respect for the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution and state sovereignty.
Perry is a national leader in the effort to restore the primacy of the 10th Amendment, and wrote the book, “Fed Up” to rally Americans to restore the proper, constitutional balance between the federal government and the states. Perry’s first book, “On My Honor” defended the values of the Boy Scouts from assaults by the liberal elite.
Believe Again
A Reagan Republican, Rick Perry will restore confidence in the American Dream and American
Exceptionalism. He will advocate for economic policies that get our country moving again. He will work to ensure all Americans believe again in the promise of America.
Rick Perry will revive our economy, create jobs and protect America’s place as the world’s economic leader. He will offer a clear vision for our foreign policy that is based on American interests and a profound respect for the men and women who wear the uniform of our country.
It’s time for a leader who will allow us to believe again – to believe that America’s best days are ahead, that we are not consigned to a fate of high unemployment and rising prices, and that our place in the world can once again be secure with a policy of peace through strength.
That leader is Rick Perry. And his time is now.
Source: Rick Perry For President 2012 Website
Rick Perry 2012 Website
August 13, 2011
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: It Is Time to Get America Working Again
Announces the launch of presidential campaign
CHARLESTON, S.C. – Determined to get America working again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry today announced his candidacy for president of the United States of America while speaking to an overflow crowd at the RedState Gathering 2011. Perry was joined by his wife, Anita, and their adult children at the announcement.
“It is time to get America working again,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “That’s why, with the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today my candidacy for President of the United States.”
“It is time for Americans to believe again – to believe that the promise of our future is far greater than even the best days of our past. It is time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise, set free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government. And it is time to truly restore our standing in the world and renew our faith in freedom as the best hope of peace in a world beset with strife.”
Perry underscored the urgent need for new leadership in light of the continued uncertainty and instability in the U.S. economy, continued overreach by an increasingly intrusive federal government into the lives of Americans and the rights of the states, and the misguided policies that are harming the future prosperity of our country.
“One in six work-eligible Americans cannot find a full-time job,” Perry continued. “That is not a recovery, that is an economic disaster.”
Perry spoke not only of the need for new leadership to create jobs, but the need to get serious about federal spending, saying, “Mr. President, you can't win the future by selling it off to foreign creditors.”
Last week, that failed leadership, and Barack Obama’s tax, spend and borrow agenda, led to the first ever downgrade in the credit rating of the United States.
“In reality, this is just the most recent downgrade,” Perry said. “The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, downgrading our standing in the world, downgrading our financial stability, downgrading confidence, and downgrading the hope of a better future for our children.”
As president, Perry has pledged to get the federal government’s fiscal house in order, restore the country’s good credit, and repeal Obama’s misguided one-size-fits-all government-run health care plan. He also committed to holding government accountable to the taxpayers, and adhering to the fiscally responsible principles that will lead to job creation, and in turn, wealth, while educating and innovating in science, technology, engineering and math to create the jobs and
progress needed to get America working again.
“I will work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can, and free our families, small businesses and states from a burdensome and costly federal government so they can create, innovate and succeed,” he continued. “With the help and courage of the American people, we will get our country working again.”
After announcing his candidacy in South Carolina, Perry is set to travel to New Hampshire on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday to begin a vigorous campaign in all three early states.
Rick Perry Biography
Champion of Conservative Principles From a Place Called Paint Creek
The 47th governor of Texas, Rick Perry grew up in the small community of Paint Creek located along the rolling plains of West Texas. Rick Perry is the son of Ray Perry, a World War II tailgunner who flew 35 missions over war-torn Europe, and Amelia Perry, who provided a loving, nurturing home for Rick and his older sister Amelia. Ray and Amelia Perry started out as tenant farmers, providing a modest upbringing for their children. Rick Perry grew up without indoor plumbing the first five years of his life, wore clothes hand-sewn by his mother, and was even bathed in a number 2 washtub as a young boy. Perry was one of 13 students in the Paint Creek Rural School’s Class of 1968. He played six-man football, worked on his family farm,
and devoted himself to the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle while in his teens.
Perry was among the first generation in his family to attend college, enrolling at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1968. He joined the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and was elected twice to serve as an Aggie Yell Leader. Perry graduated in August 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.
Upon graduation, Perry took a commission in the United States Air Force, flying C-130 tactical aircraft to destinations around the globe, including South America, Europe and the Middle East.
In 1977, Perry was honorably discharged from the Air Force with the rank of Captain, and he returned home to the family farm, where they grew dryland cotton, milo and wheat. During the next few years, Perry would become one of millions of conservative Reagan Democrats, and marry his high school sweetheart, Anita Thigpen, 16 years after their first date.
In 1983, Rick and Anita Perry welcomed a son, Griffin, and their daughter Sydney arrived in 1986. It was in 1984 that Perry set his sights on public office, running to represent his rural neighbors in the Texas House. Perry would serve three terms in the House, ultimately switching to the Republican Party toward the end of his final term, and taking the bold step of running statewide against populist Democrat Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Perry upset Hightower in 1990 and easily won re-election in 1994.
In 1998, Perry defeated his former Aggie classmate and the strongest Democrat on the ticket, John Sharp, in a close contest for lieutenant governor. Perry became governor in December 2000 after Governor George W. Bush resigned his office weeks before becoming President.
Perry has since won three full terms as governor, vanquishing billionaire Democrat Tony Sanchez by 18 points in 2002, defeating a four-candidate field with a nine-point gap over the second place finisher in 2006, and defeating both Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison by 21 points in the 2010 primary and popular Houston Mayor Bill White by 13 points in the 2010 general election.
The Prosperity Agenda: Jobs, Tax Relief, Spending Cuts
A staunch fiscal and social conservative, Rick Perry has controlled spending and taxes in Texas.
Perry has signed into law state budgets that have invested billions of dollars more in education, and he has successfully advocated for landmark lawsuit reforms.
In the most recent 2011 regular legislative session, Perry set a conservative, fiscally responsible course. He insisted on no new taxes, worked with legislators to cut spending by $15 billion, and protected the “Rainy Day Fund,” which set aside at least $6 billion for future needs.
Perry is the only governor since World War II to reduce state general revenue spending. Perry also signed an historic property tax cut, and a tax cut for small businesses with less than $1 million in gross receipts.
Perry has a strong record on job creation. His support for low taxes, reasonable regulations, a predictable civil litigation system and an educated workforce has produced a business climate consistently ranked among the best in the nation. Perry has actively encouraged employers to relocate to Texas or expand their operations in the state. Since June 2009, more than 40 percent of the net new jobs created in America have been created in Texas, and today, the Lone Star State is a magnet for corporate relocations. For nine straight years, Texas has led the nation in
exports to foreign countries among the 50 states.
With a strong record of job creation, restrained spending and tax cuts, Rick Perry is a committed conservative with the right vision for creating opportunity and prosperity. He has signed into law comprehensive reforms that have made Texas a leader in the fight against lawsuit abuse.
These reforms include a recent loser pay law that will cut down on frivolous lawsuits. His medical liability reforms have increased the number of physicians practicing in the state by the thousands, improving patient access to medical specialists.
The Perry record also includes a significant commitment to border security to stop the in-flow of illegal immigrants, weapons and drugs. Perry has ordered border surge operations that have reduced illegal crossings, and allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for border security operations that put more boots on the ground and utilize technology to detect, track and deter the criminal element.
Liberty, Security, Prosperity
A candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012, Rick Perry not only has a record of conservative reform, but a vision for America based on greater liberty, security and prosperity.
Perry will lead the effort to repeal Obama-care, the greatest intrusion on individual freedom in a generation. This budget-busting, government takeover of health care will rob half a billion dollars from Medicare and saddle America with massive tax hikes and higher costs in the long term.
Recognizing that rising deficits, record debt and failed stimulus spending have jeopardized the future of our country, Perry will take his proven budget-cutting record to Washington. He will reform entitlements and require all federal agencies to engage in a top-to-bottom review to identify and eliminate federal waste by justifying every program and every taxpayer dollar spent.
To stimulate the economy, Perry will take America on a very different course than that pursued by the Obama Administration. Instead of wasting tax dollars on massive spending bills that bloat the federal bureaucracy and slowly deliver funds to a few handpicked industries, Perry will cut taxes. Perry’s pro-growth agenda, combined with real spending reductions, will lead to a new era of economic growth that will get America working again.
Perry’s economic policies stand in stark contrast to the Obama Administration, and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who declared taxes must increase for small businesses, “so the administration does not have to ‘shrink the overall size of government programs.’”
(CNSNews.com, 6/23/11, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/geithner-taxes-small-businessmust-rise).
Not only has Perry cut taxes for small businesses, but his economic policies will
unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of small employers so they can hire and grow again.
Perry will invest in border security and stop the federal intrusion upon states by runaway agencies like the EPA. He will stand for the sanctity of life and the protection of the unborn. He will return our country to constitutional principles, including a renewed respect for the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution and state sovereignty.
Perry is a national leader in the effort to restore the primacy of the 10th Amendment, and wrote the book, “Fed Up” to rally Americans to restore the proper, constitutional balance between the federal government and the states. Perry’s first book, “On My Honor” defended the values of the Boy Scouts from assaults by the liberal elite.
Believe Again
A Reagan Republican, Rick Perry will restore confidence in the American Dream and American
Exceptionalism. He will advocate for economic policies that get our country moving again. He will work to ensure all Americans believe again in the promise of America.
Rick Perry will revive our economy, create jobs and protect America’s place as the world’s economic leader. He will offer a clear vision for our foreign policy that is based on American interests and a profound respect for the men and women who wear the uniform of our country.
It’s time for a leader who will allow us to believe again – to believe that America’s best days are ahead, that we are not consigned to a fate of high unemployment and rising prices, and that our place in the world can once again be secure with a policy of peace through strength.
That leader is Rick Perry. And his time is now.
Source: Rick Perry For President 2012 Website
Rick Perry 2012 Website
January 19, 2012
Text of Governor Perry’s Remarks
Thank you. As I have stated numerous times on the campaign trail, this campaign has never been about the candidates.
I ran for President because I love America, our people and our freedom. But the mission is greater than the man.
As I have traveled across this great country: from New Hampshire to California, from Iowa to Florida, and to numerous states in between, I have discovered a tremendous purpose and resiliency in our people. They have never lost hope despite current circumstances.
They haven’t stopped believing in the promise of America or the American Dream.
Americans are down, but we can never be counted out. We are too great a people. What is broken in America is not our people, but our politics.
And what we need is a Washington that is humbler, with a federal government that is smaller so our people can live freer.
I entered this campaign offering a unique perspective: a governor who has led a large state leading the nation in job creation, an executive leader who has implemented conservative policies, a son of tenant farmers born with little more than a good name, but who has experienced the great possibilities of freedom.
But I have never believed that the cause of conservatism is embodied by any one individual. Our party, and the conservative philosophy, transcends any one individual. It is a movement of ideas that are greater than any one of us, and that will live beyond our years.
As a former Air Force pilot, I know we can’t lose track of the ultimate objective in carrying out our mission, and that objective is not only to defeat President Obama, but to replace him with a conservative leader who will bring about real change.
Our country is hurting with more than 13 million unemployed, nearly 50 million on food stamps and a debt of more than $15 trillion and growing.
We need bold, conservative leadership that will take on the entrenched interests and give the American People their country back.
I have always believed the mission is greater than the man.
As I have contemplated the future of this campaign, I have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path to victory for my candidacy in 2012.
Therefore, today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich for president.
I believe Newt is a conservative visionary who can transform our country.
We have had our differences, which campaigns inevitably bring out. And Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?
The fact is, there is forgiveness for those who seek God and I believe in the power of redemption, for it is a central tenet of my own Christian faith.
And I have no question Newt Gingrich has the heart of a conservative reformer, the ability to rally and captivate the conservative movement and the courage to tell the Washington interests to take a hike if it’s what is best for the country.
As a Texan, I have never shied away from a good fight, especially when the cause was right.
But as someone who has always admired a great Texas forefather — Sam Houston — I know when it is time for a “strategic retreat.”
So I will leave the trail, return home to Texas and wind down my 2012 campaign organization. And I will do so with pride knowing I gave myself fully to a cause worthy of our country.
And as I head home, I do so with the love of my life by my side, a woman who makes every day a good one when she is by my side, my wife Anita.
Thank you Anita for all you have done.
I also want to thank my son Griffin, my daughter Sydney, and my daughter-in-law Meredith for standing with us in this great effort.
With a good wife, three wonderful children, and a loving God in my life, things will be good no matter what the future holds.
I’m proud of the policies we put forward to the American people and believe they provide the right path forward for our party and our nation: overhauling Washington and returning power to state and local governments and to the people, creating energy jobs and energy security, cutting spending and eliminating unnecessary federal agencies and cutting taxes to a flat, fair 20 percent.
And I will continue to fight for these conservative reforms because the future of our country is at stake and the road we are traveling today – President Obama’s road – endangers our future.
I want to thank some wonderful individuals who have stood by my side in this state: Katon Dawson, Ambassador Wilkins, and a strong and good man serving you in Congress, Mick Mulvaney.
I want to thank all my supporters from across the country, in particular Governor Bobby Jindal, Steve Forbes and Governor Sam Brownback, as well as Senator Jim Inhofe, Congresswoman Candice Miller and Congressman Sam Graves.
And I want to say a special thanks to three distinguished veterans who have joined me on the campaign trail: Medal of Honor awardee and Navy SEAL Mike Thornton, Navy Cross recipient Marcus Luttrell and Purple Heart recipient, Marine Captain Dan Moran.
I began this race with a sense of calling.
I felt led into this arena to fight for the future of this country.
I feel no different today than I did then, knowing a calling never guarantees a particular destination, but a journey that tests one’s faith and character.
So now the journey leads us back to Texas, neither discouraged nor disenchanted, but instead rewarded for the experience and resolute to remain in the arena and in the service of a great nation.
Our country needs bold leadership and a real transformation.
We must rise to the occasion and elect a conservative champion to put our nation back on the right track.
And this I know, I am not done fighting for the cause of conservatism. In fact I have only begun to fight.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Anita and I Thank You for Your Support
Today I am suspending my campaign for President.
Anita and I have been blessed by the many supporters who have believed in our conservative vision for the country.
Although I will no longer be on the campaign trail, I will continue to champion conservative principles: a Washington that is humbler with a federal government that is smaller, real tax reform that can spur economic growth, and a renewed commitment to fiscal discipline so the future of this country is not mortgaged on a mountain of debt.
As we return to Austin and the Texas I love, I am proud to continue as governor of this great state and will work every day to make Texas a better place to do business and create jobs for all Texans.
We cannot thank you enough for your generous support which enabled our campaign to champion these conservative values.
God bless.
Rick Perry
Source: Rick Perry For President 2012 Website
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COPYRIGHT 2000-2024 - 4PRESIDENT CORPORATION/MIKE DEC PHOTOGRAPHY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
COPYRIGHT 2000-2024 - 4PRESIDENT CORPORATION/MIKE DEC PHOTOGRAPHY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
COPYRIGHT 2000-2024 - 4PRESIDENT CORPORATION/MIKE DEC PHOTOGRAPHY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED