In his weekly memo for the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA, former
White House spokesman Bill Burton attacks Republican presidential candidate, Governor Rick Perry, claiming he’s too extreme to be trusted in the White House.
“Rick Perry thinks that Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional
— he wrote it in his book. When the health care debate was heating up,
he raised the specter of secession. And when asked about the chairman of
the Federal Reserve, he used the word ‘treasonous’.”
Perry’s view that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional is —
to him — a very real justification for the House Republican plan that
would essentially end Medicare. … Perry’s threat that Texas may secede
from the union was popular among Texas Republicans and conservatives.
51% of Texas Republicans approved of his comments. His statement is
consistent with the Tea Party’s broad hatred of the federal government.
Perry’s very loose and dangerous use of the term “treason” is something
that brought him criticism from many corners — just not Republican
primary voters.
Voters who are disturbed by ending Medicare, what it means when a major
governor threatens secession in the 21st century, and what it means for a
major national figure to throw around terms like “treason” should be
just as worried about this Republican Party as they are about Texas
Governor Rick Perry. (full story here.)
Let’s look at these criticisms….
1) Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional. There’s a simple answer to this. It Is. The Constitution gives Congress the authority to “provide for the general welfare” in Article 1, Section B, which some use to justify these programs, but it is for the “general welfare of the United States”, which means the people, as a whole, benefit from a government action. This does not include programs such as Medicare and Social Security. While this may be a controversial issue, Perry’s opinion that it’s unconstitutional is not even close to an “extreme” position. In addition, whether he thinks it’s unconstitutional or not, Perry has no intention of doing away with it. There are proposals already on the table, from Paul Ryan and others, for making changes to the program, but it has been made clear, many times over, that the changes will not affect anyone currently on or close to being on Medicare. So this claim is way off base.
2) Perry raised the specter of secession. He did make some comments about this issue, but never advocated secession. His comments were as follows: “I think there’s a lot of different scenarios. Texas is a unique
place. When we came in the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we
would be able to leave if we decided to do that.” He continued “You know, my hope is that America and Washington in particular pays
attention. We’ve got a great union. There is absolutely no reason to
dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the
American people, you know, who knows what may come out of that? But
Texas is a very unique place and we’re a pretty independent lot to boot.”
While Perry is incorrect about Texas being able to secede, his comments were really in making the point about the Obama administration not listening to or focusing on the real issues of the American people. When asked about his comments a year later, in a Newsweek interview, Perry remarked “I said that we live in an incredibly wonderful country, and I see
absolutely no reason for that to ever happen. But I do understand
people’s concern and anger about what this administration is doing from
an economic standpoint–in particular, the long-term debt that’s being
created for not only them but for future generations.” That doesn’t radical to me….what about you?
3) When asked about the chairman of the Federal Reserve, he used the word ‘treasonous’. His actual comments were “If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what
y’all would do to him in Iowa but we would treat him pretty ugly down
in Texas. Printing more money to play politics at this particular time
in American history is almost treacherous – or treasonous in my
opinion.” I don’t disagree with him on this! The reason the media is so up in arms about it is because Perry hit a nerve. Obama’s policies and the actions of the Federal Reserve is causing the devaluation of the dollar, and voters are angry about it.
These claims against Perry’s “extreme” views are just further proof of the fact that Obama is vulnerable, and Democrats are worried. Perry stepped into this race only a couple of weeks ago, and has already taken a big lead over former frontrunner, Mitt Romney. While it’s still early, and things can change quickly, Perry has already proven himself to be a viable candidate in this race, and Democrats and the main stream media are going to sling as much mud as possible, and hope something sticks.
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