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My thanks to David Barton who has answered the 14 objections to Rick Perry here and I’ve printed it below: http://ow.ly/d/jbD

“There Nothing so Powerful as the Truth”!
This internet trash has no place in the real world

14 Reasons Why Rick Perry Would Be A Really, Really Bad President, Really?
Of course the facts matter more than the cranks that spew hate:

#1 Rick Perry is a “big government” politician. When Rick Perry became the governor of Texas in 2000, the total spending by the Texas state government was approximately $49 billion. Ten years later it was approximately $90 billion. That is not exactly reducing the size of government.

• State spending has increased as Texas’ population has increased. Our budget is bigger because the state is generating revenue from more people than when the governor took office.

o General revenue spending has only grown 31%, significantly less than the 44.6% estimated growth in population and inflation and well under the 70.5% growth that personal income is estimated to have experienced over the same period.
o The governor has advocated for an amendment to the state constitution to limit state budget growth to population increase plus inflation to ensure fiscal responsibility in order to control spending well into the future.

• Gov. Perry signed HB 4 during the 2011 regular session, which reduces spending on state government in the current biennium by more than $1 billion.

• Gov. Perry is the only Texas governor since World War II to sign state budgets that appropriate less general revenue than was spent in the previous biennium.

#2 The debt of the state of Texas is out of control. According to usdebtclock.org, the debt to GDP ratio in Texas is 22.9% and the debt per citizen is $10,645. In California (a total financial basket case), the debt to GDP ratio is just 18.7% and the debt per citizen is only $9932. If Rick Perry runs for president these are numbers he will want to keep well hidden.

• That figure is false, Texas’ debt amounts to $612 per resident, compared to $3,149 per person in New York and $2,542 per person in California. The federal government debt amounts to more than $46,000 per person (which is more than Greece’s, which amounts to about $42,300 (USD) per person)

• Among the 10 most populous states, Texas has the lowest per capita tax-supported debt.

#3 The total debt of the Texas government has more than doubled since Rick Perry became governor. So what would the U.S. national debt look like after four (or eight) years of Rick Perry?

• Texas remains within its constitutionally required cap of 5% of general revenue and voters have to approve all general obligation debt of the state.

• Credit firms give high marks to Texas’ economy and state budget, which is why the credit agencies have rated Texas AAA, the highest rating possible.

#4 Rick Perry has spearheaded the effort to lease roads in Texas to foreign companies, to turn roads that are already free to drive on into toll roads, and to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor which would be part of the planned NAFTA superhighway system. If you really do deep research on this whole Trans-Texas Corridor nonsense you will see why no American should ever cast a single vote for Rick Perry.

• Texas roads can never be owned by anyone other than the state of Texas, and are not “leased away.” Private companies that finance toll roads simply cover the construction costs.

According to Texas Transportation Code, Chapter 223.206, the public never relinquishes ownership of state roads.

• Gov. Perry signed a law in 2005 that would prevent toll roads from taking over existing free roads. This is current law under Transportation Code, Chapter 228.201.

• The Trans-Texas Corridor is dead and cannot be resurrected under any other name, In fact, The Texas Transportation Commission recommended to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) that it disapprove construction of the TTC-35 and a “no action alternative” was issued July 2010 killing the program. Additionally, the governor recently signed HB 1201, which removed remaining references to the TTC from state statute.

• As Texas population continues to grow by about 1,200 people every day, Gov. Perry stood up to the challenge to create a plan that would provide the infrastructure to accommodate this growth. The TTC was an attempt to create thousands of miles of roadways, rail lines and gas transportation systems without raising taxes. It would vastly ease congestion on existing roads, and economically provide a solution for meeting our state’s transportation needs without raising taxes. However, Gov. Perry also listens to the people. They clearly did not want this, which is why the Trans Texas corridor is dead, and it isn’t coming back.

#5 Rick Perry claims that he has a “track record” of not raising taxes. That is a false claim. Rick Perry has repeatedly raised taxes and fees while he has been governor. Today, Texans are faced with significantly higher taxes and fees than they were before Rick Perry was elected.

• False, Gov. Perry has held the line on taxes throughout his entire tenure as governor. Even with challenging budgets like in 2003 and 2011, he signed balanced budgets that did not raise taxes.

• Taxes are lower across the board since Gov. Perry took office. From repealing the Telecommunications Infrastructure Tax (TIF), lowering property tax rates 1/3 and continuing and expanding sales tax holidays, Texans are saving billions more than they would have otherwise been required to spend.

o Gov. Perry kept his promise in 2009 when he fought for an increased exemption to the small business margins tax, which raised the exemptions from $300,000 to $1 million, lowering taxes for 40,000 small businesses. He fought to extend that exemption this session until 2014.
o In 2006, the governor signed the largest property tax rate decrease in the state’s history after the Legislature lowered school property tax rates by one-third. To date, Texas property owners have saved well over $16.4 billion in property taxes.
o In 2007, the TIF tax was repealed as part of Gov. Perry’s truth in budgeting initiative, saving Texas consumers more than $600 million in taxes that had been paid on their phone bills.
o In 2006, Gov. Perry directed the Texas Workforce Commission to give Texas employers a tax credit because of surplus funds in the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, saving employers $300 million total in 2007 and 2008.
o In 2008, the governor directed the Unemployment Insurance Replenishment Tax charged to Texas businesses be suspended saving an estimated 370,000 employers $90 million.

• Gov. Perry has been a strong proponent of federal income tax law changes that now allow Texans to exempt sales tax from their federal income tax. Without such provisions, federal income tax rules penalize Texans and others who live in states that do not levy a state income tax.

#6 Even with the oil boom in Texas, 23 states have a lower unemployment rate than Texas does.

• Texas has one of the lowest unemployment rates of the top 10 largest states, and those are the states to be compared to, given the size and diversity of our economies. Also, Texas employment grew a full percentage rate higher than in any of the other 25 largest states over the last year.

• Texas’ unemployment rate has remained well below the national average, currently rests at 8%, more than a point below the national average of 9.2% even while the state added almost 1200 new residents a day.

#7 Back in 1988, Rick Perry supported Al Gore for president. In fact, Rick Perry actually served as Al Gore’s campaign chairman in the state of Texas that year.

• Gov. Perry grew up a conservative democrat, as many in Texas were during that time, but his values have never changed. He was one of the Reagan Democrats in the 1980’s. He changed parties like many in Texas did when the Democrat party no longer identified or stood for the values he cherishes.

• A writer at American Thinker puts this issue in good perspective: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/06/rick_perrys_conservative_credentials.html

#8 Between December 2007 and April 2011, weekly wages in the U.S. increased by about 5 percent. In the state of Texas they increased by just 0.6% over that same time period.

• Texans’ per capita personal income has risen over the last ten years by over $8,000 to a total of over $35,000.

• Texans’ household income has risen.

• Texas average hourly wage is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 (TX adopts the fed minimum wage by state law, so we will never be below the fed minimum wage).

• All major Texas industries have seen added jobs and expansions over the month (April 11 to May 11) and over the year (May 10 to April 11). These industries are hiring part-time and full-time employees and paying wages to these employees that are mostly above the minimum wage.

#9 Texas now has one of the worst education systems in the nation. The following is from an opinion piece that was actually authored by Barbara Bush earlier this year….

• We rank 36th in the nation in high school graduation rates. An estimated 3.8 million Texans do not have a high school diploma.

• The on-time graduation rate for the Class of 2010 was 84%, the highest in the past decade and 4% higher than the previous year.

• For the Class of 2010, on-time graduation rates for African American and Hispanic students increased 5% over the previous year.

• We rank 49th in verbal SAT scores, 47th in literacy and 46th in average math SAT scores.

• In 2010, Texas led the nation with largest increase in the number of public school students who took the SAT with over 123,000 graduating seniors taking the college admissions test, an increase of over 10,600 students from 2009.

• The Class of 2010 earned the highest math and science scores posted for the state on the ACT in the past decade, even as the number of test takers rose by 12 percent this year.

• Texas students who took the core set of classes or more earned a higher ACT score than those students who did not; evidence that the state’s emphasis on rigorous course requirements is well placed.

• We rank 33rd in the nation on teacher salaries.

• The cost of living in Texas remains one of the lowest in the nation, so salary comparisons with high-cost states like New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and California are incongruent.

• Over the past decade, our average teacher salaries have increased by 30%. ($38,361 in 2000-01; $49,544 in 2009-10)

• To further reward effective teachers, we created the largest state-sponsored teacher incentive pay program in the nation. Our program is unique in that it gives block grants to districts, granting them local control to fashion their programs to address local needs.

#10 Rick Perry attended the Bilderberg Group meetings in 2007 and in 2011. Associating himself with that organization should be a red flag for all American voters.

Gov. Perry frequently talks about job creation and the economy in front of many different groups and organizations, and is not an endorsement of any such entities. The governor did not attend this meeting in 2011 and isn’t concerned with the fringe conspiracy theorists that attempt to stir up baseless rumors about issues irrelevant to the matters we should be focusing on, like job creation and taking control of our nation’s irresponsible, unsustainable spending habits

#11 Texas has the highest percentage of workers making minimum wage out of all 50 states.

• Texans’ per capita personal income has risen over the last ten years by over $8,000 to a total of over $35,000.

• Texans’ household income has risen.
• Texas average hourly wage is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 (TX adopts the fed minimum wage by state law, so we will never be below the fed minimum wage).

• All major Texas industries have seen added jobs and expansions over the month (April 11 to May 11) and over the year (May 10 to April 11). These industries are hiring part-time and full-time employees and paying wages to these employees that are mostly above the minimum wage.

#12 Rick Perry often gives speeches about illegal immigration, but when you look at the facts, he has been incredibly soft on the issue. If Rick Perry does not plan to secure the border, then he should not be president because illegal immigration is absolutely devastating many areas of the southwest United States.

• Texas needs to continue focusing on its efforts to secure the border before it can have a rational or productive conversation about immigration.

• Under Gov. Perry’s leadership and at his urging, Texas has allocated more than $400 million in state funding since 2005 to secure the border, in light of the federal government’s failure to fulfill this essential obligation to our state. This session, we allocated more than $152 million to the effort, a $40 million increase from last biennium.

• The governor has repeatedly highlighted the need for increased border resources to our federal counterparts, outlining exactly what Texas needs to get the job done, but Washington continues to all but ignore our requests.

Please note, this article is using Wikipedia as its source for this point

#13 In 2007, 221,000 residents of Texas were making minimum wage or less. By 2010, that number had risen to 550,000.

• Texans’ per capita personal income has risen over the last ten years by over $8,000 to a total of over $35,000.

• Texans’ household income has risen.

• Texas average hourly wage is above the federal minimum wage of $7.25 (TX adopts the fed minimum wage by state law, so we will never be below the fed minimum wage).

• All major Texas industries have seen added jobs and expansions over the month (April 11 to May 11) and over the year (May 10 to April 11). These industries are hiring part-time and full-time employees and paying wages to these employees that are mostly above the minimum wage.

#14 Rick Perry actually issued an executive order in 2007 that would have forced almost every single girl in the state of Texas to receive the Gardasil vaccine before entering the sixth grade. Perry would have put parents in a position where they would have had to fill out an application and beg the government not to inject their child with a highly controversial vaccine. Since then, very serious safety issues regarding this vaccine have come to light. Fortunately, lawmakers in Texas blocked what Perry was trying to do. According to Wikipedia, many were troubled when “apparent financial connections between Merck and Perry were reported by news outlets, such as a $6,000 campaign contribution and Merck’s hiring of former Perry Chief of Staff Mike Toomey to handle its Texas lobbying work.”

• This was an issue of protecting life, and the vaccine offers a chance to save lives that would have otherwise been taken away by cervical cancer.

• Gov. Perry has always been a strong believer in protecting parental rights, which is why this executive order allowed parents to make the final decision about whether or not their daughter was vaccinated, offering an opt out provision. As for all vaccines in Texas, parents always have the final say.

• Gov. Perry makes his decisions based on what’s best for the people of Texas and nothing more.

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