Is America "Fed Up" with Rick Perry?
Dan Liftman
September 06, 2011
Texas Governor Rick Perry, now leading most polls in the race for the Republican nomination for President, will participate in his first nationally televised debate soon. Many people, supporters as well as critics, are wondering how the Tea Party favorite will fare. He is likely to face tough questions, based on statements he made in his two books, Fed Up - an anti-Washington screed - and On My Honor - about the values of the Boy Scouts.
In Fed Up, Perry blasts federal government social programs, especially. Saying that Social Security is "for people who loafed all their lives and now want the rest of us to support them," the Texas governor offers suggestions for ways to balance the budget and lower the unemployment rate. "We simply put everyone on Social Security back to work. They´re not really retired," Perry writes. "They´re unemployed and they don´t feel like working." He goes on to insist that "America could cut way down on imported oil if farmers and ranchers - the honest, productive Americans - kept their tractors in the barn and put these loafers to work pulling plows."
In general, Perry knocks the New Deal programs of President Franklin Roosevelt and President Lyndon Johnson´s Great Society programs, as well. "Too many Americans have gotten soft," he says. "Why would anyone work if everything is given to them free?" Perry goes on to rant about Medicare and Medicaid. "You and I, the working people, are subsidizing medical care for moochers. Why don´t they just go out and spend $10 for a copy of Health Care for Dummies? In a week, they´d learn how to set broken arms with duct tape and a yard stick, heal wounds with corn starch and beeswax and cure laryngitis with some of those plants our scientists are always bringing back from the Amazon."
In On My Honor, Perry inveighs strongly against those who criticize the Boy Scouts for prohibiting participation by homosexuals. "Homosexuality is just wrong," he writes. "I was an Eagle Scout. Back when I was growing up, we were already starting to see these sick, twisted, deviants showing up as Scout masters. I blew the whistle on one man who commented on my athletic ability and tried to interest me in dancing ballet. Of course, a normal man wouldn´t come within a thousand miles of anything like that."
In one of the book´s most shocking revelations, the Texas governor expands on his distaste for homosexuality with a story about "Bubba, my favorite hunting dog. My pal Jim Rogers and I were out after quail one day when Bubba suddenly jumped on Jim´s dog, George, and started humping him. I really loved Bubba," Perry said, "but I had no choice. I had to shoot him."
Understandably, Perry´s philosophy is raising eyebrows. When a reporter with Cleveland´s Midwest Gazette asked what the governor would do about the millions of working age people who are unemployed if he added millions of retirees to the work force, Perry said, "We´ll lower the price of passports and they can all work overseas. There´s plenty of jobs available on farms and in factories in El Salvador, Kazakhstan and Burundi. The wages are lower than here, but so is the cost of living. They can get their morning cup of Starbucks for 90 cents."
Pressing Perry about his loathing for homosexuals, Melissa Rothman of the Los Angeles alternative weekly What´s Up? asked if there were any gay people serving in his administration. "I don´t know of any," he said. "Although I´m kind of suspicious of one guy in the state Tax Office. I was on a tour there one day and I noticed he was watching Oprah while he was on his lunch hour."
When asked to comment on Perry recently, Washington pundit Pete Jackson, a writer for the Capitol Clue, referred to Perry´s boast that his state would secede from the Union. "It would have to become an independent nation," he said. "It couldn´t become part of Mexico. The Mexicans have already said they don´t want any part of Texas." Jackson´s colleague, Martha Stevens, added, "The ground in Texas is suffering from a severe drought. Perry could fix that by standing on his head and letting out all the water on his brain."
In Fed Up, Perry blasts federal government social programs, especially. Saying that Social Security is "for people who loafed all their lives and now want the rest of us to support them," the Texas governor offers suggestions for ways to balance the budget and lower the unemployment rate. "We simply put everyone on Social Security back to work. They´re not really retired," Perry writes. "They´re unemployed and they don´t feel like working." He goes on to insist that "America could cut way down on imported oil if farmers and ranchers - the honest, productive Americans - kept their tractors in the barn and put these loafers to work pulling plows."
In general, Perry knocks the New Deal programs of President Franklin Roosevelt and President Lyndon Johnson´s Great Society programs, as well. "Too many Americans have gotten soft," he says. "Why would anyone work if everything is given to them free?" Perry goes on to rant about Medicare and Medicaid. "You and I, the working people, are subsidizing medical care for moochers. Why don´t they just go out and spend $10 for a copy of Health Care for Dummies? In a week, they´d learn how to set broken arms with duct tape and a yard stick, heal wounds with corn starch and beeswax and cure laryngitis with some of those plants our scientists are always bringing back from the Amazon."
In On My Honor, Perry inveighs strongly against those who criticize the Boy Scouts for prohibiting participation by homosexuals. "Homosexuality is just wrong," he writes. "I was an Eagle Scout. Back when I was growing up, we were already starting to see these sick, twisted, deviants showing up as Scout masters. I blew the whistle on one man who commented on my athletic ability and tried to interest me in dancing ballet. Of course, a normal man wouldn´t come within a thousand miles of anything like that."
In one of the book´s most shocking revelations, the Texas governor expands on his distaste for homosexuality with a story about "Bubba, my favorite hunting dog. My pal Jim Rogers and I were out after quail one day when Bubba suddenly jumped on Jim´s dog, George, and started humping him. I really loved Bubba," Perry said, "but I had no choice. I had to shoot him."
Understandably, Perry´s philosophy is raising eyebrows. When a reporter with Cleveland´s Midwest Gazette asked what the governor would do about the millions of working age people who are unemployed if he added millions of retirees to the work force, Perry said, "We´ll lower the price of passports and they can all work overseas. There´s plenty of jobs available on farms and in factories in El Salvador, Kazakhstan and Burundi. The wages are lower than here, but so is the cost of living. They can get their morning cup of Starbucks for 90 cents."
Pressing Perry about his loathing for homosexuals, Melissa Rothman of the Los Angeles alternative weekly What´s Up? asked if there were any gay people serving in his administration. "I don´t know of any," he said. "Although I´m kind of suspicious of one guy in the state Tax Office. I was on a tour there one day and I noticed he was watching Oprah while he was on his lunch hour."
When asked to comment on Perry recently, Washington pundit Pete Jackson, a writer for the Capitol Clue, referred to Perry´s boast that his state would secede from the Union. "It would have to become an independent nation," he said. "It couldn´t become part of Mexico. The Mexicans have already said they don´t want any part of Texas." Jackson´s colleague, Martha Stevens, added, "The ground in Texas is suffering from a severe drought. Perry could fix that by standing on his head and letting out all the water on his brain."
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