On the Trail with Governor Rick Perry

    I spent several hours last week hiking on the Big Dry Creek Trail in Westminster with Texas Governor Rick Perry.   Actually, I listened to his book, Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington, on my iPod.  If he had actually gone hiking with me, I think he would tell me to call him Rick; so I will as I tell you what he told me via his audio book.
  
  I didn’t know that he has served as governor for 11 years-longer than any other in Texas history; and before being elected he served in the Texas legislature, as the Texas Agricultural Commissioner, and as lieutenant governor.   Rick has been in the leadership of the Republican Governor's Association for five years and is an Eagle Scout.  By the way he wrote a previous book about his admiration of the Boy Scouts and what they stand for.  But I digress.  After he graduated from Texas A&M, he became an Air Force pilot flying C-130s and attained the rank of captain. He is a candidate to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, but he wrote this book in 2010 and says that he had no desire at that time to run for president.

    Fed Up: Our Fight to Save America from Washington is not really a book about Rick Perry. It's a book about Rick Perry's ideas. And his biggest idea is that many things the federal government does are unconstitutional.    Rick’s book is a serious argument about what kind of country we should be and is not another vanity memoir by a national political figure.  He just wants to make a powerful case for a return to limited government and the restoration of the proper balance of power between Washington and the states.  

    I enjoyed the book’s Introduction where he kept asking if I was fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated.  He wanted to know if I was tired of being told how much salt to put on my food, what kind of cars I can drive, what kinds of guns I can own, what kind of prayers I am  allowed to say and where I can say them, what I am allowed to do to elect political candidates, what kind of energy I can use, and which doctor I can see.   He asked “what kind of nation are we becoming?”   We both agreed that we are fed up because deep down we know how great America has always been, how many great things the people do in spite of their government, and how great the nation can be in the future if the overbearing federal government will just back off on micro-managing and instead focus on its main mission of defending our country and providing our national security.        

    Those questions got me energized to hear more from him about his ideas and what needs to be done to restore federalism. Rick said that our fight is clear. We must step up and retake the reins of our government from a Washington establishment that has abused our trust.  We must empower states to fight for our beliefs, elect only leaders who are on our team, set out to remind our fellow Americans why liberty is guaranteed in the Constitution, and take concrete steps to take back our country.  Rick reminded me that the American people have never sat idle when liberty's trumpet sounds the call to battle-and today that battle is for the soul of America.

    I found the most interesting part of Rick's book to be the chapter "Why States Matter," which argues for states as the laboratories of policy innovation. Even liberal advocates of homosexual marriage or legalized marijuana would agree that if California or Massachusetts want to enact state laws on those issues, they should be entitled to, and not be prevented by the overreaching feds. Rick is intellectually honest enough to support that, as he would support conservative-friendly laws that may differ from what other states do. The whole idea is to get away from a federal nanny state that decides these things for us with a national template. That's not what our federal union is all about, and in Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington, Rick lays it out with force and economy.  I liked when he said that you should live in California if you favor gay marriage and legalization of drugs while you should be move to Texas if you want to carry a weapon to defend yourself and be able to shoot a menacing coyote as he has done.  So, I had no fears of coyote attacks while hiking with Rick!

    I think Rick captures the mood of today. Americans are fed up with the federal government's overreach into our lives, and this book has several short-term, concrete solutions, as well as a long-term vision for how to get our country back on the path to freedom and prosperity. Rick would return power to the states and let them be those laboratories of innovation. He suggests a "balanced budget" amendment or a "spending limit" amendment to keep our politicians from breaking the bank and driving us ever deeper into debt. He calls for a ban on pork barrel earmarks. He suggests limiting the number of days Congress is in session, and moving toward a biennial budgeting cycle as they do in Texas.   He surprised me by saying that he wants to repeal the 16th Amendment, which allows for a personal income tax.   I liked that!

    Rick bases many of his recommended solutions on the Texas success story. In Texas, the legislature meets for only 140 days, every two years, and it is one of a handful of states without a state income tax. Texas is also where 4 out of 5 private sector jobs has been created in America since 2005.  Lots of research shows that states without income taxes (like Texas) perform better than states with income taxes, economically-speaking.   Rick even touches the third rail of politics, Social Security, and calls it a Ponzi scheme.  He offers some solutions to fix that insolvent program that is about to run off the rails.

    Rick has been called a protege and puppet of George W. Bush, but he cites several ways in which he has disagreed with the former president.  As Rick puts it, "this big-government binge began under the administration of George W. Bush."  I was actually surprised with how critical Rick is of Mr. Bush and other Republicans. Rick criticizes some Bush-supported actions such as the seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008, along with the Troubled Asset Relief Program signed into law in October 2008, as "the culmination of the statist's dream -- the literal upending of a unique American way of doing things that had been defined by self-reliance, hard work, faith, a belief in private charity not government, and, perhaps most of all, a devotion to free markets."

    Rick also takes three separate swipes at the universal health care plan begun by one of his 2012 rivals, Mitt Romney.  Rick says that since it was passed, "the waiting times to see a doctor in Massachusetts have nearly doubled," while "the costs are so out of control" that a commission has already recommended rationing care.   Even Newt Gingrich, another 2012 rival, who wrote the foreword to Rick's book, is not spared. Rick writes that "most" of the "spending restraint" during the Gingrich-led Congress "came from not fighting President Clinton's efforts to cut military spending."

    Overall, the book is an argument for enforcing the Tenth Amendment, limiting federal government, and relying more on the states.  He makes the case that more of the decisions in our country should be made in state capitals or by private individuals rather than in Washington.   I think that a lot of what's in this book will shape the debate for elections in 2012.

    Anyway, Rick concluded his book and our trail walk with a section entitled, "Taking Back America" in which he advocates for the following: repealing Obamacare; states reasserting their Constitutional authority; sustaining a dialogue about limited, Constitutional government; electing and holding accountable Constitutionally-minded leaders; and making structural reforms.  Rick calls for: restricting federal spending with a spending limit amendment; restricting federal revenue by replacing the income tax with a national sales tax or a "Fair Tax"; and, restricting what has become the "unlimited power of the courts to rule over us with no accountability."

    Rick headed back to Texas and left me with lots to think about as I hit the trail this week.