Live from the RedState Gathering in South Carolina, Texas Governor Rick Perry announces his candidacy for President of the United States and his plan to put America back to work.
1:25 – “I declare for you today that I’m a candidate for President of the United States.” The crowd chants “Pery, Perry, Perry!” at the top of their lungs.
1:23 – “Revitalizing the economy is our country’s most urgent need. Stopping the generational theft posed by record debt is our long-term mission.”
1:22 – “America is not broken, Washington DC is broken.”
1:20 – “It’s time to get America working again. It’s time to give a pink slip to the current residents of the White House.” The crowd goes wild.
1:19 – “We don’t need a President who apologizes for America.”
1:17 – “Our President has insulted our friends.” Including Israel, our greatest friend in the Middle East.
1:14 – The crowd goes nuts as the Governor talks about the importance of turning around the rising unemployment rate and cutting the excessive spending in Washington.
1:11 – “Not everyone values life like we do in America.”
1:10 – “At age 8, I was blessed to meet my future wife, Anita Thigpen, at a piano recital. We had our first date eight years later. And she finally agreed to marry me 16 years after that I’m persistent.”
1:09 – “I am also the product of a place called Paint Creek, a community too small to be called a town along the rolling plains of West Texas.”
1:07 – Governor Perry asks for a moment of silence to honor the members of our Armed Forces who bravely put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms.
1:05 – With a standing ovation and raucous applause, Governor Perry enters the room.
1:00pm Eastern – About 700 conservative activists are crammed into a ballroom and overflow space at the Francis Marion hotel in Charleston, South Carolina awaiting Texas Governor Rick Perry.
What I learned in my 20’s traveling the globe as an Air Force pilot, our current president has yet to acknowledge in his 50’s – that we are the most exceptional nation on the face of the earth.
As Americans, we believe freedom is a gift from God, and government’s prime function is to defend it. We don’t see the role of government as a nanny state, and we recognize there is no government money that wasn’t once earned through the sweat and toil of private citizens.
That’s why we object to an Administration that sees its role as spending our children’s inheritance on failed economic theories that have given us record debt and left far too many unemployed, threatening not only our economy, but our security. Our reliance on foreign creditors and sources of energy not only compromises our national sovereignty, but jeopardizes our national future.
America’s place in the world is in peril, not only because of disastrous economic policies, but from the incoherent muddle known as our foreign policy. Our president has thumbed his nose at traditional allies such as Israel and Great Britain.
We will not sit back and accept our current misery…because a great country requires a better direction…because a renewed nation requires a new president. That’s why, with faith in God, the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I am a candidate for President of the United States.
And I will work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can.
As governor of Texas I have led based on a few guiding principles. One, don’t spend all the money. Two, keep taxes low and under control. Three, keep regulations fair and predictable. And four, reform the legal system so frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers that are trying to create jobs.
Over ten years, we have followed this recipe of fiscal restraint to produce the strongest economy in the nation. While millions of jobs have been lost over the last decade nationwide, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been added in Texas. Texas is home to one in 12 Americans, and yet since June of 2009, we have created more than four in ten American jobs.
The change we seek will never emanate out of Washington…it must come from the windswept prairies of Middle America…the farms and factories across this great land…the hearts and minds of God-fearing Americans who will not accept a future that is less than our past…who will not be consigned a fate of less freedom in exchange for more government.
It is up to us…to this present generation of Americans…to take a stand for freedom…to send a signal to Washington that we are taking the country back from the grips of central planners who would control our healthcare, spend our treasure and micro-manage our businesses.
My mission as your president will be to get America working again!
With God’s help, and your courage, we will take our country back. I hope you will take a moment to join the team and consider a donation to the campaign.
Thank you, and God bless America.
Government does not create jobs, the private sector creates jobs. What government can do is create an environment that allows the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish. An environment where small businesses owners feel they have a fair chance to grow their company without interference.
In June of 2011, 32,000 net new jobs were created in Texas–more than any of the other states. From June 2010 to June 2011, Texas led all other states by far, adding 220,000 net new jobs.
The model for success story is proven and clear. Texas’ economic climate under Gov. Perry has consistently outperformed Washington’s broken model, reaffirming the need for low taxes, responsible spending, fair and predictable regulations, and tort reform.
Recent acclaim for the fiscally conservative model of good government under Gov. Perry’s leadership:
“From June 2009 to June 2011 the state added 262,000 jobs, or half of the USA’s 524,000 payroll gains, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.”
–USA Today: Texas Bucks National Unemployment Trend (July 25, 2011)
”Mr. Perry is continuing the Reagan tradition of removing senseless roadblocks and allowing free enterprise to do what it does best: hire employees and generate wealth.
During a time when most companies appear to be insecure about adding to their payrolls because of the uncertainty surrounding our economy, this country would be wise to carefully study why Texas employers seem to be largely immune to this insecurity.
In short, the Reagan Revolution is alive and well – deep in the heart of Texas.”
–Michael Reagan (June 25, 2011)
“Between 2001 and last June, Texas — a right-to-work state that taxes neither personal income nor capital gains — added more jobs than the other 49 states combined. And since the recovery began two Junes ago, Texas has created 37 percent of America’s net new jobs.”
–Washington Post: Rick Perry: A Texan’s “Exceptionalism” (June 24, 2011)
“Texas notched one of the biggest increases in size in a half-century, surpassing $1 trillion in annual economic output. The state gained nearly a full percentage point in its share of the U.S. economy during the decade, reaching 8.3% in 2010. This growth in economic clout has been matched only twice in the past 50 years — by California in the 1980s and Texas itself during the 1970s oil boom.”
–USA Today: Texas Wins in U.S. Economy Shift (June 21, 2011)
“What explains this Lone Star success? Texas is a big state, but its population of 24.7 million isn’t that much bigger than the Empire State, about 19.5 million. California is a large state too—36.9 million—and yet it’s down 11,400 jobs. Mr. Fisher argues that Texas is doing so well relative to other states precisely because it has rejected the economic model that now prevails in Washington, and we’ll second that notion.
Mr. Fisher notes that all states labor under the same Fed monetary policy and interest rates and federal regulation, but all states have not preformed equally well. Texas stands out for its free market and business-friendly climate.”
–Wall Street Journal: The Lone Star Jobs Surge (June 10, 2011)
“It’s no big secret why Texas has been attracting businesses, while corporations are fleeing California. As Perry told the Golden State visitors, Texas’ low taxes and regulatory sanity offer a friendly business climate for companies looking to set up shop.”
–Human Events: Gov Rick Perry’s Business-Friendly Texas Thriving (May 16, 2011)
“Whatever they are drinking in Texas, other states may want to imbibe. California – which boasted zero regions in the top 150 – is a prime example. Indeed, a group of California officials, led by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, recently trekked to the Lone Star State to learn possible lessons about what drives job creation.”
–Forbes (Yahoo! Finance): The Best Cities for Jobs (May 11, 2011)
Help Gov. Perry replace job-stifling government growth with sound fiscal policies and job creation. Let’s get America working again!
