States' rights? Don't be a fool! The federal government is good for some nice green.
Mr. Perry uses the issue of states’ rights to give his candidacy an overarching theme, tap into the frustrations that have fueled the Tea Party movement and highlight the substance behind his swaggering style.
Though the governor has a claim to acting on these principles, he has come to publicly embrace states’ rights as a defining issue only in the past few years, a period when the 10th Amendment has been a rallying cry for many Tea Party supporters, libertarians and others who make up his party’s conservative base. And he has been inconsistent in applying those beliefs, drawing criticism from some states’ rights advocates and raising questions even among fellow Republicans about whether his stance is as much campaign positioning as a philosophical commitment.
In one of his more well-publicized shifts, Mr. Perry proclaimed that gay marriage was an issue for individual states to decide, but backtracked in recent weeks and now says he supports a federal amendment banning gay marriage. He has also signaled support for various federal actions to restrict abortion rather than leaving the issue to states. And he used $17 billion in federal stimulus money to balance the state’s last two budgets.
Despite his vocal opposition to what he has called “the unprecedented and massive federal overreach” of President Obama’s health care overhaul, Mr. Perry accepted a $1 million federal grant last October for planning to carry out one of its key provisions. (Other Republican governors, including Rick Scott of Florida, have refused to use the grants.) ...NYT
When George W. Bush made statements about his legacy, he tended to be a lot more optimistic than the rest of America was. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe Bush knew Perry was waiting in the wings. Maybe, next to Rick Perry, Bush is starting to look pretty good.
A Perry victory would cement the Republican Party’s shift away from Bush’s approach to a more libertarian, anti-government GOP. This is cause for worry among some in the party, particularly those with ties to Bush.
While not addressing Perry specifically, Mark McKinnon, who was a top aide in both of Bush’s presidential campaigns, cautioned that his party would have trouble winning if it moved too far right.
“I think George Bush won crucial independent voters with his message of compassionate conservatism,” McKinnon said. “I worry that today’s Republican firebrand version of conservatism is dragging the party so far right that it will repel independent voters.”
Tony Fratto, who was one of Bush’s press advisers, also refused to criticize Perry directly, but he said, “I hope the direction that the Republican candidates take isn’t to walk away from improving education achievement in this country, because it may be our most critical economic issue long-term.” (Perry’s record on education has stirred controversy; he says he has tried to overhaul the Texas college system to make it more efficient, but critics say he has underfunded K-12 schools.) ...WaPo
