Rick Perry emerged from last night’s debate as both the piñata and the winner. He did a good job of establishing himself as the front-runner. He hit some of the questions out of the park, including the goofy comment from Ron Paul about the letter Perry wrote praising Hillarycare. The subject of the question was not goofy, but is Ron Paul so dense that he did not think Perry would not be ready for that. It was the equivalent of throwing Mark McGuire a hanging curve ball.
Now that the debate is over, Perry must show himself to be the front-runner that the polls now claim he is.
Regardless of his good debate performance, Rick Perry has a couple of big problems percolating that he must deal with. These problems could easily sink his bid for the presidency long before Iowa.
The first is his position on Social Security. Perry has called it a ponzi scheme. Such rhetoric will resonate with some people. It will also scare the living daylights out of some of the older voters; something the left will use.
From CBS:
Republican strategist Karl Rove says Texas Gov. Rick Perry's controversial take on Social Security will prove "toxic" in the 2012 election - and finding a way to "deal with these things" will be his biggest challenge in the race for the Republican nomination.
Rove, a longtime adviser to former president George W. Bush, told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Wednesday that Perry would need to come up with a more adequate response to a series of unusual - and by many counts, extreme - statements he made in his 2010 book "Fed Up!"
In the book, Perry blasted Social Security as a "ponzi scheme" and questioned the merits of the 16th and 17th Amendments.
"You know how much trouble that can be for a Republican candidate in a general election," Stephanopoulos asked Rove, "so how does he handle it and must he disavow some of these statements in the book?"
Rove said the Perry camp's defense of the statements had thus far been "inadequate" to quell further trouble later down the road.
The left wing media panel went after Perry on this last night, as did Mitt Romney, who desperately needs to take Perry down if he is going to have any chance of winning.
Rick Perry also has the problem of his 1993 letter praising what would become Hillarycare.
From the Daily Caller:
In a letter to Clinton, who is now U.S. Secretary of State, Perry wrote: “I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are most commendable.”
“I would like to request that the task force give particular consideration to the needs of the nation’s farmers, ranchers, and agriculture workers, and other members of rural communities,” Perry continued, noting his administration’s focus on economic development for rural Texans. “Rural populations have a high proportion of uninsured people, rising health care costs, and often experience lack of services.”
“Again, your efforts are worthy,” Perry concluded, ”and I hope you will remember this constituency as the task force progresses.”
The plan Clinton’s task force ultimately presented called for universal health care along with a federal mandate for employers to provide health insurance for their employees.
Can Perry survive the attacks against him on the Social Security issue? How does he explain the support he showed for what was to become Hillarycare? Many conservatives are still deeply suspicious of Perry because he was Al Gore’s campaign co-chair in 1988.
Rick Perry has not really faced the GOP voters yet. He performed well last night but now has several more debate appearances ahead of him and these issues are going to come up.
Perry did what he needed to do last night. He came off Presidential. Appearances are important. So are the issues.
The question all Republicans have is how will Perry deal with those issues and with his past, is he the one we want to challenge Barack Obama.
It is a damn ponzi scheme. moving one pile to another and the pile keeps getting smaller (the unfunded debt keeps getting bigger). even on paper back when it was created , any reasonable forward projection would have shown it to be unfunded by the year 2000. call it what it is. The first people in Bernie Madoff's scams got paid back with huge interest. It wasnt a ponzi scheme to them. But what about the poor bastards who went bust trusting Bernie? Those poor bastards are our children and grandchildren. Telling them social security will be there for them is a big lie.
The Union funds in most cities are a ponzi scheme as well. Is there any clear thinking person out there that doesnt think a whole bunch of retirees counting on 'pensions' will have to go back to bagging groceries to survive.
I like Perry's straight forward tell it like it is policy.
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on Those poor bastards are our children and grandchildren. Telling them social security will be there for them is a big lie.
Well said.
Permalink Reply by Jim Hoff on I
agree, Jim. II don't understand where Judson and Rove think his description of SS will scare the living daylights out of older voters. I am 67 and have recognized SS as a ponzi scheme from the day they opened the lock box and started spending that money. Had they actually kept it in a separate account and not spent it, it was probably still doomed because of all the recipients they have added that never paid in.
The media may jump him and RINO Rove will attack him, but he speaks the truth. SS has to be totally revamped and I see no need to sugar coat words in discussing it. Perry is right!
Permalink Reply by R Clay McCaskey on Permalink Reply by Gay Shaughnessy on Permalink Reply by kay williams on Permalink Reply by kay williams on Permalink Reply by Thomas on Regardless of who is elected in 2012 and regardless if they are willing to be honest as Rick Perry seems to be, at least about some issues, there WILL BE HELL TO PAY before the problems that have already been caused can be remedied.
Fiat currency is not and cannot be anything other than a medium of exchange. FIAT CURRENCY CANNOT BE A STORE OF VALUE!!!!!! A government cannot issue fiat currency then collect some of it as tax payments then use the collected fiat money to "buy" Treasury bonds that have no market then spend the money but keep the bonds and expect that somehow value, or worth, is being stored and saved.
Many people have called it insanity. I believe that idiocy may be word that best characterizes all so-called government "trust" funds.
The United States Federal Government is the largest, most lucrative organized crime syndicate that has ever existed. It is we, the people, our children, our grandchildren and subsequent generations who have been victimized by larceny on the grandest scale that larceny has ever been committed.
The United States Federal Government is by many times over the planet's largest user of energy of all kinds.
Simply put, Uncle Sam is a kleptoparasitic traitor--a thief who must be evicted from the Union if the Union is to have any chance to survive for our descendants.
The time has come for a discontinuance of the foreign aid payments that are being made to the strange little foreign country that is located between the states of Maryland and Virginia. Let the federal kleptocracy starve.
What I hear Perry say about S/S is that it will not be there for the generations currently paying into the system. I don't hear a threat on today's seniors.The S/S program is a shell game as it has been handled through the years. Isn't the problem with all of the "off shoots" that have been attached to S/S (disability, children of deceased, family members drawing on spouse's benefits, etc.) that are draining the funds. S/S like Medicare and Medicad need a huge overhaul to get people out of the system that are comitting fraud not to mention some medical professionals and scammers that are bilking the program.
With that said, isn't Perry correct?
Permalink Reply by Thomas Angle on Permalink Reply by Carla Loyd on © 2013 Created by Judson Phillips.
