Rick Perry, Combining the Worst of Tea Party Extremists and George W. Bush

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) campaign for the White House is nothing if not novel. He somehow manages to combine George W. Bush’s bravado and strong ties to the GOP establishment with the policy positions and other attributes of the most extreme elements of the Tea Party wing of the GOP.

Here’s the rundown.

Like Bush, Rick Perry is Brought to You by Big Oil

Just Like former President George W. Bush, Rick Perry is heavily funded by the oil and gas industry. In fact, it has been Rick Perry’s very top source of funding:

“Bush’s Brain” Karl Rove Says Perry & Bush Are Very Close — And Have Been For Two Decades

Though Rick Perry has attempted to distance himself from Bush, namely by noting, “I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale,” he cannot deny his ties to the unpopular former president. On Fox News, Bush’s top political strategist Karl Rove describe their “strong personal friendship of two decades” and questioned Perry’s attempts to distance himself from Bush, noting that Bush had “moved heaven and Earth” to get Rick Perry elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas. Rove then went on to note that any division between Perry and Bush would be “artificially created.”

Watch it:

Like Bush, Rick Perry Preaches Small Government While Growing Government

Despite his anti-government rhetoric, in Rick Perry’s Texas public sector employment grew twice as much as private sector employment. Want more proof? Here’s a chart showing government employment in Texas:

Just like Bush, however, a bigger Rick Perry government can also simultaneously be a government that provides less — often far less — in the way of essential government services and programs that help students, children, the needy, and others.

Like the Tea Party, Rick Perry Wants to Halt ALL Regulations — Including Those Protecting Our Air, Water, and Food

ThinkProgress’ Brad Johnson writes about Rick Perry’s Tea Party-esque call for a halt to all federal regulations:

“We’re sending out a request today asking President Obama to put a moratorium on all regulations,” Perry said on WHO radio in Iowa, recorded live by ThinkProgress.

Under such a moratorium, the Food and Drug Administration would stop approving new drugsand preventing human experimentation; the USDA would stop checking for food safety; the EPA would stop monitoring for poisons in drinking water; the Library of Congress would stoploaning materials to blind people; the NTSB would stop investigating airplane accidents; HHS would end Medicare payments; no more patents, copyrights, or trademarks would be issued; DHS would stop protecting chemical facilities from terrorist attacks; the Treasury would stopprinting currency; financial sanctions on hostile nations like North Korea and Iran would end; and the Federal Reserve Systemwould shut down.

Like the Tea Party, Rick Perry Thinks Social Security & Medicare Are Unconstitutional

Rick Perry has referred to Social Security as a “ponzi scheme,” but he didn’t stop there.  He actually told the Daily Beast last week that he believes both Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional, via ThinkProgress’ Ian Milhiser:

The Constitution says that “the Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes… to provide for the… general Welfare of the United States.” But I noticed that when you quoted this section on page 116, you left “general welfare” out and put an ellipsis in its place. Progressives would say that “general welfare” includes things like Social Security or Medicare—that it gives the government the flexibility to tackle more than just the basic responsibilities laid out explicitly in our founding document. What does “general welfare” mean to you?

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