Top Ten Rick Perry Failures

[sonias]

Texas Democratic Party web site
Top Ten Rick Perry Failures

Rick "Tax and Toll" Perry has proposed some rotten pay to play schemes in his 25 years as a career politician, but the Trans-Texas Corridor proposal may be the worst. Although the "tax and toll" funded Trans-Texas Corridor concept has been retired, Texans have already paid $59.4 million for a bad idea, and there may not be an off ramp for Texas taxpayers who will be footing the bill for this massive failure for years to come.

The first decade of the 21st Century has proven just how great Texas is – because Texas has done well despite Rick Perry, whose calculated political pandering has divided Texans, threatened our progress, and kept Texas from fulfilling its true potential as a national leader.

Texans have paid the price for the "Pay to Play" politics that profits Perry’s special interest cronies, including “Perry Payments” to foreign toll road operators, a failed deregulation experiment that leaves Texans paying the highest utility rates in the nation and insurance companies that have doubled the price of premiums since Perry took office.

It is with these failures of leadership in mind that we present the Top Ten Rick Perry Failures. Each weekday for the next two weeks, we will remind everyone of one of the many Rick Perry failures as we count down to #1.

Be sure to check back daily, share this page with your friends and family and join in our efforts to take back our state from failed Republican rule!

#10: Health Insurance Premiums Increase 91.6%

#9: Homeowners Insurance Rates Skyrocket During Perry’s Tenure

#8: Utility Rates Out of Control

#7: Perry Taking a Toll on Texans

Tips to BOR for the story today.



Wow I thought health care premiums would have been closer to #1. Actually they're all bad. Why stop at 10?

Sonia

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1. @@

Thanks Sonia, Sounds good.
WC

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2. Excellent list!

I see that they will be adding to the list daily. It seems like he has been Governor forever and I'll be so happy to see him leave.

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3. Even the Top 100 wouldn't make a dent on the list.

[sonias]

4. Really, you could pick a failure for every day he was in office

Sonia

[sonias]

5. #6 Perry Prices Texans Out of a College Education

TDP Perry=Failure website
#6: PERRY PRICES TEXANS OUT OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION
October 9th, 2009

The average cost of attending Texas’ colleges and universities has skyrocketed by 136% from 2003 to 2008 – the consequence of a failed tuition deregulation scheme concocted by Rick Perry and Texas Republicans.

Under one-party Republican rule, Rick Perry and his fellow Republicans have priced many students and families out of the opportunity for higher education. In order to compete for good jobs in an increasingly difficult economy, every Texan should have the opportunity to receive an affordable, first class college education. Yet Rick Perry has bankrupted the future of thousands of Texas students by supporting a failed tuition deregulation scheme that drastically increased tuition costs.

More at link above.



Sonia

[sonias]

6. #5 Perry's Stimulus Hypocrisy Costs Texans

TDP - Perry's Top Ten Failures
PERRY’S STIMULUS HYPOCRISY COSTS TEXANS
October 12th, 2009

Perry FailureDuring last spring’s legislative session, at the same time Rick Perry and his fellow Republicans were using over $11 billion in federal stimulus funds to bail themselves out of a state budget hole, the Governor had a chance to address the state’s Unemployment Insurance crisis. Instead, all Texans got from Rick Perry was partisan hypocrisy.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund issue was a bipartisan, common sense issue until Rick Perry started his secession-laced ranting in an effort to win right wing Republican primary votes. A bipartisan, 22-9 Texas Senate supermajority voted to accept $555 million in federal stimulus funds to bail out the state’s mismanaged UI Fund, but Perry announced his intention to turn down the UI stimulus funds, even going so far as to liken out-of-work Texans to drug addicts, saying of the benefits, "This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs." (Source: Austin American-Statesman)

More at link above.




Sonia

[sonias]

7. #4 Perry Education Report Card - F

Top Ten Rick Perry Failures website
#4: PERRY EDUCATION REPORT CARD: F
October 13th, 2009

There are over 4.65 million school children in 1,031 school districts in Texas, and during Rick Perry’s 25 years as a career politician, he’s neglected all of them. In 2006, facing the threat of Texas schools being closed under a Texas Supreme Court order, Perry and the Republican-controlled legislature were forced to address the school finance crisis. Predictably, they only made things worse for Texas taxpayers and school children.

Under the name of "“school finance," Rick Perry created a tax scheme that shortchanges local schools and benefits his biggest contributors instead of Texas school children. His school finance is little more than a busted band-aid intended to cover-up one of his worst failures:

School Finance and Taxes: F

* The "margins tax" Perry created was supposed to pay for education, but it turned out to be a windfall for oil and gas producers, who paid $78 million less in taxes under the new business tax in 2008 than they paid under the old tax in 2007. (Source: Houston Chronicle via Off the Kuff)

Sonia

[sonias]

8. #3 Perry's Political Cover-Up Compromises Texas Criminal Justice

Top Ten Rick Perry Failures website
#3: PERRY’S POLITICAL COVER-UP COMPROMISES TEXAS CRIMINAL JUSTICE
October 14th, 2009

In recent weeks, numerous media reports suggest Rick Perry has attempted to cover up an investigation and expert report – authorized by his own Forensic Science Commission appointees – that indicates the State of Texas may have executed an innocent man in 2004 based on faulty arson evidence. Perry described his role in preventing the Commission’s review of the report as "business as usual" – which is tragically true. Throughout 25 years as a career politician, it’s been "business as usual" for Rick Perry to ignore or dismiss facts that don’t further his personal political ambition, without regard to what is best for Texans.

Rick Perry’s latest political cover-up, however, is different. As we’ve detailed throughout our "Top Ten Rick Perry Failures" series, the decisions Rick Perry has made as Governor have cost many Texans in a very direct, personal way. Texans are great and proud people, but getting a quality education, paying skyrocketing insurance rates, or getting timely health care before it becomes a critical "life and death" problem is harder to do in Texas than in most other states.

Sonia

[sonias]

9. Finish out the series

Rick Perry Top Ten Failures

#1: "What Recession?"
Joking about the recession may be funny to Rick Perry, but for the 44,700 Texans who lost their jobs last month to failed Republican policies, it’s no laughing matter.

#2: Perry: A Bad Prescription for Children’s Health
Over 1.4 million Texas children don’t have health care in Texas. Rick Perry’s prescription: cut more kids from the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and threaten to veto any effort to fix the problem.

Sonia