Supporting Perry’s Positions A Tough Sell For The Arkansas Gop

Governor Rick Perry’s book “Fed Up!” is garnering lots of national attention and its contents are sure to be thoroughly reviewed as Perry seeks the Republican Presidential nomination. 

Perry’s words are likely to give some Arkansas Republican legislators who previously endorsed him heartburn due to Perry’s extreme values that are outside of the views of folks who live on Main Street, Arkansas.

In his 2010 book, Perry rails passionately against Social Security and calls it an “illegal Ponzi scheme” and compares it to a “bad disease” that continues to spread.

Perry goes on to say that "by any measure, Social Security is a failure."

From reading Perry’s words on Social Security, it’s perfectly clear he believes Social Security is unconstitutional and a failure. Based on those views, it’s not a stretch to surmise that Rick Perry probably favors the elimination of Social Security since surely as President he would end any program that met those criteria. Arkansas’s growing senior population would probably strongly disagree with his views on Social Security.

Social Security is an earned benefit that seniors obtain after decades of hard work and has kept tens of millions of seniors out of abject poverty.  Perry’s stringent opposition to Social Security reflects a core value that says old folks who worked hard and played by the rules are on their own.

For example, say you are 78-years old and your retirement savings lost 52% of its value in the 2008 market crash. In Rick Perry’s world, the response would be, “Oh, well, sure hate it for you.”

Governor Perry also believes that the direct election of U.S. Senators is a bad idea that has led to “fiscal irresponsibility." Apparently, Perry believes that having State Legislatures appoint Senators is the better option since Americans aren’t smart enough to vote for themselves. In Perry’s world, the 135-member Arkansas General Assembly would appoint U.S. Senators, as they did up until 1913.

As you may recall, twenty Arkansas Republican legislators formed an “Arkansans for Perry” group back in June of this year and encouraged the Texas governor to jump into the Presidential race. I’m curious to know if the Republican legislators who publicly endorsed Rick Perry agree with his views on Social Security and the direct election of U.S. Senators.

I came up with some questions for this “Gang of 20”: 

1) Do you believe, like Rick Perry does, that Social Security is a “failure”?
2) Do you agree with Rick Perry that Social Security is unconstitutional and a Ponzi scheme?
3) Should Social Security be eliminated?
4) Do you support ending the direct election of U.S. Senators and placing the power of electing them back in the hands of state legislatures?

Rick Perry’s views on Social Security and how we elect U.S. Senators reflects his core values and it’s not unreasonable to ask public officials who have endorsed if they agree with those values. At the same time, it should be noted that Perry’s values are out of touch and are opposite of what the majority of Arkansans believe.  Perry has more extreme beliefs outlined in his book that we’ll review some other time.

It’s doubtful we’ll hear back from any Republican state legislators on these questions, but it never hurts to ask.