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The Primary Event

Tracking the 2012 election.


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Rick Perry: D.C. Needs Refresher Course on 10th Amendment

Denver – Gov. Rick Perry wasted no time in responding to Rick Santorum’s charges on the 10th Amendment, turning a contentious subject into an opportunity to hold forth on government power and waste.

“Over time, the people that government was created to protect become its subjects,” Perry said. The Founding Fathers created a system of government that was “clearly defined,” according to Perry.

“This is best reflected in the 10th Amendment of the United States Constitution,” Perry declared, going on to quote the original text.

“It is simple, elegant, and to the point,” argued Perry.

In that context, Perry returned to the issue of gay marriage. “I said the other day that the 10th Amendment frees New York state to define marriage as they please, but the traditional definition suits Texas, and this governor, just fine,” Perry concluded.

The Texas governor quickly pivoted his focus to liberals and his possible target in 2012. “In 2012 we need to redouble our efforts and send even more liberals into the private sector, including the president, who would be a whole lot better commentator on a Sunday morning talk show than the nation’s chief executive officer,” Perry said.

Tags: Rick Perry

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COMMENTS   3

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   07/30/11 12:47

For the uninitiated, "Texas Monthly" has a good article on Perry that provides some good background. It's nothing that's exactly "in depth", but it does give a reasonably good foundation of what makes him tick and how he's operated as a political executive. Enjoy.

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   07/30/11 13:45

This Texas Monthly article is written by author well known for his leftist views (he did trash Perry at least couple of times previously) so I wonder the point of his building up Perry at this time.

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   08/04/11 12:46

Unfortunately, the worst violation of the 10th Amendment is another amendment: the 16th Amendment, legalizing the Federal Income Tax.

While we can all agree that the Federal government needs to collect tax, there is heated disagreement about the fairness of the methods used. That could all just go away if we repealed that unwise 16th Amendment.

Before the 16th Amendment, the Federal government collected tax from each State, according to the State's population, according to the Census. How the citizens of a State would tax themselves was left up to them, the way State taxes still are.

The unwise 16th Amendment was passed by appealing to people's baser nature. Being a Christian, I believe that envy is as bad a sin as either greed or theft.

The 10th Amendment was meant to keep us a republic, not the national democracy of mob rule that we have now. Repeal the 16th Amendment. Let the States once again protect their citizens from potential Federal abuse.

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