We won't get fooled again, Rick Perry

We won't get fooled again, Rick Perry
Texas Republicans are taking note of the governor's inconsistencies on vital issues.

By STEVEN F. HOTZE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

The predicament facing Texas Republicans as weat the close of our state GOP convention should remind us of the popular song lyric: "You've got to stand for something, or you'll fall for anything."

Under Gov. Rick Perry's leadership in recent years, sadly, it's clear that the leader of the Republican Party of Texas has failed to stand or fight for many of the values and principles that brought us to statewide majority status just a short time ago.

In fact, in the governor's case, it's not clear why we should believe a single word he says while on the campaign trail.

In August 2007, after he was safely re-elected to what I am sure he thought was his final term as our governor, you may recall how Rick Perry took the opportunity he had before the foreign media in Mexico City to criticize what were mostly Republicans in Congress who opposed passing an immigration amnesty bill that would legalize millions of workers.

Perry also told his Mexican hosts he supported a system that would temporarily legalize foreign workers. According to the Chronicle, Perry said such a system would allow for a "free flow of individuals between these countries who want to work, who want to be an asset to our country and to Mexico."

Of course, there might be nothing wrong with this statement had Rick Perry not made getting tough on immigration one of the central planks of his re-election campaign leading up to November 2006. Quite the contrary, he featured tough border security as a TV ad and publicly endorsed a concept to empower Web users worldwide to watch Texas' border with Mexico and phone the authorities if they spot any apparently illegal crossings.

Bait and switch. He fooled us once.

Remember, too, how in February 2007 within days of taking office for his second full term Rick Perry tried to end-run our state Legislature and mandate that our sixth-grade girls, who are 11 and 12 years old, must receive questionable vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. He did this not only without saying a word about it on the 2006 campaign trail, but also without permitting any public testimony on such a delicate matter from such disinterested parties as, say, parents.

Bait and switch. He fooled us twice.

But perhaps most objectionable of all is what goes into effect this month: the Rick Perry business tax. The Perry Business Tax, passed by the Republican-dominated Texas Legislature during the special session in May 2006, was revised and further complicated during the 2007 regular legislative session. It is the largest tax increase in the history of Texas. The average small business will pay 10 percent of its income in new state taxes, while large corporations were given loopholes by the governor in exchange for their support.

When small-business owners — the backbone of our party and our economy — discover this new business tax, they will be ready to cook the Republicans' goose in Texas' 2008 general election.

This tax hits small businesses and requires them to pay a tax that, on average, will be 10 percent of a business' profit. This takes money out of the hands of businesses and pours it into the coffers of state government to grow its already bloated bureaucracies and create more entitlement programs. Even businesses that lose money will still be required to pay this tax.

Currently, households making more than $100,000 per year represent 10 percent of the population and pay 70 percent of the taxes.

Inevitably, the Perry Business Tax will idrive small-business owners and employees away from the Republicans into the open arms of the Democrats in November. The problem is: while Texas Democrats smartly opposed the tax, once in control you can be sure they will fight to increase the Perry business tax.

Politics is nothing more than a contract between elected officials and their supporters who put them in office. Political candidates make promises and based upon those promises supporters give them their votes.

When leaders at any level of government, including the governor of Texas, say one thing and do another, they must be held accountable for their utter lack of conviction. It's time for Texas Republicans to stand for principle once more and not fall for the empty promises of Rick Perry and his kind.

Hotze, a Houston physician, is president of the Conservative Republicans of Texas.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5837675.html