| On April 26, 2010, Rick Perry first said he'd refuse to debate until Bill White released his tax returns: "If he releases his tax returns, we'll be happy to talk about debate dates," said Miner. Now that Bill White has released his tax returns, Rick Perry must agree to debate. And there are many questions he will have to answer -- questions we will be highlighting every day until the Texas press corps finally asks them and Rick Perry finally answers them. Part-Time Perry needs to answer questions about how he plans to address the state budget shortfall. So far, Perry has offered little more than shrugging it off and claiming he'll do the same thing in 2011 as he did in 2003. At least two things are immediately wrong with that: first of all, the deficit is nearly twice-as-large this time. Secondly, the last time we slashed our budget like that our state services were simply obliterated. But finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the startling revelation that Rick Perry has only logged two hours of "office time" in fifteen weeks. Bill White's campaign has challenged Perry to answer for this. From their press release: - "Why won't Rick Perry debate?"
- Why won't he answer questions and face Texans without a script?"
- How has career politician Rick Perry confronted this impending budget crisis?
An analysis of 15 weeks of his state schedule reveals that Part-Time Perry had only two hours of "office time" scheduled, and more than half of Perry's time was spent at press conferences, photo ops, lunches and dinner parties. During these 15 weeks, Rick Perry also enjoyed 10 long weekends, which gave him plenty of time to enjoy the food prepared by his one and half chefs in his $10,000 per month rental mansion.
"Perry thinks he is doesn't need to answer to Texans and can just relax in his rental mansion all the way through November," said Bacon. "Perry doesn't think he needs to work on our budget crisis, he admitted he was waiting until 2011 to address it, and he even made the outrageous claim that the $18 billion shortfall was grabbed from the air. Perry needs to stop playing political games, stop denying the budget crisis and start working for Texans."
Previously on BOR: |
