Authors: Jeanette Torres
Alex Wong/Getty Images(BETTENDORF, Iowa) -- Before a crowd of Scott County Republicans Monday night, Texas Gov. Rick Perry vowed to “uproot” the three branches of government and “dismantle” the status quo in Washington, D.C., with a plan he said he will make public Tuesday morning.
“Tomorrow I’m going to unveil a plan to uproot all three branches of government and overhaul Washington. It touches every branch of government because they each contributed to the demise of America,” Perry said at the Scott County GOP’s Ronald Reagan Dinner.
While offering no details of his government reform speech set for Tuesday morning at a Bettendorf, Iowa manufacturing facility, Perry said he would address the lifelong appointments of federal judges, who he said aim to “arrogantly rewrite our laws from the bench”; upend the “permanent bureaucracy of the executive branch, which thwarts the will of the American people to advance a big government agenda”; and reform a Congress that “not only spends too much, but is in Washington too much.”
“Washington doesn’t need a new coat of paint. It needs a complete overhaul,” Perry said.
Perry railed against lawmakers and lobbyists in Washington, D.C, who he argued have not felt the economic hardships ringing across America.
“America remains mired in the ruins of this Washington out-of-touch big government economic policies, and when you go into Washington, D.C., though and that surrounding area, they’re doing just fine,” Perry said. “Washington metro area is now the most affluent metropolitan area in the country, and that’s because all of those lobbyists, that’s because all of those overpaid czars and bureaucrats haven’t suffered one bit while we’ve been going through one of the worst economies that this country has ever seen. Main Street’s windows might be getting boarded up, but the cash continues to flow to those Wall Street financiers, those Beltway profiteers.”
Perry, who is on his eighth trip to the Hawkeye state, appealed to Iowans to look past his flaws and examine his commitment as a principled candidate.
“The question facing Iowans in 50 days isn’t whether to embrace change but to decide for them Iowans to decide who is the most credible messenger of that change,” Perry said. “I’m the first to admit I’m not the most polished candidate out there, but let me tell you one thing, I stick to my principles.”
Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio
