Perry Launches New Attacks on Gingrich, Romney
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(NEW HAMPTON, Iowa) — In a weekend that has been full of hits on opponents for issues ranging from Iran to earmarks, Texas Gov. Rick Perry continued the criticism of his rivals on Sunday, this time launching separate attacks on two Republicans leading in the polls: Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
Perry accused Gingrich of borrowing money from the Social Security trust fund in order to balance the budget when he was speaker of the House.
“Newt talks about balancing budgets and you know what he doesn’t mention. I think he says they balanced the budget four times while he was speaker of the House,” Perry told about 100 voters at the Chickasaw Event Center in New Hampton, Iowa. “Those of you that are wondering what happened to the Social Security trust fund, here’s a part of it right here. They took the money out of the Social Security trust fund so that they could tell you that they were balancing the budget in Washington, D.C.”
Perry contrasted himself to Romney, charging the former Massachusetts governor with raising corporate taxes in his state instead of cutting spending during his service.
“I want to make a clear distinction between myself and Gov. Romney, and he was the governor of Massachusetts same time I was the governor of Texas,” Perry said. “We reduced by $10 billion in spending in Texas, rather than raising taxes, and he took a different path. He scoured his tax code looking for those ways to increase corporate taxes rather than cutting the budget.”
Perry said Romney raised taxes by 20 percent in Massachusetts and argued the former governor was doing the work of state Democrats who said he was giving them “air cover.”
“He put it on the backs of Massachusetts job creators,” Perry said. “Sorry Mitt, but I call that friendly fire. It was our people, the small business men and women, that were taking the hit.”
After disclosing his grievances with his two opponents, Perry suggested he possesses the credentials to change the way Washington works.
“Wall Street and Washington’s the problem. We’ve got to have somebody that will walk in there that doesn’t give one hoot about any old relationships. Somebody that cares more about Main Street than they did Wall Street. Insiders are not going to bring real change. It’s going to take a serious outsider who will walk into Washington, D.C., and to really shake up that place and I will suggest to you that I’m that outsider that will do it,” Perry said.
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