Rick Perry in Bloomberg.com

On Budget & Economy: Regulate Wall Street, but Dodd-Frank kills community banks

Q: [What about Wall Street?

A: We're fed up by seeing Wall Street get treated specially, and you can't even get a loan from your community bank because of Dodd-Frank banking regulations. All of that has to change.

Q: What are you going to do about Wall Street, then?

A: Well, regulate 'em. I mean, regulate 'em to make sure that doesn't happen. If they make bad decisions, let them live with those bad decisions; don't bail them out.

Q: Isn't that what Dodd-Frank is, regulations? You were just saying that was bad.

A: Dodd-Frank is killing the community banks, overregulation in that sense. There needs to be some wisdom. My home state, one of the things that we were successful with was finding that balance between protecting the citizens and allowing the freedom for folks to grow, to be able to get loans, to be able do the things that really matter. Dodd-Frank just codifies into place these regulations.

Source: Bloomberg News 2015 coverage:Faith & Freedom D.C. conference Jun 22, 2015

On Corporations: Lowering corporate tax rate 10% increase wages by 10%

Perry argued that lowering the corporate tax rate would without any question boost wages: "I mean, any accountant worth their salt will tell you that when you lower that corporate tax rate by 10% you're going to see a raising of 5% or 10% of wages. Every blue-collar worker in America ought to be standing up and saying 'I'm votin' for the Republicans because they're going to raise my wages.' Every one of 'em. You couple those two things together, the driving down of electricity costs because we're using North American energy--and frankly I'd a whole lot rather count on the Canadians and the Mexicans than the Venezuelans or some mullah from some Middle Eastern country for our energy. Think about that, North American energy lowering the cost of electricity in this country!" Source: Bloomberg News 2015 coverage:Faith & Freedom D.C. conference Jun 22, 2015

On Gun Control: Taking away guns is knee-jerk reaction to gun tragedies

At the Faith & Freedom Coalition's conference, Perry told the crowd that the Charleston shooting was "an absolute heinous hate crime": "We all come here today with heavy hearts for those Charleston Christians who were gunned down inside of their place of worship. That deranged individual didn't just take lives of black Americans--he gunned down nine children of God."

After his speech, though, he sent mixed signals about the wisdom of debating gun laws in the wake of the tragedy: "It is healthy for us as a nation to have conversations, but I do have an issue that the knee-jerk from the left is always, 'We're going to take people's guns away from them,' when in fact there may be a host of contributing factors here."

When asked if Obama was exploiting the tragedy by raising the issue of better background checks, Perry said yes; "that's the knee-jerk reaction--that if we can just take the guns out of the hands of everyone in this country, these types of things won't happen again."

Source: Bloomberg News 2015 coverage:Faith & Freedom D.C. conference Jun 22, 2015

On Principles & Values: Studied as veterinarian; organic chemistry made him a pilot

I went to a really small rural school, in Paint Creek--we had about 115 kids, grades 1 through 12. I like to tell people I graduated in the top 10 in my graduating class and then somebody always asks me how many and I have to 'fess up and say it was 13.

I always wanted to be a veterinarian, went off at Texas A&M, and about two years into that adventure, organic chemistry made a pilot out of me. I volunteered to join the United States Air Force and became a pilot and flew.

Source: Bloomberg News 2015 coverage:Faith & Freedom D.C. conference Jun 22, 2015

The above quotations are from Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg News political coverage. Click here for other excerpts from Bloomberg.com and Bloomberg News political coverage. Click here for other excerpts by Rick Perry. Click here for a profile of Rick Perry.
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Page last updated: Dec 15, 2021