Fresh from his decisive re-election victory, Gov. Rick Perry started promoting his new book, "Fed Up," in national TV appearances on Thursday.
In the book, Perry criticizes an encroaching and overspending federal government, but Democrats claim Perry is leaving out some points.
Perry appeared on NBC and Fox News pitching his new book that's critical of the federal government and courts.
"We have more government than we can pay for," Perry said. "Pare it back; we want our freedoms back."
In his book, Perry calls Social Security — one of the most popular federal programs — a "failure" and a "Ponzi scheme."
"This unsustainable fiscal insanity is the true legacy of Social Security and the New Deal," he writes, adding that workers would be better off in privately-managed retirement plans.
After reading Perry's words, Dallas County Democratic Party chair Darlene Ewing said Perry doesn't need to worry about Social Security, since he's eligible to draw a state pension of about $86,000 a year.
"He's a hypocrite," Ewing said. "First of all, he's receiving a public pension plan financed by taxpayers."
The governor also criticizes federal immigration actions and the cost to the state of illegal immigrants.
"State and local governments," he writes, "which provide essential services like schooling and emergency health care to illegal immigrants, often under a mandate from the federal courts, bear the brunt of this immense fiscal burden.
But in the book's section on immigration, Perry doesn't mention the 2001 bill he signed, under no court order, allowing children of illegals in-state college tuition.
He defended that program in January’s Belo primary debate. "Those individuals will be great productive citizens of the state of Texas," the governor said.
As Perry promotes the book that defends states' rights, he denies any ulterior motives.
"I'm not running for the presidency of the United States," he said.
E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com
