Monday, Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke at The New York Meeting. His topic was "Red State Solutions to Blue State Problems. Preceding Governor Perry was Texas Congressman Roger Williams, (Tx Dist 25) who will soon roll out "Jump Start America". Included in this plan is a 30% Flat Tax on businesses; 20% Flat Tax on the 1st million earned by taxpayers; 30% on the 2nd million; and a 15% capital gains tax. He said that growing small businesses is the answer to a sluggish economy. A common talking point from each of the speakers was the upcoming 2014 elections are even more important than 2016. Encouraging citizen involvement, he said, "Get off the porch and lead the parade down Main Street."
From the website:
The New York Meeting is a nationally-recognized gathering of elected officials, journalists, business leaders and conservative authors in New York City at The Grand Hyatt, run by Mallory Factor and O’Brien Murray.The New York Meeting identifies leaders and generates ideas for the future of our nation and gets to the core of the most important issues facing the nation. This monthly hour and half meeting consists of five 15 minute segments with America’s leaders—Senators, Governors, Congressman, newsmakers, journalists and celebrated authors, Each speaker addresses the meeting and then, answer questions from a panel of noted journalists and the invited audience. The audience is limited to five hundred invited guests–donors, media, and organization heads.The five speakers Monday were William Kristol, Rep Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Former Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA), and Governor Perry.
The New York Meeting is streamed live by a number of large Conservative organizations, and reaches a large monthly audience. In addition, the individual segments are made available on YouTube and other outlets to reach additional audiences.
During his question and answer session, Kristol referred to the Texas platform plank on the subject of gays as "not the norm for the GOP".
Rep Blackburn said that she supports Rep Steve Scalise (R-LA) for Majority Whip in the House of Representatives because of those running, he is a southern Congressman and 25% of the caucus is from southern states, yet only two committees are led by southern Congressmen. "Only two gavels", she said.
"The purpose of a political party is to elect candidates of like-minded philosophy", said Haley Barbour. He spoke about the need for a big tent. "We have to win elections that allow us to govern." In 2014 he said "Our goal has got to be to win." "In politics, purity is the enemy of victory. Only one perfect person has walked the earth and he's not running this year."
Rep Issa spoke about pressing on with the investigations of the IRS and of the Benghazi tragedy.
Governor Perry began by asking a question - "How do we make America work again?" He said that the place you look is at the state level. Governors compete with each other. States have the opportunity to compete against each other. He said the U.S. has to liberalize energy policy, especially opening federal lands. He pointed out that since 2000, 37% of all new jobs in the private sector have been created in Texas. One out of twelve Americans live in Texas. Three out of eight jobs have been created in Texas. He credits the success in Texas to continuity of leadership, as light a tax burden as possible, a legal system that will not allow over-suing, and holding schools accountable. He said this gives people confidence that there will be security and stability in the state. The formula is the key to success for the rest of the country. He said the goal is to make D.C. as inconsequential as possible - let states make policy to govern.
When asked why he focuses on economic issues and not social issues in his speeches, he said "Even those social issues that tear us apart need to be decided on in the states." On his failed presidential run, he said, "I wasn't prepared."
It was noted by the organizers that this New York Meeting was being live streamed to 19 organizations around world.
