April 16, 2009 1:21 PM

Texas Governor Floats Possibility Of Secession

By
Brent Lang
Topics
Governors
(AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)
Does Gov. Rick Perry want his state of Texas to secede from the union?

Perry is making headlines for suggesting yesterday that people in his state are so fed up with high taxes and President Obama's stimulus spending that breaking away from the Union might be an option.

Later, Perry backed away from his earlier comments, however. He emphasized in an interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he never specifically stated that Texas should think about seceding.

Still, Perry's comments are generating plenty of attention, both in Texas and nationwide.

"There's a lot of different scenarios," Perry said in Austin, according to the Associated Press. "We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we're a pretty independent lot to boot."

Speaking to an anti-tax "tea party," the Republican governor also dismissed criticism that people protesting taxes across Texas and throughout the country were "right wing extremists," The Dallas Morning News reports. Rather, he said that only by affirming states' rights would Texans be able to stop the federal government's reckless tax and spending policies.

"They're overturning the rights we had one by one, making choices that would leave our founding fathers scratching their heads," Perry told the crowd.

Perry is facing a tough primary challenge from U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson. A recent poll by the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Government had him trailing the Texas senator 36%-30%, with 24% still undecided.

Perry attracted national attention recently by refusing $550 million in federal stimulus money for the state's unemployment funds. He said it came with too many strings attached and would leave Texas on the hook to fund the program once federal money dried up, the Houston Chronicle reported last March.

Perry spoke at three "tea party" rallies across his state. Hundreds of similar protests were held nationally yesterday as Americans hurried to meet the April 15th deadline for filing their federal and state taxes.

Despite his later clarification, Perry's fiery words may have helped shore up the conservative base for his primary challenge – at least among Texas Republicans fed up with taxes. According to Politico, the governor has effectively transformed himself into the "tea party darling."

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by treyharris08 July 29, 2009 2:41 PM EDT
Texas is #2 in Gross State Product. It's $1.3 trillion a year, which is about the same as Canada's.

Texas is still a tax donor state. For every $1 they give to the Feds, they receive less than $1 for services from the Feds.

Total Military Recruits: Army, Navy, Air Force (most recent) by state: 1. Texas - 15,594
2. Florida - 9,581
3. New York - 7,523

Texans provide more people for our armed forces than any other state, and are #1 for air force recruits and #2 among navy and army recruits.
Texas is #1 as far as total recruiting done for all military branches.

Texas also has NASA, a large number of military bases and is an energy independent state equipped with a $9 billion rainy day fund.
Its unemployment is 2 percentage points below the national average, and it's business record is sterling: Chief Executive magazine named it the best place to do business in America, and it houses the most Fortune 500 companies of any state.
With the current rise of oil prices Texas economy has been rising all the more.
Texas had the second largest workforce in the United States, with almost 11 million civilian workers.
In 2006, for the fifth year in a row, Texas led the United States in export revenues. Texas exports for 2006 totaled $150.8 billion, which is $22.1 billion more than 2005 and represents a 17.2 percent increase. In 2002, the Port of Houston was 6th among the top sea ports in the world in terms of total cargo volume; Air Cargo World rated Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as "the best air cargo airport in the world". The ship channel at the Port of Houston?the largest in the U.S. in international commerce and the sixth-largest port in the world.

According to the Tax Foundation, Texan's state and local tax burdens are among the lowest in the nation, 7th lowest nationally, with state and local taxes costing $3,580 per capita, or 8.7% of resident incomes. Texas is only one of 7 states to not have a state income tax.

Texas is home to two of the United States Army's largest facilities (in terms of geographic size), Fort Hood in Central Texas near Killeen and Fort Bliss near El Paso. In addition, Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio is home to the Brooke Army Medical Center, one of the Army's major hospitals and its only burn facility.

The United States Air Force operates several bases in the state ? Sheppard (Wichita Falls), Dyess (Abilene), Goodfellow (San Angelo), Laughlin (Del Rio), and Lackland and Randolph (San Antonio).

The United States Navy operates Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (the former Carswell Air Force Base facility) as well as NAS Corpus Christi and NAS Kingsville.
The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels (1.3×109 m3), which makes up approximately one-third of the known U. S. supply.
Texas has a large tourism industry. The state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country", a nod to Texas's diversity and history. Tourists might enjoy San Antonio and El Paso's Hispanic culture, or Fort Worth western attractions. Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Padre Island are some of the popular Texas resort areas located on the Gulf of Mexico. Houston is Texas' leading convention city. Dallas is also one of the nation's leading convention cities. Houston was the first city in Texas awarded with a CityPass.
Texas is a top filmmaking state. Austin is now one of the leading filmmaking locations in the country. The exteriors for the popular soap opera Dallas were filmed on Southfork Ranch, a location near Plano, Texas. From 1995 to 2004, more than $2.75 billion was spent in Texas for film and television production.

The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling. Also many Hollywood studios are relocating parts of their production divisions to the Austin and Dallas areas.
Healthcare is a growing industry in the state of Texas. The Texas Medical Center, located in southwest Houston, is the largest medical center in the world.[25][26] It is home to The University of Texas Health Science Center which trains medical students and residents and includes The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a global leader of cancer research and treatment[27]. The medical complex also hosts a private medical college, The Baylor College of Medicine, which is rated as one of the top medical schools in the nation
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by jackielegs July 21, 2009 2:39 PM EDT
I find it funny that the only people who disagree with this are the people that believe that obama is actually helping the eonomyy. This is a good idea. Texas is a financial powerhouse with the third largest port in the world. As for military we could finance the third largest in the world. Our president hasnt done anything that has helped this country prosper in any way and yet you still stand by him and dissmiss the idea that Texas could prosper on its own. Thats the problem with our country, we cant think outside the lines of our government. We are so close minded that we cant accept anything that sounds different. I hope that you all take a good long thought about whats going on with this country.
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by licht1 April 18, 2009 10:56 PM EDT
Rick Perry: If at First You Don?t Secede ?.

See

http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/04/18/if-at-first-you-dont-secede/
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by steeepe April 18, 2009 3:04 PM EDT
Perry and the rest of the like-minded GOP are a bunch of ignorant fools. The tax rate on most Americans is as low as it's been in thirty years. If you want more for nothing, try shoplifting. The "tea-baggers" are idiots who don't like government or Obama. Maybe they should take money away from their fire departments or police forces or school systems and do those jobs themselves. Better yet, they could all move to Texass and then secede.
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by independentc April 17, 2009 6:39 PM EDT
Did anybody bother to listen to Gov. Perry's speech? It sure doesn't based on the comments being made. All he did was back legislation that affirms states rights under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution. Never did he mention secession. Listen to it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LHrIxc-QyE

This is what the Resolution said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTWKp_ucGLM

Besides Texas, there are 30 other States concerned about Washington trampling on the 10th Amendment.

Independent Cuss
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by chasburch April 17, 2009 3:38 PM EDT
During the Vietnam Era, those who supported the war sported bumper stickers saying "AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT'. (Funny, but you don't hear people talk about how much we gained from the Vietnam War.)

Now that market deregulation and a disaster of a war have thrown our country into a deep recession, those same people want to pick up their ball and go home because it's someone else's turn at bat.

Samuel Johnson aid "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". In his desperation to be re-elected, Governor Perry will resort to any patriotism, even if it means turning his back on the United States and supporting Texas as a nation.
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by mattcat25 April 17, 2009 2:22 PM EDT
The Republican Party has done everything possible to wreck the United States by starting unnecessary and mismanaged wars, ignored the constitution, fostered wide spread corruption and Politicalization of Federal Departments, diverted publican Federal Treasury Funds to the Private Sector (Multinational Corporations) incited division amongst Americans.

And now, since it seems that their mishandling of EVERYTHING has resulted in the bleak promise that they could win any election (fairly) the GOP is attempting seek US failure through dividing the states into separate countries.

How completely un-American could they be???
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by jsilver2th April 17, 2009 1:09 PM EDT
Any high school gang in L.A. woul kick these militias down the stairs-

I know idiots that have hundreds of guns- heck I've got a few myself- but it barely matters how many you have because you can only use one at a time-
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by jsilver2th April 17, 2009 1:04 PM EDT
Posted by Patriot54: "remember, there are 3 of us for each 1 of you. "

So they could have stopped the election of Obama if they'd of all gotten up off their sorry behinds and bothered to vote?

Just like people that claim to be patriots- they don't even fulfill the first duty of citizens.

They are all cranked up and in a feeding frenzy- the report warning o right wing violence was right on- I live in the far west in a hot bed of similar kooks- I was at our local cafe the other day and some old geezer was just certain when census time came there would be "bus loads of n*****s comin out here and askin us all kinds of questions"-

Patriots? Ha Ha- Idiots more like it.
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by jsilver2th April 17, 2009 12:54 PM EDT
Long Live Texico!

Wow another hot governor like sarah palin with secessionism and all- this issue will prempted by newt- read his old contract on america- reads like the articles of confederation- perry does not have the clevage like rush though-

an independent Texas- I think Texico sounds great for those crackers- let them protect their own border- ha ha- good ridence plus we could get the US Senate and Congress free of the morons they send there- like Phil Graham that started this economic disaster and don't forget GWB- Thanks Texas you drain all of our taxes with your border problems- we will make a new border fence too keep you Texicans where you belong- the Mexican drug cartels would run your state in two weeks if they don't already- you think the rest of America cares what you idiots do? Have a nice day-
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