Last August, ThinkProgress highlighted a Texas Watch report showing that the Texas Supreme Court “sided with consumers in 27 percent of cases involving an individual against a corporation or government agency — and it reversed jury verdicts in 72 percent of cases.” A new report by that same organization shows that the court’s favoritism towards corporations is now even worse:
Over the course of the decade, we have reviewed 624 consumer cases, carefully categorizing and compiling win-loss rates, with the scope of these consumer cases encompassing instances where individuals, patients, policyholders, and small business owners were pitted against corporate or governmental entities. . . . On average, defendants have won an overwhelming 74% of their cases and plaintiffs have won just 22% of the time over the last decade. Furthermore, since 2005, consumers have lost an astonishing 79% of their cases before the Texas Supreme Court.
The report also notes that a major factor driving this trend is Gov. Rick Perry (R), whose appointees to the court consistently sided with corporations over people. Indeed, the “win rate” for corporate and other defendants skyrocketed shortly after Perry took over as governor:
Later today, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to drop out of the Republican presidential race and endorse former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Not too long ago, however, Gingrich provided Perry with an endorsement of his own. In 2010, Perry published Fed Up!, a screed against the federal government which claims that Social Security, Medicare and, indeed, most of the progress of the 20th century is unconstitutional. Gingrich wrote the foreword to Perry’s book, and he wholeheartedly endorsed the book as a “handbook” that will arm “every American” with “the facts so that you can inform your family, friends and neighbors”:
Lest there be any doubt, Fed Up! is not the least bit ambiguous when it claims that America’s safety net violates the Constitution. The passage calling Social Security unconstitutional, for example, clearly and unequivocally states that Social Security exists “at the expense of respect for the Constitution” (note: the font in this clip is different because it is not available online and had to be captured on a Kindle reader):
Eighteen months after Gingrich lavished praise on Perry’s narrow vision for America, he will now share a stage with the radical governor and accept his endorsement. Given Fed Up!‘s complete clarity in laying out Perry’s view of the Constitution, however, it is difficult to believe that Gingrich did not know exactly what he was praising when he drafted such an effusive foreword to Perry’s book.
Now that Gingrich has emerged as one of the two leading contenders for the GOP presidential nomination, he has an obligation to explain whether he still believes, as Perry does, that Social Security is unconstitutional. Moreover, if Gingrich has since abandoned that belief, he has an equal obligation to explain what happened in the last eighteen months to change his mind on such an important constitutional question.
BREAKING: Rick Perry Dropping Out |
Facing increasingly long odds and his own propensity to damage himself, Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) will drop his presidential bid today, CNN’s Peter Hamby reports, citing two sources. An offical announcement could come today. Perry’s supporters had been urging him to drop out in recent days.
Update
Perry’s campaign announced that it will hold a press conference at 11:00 AM.
NEWS FLASH
Rick Perry Highlights Support For Government Health Care In South Carolina |
Republicans who rail against so-called “government health care” typically exclude the Veterans Health Care Administration from the list of “big government” programs they would want to eliminate or repeal. Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and now Rick Perry have all pledged to expand government involvement in health care through the VA, recognizing that the fully integrated veterans’ health care structure of doctors and hospitals actually provides veterans with benefits that are the envy of the rest of the health care system — including private payers and providers. CNN points to this flyer from Rick Perry highlighting his support for government health care for voters in South Carolina:
Yesterday on CNN, GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry refused to back down from his previous debate comments that Turkey is being run by “Islamic terrorists.” “Did you misspeak?” CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked Perry, “Are you ready to revise your comments?” “Not at all,” the Texas governor replied. Perry justified his stance, saying that the Turkish government “allow[s] for honor killings”:
PERRY: I said that if they are treating their citizens that way, that they approach that terminology. I mean, when you allow for honor killings, Wolf — I mean, I hope you’re not defending honor killings as an appropriate act in any country, much less a country that we send foreign aid to. And we do send foreign aid to that country. I think some $4 billion. That’s not just a drop in the bucket.
BLITZER: Four billion dollars in this fiscal year? Is that what you’re saying?
PERRY: No, $4 billion in the last few years, and I think $7 billion on the military side of things. But the fact is, if we send any money to a country — Wolf, let me ask you, are you sitting here and defending the act of honor killing?
Watch the clip:
No, of course Blitzer isn’t defending honor killings and neither is the Turkish government. The Christian Science Monitor reported last year that Turkey has indeed seen a sharp increase in so-called “honor” killings — a term that “refers to a family member or members killing a relative, usually a girl or young woman, whose behavior is judged to have tarnished the family honor.” But the Turkish government isn’t “allowing” this to happen. While some have argued that the government has not done enough to combat the problem, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called it “a longstanding bleeding wound of the society.”
And Perry said that Turkey has received around $11 billion in aid “in the last few years.” In fact, the U.S. has granted nearly $21 million in military and security assistance to Turkey since 2009, making Perry’s $11 billion claim wildly off the mark. And as a recent Congressional Research Service report noted, Turkey has received approximately $14 billion since 1948, not in the last few years as Perry claimed.
But Perry’s overall point is that, as he said on Monday, Turkey should be kicked out of NATO and the U.S. should reevaluate its relationship with the Muslim majority Eurasian democracy. But the aforementioned CRS report suggests that this probably isn’t a good idea:
Arguably, Turkey is a more significant ally for the United States at present than during the Cold War. With several challenges to U.S. national security emanating from the greater Middle East, the United States has already shown that it seeks to use Turkey’s geographic location for its advantage, and it is likely that future U.S. regional interests will dictate a similar U.S. outlook.
“We absolutely and fundamentally disagree with [Perry's] assertion,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said yesterday, adding, “Rest assured that we believe that Turkey is a stalwart ally.”
The GOP 2012 presidential candidates are headed to South Carolina for its Saturday primary largely in lockstep about economic policy. Across the board, the candidates have proposed tax plans that would give huge tax cuts to the already wealthy and blow a hole in the federal budget, while doing next to nothing for the middle class.
In South Carolina specifically, the candidates’ plans would give tens of thousands of dollars (or hundreds of thousands, depending on the plan) in tax breaks to the richest 1 percent of Americans. Citizens for Tax Justice broke down the plans by candidate and income percentage:
As the table shows, the smallest tax break for the richest 1 percent in South Carolina would be Mitt Romney’s, at about $69,000. Newt Gingrich wins the race for largest tax break for the 1 percent, at more than $212,000. In South Carolina, where the median income is about $43,000, the richest 1 percent have an average income of about $945,000.
Overall, the GOP candidates’ tax plans give tax breaks to the wealthy that are up to 270 times as large as those they deign to give to the middle class. Several of them, in fact, would raise taxes on many middle class families. Romney, for instance, would raise taxes on half of middle class families with children, due to his elimination of an expanded child tax credit implemented by President Obama.
Perry Stands By Claim That Turkey Is Run By ‘Islamic Terrorists’ |
During last night’s GOP presidential debate, Rick Perry suggested that Turkey is run by “Islamic terrorists” and said the American NATO ally should be kicked out of the Atlantic Alliance. The Turkish Foreign Ministry chastised Perry today, saying that candidates for president “should be more knowledgeable about the world.” Today on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer asked Perry if he’d like to take back his comment. “No, not at all,” Perry said. The Texas governor then suggested that the Turkish government is sanctioning “honor killings.” “If they are treating their citizens that way, than they approach that terminology,” he said. Watch the clip:
NEWS FLASH
Perry, Gingrich Say They Would Do Away With NLRB If Elected |
COLUMBIA, South Carolina — Two Republican presidential candidates would do away with the National Labor Relations Board if elected, they said Tuesday at a forum sponsored by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. The NLRB has come under fire from the GOP since it blocked Boeing from moving a plant to South Carolina to punish striking workers in Washington state. When asked what the NLRB would look like in his administration, Texas Gov. Rick Perry replied succinctly, “There wouldn’t be one.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, asked the same question, offered a similar response. “If I were Speaker of the House right now, I would have defunded the NLRB,” Gingrich said, before adding that he was exploring whether he’d have the authority to sign an executive order ending the agency.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) struggled through another GOP debate last night, fumbling several questions. After claiming that U.S. ally Turkey was run by “Islamic terrorists,” Perry clearly felt the need to stick to his main talking points — the need for lower taxes, less regulation, and a part-time Congress — not matter what question he was asked.
When confronted directly about what he would do to alleviate America’s continuing housing crisis, Perry dodged, resorting to his old stand-bys — and an off-the-wall joke about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s taxes:
MODERATOR: What measures would you immediately take to improve the housing market, or do you consider any such intervention to be an overreach of government?
PERRY: Well obviously the first thing we need to do in this country is cut the tax rate down…That’s the reason I laid out a simple and flat tax of 20%…Even Timothy Geithner can get his taxes in with that type of a system. And that is where we need to be focused is creating jobs, is pulling back those regulations that we talk about since ’08…As President of the United States that’s what I’m going to do…work towards a Balanced Budget Amendment..and try to pass a constitutional amendment, if the people will accept and work with, to make Congress a part-time body…
MODERATOR: Governor, so beyond moving to a part-time congress and encouraging the rest of the nation to follow Texas in terms of job creation, you would take no pointed measures aimed at helping the U.S. housing market?
PERRY: I think I said two things that are pretty powerful — cut the taxes and cut the regulation, which will increase the jobs and people will have the income to come in. I don’t think it’s the government’s responsibility’s — look we’ve seen that before with Fannie and Freddie. We don’t need the federal government in the housing market anymore. They need to be out of the housing market.
Watch it:
Perry’s stilted and rambling response revealed that he has no clue about — much less a solution to — the dire situation millions of middle class families are facing. American homes have lost $7 trillion in value in five years, four million Americans are either behind on their payments or in foreclosure, and a quarter of the nation’s homeowners are underwater.
As ThinkProgress has been reporting, none of the major candidates have offered a single substantive solution to the foreclosure crisis. Mitt Romney, for instance, has insisted that the government should not try to prevent foreclosures and allow the housing market to “hit bottom.”
Economists continue to emphasize that the collapse of housing prices is a major impediment to economic recovery that undermines consumer confidence. Housing experts and Occupy protesters have pleaded for more government intervention to save millions of families from being evicted from their homes.
Last August, ThinkProgress highlighted a Texas Watch report showing that the Texas Supreme Court “sided with consumers in 27 percent of cases involving an individual against a corporation or government agency — and it reversed jury verdicts in 72 percent of cases.” A new report by that same organization shows that the court’s favoritism towards corporations is now even worse:
Later today, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to drop out of the Republican presidential race and 
The GOP 2012 presidential candidates are headed to South Carolina for its Saturday primary 
