WALLACE:— everybody agrees that if you lower taxes, you do increase economic growth. But even conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation say almost never do tax cuts pay for themselves. That you still end up, you may get some increased economic growth, but you still end up with lower revenue.
PERRY: And you know what? There's nothing wrong with lower revenue. I think Americans are ready for Washington, D.C. to quit spending money.
WALLACE: But we have a deficit problem, sir.
PERRY: We will pay off that deficit. Our plan balances this budget in 2020.
Wallace then challenged Perry regarding the fact that under his plan, the wealthy would be getting more tax breaks than they currently enjoy, the last thing that the Occupy Wall Street crowd, or their supporters (in the plurality of those surveyed) wants to hear . Perry countered by trotting out the old "trickle-down" Ronald Reagan argument, that by giving those at the top tax relief, they'll now be more nimble to hire and grow the economy. Oh, and if you disagree - well, that's class warfare, my friend!
PERRY: Everybody gets a tax cut here. Everybody gets a tax cut here.
WALLACE: But the rich got a much bigger tax cut.
PERRY: And, historically, those who have money put more money into their business. They hire more people. That's what we need to be focused on — how do you give incentives to the job creators in this country so that those $14 million people that don't have jobs out there have a shot of having the dignity to take care of their family? That's what I really care about.
The idea of class warfare, and that's what we're talking about here. You got the president, you have some people out there that want to talk about class warfare, that the rich are having more money or what have you. I am interested in individuals who are going to be able to invest in this country, have the confidence that an environment that's been created, that they're going to be able to keep more of what they work for. When they do that, they'll invest in companies and create jobs. That's what the debate should stay on. Not creating class warfare.
WALLACE: But I just want to make it clear — you are saying that yes, the wealthy, the job creators, as you've called them, they are going to end up getting bigger tax cuts under the Perry plan than the middle class. And you're OK with that.
PERRY: I want to see people investing. I mean, the idea again — I'm not for class warfare. If somebody wants to go push the class warfare issue and try to divide this country, I'm for bringing people together to create jobs and give Americans a better chance to take care of their families.
Not surprisingly, Perry now sounds like the toughest hombre on planet earth when it comes to illegal immigrants. This comes after his defense of giving the sons and daughters of undocumented immigrants a crack at the American dream by offering them in-state tuition rates for them was met with unrelenting hostility.
But whether it's putting Texas ranger recon teams, $400 million, on that border, vetoing driver's license bill for illegals, whether it was passing a voters identification bill before you can vote. There's not anybody on that state that's any tougher, any right on on the immigration issues than I am.
Earlier this week Adam Smith and the folks at Political Connections on BayNews9 were able to get a response from Perry when he was in St. Pete Beach about recent his dip into birtherism. Perry's response was what we've been seeing frequently from Herman Cain these days - react back to a serious and suggestive comment by saying he was just "havin' a little fun."
