For Immediate Release www.rickperry.org Aug. 13, 2011 [email protected] News Release

Texas Gov. : It Is Time to Get America Working Again Announces the launch of presidential campaign

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Determined to get America working again, Gov. Rick Perry today announced his candidacy for president of the United States of America while speaking to an overflow crowd at the RedState Gathering 2011. Perry was joined by his wife, Anita, and their adult children at the announcement.

“It is time to get America working again,” Gov. Rick Perry said. “That’s why, with the support of my family, and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I declare to you today my candidacy for President of the United States.”

“It is time for Americans to believe again – to believe that the promise of our future is far greater than even the best days of our past. It is time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise, set free from the shackles of an overbearing federal government. And it is time to truly restore our standing in the world and renew our faith in freedom as the best hope of peace in a world beset with strife.”

Perry underscored the urgent need for new leadership in light of the continued uncertainty and instability in the U.S. economy, continued overreach by an increasingly intrusive federal government into the lives of Americans and the rights of the states, and the misguided policies that are harming the future prosperity of our country.

“One in six work-eligible Americans cannot find a full-time job,” Perry continued. “That is not a recovery, that is an economic disaster.”

Perry spoke not only of the need for new leadership to create jobs, but the need to get serious about federal spending, saying, “Mr. President, you can't win the future by selling it off to foreign creditors.”

Last week, that failed leadership, and Barack Obama’s tax, spend and borrow agenda, led to the first ever downgrade in the credit rating of the United States.

Paid for by RickPerry.org, Inc. Committee “In reality, this is just the most recent downgrade,” Perry said. “The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, downgrading our standing in the world, downgrading our financial stability, downgrading confidence, and downgrading the hope of a better future for our children.”

As president, Perry has pledged to get the federal government’s fiscal house in order, restore the country’s good credit, and repeal Obama’s misguided one-size-fits-all government-run health care plan. He also committed to holding government accountable to the taxpayers, and adhering to the fiscally responsible principles that will lead to job creation, and in turn, wealth, while educating and innovating in science, technology, engineering and math to create the jobs and progress needed to get America working again.

“I will work every day to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your lives as I can, and free our families, small businesses and states from a burdensome and costly federal government so they can create, innovate and succeed,” he continued. “With the help and courage of the American people, we will get our country working again.”

After announcing his candidacy in South Carolina, Perry is set to travel to New Hampshire on Saturday and Iowa on Sunday to begin a vigorous campaign in all three early states.

To view the full text of Gov. Rick Perry’s speech, and for more information about his record, presidential campaign trail and plan to get America working again, please visit: www.rickperry.org

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Rick Perry Biography Champion of Conservative Principles

From a Place Called Paint Creek

The 47th , Rick Perry grew up in the small community of Paint Creek located along the rolling plains of West Texas. Rick Perry is the son of Ray Perry, a World War II tailgunner who flew 35 missions over war-torn Europe, and Amelia Perry, who provided a loving, nurturing home for Rick and his older sister Amelia. Ray and Amelia Perry started out as tenant farmers, providing a modest upbringing for their children. Rick Perry grew up without indoor plumbing the first five years of his life, wore clothes hand-sewn by his mother, and was even bathed in a number 2 washtub as a young boy. Perry was one of 13 students in the Paint Creek Rural School’s Class of 1968. He played six-man football, worked on his family farm, and devoted himself to the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle while in his teens.

Perry was among the first generation in his family to attend college, enrolling at Texas A&M University in the fall of 1968. He joined the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets and was elected twice to serve as an Aggie Yell Leader. Perry graduated in August 1972 with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.

Upon graduation, Perry took a commission in the United States Air Force, flying C-130 tactical aircraft to destinations around the globe, including South America, Europe and the Middle East. In 1977, Perry was honorably discharged from the Air Force with the rank of Captain, and he returned home to the family farm, where they grew dryland cotton, milo and wheat. During the

Paid for by RickPerry.org, Inc. Committee next few years, Perry would become one of millions of conservative Reagan Democrats, and marry his high school sweetheart, Anita Thigpen, 16 years after their first date.

In 1983, Rick and Anita Perry welcomed a son, Griffin, and their daughter Sydney arrived in 1986. It was in 1984 that Perry set his sights on public office, running to represent his rural neighbors in the Texas House. Perry would serve three terms in the House, ultimately switching to the Republican Party toward the end of his final term, and taking the bold step of running statewide against populist Democrat Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. Perry upset Hightower in 1990 and easily won re-election in 1994.

In 1998, Perry defeated his former Aggie classmate and the strongest Democrat on the ticket, John Sharp, in a close contest for lieutenant governor. Perry became governor in December 2000 after Governor George W. Bush resigned his office weeks before becoming President. Perry has since won three full terms as governor, vanquishing billionaire Democrat Tony Sanchez by 18 points in 2002, defeating a four-candidate field with a nine-point gap over the second place finisher in 2006, and defeating both Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison by 21 points in the 2010 primary and popular Mayor Bill White by 13 points in the 2010 general election.

The Prosperity Agenda: Jobs, Tax Relief, Spending Cuts

A staunch fiscal and social conservative, Rick Perry has controlled spending and taxes in Texas. Perry has signed into law state budgets that have invested billions of dollars more in education, and he has successfully advocated for landmark lawsuit reforms.

In the most recent 2011 regular legislative session, Perry set a conservative, fiscally responsible course. He insisted on no new taxes, worked with legislators to cut spending by $15 billion, and protected the “Rainy Day Fund,” which set aside at least $6 billion for future needs.

Perry is the only governor since World War II to reduce state general revenue spending. Perry also signed an historic property tax cut, and a tax cut for small businesses with less than $1 million in gross receipts.

Perry has a strong record on job creation. His support for low taxes, reasonable regulations, a predictable civil litigation system and an educated workforce has produced a business climate consistently ranked among the best in the nation. Perry has actively encouraged employers to relocate to Texas or expand their operations in the state. Since June 2009, more than 40 percent of the net new jobs created in America have been created in Texas, and today, the Lone Star State is a magnet for corporate relocations. For nine straight years, Texas has led the nation in exports to foreign countries among the 50 states.

With a strong record of job creation, restrained spending and tax cuts, Rick Perry is a committed conservative with the right vision for creating opportunity and prosperity. He has signed into law comprehensive reforms that have made Texas a leader in the fight against lawsuit abuse. These reforms include a recent loser pay law that will cut down on frivolous lawsuits. His medical liability reforms have increased the number of physicians practicing in the state by the thousands, improving patient access to medical specialists.

The Perry record also includes a significant commitment to border security to stop the in-flow of illegal immigrants, weapons and drugs. Perry has ordered border surge operations that have

Paid for by RickPerry.org, Inc. Committee reduced illegal crossings, and allocated hundreds of millions of dollars for border security operations that put more boots on the ground and utilize technology to detect, track and deter the criminal element.

Liberty, Security, Prosperity

A candidate for the Republican nomination in 2012, Rick Perry not only has a record of conservative reform, but a vision for America based on greater liberty, security and prosperity.

Perry will lead the effort to repeal Obama-care, the greatest intrusion on individual freedom in a generation. This budget-busting, government takeover of health care will rob half a billion dollars from Medicare and saddle America with massive tax hikes and higher costs in the long term.

Recognizing that rising deficits, record debt and failed stimulus spending have jeopardized the future of our country, Perry will take his proven budget-cutting record to Washington. He will reform entitlements and require all federal agencies to engage in a top-to-bottom review to identify and eliminate federal waste by justifying every program and every taxpayer dollar spent.

To stimulate the economy, Perry will take America on a very different course than that pursued by the Obama Administration. Instead of wasting tax dollars on massive spending bills that bloat the federal bureaucracy and slowly deliver funds to a few handpicked industries, Perry will cut taxes. Perry’s pro-growth agenda, combined with real spending reductions, will lead to a new era of economic growth that will get America working again.

Perry’s economic policies stand in stark contrast to the Obama Administration, and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner who declared taxes must increase for small businesses, “so the administration does not have to ‘shrink the overall size of government programs.’” (CNSNews.com, 6/23/11, http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/geithner-taxes-small-business- must-rise). Not only has Perry cut taxes for small businesses, but his economic policies will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of small employers so they can hire and grow again.

Perry will invest in border security and stop the federal intrusion upon states by runaway agencies like the EPA. He will stand for the sanctity of life and the protection of the unborn. He will return our country to constitutional principles, including a renewed respect for the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution and state sovereignty.

Perry is a national leader in the effort to restore the primacy of the 10th Amendment, and wrote the book, “Fed Up” to rally Americans to restore the proper, constitutional balance between the federal government and the states. Perry’s first book, “On My Honor” defended the values of the Boy Scouts from assaults by the liberal elite.

Believe Again

A Reagan Republican, Rick Perry will restore confidence in the American Dream and American Exceptionalism. He will advocate for economic policies that get our country moving again. He will work to ensure all Americans believe again in the promise of America.

Paid for by RickPerry.org, Inc. Committee Rick Perry will revive our economy, create jobs and protect America’s place as the world’s economic leader. He will offer a clear vision for our foreign policy that is based on American interests and a profound respect for the men and women who wear the uniform of our country.

It’s time for a leader who will allow us to believe again – to believe that America’s best days are ahead, that we are not consigned to a fate of high unemployment and rising prices, and that our place in the world can once again be secure with a policy of peace through strength.

That leader is Rick Perry. And his time is now.

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