Rick Perry Tries to Count to Three, Fails

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You know you want it. So here it is. The end of Rick Perry’s presidential campaign, if there’s any justice.

Oh hell, here’s some more Perry, just for the entertainment value. Don’t pretend you aren’t enjoying this:

BARTIROMO: Governor Perry, name the top programs that you would cut in terms of long-term deficit reduction. Include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense spending in the order you see fit.

PERRY: Well, every one of those — and by the way, that was the Department of Energy I was reaching for a while ago.

(APPLAUSE)

PERRY: So here what’s we have to look at as Americans. And it’s the entitlement programs that are eating up this huge amount of money that’s out there. And it’s also the spending, Congressman Paul. And when you look at Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and those unfunded liabilities, I think are over $115 trillion just in those three programs. Those are the places where you go where you have to make the really hard decisions in this country.

BARTIROMO: So what is your order? And you didn’t mention defense spend.

PERRY: Well, obviously, Social Security is one of those where we either can go to a blended type of a program where we blend price and wages, and come up with a program, and can save billions of dollars there. But the people who are on Social Security, they need to understand something today. It’s going to be there for them. Those that are working their way towards Social Security, we’ve made a pledge to them. Those individuals are going to have those dollars there for them.

But the young people out there, who is going to stand up for the young people in this country, those that are at the workforce today, and stand up and say, we are going to transform this program so it’s going to be there for you? I will do that. I will stand up for the young people in this country and put a program into place that will be there for them.

No, I have no idea what that bolded bit means. Is he talking about CPI calculations? Maybe. If he is, does he even know it? Probably not.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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