ASHLAND, Ohio – There was no presidential announcement Thursday evening but former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he sees a bright future for our country. Perry said he was a “potential candidate” when he spoke Thursday at the Ashland University Ashbrook Center’s 30th annual John M. Ashbrook Memorial Dinner.
“I have never been more optimistic about where we find ourselves in this country than I am today,” Perry, who called himself a “potential candidate” for president, told a crowd of about 500 people at Myers Convocation Center.
“The best days of this country are ahead of us. We’re just a couple of good decisions and a leadership change away from the greatest days this country has ever seen,” he said.
Perry, who served as governor of Texas from 2000-2014 and was a Republican presidential candidate in 2012, believes autonomy and competition among states is the answer for many of our country’s problems.
“I think this country would not only be stronger if the states would be allowed to compete against each other, but I think our country would be happier as well. All of these issues that seem to separate us and pull us apart, let the states work those out,” Perry said.
The former governor mentioned education and healthcare as two key issues that would be better left to the states.
“I believe with all my heart that the governor and the legislators, working with the parents and the teachers in Ohio, can come up with a curriculum that works better for your children than some bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.,” Perry said. “I know for a fact that if you will let the states have the flexibility and the freedom to decide how to deliver health care for our citizens, we will come up with ways that are more effective and efficient and cheaper.”
According to Perry, Texas grew by 5.6 million people in the last 10 years. In addition, Texas added 1.5 million jobs from 2008-2014, while the rest of country lost 400,000 jobs.
“That is a stunning juxtaposition for me, but it tells the story of what can happen when you have states that are free to compete against each other,” he stated.
Perry credited less government interference, lower corporate taxes and his state’s focus on its energy sector as the driving force behind the increased employment numbers.
“I know what can happen when you free people from over-taxation, and over-regulation and over-litigation and when you give them freedom on an educational front, and those are the four pillars that the 13th largest economy in the world was based upon for the last 14 years,” Perry said.
Pointing to what has happened in Texas, Perry believes that a focus on the energy market will increase wages and job numbers, and is something that every blue collar worker should be in favor of.
“You couple those two together, energy proliferation and corporate tax reduction, and you will see the greatest renaissance in American manufacturing in our lifetime, if not in forever. That is the future of our country.”
Perry highlighted a number of cultural and artistic ventures that have flourished in recent years in Texas.
“It happened because we understood that if you leave the public sector with more of what they worked for they’ll make the right decisions about how to invest it, and they will invest extraordinarily well in cultural arts, in education, in things that really make an impact.”
Before Perry spoke, Ashbrook Center Executive Director Roger Beckett introduced a 30th anniversary video that highlighted the speakers who had spoken at previous Ashbrook Memorial Dinners, including President Ronald Reagan, Lady Margaret Thatcher and Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I know for a fact that if you will let the states have the flexibility and the freedom to decide how to deliver health care for our citizens, we will come up with ways that are more effective and efficient and cheaper,” former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said.
