Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., just had a tete-a-tete about whether Perry supported the TARP bailouts. Santorum is correct in theory, but Perry actually released two letters the day of the bailout votes, including one that expressed opposition to the bailouts.
As head of the Republicans Governors Association, Perry signed a joint letter with the head of the Democratic Governors Association calling for “Congress to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package . . . Congress needs to act now.” Perry has since described this letter as a call for action apart from the bailouts, but the letter itself makes no precise recommendation to qualify “economic recovery package.” A Democratic spokesman has made the same argument — that the letter was “not an endorsement of any particular plan” — but that letter dropped the day of the bailout vote.
Perry also released a letter from his gubernatorial office explicitly opposing the TARP bailouts saying that “government should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America.” He also wrote that “Congress needs to take off its partisan gloves and work together to bring both short and long term stability to the credit markets.”
A charitable reading of Perry would say that the two letters have a similar call for Congress to work together, but only one of them denounces the TARP bailout. Coming on the day of the TARP vote, Perry’s RGA/DGA letter reads like an endorsement of TARP. Maybe Perry dropped the second letter to clarify his position, but it looks like he played it both ways.
