Perry will debate but still doesn”t like it
(CNN) - Texas Gov. Rick Perry still doesn''t like debates, even though he has backed off from an earlier threat to drop out of upcoming showdowns with other Republican presidential candidates.
"I readily admit, I''m not the best debater in the world," Perry said on "Fox News Sunday." "With as many debates as we''ve got coming up, I may be a pretty good debater when it''s all said and done."
Calling the debate schedule excessive due to the "incredible amount of time and preparation and what have you," Perry also questioned the value of oratory skills in the White House.
"We''ve got a great debater, a smooth politician in the White House right now, and that''s not working out very well," he said of President Barack Obama.
Perry came under criticism last week, after his campaign suggested he might drop out of future debates following shaky performances in recent weeks that contributed to his sinking poll numbers. However, his campaign announced Saturday that he would attend four scheduled debates next month, including two co-sponsored by CNN.
In Sunday''s interview, Perry focused his criticism on Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a top competitor for the Republican presidential nomination.
On Obama, Perry said a "wavering" U.S. foreign policy involving the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was putting American soldiers in jeopardy. In particular, he cited the forced resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as U.S. commander in Afghanistan over a magazine article in which McChrystal and other officers were characterized as disrespectful of Obama, as well as the president''s announced timetable for ending the two conflicts.
"He''s lost his standing of being a commander-in-chief who has any idea of what is going on in those theaters," Perry said. "He''s making mistakes that are putting our kids that are in the theater and I think future issues dealing with - whether it''s in the Middle East or whether it''s in the South China Sea with our allies - putting all of that in jeopardy because of this … aimless approach to foreign policy which he has."
On another issue, Perry admitted to changing his position on federal help for the energy industry after writing a 2008 letter seeking government backing for a nuclear power plant in Texas. Now, Perry said, he opposes any such federal aid like the kind he sought in the letter three years ago.
"We were asking at that particular point in time for the federal government to support the nuclear power industry," Perry said, later adding: "I''ve changed my position to the standpoint of having any dollars from the federal government. … Let the market figure it out."
Despite such a shift, Perry reiterated his claim that he is a "consistent conservative" compared to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the steady frontrunner in the Republican race so far.
Romney, he said, has moved to the right politically on issues such as gun control and abortion to try to appeal to conservatives.
"We are very, very different from the standpoint of consistency on those issues I''ve just mentioned," Perry said.
Obama administration halts part of health care law
The Obama administration announced Friday that it has suspended one piece of the landmark health care law which the president signed last year.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius told Congress in a letter that the CLASS Act, which was supposed to provide a new voluntary long-term care insurance program, was unworkable since no actuarially sound way could be figured out to run the program.
“I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time,” Sebelius said in her letter.
CLASS stands for “Community Living Assistance Services and Supports.”
The CLASS Act was a significant piece of the health care bill because it helped make it deficit neutral over the first ten years after enactment, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office. Thus CLASS helped garner the votes to help the bill pass.
According to the CBO, the CLASS program would have reduced federal deficits by $86 billion in first 10 years, partly offsetting the increased federal spending due to the other parts of the health care bill. In the first years of CLASS, enrollees would be paying premiums into it but would not be able to collect benefits until 2016.
In a memo to Congress in April of 2010, Medicare’s chief actuary Richard Foster warned that the program would “face a significant risk of failure” because sicker people would tend to sign up for it and the costs would soon exceed the premium payments. The program, he said, would likely be “unsustainable.”
In her letter Friday, Sebelius seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Foster did in 2010.
One of the Republicans who led the opposition to the CLASS Act, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said Friday, “The administration is finally admitting the CLASS Act entitlement is unsustainable and cannot be implemented. Simply setting aside the program for the near-term is not enough. Repeal is the only solution to ensuring American taxpayers will not be on the hook in the future for this disastrous entitlement.”