President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech last week seemed "detached from reality," former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Sunday on
"The Cats Roundtable" on AM 970 in New York.
"The president's State of the Union speech was pessimistic in my opinion," Perry told host John Catsimatidis, noting that Obama made no mention of al-Qaida and the activities of other terrorist groups around the world. Nor did he mention "our friends, and our great democracy in the Middle East, Israel."
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America is not on the right track as Obama claimed, Perry said, but added that it can get back on the right track.
Perry is expected to make another run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and pointed to a list of accomplishments in his record 14 years as governor of the Lone Star State.
He touted the ability to get bipartisan support on every major issue he pushed, including tort reform, which he said has brought in more doctors to the state since they no longer have to fear frivolous lawsuits.
Texas also has lured jobs even as the national economy has stumbled, he said.
During his terms in office, almost a third of all the new jobs created in the country were created in Texas and in 2009-11, Texas created more than half the nation's jobs, he said.
"That can happen anywhere. This isn't a Texas-centric thing," he said. "It can happen in New York, it can happen in California. It's happening in Florida."
His formula, he said, includes not overtaxing business, having a regulatory climate that is "fair and predictable," having sound legal policy and an educated and trained work force.
Businesses don't come to Texas for the weather, he said. "It's hot in August. They come because of freedom."
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