Perry paints a contrast with Romney on health care

Houston Chronicle:

 In his first domestic policy speech as a presidential candidate, Rick Perry is outlining his record as Texas governor and accusing rival Mitt Romney of governing Massachusetts the same way President Barack Obama governs the country.

The address, set for today at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, discusses Perry’s record on health care and the environment. But Perry offers few policy proposals, instead focusing on criticizing Obama, hitting Romney’s health care law and opening a more aggressive line of attack on Romney’s record on climate change.

“As Republican voters decide who is best suited to lead this country in a new direction by stopping the spending spree and scrapping Obamacare, I am confident they will choose a nominee who has governed on conservative principles, not one whose health care policies paved the way for Obamacare,” Perry says, according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.

Perry contrasts Romney’s plan with the medical malpractice reform he signed as governor of Texas, and argues that both Romney and Obama have governed more liberally than he has.

“What we are seeing in America today is a conservative awakening, a revival born out of a deep concern that liberals have used the machinery of the federal government to impose a nanny state that limits our freedom and that targets free enterprise,” he says.

“I knew when I got into this race I would have my hands full fighting President Obama’s big government agenda. I just didn’t think it would be in the Republican primary,” Perry adds.

The address signals that Perry plans to continue aggressively attacking his chief rival even as he faces some stumbling blocks in his own campaign. After a shaky debate performance, Perry admitted that he used “inappropriate” language when he called Republican rivals “heartless.” Perry was defending a Texas law that allows illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state universities if they meet certain criteria.

As part of the offensive, Perry is turning to Romney’s environmental record.

“In Texas, we’ve cleaned the air while creating jobs and adding millions in population. Another state – Massachusetts – was among the first states to implement its own cap-and-trade program which included limits on carbon emissions for power plants,” Perry says in his speech.

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The speech gives Perry a chance to get back on offense where he is at his best.  He seems to be saying look at my record to see what my policy proposals are.  At some point he may have to offer more specifics.  Doing that early again puts you on the defensive.  But his competitors are starting to lay out their vision for governoring.  Romney did so in a too long and tedious piece.  Herman Cain has his 9-9-9 plan which may be too simple.  Gingrich set out some interesting proposals yesterday in a new Contract with America.  Perry's staff needs to be mining all of these proposals to come up with a coherent agenda.