Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington [Hardcover]

Rick Perry (Author), Newt Gingrich (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2010

Now, do not misunderstand me, America is great.

But we are fed up with being over-taxed and over-regulated. We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kinds of guns we can own, what kind of prayers we are allowed to say and where we can say them, what we are allowed to do to elect political candidates, what kind of energy we can use, what doctor we can see. What kind of nation are we becoming? I fear it's the very kind the Colonists fought against.

But perhaps most of all, we are fed up because deep down we know how great America has always been, how many great things the people do in spite of their government, and how great the nation can be in the future if government will just get out of the way.

Our fight is clear. We must step up and retake the reins of our government from a Washington establishment that has abused our trust. We must empower states to fight for our beliefs, elect only leaders who are on our team, set out to remind our fellow Americans why liberty is guaranteed in the Constitution, and take concrete steps to take back our country. The American people have never sat idle when liberty's trumpet sounds the call to battle-and today that battle is for the soul of America.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Campaign books are terrible....Any campaign book, that is, except Rick Perry's Fed Up.... This is not a boring book. More to the point, it's not even a book about Rick Perry. It's a book about Rick Perry's ideas. And his big idea is that most everything the federal government does is unconstitutional..... Perry's book is... a serious argument about what kind of country we should be. I recommend it highly." (Washington Post Ezra Klein )

"A new cowboy ... has entered the ring, toting his own political book....it's big, bold, and, to borrow a word that was once associated with our current commander-in-chief, audacious." (Christian Science Monitor Husna Haq )

"If he's good for Texas, why not America? Could Perry be the second coming of Ronald Reagan, the plain-spoken man from the West who presided over a new 'Morning in America' by cutting taxes, reducing government (well, promising to), and standing tall against the nation's enemies? As the tea-party movement gains momentum, as more Americans are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, Perry is their kind of hero, an avatar of a lost age that could come again, if only Washington politicians and other undesirables were put in their place." (Newsweek )

"My friend Rick Perry knows that it is the American people who make this country great and not Washington. With appropriate respect for both our rich history and the practical needs of today, Rick sees a bright future for America, based on freedom and limited government." (Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana )

"Rick Perry has hit the proverbial nail on the head in FED UP!, making a powerful case for a return to limited government and the restoration of the proper balance of power between Washington and the states. As Governor of Texas, he has seen firsthand the greatness of America and the prosperity we can enjoy when we empower people and get government out of the way. He explains in detail the historical, constitutional, and practical reasons why a government closest to the people protects liberty, and lays out the path to right the ship - citizen involvement and engagement to hold politicians accountable. No citizen should skip this book - your future depends on getting this right." (Rush Limbaugh )

"In FED UP!, Governor Perry explains that we can and will save America by taking necessary steps to restore the proper balance of power between federal and state government. He understands what seemingly few other prominent politicians do-that America's greatness stems from the people and our collective respect for the Constitution, not from the 'geniuses' in Washington." (Mark Levin )

"FED UP! lays out the truth of how far our Washington politicians have driven this nation off track. It's refreshing to read that at least one of our leaders understood what my dad always knew. The Government works for the people and not the other way around." (Michael Reagan )

About the Author

Rick Perry has served as governor for 11 years-longer than any other in Texas history-and before being elected he served in the Texas legislature, as the Texas Agricultural Commissioner, and as lieutenant governor. Perry has been in the leadership of the Republican Governor's Association for five years and is an Eagle Scout. After he graduated from Texas A&M, he became an Air Force pilot and attained the rank of captain. He is a candidate to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2012.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; First Edition edition (November 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316132950
• ISBN-13: 978-0316132954
• Product Dimensions: 5.7 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (100 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #397,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

170 of 220 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Why States Matter November 4, 2010

By americangadfly

Format:Hardcover

The "political activists" are reviewing Rick Perry's book predictably, it seems. What readers will actually find here is not another vanity memoir by a national political aspirant, but an idea book that briskly and forcefully advocates substantive, common sense (perhaps quaint) ideas that have gone out of fashion lately in the era of big, spendy government.

The idea is state sovereignty. Some reviewers will, by reflex perhaps, insist on spinning this as "states' rights," using anachronistic labels to imply that it entails revoking the Civil Rights Act or something. As a liberal Dallas Morning News reporter boiled it down recently, "Southern Governor Trumpets States Rights." It's easy to dismiss an idea with innuendo. Perry's argument deserves to be engaged on the merits.

Fed Up is an idea book, advocating core Constitutional ideas as protest against President Obama's extension of government influence across society. Perry's book argues along the lines of what George Will was writing about today (Nov. 4, fresh off the midterms), concerning how liberal ideas are almost always about how other people should live their lives, "how one group of people (the politically successful) should engineer everyone else's contracts, social relations, diets, habits, and even moral sentiments." The many choices in life, liberals tell us, should be replaced by a politically and intellectually fashionable menu of 'Big Ideas' that are "politically selected, centrally imposed, and enforced by government."

If you do a little reading, you'll know this: That isn't America. The most interesting part of Rick Perry's book is the chapter "Why States Matter," which argues for states as the laboratory of policy innovation. Even liberal advocates of homosexual marriage or legalized marijuana would agree that if California or Massachusetts want to enact state laws on those issues, they should be entitled to, and not be prevented by the overreaching feds. Perry's intellectually honest enough to support that, as he would support conservative-friendly laws that may differ from what other states do. The whole idea is to get away from a federal nanny state that decides these things for us, with a national template. That's not what our federal union is all about, and in Fed Up, Perry lays it out with force and economy.

The Governor of Texas is a suitable national spokesperson for the rights of states to mind their own business. The book will appeal naturally to members of the Tea Party, but any American would profit by reacquainting himself with the notion of restraint that once applied to our consensus over how Americans would allow themselves to be governed.

82 of 110 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Bush or FDR November 11, 2010

By Ira E. Stoll VINE™ VOICE

Format:Unknown Binding

One of the most striking lines of President Bush's new memoir, Decision Points, is the line in which he tells aides, "If we're really looking at another Great Depression, you can be damn sure I'm going to be Roosevelt, not Hoover."

Mr. Bush may want to check out the new book by his successor as governor of Texas, Rick Perry, Fed Up!, as a corrective. Mr. Perry writes that the claim that Roosevelt's New Deal ended the Depression is a "fraud" that "simply does not stand up to history." He writes, "Consider that when FDR took office in 1933, unemployment was at 25 percent. It still topped 20 percent six years later, in 1939."

It's not the only point on which the two Texas governors, both Republicans, differ. While Mr. Bush defends his decisions to intervene in the economy amid a downturn, Mr. Perry criticizes them: "We are fed up with bailout after bailout and stimulus plan after stimulus plan, each one of which tosses principle out the window along with taxpayer money."

Mr. Perry criticizes the seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008, along with the Troubled Asset Relief Program signed into law in October 2008, as "the culmination of the statist's dream -- the literal upending of a unique American way of doing things that had been defined by self-reliance, hard work, faith, a belief in private charity not government, and, perhaps most of all, a devotion to free markets."

As Mr. Perry puts it, "this big-government binge began under the administration of George W. Bush."

Indeed, the most newsworthy element of Mr. Perry's book is just how critical it is of Mr. Bush and other Republicans. The criticism is focused on economic policy but not limited to it; Mr. Perry also faults Mr. Bush for trying to order Texas to review criminal convictions of foreign nationals who had not been notified of their consular rights. That case went to the Supreme Court, where Texas won a 6-3 victory in Medellin v. Texas, allowing it to proceed with the execution of José Ernesto Medellín, who had raped and murdered two teenage girls.

The book overall is an argument for enforcing the Tenth Amendment, limiting federal government, and relying more on the states. As a Northerner, I was also interested in Mr. Perry's coverage of "states' rights" in the run-up to the Civil War. He argues that the states whose rights were being violated in the run-up to the war were those of the North. He writes: "Unwilling to give up a way of life inexcusably based on an abominable practice, southern states persuaded Congress -- the federal government -- to pass the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which compelled citizens of northern states to act against their conscience and help return escaped former slaves into bondage. Meanwhile, the federal Supreme Court got involved, striking down states' personal liberty laws and ruling in Dred Scott v, Sanford that federal territories could not be free and that free states were not entitled to offer the rights of citizenship to former slaves. Thus, while the southern states seceded in the name of 'state's rights,' in many ways it was the northern states whose sovereignty was violated in the run-up to the Civil War."

So is this a 2012 presidential campaign book? It sure looks that way. Mr. Perry touts his own record in Texas: "the Texas unemployment rate is the lowest among the nation's ten largest states...We have also produced more private-sector jobs than any other state in the nation over the past ten years...That's what happens when you free up citizens to compete."

Mr. Perry also takes three separate swipes at the universal health care plan begun by one of his potential 2012 rivals, Mitt Romney, writing that since it was passed, "the waiting times to see a doctor in Massachusetts have nearly doubled," while "the costs are so out of control" that a commission has already recommended rationing care. Even Newt Gingrich, another potential 2012 rival, who wrote the foreword to Mr. Perry's book, is not spared. Mr. Perry writes that "most" of the "spending restraint" during the Gingrich-led Congress "came from not fighting President Clinton's efforts to cut military spending."

It may be that, with the memory of President Bush still fresh, America doesn't want to put another Texas governor in the White House. In an odd way, it's similar to the challenge that George W. Bush faced back in 2000 with an electorate skeptical of putting another Bush in the White House. With this book, Governor Perry goes a long way toward distancing himself from Mr. Bush's policies. And if he doesn't end up as president, you get the sense he'd be okay with that, anyway, given the conviction with which he makes the case that more of the decisions in our country should be made in state capitals or by private individuals rather than in Washington.

88 of 128 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This is not the book a Presidential candidate would write. Gov. Perry actually tackles tough issues. November 9, 2010

By William Franklin Jr.

Format:Hardcover

Why write a political book and go on a national book tour if you aren't running for President? That's the common wisdom among reporters when it comes to Texas Governor Rick Perry. They apparently have not yet read this book. Perry grabs the supposed third rail of politics, Social Security, with his bare hands, calling it an insolvent Ponzi scheme. Perry calls out specific fellow Republicans by name for losing their way when they were in power. He doesn't mince his words when it comes to the New Deal's failure and its legacy of growing government and limiting liberty. He goes where presidential candidates don't usually go-- into real, substantive issues, and he doesn't beat around the bush.

The book itself is a relatively quick read, at around 240 pages, but it succinctly captures the mood of today. Americans are fed up with the federal government's overreach into our lives, and this book has several short-term, concrete solutions, as well as a long-term vision for how to get our country back on the path to freedom and prosperity. Rick Perry would return power to the states and let them be laboratories of innovation. He suggests a "balanced budget" amendment or a "spending limit" amendment to keep our politicians from breaking the bank over and over. He calls for a ban on pork barrel earmarks. He suggests limiting the number of days Congress is in session, and moving toward a biennial budgeting cycle as Texas has. He wants to repeal the 16th Amendment, which allows for a personal income tax. Perry bases these solutions on the Texas success story. In Texas, the legislature meets for only 140 days, every two years, and it is one of a handful of states without a state income tax. Texas is also where 4 out of 5 private sector jobs has been created in America since 2005. Ample research shows that states without income taxes (like Texas) perform better than states with income taxes, economically-speaking.

Governor Perry isn't running for President, and he makes that very clear, but this book is almost a manifesto for the position of Gubernatorial Majority Leader. Perry wants his fellow Governors, Democrat or Republican, to recognize that Washington, regardless of which party is currently in power, should not be an all-powerful source of one-size-fits-all edicts handed down from on high. This book in some ways is a rallying cry for other states to join Texas in actively reclaiming certain rights-- as well as responsibilities and obligations-- they have ceded to the federal government.

It is an important, timely book, and I suspect a lot of what's in this book will shape the debate for 2012 and 2014.