Rick Perry Quotes

I'm a strong supporter of states' rights to do what they need.

Texans can run Texas without the federal government telling them what to do.

I don't think the federal government should be a part of everything. I think that governing should be done state-by-state... so that you can tailor your governing to the people's needs.

I'm pro-life but I believe that the federal government ought to stay out of it. That's a decision that the people of each state ought to make for themselves.

We have to allow people in the states to make their own decisions, to get government agencies out of the way and let local people make decisions about what's best for them.

I think the governors would all agree that what we don't want from the federal government is unfunded mandates.

What is good for Alaska is good for the country. Transferring power from the federal government to the states provides opportunity to all states, not just Alaska.

States should have enormous input into the decisions that affect them.

Many states have legalized medicinal marijuana. I believe the president and the Department of Justice ought to respect the will of these separate states... We are capable of self-government. We don't need some federal gendarme to come and tell us what to do. I believe comity toward the states...ought to govern the policy.

Our best protection against bigger government in Washington is better government in the states.

I think that the more we, as a state, yield and cede decisions to the federal government, the lesser we'll be for it as a state.

In my eight years as governor, I did everything I could to resist federal control of issues that belong to the states.

Whenever Washington makes a one-size-fits-all decision, it doesn't work in states all around the country.

What can we do to put more Colorado in Washington and less Washington in Colorado?

My view is that we should not be taxing at the Federal level for the things that New Jersey can do for itself.

The word "federalism" you might think that means federalism trumps everything; federalism means federal domination. It does not mean that. It means the exact opposite, in fact. It means the states are sovereign and the federal government cannot tell 'em what to do in so many different ways.

I don't want to be the president of the United States. I do want to work with the governors across the country to make the states more pivotal, more powerful, as they should be.

There's a lot of the Midwest and the West in Justice Rehnquist's approach to constitutional law. And by that I mean a recognition that people know pretty well how to govern themselves, that government that is closest to the people is apt to be more responsive to their legitimate concerns and needs.

There is no direct and immediate connection between the individual citizens of a state and the general government. The relation between them is through the state. The Union is a union of states as communities and not a union of individuals.

I think he should let me run Ohio. He should let us, the legislature, the members there, we should be running Ohio. The states are the laboratories out here, and I think the president needs to mind to the problems that he has in Washington.

I would support a devolution of power out of Washington for education, health care, transportation.

The fact is there are a lot of things happening at the federal level that are absolutely beyond the jurisdiction of the Constitution. This is power that should be shifted back to the states, whether it's the EPA - there is no role at the federal level for the Department of Education.

The federal government should stay out of it.

The proposed system [of American government] is like the solar system, in which the states are the planets, and they ought to be left to move more freely in their proper orbits.

Governors would like the money to be left on a stump and let them come and pick it up and spend it where they want. Governors like to spread money around rather than target it.