Rick Perry is Against Government “Overreach”

There I wrote it down without laughing uproariously and didn’t stop typing until I hit the last keystroke. Rick Perry is against government overreach. See? I did it again. Well, this time with one or two chuckles.

Tomorrow marks the last day that Perry can issue any vetoes on any bill passed by the legislature in the last session, and Rick Perry just got out his well-used veto stamp and vetoed the legislation that would make it illegal for someone to drive and send a text message at the same time.

Rick Perry would rather make it still possible for  kids and adults to take their eyes, and their attention, away from the road sending text messages to their friends and relatives than have his state blamed of “government overreach.” I swear. It’s here.

And this line in his veto statement absolutely floored me:

“I support measures that make our roads safer for everyone, but House Bill 242 is a government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.”

So Rick Perry is against the overreach of Big Government.

This is the same guy who, a couple of years ago, wanted to force every 11 year old female in Texas to be immunized against Human Papilloma Virus or HPV. This isn’t a simple injection, it was to be a course of injections over a few weeks. Thankfully, it didn’t happen and Perry’s ex-staffer who works for Merck – maker of the HPV vaccine – didn’t get his bonus from his boss.

This is the same guy who just signed into law the Sonogram Bill, the one that he specifically requested “emergency legislation” for. Forcing a woman to hear her doctor say things to her that she may not want to hear isn’t government overreach but preventing people from texting while driving is.

Texting while driving impairs ones ability to drive safely. By this logic then, government forbidding people from impairing their driving ability by drinking and then driving is also government overreach.

I need a drink.

UPDATE: Late word is that when Rick Perry vetoed the driver texting bill auto insurance companies across the state uncorked the champagne. Seems this bill would have driven down insurance premiums. Now that more of us will be dying or maimed in traffic accidents because of Rick Perry's veto, the insurance premiums can stay high.

In any Republican move that seems insane on its face, follow the money.