Fox News "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" - Transcript - Healthcare Reform

Interview

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VAN SUSTEREN: Texas governor Rick Perry joins us. Good evening, sir.

TEXAS GOV. RICK PERRY: Greta, how are you? Good evening.

VAN SUSTEREN: I'm very well. And I'm going to get to your big announcement in a second, but I want to first talk to you about ObamaCare and your thoughts of at least the postponement of one year for the employer mandate from 2014 to 2015, what do you think about it?

PERRY: I think politically it was probably a fairly smooth move, if you will, for the administration because you get passed the 2014 midterm elections before the impact of this occurs.

One of the reasons we haven't participated in Texas obviously is the cost, the expanding of Medicaid. All of those will be a tremendous cost on the state of Texas and any state that participates in this. But the idea that these exchanges, and I go back to -- I think if there is a real Achilles' heel, and there's many with this piece of legislation, it's the exchanges. We did not choose to participate in them.

And one of the things I think that you're seeing this administration understanding now is because of the cost and because of the expertise that the federal government does not have either of that they are looking for ways to get around the law as it's written.

So what do you really expect from a piece of legislation that the vast majority of the members of Congress didn't read before they voted on? This administration is just kind of making it up as they go.

VAN SUSTEREN: All right, sir. Let me now turn to your announcement today that you won't be running for governor again of the state of Texas. Now, I have to tell you, everybody in the country, at least most people follow this are very suspicious that what it really -- the undercurrent was that it's because you are getting geared up to run for president. And the word is the last time you thought that you didn't quite make it in 2012 because you got in late and that also you said things about people who try twice do better the second time around. So what is the story on running for president?

PERRY: Yes, I think all of those are interesting theories, but the fact is that people will theorize and people will try to estimate what is going on in my life. What's going on in my life is I've been governor of the greatest state in the nation for 12 years. We have a very enviable record of job creation. Some 30 percent of all the jobs created in the last 10 years were created in the state of Texas. We have truly put together a state that shows the rest of the country how to create jobs. And that's the real story here. For 12 years, we're very successful. I think it's time to pass the mantle of leadership on, and I'll decide in the next year what my future path will be.

VAN SUSTEREN: What would be, sir -- what would provoke you to run for president? What are you focusing on in terms of making a decision?

(LAUGHTER)

PERRY: I don't think you get provoked to run for president.

VAN SUSTEREN: What would make you want to run for president? What are you looking for?

PERRY: Listen, I'll make that decision in a year, Greta. It certainly not may at all. For the next 18 months, I'm going to be focused, again, on talking about red state and blue state policies, how to make America more competitive and states competing against each other.

Our Founding Fathers really got it right. They understood that these laboratories of innovation, these states, we're going to make decisions internally. And Washington being more inconsequential is what I'm trying to work toward, getting other states to understand that they really have the best ideas on how to deliver health care and to educate their children or build transportation infrastructure, for that matter.

VAN SUSTEREN: Governor, thank you. We'll all ask that question a million times over of you.

PERRY: I know you will, Greta.

VAN SUSTEREN: And at least I tried. Thank you, sir.

PERRY: God bless you.

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