Fox News "Your World with Cavuto" - Transcript - Privacy Rights

Interview

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: You ever wonder, would all of these problems that are just getting bigger and bigger happen if the government weren't getting bigger and bigger?

My next guess says not a chance, that there is a connection between then size of government and the abuse of government.

To Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry.

Governor, there might be something to what you say, because the bigger government gets, the more problems we beget. What's going on here?

(LAUGHTER)

GOV. RICK PERRY, R-TEXAS: Well, very true.

As a matter of fact, back during the presidential campaign, we talked about doing away with some of those agencies of government and Homeland Security, the size of that. We have always seen the possibility of an out- of-control government.

And now we're seeing it's not just a possibility. It's not just a probability. It's reality.

CAVUTO: Governor, I just wonder. Under the guise of the Patriot Act and keeping us safe, do you think a lot of institutions, as far-flung as the Justice Department to the IRS to even Health and Human Services can make a case for invading our privacies and that it's for our own good?

PERRY: Well, I don't.

I will suggest to you that there's a balance, and that is what has been lost all too often in government. One of the reasons I think it is important to restrict the size of government -- as a matter of fact, the reason I truly believe that we need a part-time Congress is because when they're not there all the time, they're not sitting around dreaming up new things to do to us, or for us, in their opinion.

So, the key is, once you fund that government that can be there 24/7, 365 days out of the year, you get that type of intrusion into your lives. And that's the reason why states like Texas -- our legislature only meets for 140 days every other year. I will suggest to you we keep the legislature out of town, we keep government agencies restrict in their size, their efforts, and Texans live with more freedom than might near any other state.

CAVUTO: You know, Governor, I do want to get to the jobs growth and everything else that your state has experienced, but one last question regarding this intrusion trend.

When I had Mitt Romney here on Friday, I asked him if he were president at the time of the Boston attacks in April, which apparently was the trigger point for getting all of these Verizon phone records, would he have advocated that? Would he have called for that?

And he demurred, but the gist was that that was why all of this happened and that we respond to terror incidents by trying to get as much data as we can to see how large the terror threat is.

If you were president at that time, Governor, would you have done the same thing?

(CROSSTALK)

PERRY: Neil, this has been going on a lot longer than the Boston event. You go back and look and see what happened at the IRS.

CAVUTO: Right.

PERRY: This is a culture. This is a culture of intimidation. This is a culture of trying to put the squeeze on people that you don't agree with. And I think the idea that, somehow, no, this is all about terrorism is a red herring. I think this is an administration that has a mentality of, you go get any information you want from anybody at any time, and then we will figure out if we want to use it or not.

CAVUTO: Yes, it does worry me that that is sitting on some bureaucrat's desk just always at the ready. But you might have a very good point there. Governor, on to this less-is-more argument as far as politics are concerned, legislatures meeting and maybe not meeting as in the case of Texas as often. Whatever it is you're doing, and whatever it is that legislature is doing or not doing, a lot of jobs are being drawn to your state, maybe because of this little interference, few regulations, no taxes. And that is and has been your pitch as you continue to travel the country to woo still more jobs to that neck of the country, your neck of the country. Where does that stand right now?

PERRY: Well, we're going to be headed to Connecticut and New York over the course of this coming week to take that message that there is still a land of freedom and opportunity. It's called Texas.

If you're tired about overtaxation, over-regulation, overlitigation, then come on down and enjoy freedom, freedom from legislators and governments that want to take more of your money and use it for whatever they think is the best idea, rather than leaving it in your hands and letting you decide how the best use of that money would be, whether to grow your business or to hire more people or what have you.

It is a model that has worked well for the last decade. Over the last 10 years, over 30 percent of all the new private sector jobs created in America were in the state of Texas. It wasn't by accident. It happened because thoughtful tax regulatory and legal policies have been put into place, along with a commitment to a skilled work force.

CAVUTO: All right.

PERRY: Businesses are leaving those high-tax, high-regulation, high- litigation states to come to Texas.

CAVUTO: Governor, good luck on your tour. Stop by here when you're up in this neck of the woods.

PERRY: We will see you. So long.

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