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In his book “Fed Up!,” Rick Perry called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and said it was unconstitutional, but now that he’s got his eye on the White House, Perry and his campaign are distancing from those statements. The Wall Street Journal reports that Perry’s communications director, Ray Sullivan, had “never heard” of Perry’s views on Social Security and said that the book, which was released last November, was written “as a review and critique of 50 years of federal excesses, not in any way as a 2012 campaign blueprint or manifesto.” Perry has been telling audiences in Iowa and New Hampshire to read the book. In the book, he calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” that was enacted by FDR “at the expense of respect for the Constitution and limited government.” He despises the New Deal, noting that the “era represents the second big step in the march of socialism and was the key to releasing the remaining constraints on the national government’s power grab in American history … FDR tried to change the way that citizens interacted with their government.” The Supreme Court has ruled the program constitutional, and Perry now says he wants benefits for current beneficiaries and those about to retire “strongly protected,” and he said his aim is to make seek a program that is “fiscally responsible and actuarially sound.”

President Obama today made official an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors. As it is,

Since the Obama administration doesn’t seem all that concerned about potential conflicts of interest of having private fund managers advising the government on

On Tuesday, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal released the results of a survey that he had requested from the state agriculture commissioner on farm labor shortages in

Progressive politics coalition Campaign for a Strong Colorado says state Treasurer Walker Stapleton should follow the advice he provided to the U.S. House Ways and Means committee this week when he argued in favor of the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act

Anti-abortion-rights media group Heroic Media recently launched a new online strategy that violates Google policy. The Texas-based organization -- best known

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that it deported record numbers of immigrants in fiscal year 2011 on the same day immigrant advocates announced a national day of action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community.” A press release issued by Presente.org and Florida Immigrant Coalition states: Latinos, immigrants and their allies will hold a National Day of Action called “Obama, Immigration and the Latino Community” on Tuesday, October 18 in 10 cities across the nation – Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Milwaukee, New York, San Francisco, and Tucson. In conjunction with Presente.org , Latino community leaders, clergy, and family members devastated by the controversial Secure Communities (SCOMM) racial profiling program and the immigrant detention policies of President Obama will participate in simultaneous screenings of PBS Frontline special, “Lost in Detention,” airing in the evening on October 18

The Price of Sprawl logo (Pic via priceofsprawl.com) Nearly a year after the so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment was soundly defeated in the state of Florida, the group that backed it has unveiled a website detailing the negative effects of urban sprawl in various counties throughout the state. The Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 initiative would have required a voter referendum whenever a local government amended its comprehensive land-use plan, giving citizens a role in approving urban development. Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, argued that “irresponsible overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and lower quality of life” and Amendment 4 would “give voters the right to decide if a proposed change to the community plan is worthwhile for the community.” Yet voters overwhelmingly rejected the amendment at the ballot box, perhaps due to efforts by the well-funded group that opposed it, Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy

After three weeks of unexpected jumps in the number of new weekly unemployment claims, this week’s new claims dropped from 478,000 to 434,000. Unfortunately, that still increased the four-week average to 436,750. That rate needs to drop below 400,000 to make any real progress on reducing the unemployment rate.

Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island (Pic by Office of Senate President, via flsenate.gov) GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry’s statements on immigration in Florida last week and the reaction of immigration enforcement only policy supporters seems to be having an impact on the Florida Legislature. According to The Miami Herald : Florida’s Tea Party activists say they will accept nothing short of requiring every employer to check the immigration status of their workers through the federal E-verify program in January when legislators convene in regular session. But armed with the support of Florida’s powerful agriculture and business groups, the same legislative leaders who last year promised Arizona-style immigration reform are now barely offering tentative support for it.

Pic via dbmathews.com John Edmonson, a businessman from Jacksonville, tells The Florida Independent that his HIV-positive partner has not received adequate medical treatment after being arrested in early April.

As more school districts pile on to an impending lawsuit over Texas’ school finances, and the $4 billion cuts to public education passed this year, some

In filing suit yesterday against Denver County over its 2011 election plan, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler has raised the specter for the second time since he took office in January that he is using his position as head of elections not to expand but to suppress voting in the state. Citing state election law, Gessler contends that the Denver plan to send mail ballots to all registered voters in the county is illegal because the law forbids sending ballots to “inactive voters” — that is, registered voters who failed to cast ballots in the last election. At a heated press conference Wednesday , he explained he was filing the suit in order to bring Denver County in line with the law and to establish a uniform election process in counties across the state.

LANSING — A new report from the Washington D.C. based Economic Policy Initiative (EPI) released Thursday casts doubt on the accuracy of claims by Republican lawmakers that the state’s public employees are overpaid compared to the private sector. “State government employees are currently undercompensated,” says Jeffrey Keefe, an associate professor in Labor and Employment Relations at Rutgers University

Republican New York Senator James Alesi told rally-goers at the New York State Capitol that he is committed to passing same-sex marriage into law this session. A bill being pushed by Gov

At the very moment that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was hosting a McCain campaign conference call with reporters to hype Sen. John McCain’s chances

The Radiance Foundation, the anti-abortion group responsible for a string of controversial billboards across the country, has unveiled its latest campaign: “Fatherhood begins in the womb.” The campaign is less inflammatory than the group’s previous work, which included billboards with such slogans as “Black & Unwanted” and “The 13th Amendment Freed Us. Abortion Enslaves Us.” From a press release detailing the campaign: “A collaborative effort between the Issues4Life Foundation and The Radiance Foundation, this campaign details the culture of abandonment that abortion has created by revealing the statistics of FATHERLESSNESS, single-parent poverty, and the deterioration of two-parent married households.” “When a man has sex with a woman he is consenting to being a FATHER,” said Walter Hoye II, president of Issues4Life, in the release. ”We want to emphasize the biblical requirement and vital need for men to be involved as PROVIDERS and PROTECTORS when ‘LIFE’ happens.” Ryan Bomberger, chief creative officer of the Radiance Foundation, argued that men have been “empowered by Roe v

Two Michigan state Senators have proposed legislation which would allow counseling students to decline to counsel some clients because doing so would violate their “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” The legislation is a response to the ongoing case of former Eastern Michigan University student Julea Ward. Ward was removed from a counseling program after refusing to counsel a gay student about his relationships.

Tea party opposition to government spending is no secret. On Tuesday, according to the St. Petersburg Times , protesters took it to the Pinellas County Commission to make their point

A new policy report from RAND takes a comprehensive look at the education scene in New Orleans, comparing the city’s many charter schools to traditional neighborhood schools.

CNN reports that a jury has convicted five men for conspiring to bomb American soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., but acquitted the men of attempted murder. The men,

The federal government Monday announced more than $1.89 billion in funding to states to fight the HIV epidemic with access to care and with more cash for the failing AIDS Drug Assistance Program. According to an HHS press release , $813 million of that money will go directly to the ADAP programming.