#9: Perry Signed a Big-Government Executive Order

The top 10 list continues, documenting reasons that Perry would not be likely to win a national election, even if he becomes the Republican nominee…

9. Perry claims to be a supporter of small government, even though – as Governor of Texas – he was willing to sign a big-government executive order that was widely unpopular.

Executive Order RP65 states:

The Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner shall adopt rules that mandate the age appropriate vaccination of all female children for HPV prior to admission to the sixth grade.

He did allow an escape clause for parents to file for conscientious objector status. However, we never found out how challenging it would be to qualify for that status, since his executive order was soundly and quickly countermanded when the state legislature adopted HB1098 (the final House vote was 135-2 and the final Senate vote was 30-1).

When challenged about this executive order during the debate in Tampa, Perry offered no apology, saying:

You may criticize me about the way I went about it, but at the end of the day, I am always going to err on the side of life.

A report prepared by Judicial Watch documented concerns about the safety and efficacy of the HPV vaccine. It also documented  questions about the cost of government-mandated HPV vaccination, indicating that a government-mandated HPV vaccination program could be almost as expensive as all of the other currently mandated vaccines combined.

The report described adverse conditions that occurred after patients were vaccinated, including Guillaine-Barre Syndrome and death. Whether these adverse conditions were actually caused by the vaccine or only coincidentally occurred after receiving the vaccine is still subject to analysis and debate. Nonetheless, in the early days of a drug, the risk-reward tradeoffs are not always clear, and there is a legitimate case to leave such decisions in the hands of parents.

It would not be surprising if Perry – who attempted to mandate this Texas-sized vaccination program – ended up being no more popular with the national electorate than he was with the Texas lawmakers who countermanded him.