Perry calls for federal judge term limits

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who needs a strong Iowa showing for a chance to resurrect his campaign, used a speech in the state Tuesday to call for a streamlined federal government, term limits for federal judges and a “part-time” Congress with smaller pay and office budgets.

“It’s time to tear down the monuments to bureaucratic failure, and put in place a smaller, more efficient federal government that puts the American people first,” Perry said during a campaign event on the factory floor of Schebler Co., a manufacturing company in Bettendorf, Iowa.

Perry presented the proposals during his first visit to Iowa since a debate stumble in Michigan that he called embarrassing and has been followed by a drop in support in polls.

In a Bloomberg News poll published Tuesday, Perry received support from 7 percent of likely participants in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3, the contest that will start the Republican presidential nomination voting.

He declined to comment on the poll’s findings, which put him in a distant fifth place in Iowa, as he was leaving the factory floor.

Perry said term limits for federal judges are needed because too many are legislating from the bench. He said future appointees wouldn’t receive lifetime positions under his plan.

The Texas governor noted the affluence of the Washington area as he called for a more limited federal government.

“While Main Street’s windows have been boarded up, the cash continues to flow to Wall Street financiers and Beltway profiteers,” he said.

Federal employees whose compensation averages more than $126,000 and the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers helped Washington edge out San Jose as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area, according to recent Census Bureau figures. The typical household in the Washington metro area earned $84,523 last year, compared with the national median income of $50,046.

Perry sold himself as a “Washington outsider” as he called for sending members of Congress “home to live under the laws they pass among the people they represent.”

Under his presidency, Perry said there would be “no more bailouts of bankers, no more earmarks for pet projects, and no more spending beyond our means.”

Perry noted a story this past weekend on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” saying members of Congress, including the current House speaker and his predecessor, bought stock in companies while legislation that might affect those businesses was being debated.

“Congress has proven it can’t be trusted to watch our money, and now it’s clear they can’t even be trusted to watch their own,” he said. “Any congressman or senator that uses their insider knowledge to profit in the stock market ought to be sent to jail, period.”

After his speech, Perry took questions from potential Iowa caucus participants and was joined on stage by Kansas Governor Sam Brownback, a former U.S. Senator who campaigned for president in Iowa in 2007 before dropping out of the race. Brownback has endorsed Perry’s presidential bid.