I guess if Rick Perry wants to run for president he can't talk about seceding from the Union, but if this clip is any indication, then he's settled for a second best that will surely appeal to Bachmannbots: claiming that just about everything the federal government does is unconstitutional. And what better place to make the claim than Glenn Beck's show:
It’s really that competition [among states] that’s going to make America strong again. It’s the federal government kinda getting out of our hair. The idea that they’re telling us how to educate our children or how to deliver health care or how to, for that matter, clean our air is really nonsense. If you really want to get America back to this vibrant economy then respect the Tenth Amendment allow the states to be the laboratories of innovation.
As Ian Millhiser points out, it's absurd for Perry to turn clean air, Medicaid, or school funding into a Tenth Amendment issue. If Texas doesn't want federal funds and the requirements that go along with them, then Texas shouldn't accept those funds. It's as simple as that. Meanwhile, for a guy running an oil state at a time of $3 and $4 gas, Perry should be spending more time explaining why Texas is only 24th in the nation when it comes to job performance. Clearly, he's spending his time on thinking about how to appeal to teapartiers instead.