Here are some of Perry's positions on key issues — and our criticisms of them:

Social Security: Perry sees it as a misguided product of the New Deal. In "Fed Up!", Perry envisions a future in which "there will be a retirement safety net that is no longer set up like an illegal Ponzi scheme, but rather will allow individuals to own and control their own retirement." In other words, he favors private accounts, a top priority of Bush's that died in 2005 because it was unpopular with the public and went nowhere in Congress. There is a reason for this. Social Security is an insurance program, not a savings plan. It's intended as a reliable, risk-free backup to private plans, which often generate higher returns but at higher risk. Replacing it with private accounts imposes more risk on everybody and presumes a level of financial expertise that many Americans don't possess.