Important to Texans? Nah. It's just how Rick Perry keeps score.

WALLACE: One more question about Main Street or looking out for the little guy. When you were governor of Texas, your state had the highest uninsured rate in the country. One in five, more than one in five Texans didn’t have health coverage, and yet you refused to set up a state exchange under Obamacare. You refused to expand Medicaid. Is that looking out for the little guy when 21 percent of Texans didn’t have health insurance?

 

PERRY: If how you keep score is how many people you force to buy insurance, then I would say that that’s how you keep score.

So WHEN Rick Perry's candidacy doesn't work out AGAIN, he can go work for this pipeline company he's already on board with

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ETP said Perry could "receive cash compensation" as well as "equity compensation." The company declined to disclose how much Perry will be paid for the gig and isn't required to file disclosures revealing that figure until next year, but in the past the post has come with about $50,000 in annual salary. "You can expect compensation to be along the same lines as what was [last] reported," an ETP spokesperson wrote in an email toMother Jones.

Politicians running for higher office typically step down from corporate positions while campaigning in order to avoid a conflict of interest. Jeb Bush, for example, began to leave his spots on corporate boards last year in preparation for his presidential run. The ETP spokesperson confirmed Perry still sits on the board. (He'slisted as one of seven members of the board on the company's website.) A spokesperson for Perry's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Kelcy Warren, the company's CEO, has been a major backer of Perry's political career. The billionaire contributed more than $250,000 to Perry's super-PAC in 2012 during his first campaign for president.

that's why we call Rick Perry *Pay to Play* Ricky