Rick Perry: U.S. got 'short end' of Cuba deal

TheHill
By Mark Hensch

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) said Saturday that Cuba got the better half of its bargain with the U.S. earlier this year.

“We got the way short end of that deal,” Perry said in a speech at the inaugural Iowa Agriculture Summit in Des Moines. “We got a bad deal. This administration basically empowered the Castro regime with no thought of the Cuban people.”

Perry’s remarks took aim at President Obama’s decision in January to normalize relations with Havana. The U.S. eased travel and trade restrictions on Cuba as part of the landmark deal.

The former Texas governor — and potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate — took issue with Obama’s diplomatic priorities. He said the president’s decision to deal with Raul Castro, Cuba’s dictator, hurts everyday Cubans.

“This president missed the point on Cuba’s relationship with its people,” Perry said. “Cuba has been incredibly onerous to its people. We have a pretty sordid history with them when you get down to it.”

Perry said trading with Castro’s Cuba was unlikely to change the communist nation’s ways. Improving trade relationships elsewhere, he added, would best serve American interests.

“I’m not sure you can change the culture of Cuba until Castro is dead and gone,” he said.

Perry proposed China as a better trading partner. Increasing U.S. ties with Beijing, he said, could lead the Asian nation towards democracy.

“China’s different,” Perry said of both countries. “China basically practices communism at night and capitalism in the daytime. There’s a chance for our trade to engage with them and possibly change the culture.”

Foreign policy was not the only swipe Perry took at Obama’s decisions. The former Texas lawmaker also criticized the president’s recent executive orders on immigration.

“The president doesn't respect the Constitution,” Perry said of the orders. “His executive actions are a result of Washington not getting the job done.”

Perry said Texas’s status as a border state gave him rare insight on immigration. Solving America’s immigrant problems, he said, begins with protecting U.S. borders.

“I don’t think the American people will ever trust Washington on the issue of immigration until they secure the border,” Perry said.

Another problem, he added, is the office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Perry called the agency “broken” during his remarks Saturday.

“One of the first things I would do is overhaul the agency that oversees immigration policies in this country,” he said. “The idea that it takes seven or eight years to become a citizen of this country is hard for me to wrap my arms around. It’s so slow.”

The Iowa Ag Summit hosted several other potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders: Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas), former Sen. Rick Santorum (Penn.), Govs. Chris Christie (N.J.) and Scott Walker (Wis.), former Govs. Jeb Bush (Fla.), George Pataki (N.Y.) and Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and New York real estate mogul Donald Trump.