JOHNSTON, Iowa - November 3, 2011 - Texas Governor Rick Perry played up his agricultural roots and emphasized his anti-Washington rhetoric at a town hall that will probably best be remembered for the GOP presidential hopefuls closing line, one that seems destined to be repeated on the campaign trail for months to come.

"Are you better off today than you were $4 trillion ago?" Perry asked, a grin of satisfaction creasing his face, at a town hall at Pioneer Hi-Bred, a hybrid seed plant.

Perry has made this outsider message the signature of his campaign efforts in Iowa this week as he has talked about taking a "wrecking ball" and a "sledgehammer" to Washington. In Iowa Thursday, he said the nation's capital doesn't have the "intellectual firepower" to make one-size-fits-all policies for all of the states.

The populist message extended to the financial markets as well as government. "I happen to think Washington and Wall Street have been in bed together way too long," Perry said. "I wouldn't have bailed out anybody. If you are too big to fail, (then) you are too big." He did not elaborate on whether this meant he would attempt to use his executive authority to downsize such large firms.

Responding to a question from an audience member about how he would stop "stupid" financial CEOs, Perry blasted the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, saying it institutionalized the very behaviors it sought to stop. He pledged to repeal the law if elected.

"One of the reasons that the establishment really doesn't like me and doesn't like my tax plan is because they know that I'm going to show up in Washington with a sledgehammer, and they're not going to like it," Perry said. "That's exactly what I think this country needs in Washington is somebody who's not afraid to go in and to really crush that system that is in place."