Okay, now that Texas governor, Rick Perry, is officially a candidate for president, and while he's busy putting out the pablum that he wants to "get America working again," as he told a South Carolina audience yesterday, it might be helpful to look at some statistics about just how that state has changed while he's been at the helm:
First, Gov. Perry would like you to think he is for smaller government, but as when he became the governor of Texas in 2000, the total spending by the Texas state government was approximately $49 billion, according to Economic Policy Journal. http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/06/first-look-rick-perry.html
Perry nearly doubled the total spending by Texas state government in the past ten years.
Secondly, Despite anything the governor would like you to think, and according to usdebtclock.org, the debt to GDP ratio in Texas is 22.9% and the debt per citizen is $10,645. http://www.usdebtclock.org/state-debt-clocks/state-of-texas-debt-clock.html In California, a state that is in a state of fiscal emergency, the debt to GDP ratio is just 18.7% and the debt per citizen is only $9932. Don't expect the Perry campaign to announce these figures any time soon.
And, let's not forget, that the total debt for the state has nearly doubled since Perry took over as governor back in 2000, per the Web site Politifact. http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/mar/04/bill-white/white-says-texas-debt-has-doubled-under-perry/
In terms of the myth of job creation, yes, as governor, Perry created about a million new jobs, but as NPR reports, the jobs he created "are not sufficient for families to support themselves." http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2011/08/13/139603925/perry-jumps-into-presidential-race-touting-texas-job-growth Texas has underfunded its medicaid program, as well as postponed its payments to schools and, per NPR, many thousands of teachers can expect to receive layoff notices.
Mr. Perry would also probably want you to forget that he is a lapsed Democrat with religious extremist ties that make the Rapture folks look like they play for the little league.
As Rachel Maddow reports, the stadium prayer event the governor did a week ago links him directly to religious leaders who think that Hurricane Katrina was the lord's way of retaliating against the sinners of New Orleans, and who say there is a direct correlation between man's sins and violent storms, flooding, and even the horror of the nuclear power plant meltdown in Fukushima. http://www.politicususa.com/en/rachel-maddow-outs-msms-downplay-of-rick-perrys-extremist-supporters The teflon Texan is spiritually in bed with folks that make Michele Bachmann's wildest statements seem moderate by comparison. And, like that other Texan whose seat he inherited when George W. Bush ran for president, Rick Perry thinks he has a direct line to the Almighty, too, so should he be elected, we can certainly expect more jihads in the name of a war on terror.
Listening to Gov. Perry babble on about the sins of regulation, and how this has messed up the so-called free market reminds one of another strikingly handsome, charismatic figure, Ronald Reagan, and like the former president, Mr. Perry appears to have completey forgotten his humble Democratic beginnings. As the voters learn more about his far-fetched claims of economic prowess, this will cost him bigtime in November, 2012.
(with thanks to a comment on my HuffPost article for this information)
