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I’m trying really hard to keep away from the 4,827 Rick Perry articles in the last day in the traditional media and lefty blogosphere. Rick Perry is the new shark attack story.
However, if we must look at the jobs record in Texas, we must. Kevin Drum has a decent enough rundown. I did my own version of this (I’ve been keeping myself to one Perry story a day). The story is familiar – an oil boom and population migration can explain much of the job gains in Texas, and even then, their unemployment rate is a high 8.2%, and a lot of the jobs created are low-wage.
But if you want to carry this out to the country as a whole, what can you say? First, you can say that the way to improve the economy in the United States is with more immigration inflows. After all, a big reason for the growth in the Texas economy is that they’ve attracted lots of people to the state. If the United States did the same, it would boost the economy.
Now, why are people flocking to Texas? A couple surmises: weather, and the rare lack of a housing bubble for a good-weather state. Now, this came about largely through consumer protection regulations and the lack of cash-out refinances or home equity lines of credit, based on a structure in place since Texas became a state in 1845.
Finally, as the population grew, the need for government services grew at the same time. And while Texas is a low-services state, they have increased their share of government jobs to a pretty high degree. In fact, between 2007 and 2010, Texas created 47% of all government jobs in America. A lot of this is due to the fact that Perry used the stimulus package to fill his budget gap, and it led to surges in hiring for education and health care. There were 125,000 net gains in public sector employment over that time, with 178,000 net losses in the private sector.
So if you break this down, the kind of policies Rick Perry would then bring from Texas to the US are: more generous immigration policies that allow more immigrants into the country; stronger mortgage regulation and consumer protection, and more government jobs.
Is that what he’s running on? I’ve missed all the speeches.
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Hysterical….Why? Because what Perry promotes most is private sector jobs…let alone, however, that most of the coverage about the TX job “miracle” is that the number reflects a very large number of low wage jobs….
of course not! he’s just the latest in a long line of cons to make his entire career on, and take credit for, dem policies that he and his party had nothing to do with.
Rick Perry Wants to Fornicate with ‘Merica
Could it be that Baggers like Perry actually love their country—‘Merica’—a little too much? In the speech in which Perry implicitly accused Obama of being unpatriotic, Perry did not just say that he loved his country. Oh no; he said something much different. Perry doesn’t just love ‘Merica; Perry is in love with ‘Merica.
Being a good fundamentalist Bagger, Perry won’t actually start screwing America unless and until she says “I do” on January 20, 2013. And if she does, Perry has already put her on notice: she’s going to get f%^&ed.
Article:
Rick Perry Wants to Fornicate with ‘Merica
Is this the same bunghole that wanted to ‘succeed’ from the Union.
Perry is NEIDERMEYER!!!
LOL.
Yeah, but he has GREAT HAIR.
-stewartm
We’ll need more prayer.
David, I swear the WSJ Housing article isnt wholly accurate. While it may not be as dire as areas of California or Florida things arent as rosy as that article paints it. I mean I could just drive around and take pictures and show all the vacent homes and commercial space. Some of the commercial space has never been occupied. In like 5 years.
And some of the consumer protections were also rolled back in the 90′s.
Funny, his roll-out just started, and I am tired of him already….
Rick Perry is in Love with ‘Merica. Mitt Romney won’t eat Obama’s dog food.
NPR loves all the Republican Candidates. They are agog over all of them. Rethugs will fix everything that is wrong with Merica.
Meanwhile, NPR’s Marketplace reports that prices are going up and that’s the new normal – even when the economy is bad. Marketplace sez that umemloyment is high and so are prices. NPR’s Marketplace sez, too bad get fucking used to it. NPR’s Marketplace sez 1 in 5 Merkin children live in Poverty.
NPR’s Marketplace did NOT report that Merica’s richest 1 percent of Merkins have sucked up more wealth than they ever dreamed possible.
if it were 1981
Tangential– “Three GOP Presidential Candidates Sign Pledge To Investigate LGBT Community” (Aug. 16, 2011)
Texas. Hmmmm. Taxes. Hmmm.
Isn’t that interesting?
I don’t know about immigration into Texas, but here in SoCal I’ve seen many more Texas license plates here than in the past.
Are Texans fleeing the drought, as the people from OK fled the dust bowl in the 30s?
I’m surprised that Mitt would get involved in that. The other two, not surprised at all.
Confucious said, “Never expect any gratitude from a Rethug.”
Seriously, I forget the link here–I think it was Blue Texan’s–but a couple of conservative talk show hosts went all ga-ga about Perry having Ronald Reagan’s hairdo.
As he then concluded: conservatives are very strange people.
-stewartm
http://www.bgladd.com/PerrySuperPAC.jpg
Yes, it is true, at least in Dallas country there are some areas like that but there there are other areas of Dallas county such as along the south part of 190 in Garland and Richardson where in about a mile long strip on either side of the 190, over the past five years has really built up. When I first moved here there was nothing along about a two mile stretch of frontage road of the 190 to my home and now it is filled with restaurants on either side, a bank, a hotel on either side of 190, a new special events center all built in the past 5 years. In addition a new, large shopping center, Firewheel, also about 2 miles from my home was built. When I moved here 5 years ago, it was a field. There may be a for sale sign here and there in my neighborhood, but it doesn’t seem like an alarming number.
You can bet he isn’t going to mention how many are low wage, and how many of them are jobs at the many state prisons.
No, they’re probably trying to con people into believing Texas is doing better than California. (Actually, they may very well be refugees from Gov Goodhair’s Paradise-on-earth.)