Energy: Gasoline was $1.67 a gallon then. It's now $3.79.
Food: Average cost of a gallon of milk was about $2.65. It's about $3.50 today.
Housing: The median cost of a home was $229,600. Today it's $217,900.
Budget deficit: We fell $438 billion short of balancing the federal budget in 2008. We missed it by $1.4 trillion this year—nearly four times higher.
U.S. debt: Total federal debt was $10.7 trillion then. It's $14.5 trillion now—nearly 50% higher.
Unemployment: Then, 7.3% of Americans were unemployed and 9.1% are unemployed today.
To be fair, not everyone has done poorly under Obama. Federal government employees have made out like bandits. Mercatus Center (George Mason University) economist Veronique de Rugy noted last January that "federal employment has grown by 98,000 employees since the start of the recession." And USA Today reported last year: "Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis."
Perry’s Record
A recent state-by-state comparison study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that Texas had a state tax burden of 8.4%, compared to a U.S. average of 9.7%. And the Texas gross state product grew 94.5% over 10 years, vs. 66.3% for the rest of the country.
Texas far outpaces other states in job creation. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, director and writer-in-residence, respectively, at Southern Methodist University’s William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom write: “From January 2000 to June 2010 [Perry’s tenure], Texas had a net increase of nearly 1.1 million jobs—more than any other state by far. In fact, Texas’ outsized gains eclipsed the total of the next five job-creating states: Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Utah and Washington.”
More importantly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Texas created 129,000 new jobs in 2009—a recession year. That was more than half of all the jobs created in the country.
The Brookings Institution published a study earlier this year looking at job growth in major cities. Texas had five of the top 10 cities, with Austin leading the country in job growth.
See why Obama is concerned about a Perry bid? Would you want to stand before the public in a presidential debate and defend Obama’s record compared with Perry’s?
Not being able to defend his own economic record, or attack Perry’s, Obama would try to paint Perry in a negative light. That wouldn’t be easy. Perry served three terms in the Texas House as a Democrat, and supported Al Gore’s 1988 presidential bid. That was when there were still some conservative Democrats. Perry switched to the Republican Party in 1989.
Because Perry is from Texas, Obama would accuse him of being in bed with the oil and gas industry. And yet Perry just signed a law requiring gas drillers to publicize the chemicals they use in “fracking” to extract the gas. As the Wall Street Journal reported on June 20, “Environmental groups said the law doesn’t go far enough, but they agreed it was an important step.”
Obama would also accuse Perry of being out of touch with most Americans. But Cox and Alm of Southern Methodist University’s O’Neil Center found in a different study that “Texas led all other states with a net in-migration of 500,000 people from 2004 to 2008.” People are voting with their feet and moving to Texas.
George Bush Clone?
And Obama would certainly try to accuse Perry of being a George Bush clone, perhaps because President Bush wouldn’t raise taxes and neither has Gov. Perry. But Perry’s conservative record in Texas, especially on holding the line on spending, would demonstrate clear distinctions.
Obama would be perfectly happy with a guy whose every utterance reminded voters of W.
“Gov. Rick Perry: The Candidate Obama Would Fear Most”
LOL!!!!!
If Obama feared Perry, he wouldn’t be practically handing him the nomination by complaining about our execution of the Mexican national tomorrow. Obama knows FULL-WELL that Perry has to let the execution take place (to stay viable in the primary), and that Perry looks like a REAL LEADER (which he’s not) by doing so...and thus Perry moves way up in the pack.
Obama’s DREAM is to run against Perry. He knows Perry is just as Open-Borders as Bush-43 was and he knows, once the word is out from Texans, that Republicans will sit out the 2012 election, just as they sat out 2008.
First under GWBush and then Obama
I havent made up my mind on Perry yet but - he cuts a certain profile when giving a speech and he will certainly look more like a man when standing next to Zero.
Related, worth the read:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/265309/rick-perry-s-tenth-commandment-kevin-d-williamson
I think Perry and Palin are in close communication. Only one will get in the race and whichever one that is will win the Republican nomination. My gut tells me it will be Perry, not Palin.
Perry should make a simple speech, perhaps to a Gov’s conference:
If President Obama truly believes that resolving the Budget Ceiling is so damn important, then he can prove that conviction, by coming to the table willing to sign a bill that CUTS FEDERAL SPENDING BY AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE RISE IN THE DEBT CEILING!
-——That President George W. Bush handed him a terrible economic situation.-——
Actually, Obama was set up. Given the economy and the wars, the Messiah was destined to fail. That destiny was exacerbated by his stupid and slavish need to implement every leftwing wacko desire since the beginning of time
Alaska is the only state that does not collect state sales tax or levy an individual income tax. To finance state operations, Alaska depends primarily on petroleum revenues. Some of its cities and other local jurisdictions, however, do collect sales tax revenue. More on Alaska taxes can be found in the tabbed pages below.
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/edit/state/profiles/state_tax_Aka.asp
First, the Texas governorship has limited actual authority.
Most of the governor's power rests in appointments. Very little power rests in influencing legislation, except via veto or by the selection of which items to include in a special session of the legislature.
Most actual power rests with the lieutenant governor. Therefore many of the accomplishments credited to Perry (or formerly credited to Bush, when he was governor) are actually largely attributable to others.
Secondly, Perry has always seemed to be more about Perry, than he has been about actually doing things for the good of the state.
Thirdly, Perry has very little international expertise or experience.
Michelle Bachman seems a more sound candidate, although admittedly she is not nearly as well understood here in Texas as is Perry.
Having said all of that, I certainly would support Perry, if he were to become the nominee, as an alternative to four more years of Obama.
Rick Perry took the ball from Bush and scored an economic touchdown for Texas. Obama took the ball from Bush and fumbled it—repeatedly—giving the other team a chance to score a touchdown.
Which brings us to the Obama vs. Perry records on the economy. What has happened to some of the key indicators of economic well-being since Obama has been in charge (roughly January of 2009 to June 2011)?
The Black messiah has this one wrapped up.
Rick Perry will win in 2016, regardless of who is running.
Watch where the Big Money places its bribes.
["Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere [Texas] state budgets during the 1980s."] Source
Karl Rove claims Rick Perry as his candidate in Perry's FIRST campaign for the Texas Agriculture Commission. [From what I’ve found this was their only collaboration]
Perry was a Texas Democrat (not a liberal Democrat). He switched to the Republican Party in 1989. In 1990 Perry won the election (against Jim Hightower) to head the Agricultural Committee (a post Perry was well suited for as having come from a cotton farming family -- raised and worked the land -- and had a degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M). He was reelected in 1994 to that office in a landslide (62%). He did not seek reelection for a 3rd term and ran for Lt. Gov of Texas (1998), winning in a 3 way race, in a hard fought campaign against John Sharp (D).
["Perry thus became the state's first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction, taking office on January 19, 1999 until his ascension to the governorship on December 21, 2000 upon the resignation of then-Governor George W. Bush."] Source
In that 1998 campaign year, the G.W. Bush camp (which included Karl Rove) was campaigning for W's reelection for Texas Gov (1st elected in 1994) and was at odds with Rick Perry's hard nosed campaign against John Sharp for Lt. Gov. Karl Rove told Perry to soft peddle to lift Bush's numbers in minority groups, Perry refused. Bush won reelection as Texas Governor. Perry won office as Lt. Gov. (arguably a stronger office than TX governor).
["Bush won by 1.4 million votes, Perry by fewer than 70,000. There were harsh words afterward; Rove and Dave Carney, a top Perry strategist, now are bitter foes."] Source
Then there was this in the TX Monthly about the 2010 governor's race:
October 2009: “....It would not be surprising to find that Karl Rove had a hand in this somewhere. The Bushies are definitely in the Hutchison camp, and there is no love lost between them and the Perry camp. The tension (according to Perry team members whom I interviewed on this subject last year) dates all the way back to Perry’s race for lieutenant governor in 1998, when Rove insisted that Perry stick with a positive message even while he was being pounded by John Sharp. Meanwhile, in the view of the Perry camp, Rove was trying to turn out Hispanic Democrats who would vote for Bush, even though that meant they were likely to switch back to the D column to vote for Sharp. The Perry team decided that they had to fight back, Rove or no Rove, and they went rogue, going after Sharp hard. It worked.
...If that animosity weren’t enough, after Bush was named the winner in December 2000, Perry was insistent that the president-elect vacate the governor’s mansion so that Perry could move in, notwithstanding that Bush wanted to stay a day or two longer before leaving for Washington. I heard that firsthand from the Bushies at the time....” -- Texas Monthly
********
Basically, in the 2010 GOP primary in TX for the governor's office, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutichison was hoping to come home to Texas as Governor. Her election was being backed by the Bush family and all their power players were lined up against Gov. Rick Perry, with Karl Rove serving as Sen Hutchison's adviser against Perry. Source
Rick Perry won a 3rd term as Governor of Texas in 2010.
Perry makes exceptions when it comes to the practice of child-killing.
Which is explicitly unconstitutional.
“No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law.”
“No State shall deprive any person of life without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Saying you’re “pro-life with exceptions” is like saying you’re pro-marital-fidelity with exceptions, only worse.
What part of “no person” do these “pro-life” “Republicans” fail to understand?
This is a totally crap article.
The media has told me Imam Hussein would fear John Huntsman the most.
Why should I listen to a blogger in PJs?
Moochelle and Obama -— Perry can boot these moochers out of the White House. He can beat Bammy Boy easily by 20 points