4. He opposes federal stimulus money.
Perry made headlines during the 2009 legislative session when he turned down $555 million in federal stimulus funding to extend unemployment insurance , citing the strings attached, and he has made a talking point out of the “failed stimulus.” But Texas took more than $17 billion in stimulus money in 2009 to balance the budgets from that biennium and the previous one. Perry defends the decision by saying Texas is a donor state — and, true enough, it sends more money to Washington than it gets back in benefits and services — but the fact is, he kept the state solvent by taking what he now rails against.
5. He has presided over an unqualified economic miracle.
When Perry says Texas has less than 10 percent of the nation’s population but has created more than 40 percent of its jobs in the past two years, or that more jobs have been created in Texas in the past decade — that is, on his watch — than in all 49 other states combined, he’s not exaggerating. In an election that’s likely to be about jobs and the economy first and foremost, he has quite a record to run on. But there’s more to the story than those top-line statistics.
The unemployment rate in Texas, for instance, was 8.4 percent as of Friday — less than the federal unemployment rate but worse than that of 25 other states, and it could move up a tick or two after Sept. 1, when budget cuts passed during the most recent legislative session will reduce the public employee rolls. Texas has more minimum-wage jobs than every state other than Mississippi, a superlative you brag about if you don’t care about what kind of jobs you create and are only trying to run up the numbers. And growth in public sector (i.e., government) jobs in Texas has been 19 percent over the past 10 years, vs. just 9 percent growth in private-sector jobs.
The argument about minimum wage jobs is goofy. A job a job and in Illinois we've got black unemployment in double digits and in some demographics it reaches near 50%. We could use more minimum wage jobs, but the above items are worth noting.
There isn't going to be the perfect conservative candidate, if there was one he/she wouldn't be electable. We're going to have to compromise and keep our eye on the prize - Congress.
Taking Congress is the most important and by margins that insulate us from Obama.
The other issue in item 5, is the unemployment rate. Another article I read analyzed why it is that high when there are so many jobs being created. The answer, unemployed people are moving to Texas, seeking a job. The other state’s unemployment goes down, Texas’ rate goes up. Even with that, enough jobs are found to keep Texas below the national average.
Your point about the minimum wage jobs is right on. Go to Illinois or Michigan’s legislature and say, “my franchised restaurant will move to your state and bring in 50,000 minimum wage jobs”. Would they turn you down?
The other issue in item 5, is the unemployment rate. Another article I read analyzed why it is that high when there are so many jobs being created. The answer, unemployed people are moving to Texas, seeking a job. The other state’s unemployment goes down, Texas’ rate goes up. Even with that, enough jobs are found to keep Texas below the national average.
Your point about the minimum wage jobs is right on. Go to Illinois or Michigan’s legislature and say, “my franchised restaurant will move to your state and bring in 50,000 minimum wage jobs”. Would they turn you down?
A lot of those minimum-wage jobs, and the better jobs, too, in construction e.g., are being taken by illegals pouring over the border. Newsies looking into the rumor have demonstrated that there is significant resistance in e.g. the building trades to hiring American citizens in any number of occupations. They want illegals, period -- a very solid preference driven by tax considerations, lack of standing to beef to EEOC, OSHA, or DoL Wage and Hour about e.g. short pay (shorting men on overtime pay is rampant -- a standard business practice), and general abusability (usually euphemized as "flexibility" or some such).
That's why it's impossible to get a clear picture of what the Texas economy is really doing -- a lot of it is off the books, and a lot of the wage-earners aren't citizens. Some of them are people who just pop over the border every morning to go to work in El Paso, Brownsville, and Laredo. Texas statistics are totally distorted by these Jell-O-y numbers of illegals.
This is the latest attack on the Texas economy, but as usual, it cherry-picks statistics. Last month, the Texas unemployment rate went up by 0.2% - but Texas added a net 30,000 new jobs the same month! How does that happen? It happens because Texas is getting more new workers moving into the state every month than new jobs created. The long-term unemployed are moving from blue state slums to Texas because THEY believe in Texas. So the fact that the unemployment rate went up in Texas is not a negative - it is just a reflection of the fact that so many people are moving there looking for work. Texas is still adding new jobs faster than almost any other state in the Union.