Texas governor and reported GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry is the nation's greatest political con artist. His so called "Texas Miracle" has been totally debunked as a fraud. Yet Perry, with generous help from conservative business leaders, tea party acolytes, and suddenly revved up evangelicals will keep the con very much alive. The so-called miracle that Perry and his backers peddle is of course that Texas is the runaway national model for how to create lots of private sector jobs, with minimal government red tape, and with a pittance of taxes. It's the state where the good times are supposedly rolling for everyone, while the bad times are piling up for everyone in every other state.
Debunking Perry's con is easy. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics found that Texas' jobless rate has steadily crept up in recent months, not plunged to zero as Perry would have the nation believe. Unemployment was over 8 percent in June. New York, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Wisconsin, and a slew of other states beat Texas on the employment numbers. And New York and several other states that outshined Texas did it without gutting environmental and labor regulations, slashing taxes, and with bare boned spending on education, housing, unemployment benefits and health services, as in Texas.
Even the 8 percent plus figure on Texas unemployment, though below the national jobless figure, is horribly misleading. In the state's big cities, such as Houston, the jobless rate matches the national figure, and in rural, impoverished areas, the jobless rate soars to double digit figures. This means only one thing. More and more people in the state have sunk into or never risen out of poverty. The quality of life indices on Texas amply confirm that. And an increase in the number of poor people invariably translate out to more children in poverty, greater income disparities, a dearth in quality prenatal care, and higher teen birth rates. Texas ranks in the bottom ten in every one of these areas and is a rock bottom number 50 among the nation's 50 states in the number who graduate from high school by age 25.
Then there are the types of jobs that have been created. Perry has little to say about them. And there's a good reason. Nearly forty percent of them are bottom rung, minimum wage retail and service industry jobs. This high figure makes Texas, along with Mississippi, one of the two hands down state leaders in the number of minimum wage workers. There's a good reason for that too. Texas, like most Southern and Southwest states, is a rock solid right to work state. Unions are treated as virtual pariahs by Perry and GOP state officials. The result is minimal to nonexistent labor protections, and pension benefits. The same holds for health care. Texas is again the national leader in having the highest number of residents without health insurance. Only slightly more than half of the state's construction workers that are exposed to the industry's high hazards and incur the highest rate of injuries and fatalities, is covered by workers compensation.
There's virtually no chance any of this will change soon, and the reasons again aren't hard to find. The state makes bare minimum investment in graduate and higher education for professional and job skills training. The state is in the bottom tier in the percentage of jobs that require a college education or degree. Yet, the state official's penny pinching on education, health care, and professional job investment hasn't made for a bulging state treasury. The legislature had to scramble to close a $4 billion deficit in the current year's budget. Texas officials did the one thing that officials everywhere are adept at doing when faced with budget deficits. They make even more slash and burn cuts in the favorite targets, education and health care, always at the expense of the poorest and neediest, and continue their all out assault on state workers. Here is one glaring example. State officials axed funding for pre-kindergarten programs that served about 100,000 low income children.
The biggest reason, though, there being little likelihood of change is who runs the state. Democrats hold majorities in a few Texas big cities, but they are an endangered species in Texas state government. The executive is run by Perry, and the state legislature is under lockdown GOP control. In the 2010 elections the GOP took a supermajority in the state's house and even managed to capture two Hispanic-Majority seats in south Texas.
Labor hostility, laissez faire tax and business friendliness, and the scoff at regulations are virtually the sacrosanct Holy Grail in the state legislature and Perry's state house. Perry genuflects before the Grail deeper than nearly all the current crop of GOP presidential candidates. Now that he's in the presidential race, he'll take his Texas miracle con job to the nation. The terrifying prospect is more than a few just might buy it.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and internet TV broadcast on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
And that "rainy day fund" is, according to some legislators, already earmarked for obligations that will become due in 2012. It's not extra money that Perry just had lying around.
And if so many Americans weren't leaving their home states and moving to Texas in order to fin a good job, our unemployment rate would be much lower.
So if things are so bad here, why are so many Americans moving here to find work?
Texas has higher unemployment than either New York or Massachusetts, according to an article by Dr. Krugman in today's NYT, has the highest percentage of workers making minimum wage of any state in the entire nation, and fully one in four of its residents have no health insurance, again, the worst percentage in the entire nation.
The only miracle in Texas is that the GOP base has become convinced that black is white, day is night, and up is down -- but then, that's not a miracle, it's a tragedy.
George W. Bush had a good record on Texas job creation but that didn't translate nationally when he became president.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/09/bush-on-jobs-the-worst-track-record-on-record/
Ann Richards, the Democratic governor that preceded George W. Bush had an excellent job creation record. I think most conservatives would strongly dispute the notion that Ann Richards was responsible for Texas' healthy job growth considering their allergic reaction to anything remotely liberal.
Many cites Texas' lack of a state income tax as one of the reasons it might be generating more jobs, but then there are other states with no state income tax and lose regulation like Nevada and yet it has the highest unemployment rate in America.
So, there is clearly something else at play here. Texas low cost of living is no doubt a key factor, its geographic location that's no more than 3 hours away from anywhere in the US as well as being close to major Latin American export markets. Another factor is the relatively large energy sector in the state, although less important than it once was, still plays a strong role in the Texas economy. And of course, population growth helps, the state has a high birth rate and attracts immigrants, chiefly from Latin America, all of which creates many jobs in construction and the low paying service industry.
As for most of the Republicans running for office, the entire thing is a farce; the real plan is this: Each person running gets hours of FREE MEDIA Coverage, and the more Republicans running, the more coverage. Now President Obama is one person and his media coverage is based on one person, or a few hours vs the hundreds of hours the Republicans are receiving. Thus, we have hundreds of hours of false statements, outright lies, bs, and such countered by very few hours of the truth and FACTS..
In essence, not one of the Republicans in the race are actually running or serious about running, just ask TRUMP..
Pennsylvania:
Median Hourly $16.27
Mean Hourly $20.70
Mean Annual $43,050
Texas
Median Hourly $15.14
Mean Hourly $20.30
Mean Annual $42,220
Under his stewardship Texas ranks 7th in teen pregnancies; ranks 6th in women & 4th children living in poverty; 1st in percentage of uninsured; 1st in CO2 emissions, 1st in toxic chemicals released into our water, 7th recognized cancer-causing carcinogens released into water; 47th households median net worth; 46th affordable homeowner insurance; 50th per capita state spending
on mental health & 49th on Medicaid; 48th on employer-based health insurance. And the actual percentage rate of Texans living below the poverty line is 45%. Hardly a ringing endorsement of fiscal conservatism.
While railing against federal spending Perry was begging for billions in stimulus money. The $30 billion allocated for education went into the state's coffers to help balance the budget instead.
Texas electricity rates are the highest in the country. Texas Fund to Help Seniors (pay utility bills) released $66 million; the rest of the $146 million was set aside to balance the Texas cheque book. After cutting the 17% deduction to 10%, seniors stopped using a/c; it was unaffordable. At least one man was found dead. Every month electricity customers pay $1.00 into the fund. By 2013 the account will have $900 million, yet there is no plan the money will ever be used as intended.
Welcome to Rick Perry's world!
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/april_2011/most_voters_still_blame_bush_recession_for_bad_economy