21 Reasons Rick Perry's Texas Is a Complete Disaster

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Joshua Holland

21 Reasons Rick Perry's Texas Is a Complete Disaster
Third World status – the real promise of a Rick Perry administration – shouldn't be a goal to which the United States aspires.

August 15, 2011 |


Rick Perry's road to the White House will be paved with spin and blatant lies of omission. He's basing his entire campaign on a single data-point: Texas, with 10 percent of the country's population, has produced 37 percent of net new jobs in the U.S. since the recovery.

That kernel of truth, as I noted recently, is mostly a result of a massive increase in the state's population – much of it due to Hispanic immigration. Texas' unemployment rate has actually risen even as those jobs were being created. Texas also leads the nation in creating crappy minimum wage jobs without benefits – the number of minimum wage workers increased by 150 percent between 2007 and 2010.

He also lucked into a boom in energy prices in his oil and gas-rich state – another factor having nothing to do with his governance.

Under Perry, endless tax breaks for politically connected Texas corporations helped create a massive budget deficit that Perry first addressed with federal stimulus funds – money from a program he decried as a “misguided” desire “to spend our children’s inheritance” -- and then by cutting spending on education and the state's already threadbare social services to the bone. With the exception of a few economic basket-cases like Mississippi, Texas is way ahead of the pack in the race to the bottom. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/news/152037/21_reasons_rick_perry%27s_texas_is_a_complete_disaster/

[rfranklin]

1. I can see the campaign commercial: Hispanic immigrant smiling, "Thank you Governor Perry!"

"With my Texas job at less than minimum wage I can send my wages home to Guatemala!"

That should get the Teabaggers' panties in a twist!

[chelsea0011]

2. His numbers are pretty weak across the board with "minority" voters

White won Latinos (61% to 38%), Asians (59% to 40%), and African Americans (88% to 11%)......wikipedia on 2010 Tx. governor election results

I could be wrong but I would think his Latino numbers would even be smaller next time around. Although his numbers are on par with republicants in general, he has a problem in other big states not named Texas. And those total number are even more minuscule when one thinks Perry won with 39% of the vote.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. Third World and rapidly descending into worse ... poor Texas! nt

[EC]

4. Weren't many of the new constrution jobs

due to many of the evacuees from Katrina staying there? Then wouldn't they need more housing and new schools and other public service jobs, like new police, teachers and fire workers?