NYT's: In Texas Jobs Boom, Crediting a Leader, or Luck

[rasputin1952]

<snip>

Even before he formally entered the race over the weekend, Mr. Perry and his allies set out to dictate an economic narrative on his terms. A radio spot last week in Iowa told voters that the governor “has a proven record of controlling spending and creating jobs” and suggested that he could replicate the success of Texas on a national scale. In a budget speech a few months ago, Mr. Perry, who declined through a spokesman to be interviewed for this article, boasted that Texas stood “in stark contrast to states that choose to burden their residents with higher taxes and onerous regulatory mandates.”

But some economists as well as Perry skeptics suggest that Mr. Perry stumbled into the Texas miracle. They say that the governor has essentially put Texas on autopilot for 11 years, and it was the state’s oil and gas boom — not his political leadership — that kept the state afloat. They also doubt that the Texas model, regardless of Mr. Perry’s role in shaping it, could be effectively applied to the nation’s far more complex economic problems.

<snip>

The federal government has also helped support Texas. Federal spending in the state, home of NASA and large Army bases, more than doubled over the last decade to over $200 billion a year.

And well before Mr. Perry’s arrival in the Statehouse, Texas had digested the lessons of the recession in the late 1980s, when oil prices plummeted, real estate prices crashed, and savings and loan institutions failed and required a federal bailout.



http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/business/in-texas-perry-rides-an-energy-boom.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss




I'd go w/luck...and the largesse of the federal government. The uptick in TX has nothing to do w/perry, just as it had nothing to do w/ bush. In fact, quite a bit can go all the way back to Johnson basing NASA in Houston and all of the ancillary products/services that came from taht move.

[DCKit]

1. I tend to think of it as more of a "Boob Job".

And I'm not referring to any part of the female anatomy. On whole, this last batch of Republicons have done an immense amount of damage their own states, and Rick Perry simply lucked out with the numbers.

Just the increase in child poverty in TX during his reign of "Terra" is quite enough for me to totally discount those claims, and he's gone far beyond that in the damage he's done to the people of TX: Especially the most vulnerable. Add to that, we're all well aware that you can only be unemployed for just so long, then you simply disappear.

Yeah, they've got plenty of people working at WalMart and other McJobs, but that's not "employment", it's indentured servitude.

[rasputin1952]

3. I had to chuckle at "boob job"...

Perry is indeed a boob...:D

[Tennessee Gal]

2. According to Howard Dean last night, Texas has a deficit and

about 18% (I think that is right) of the jobs created were in the state government. Dean also pointed out that the Governor of Texas has very little power.

And I think Texas was one of the largest beneficiaries of the stimulus plan.

[rasputin1952]

5. A while back, when Perry was talking secession...

I tried to figure out how much TX would lose in federal cash...it was too daunting a task, I'm no CPA and don';t have that kind of patience w/#'s.

I figure Ft Hood, Ft Sam Houston, NASA, DEA, Border Patrol, Naval bases, USCG bases, AF bases, oil subsidies and tax breaks, the USPS, and a myriad of programs and federal aid for disasters alone would cost TX hundreds of billions.

TX, like virtually every state, relies on federal cash to maintain it's services, TX just more so when one adds the elements of the fed that are based there. Without federal largesse, TX would be a barren desert in the Central South.

[madrchsod]

7. just think...he could have a good chance to be the president.

[rasputin1952]

8. I don't think he has any chance of being president...

he's as stupid as a stick, and there is more baggage from bush and TX than at Ellis Island on a good day.

Ultra RW loons will vote for him, but the mainstream R's will see him for what he is...another idiot...:D

[kentauros]

9. No, more likely we'd be a heavy agriculture state

same as we've always been, and still are. Without those industries you mention, certainly our population would be lower, and that's fine with me. But the oil bidness would still be here, thanks to so much oil that has come from the state.

Also, I would ask you to learn a little geography. Very little of the state can be classified as desert, and most of that doesn't even start until it's about in line with the eastern border of New Mexico. Stop basing your geography ideas on old Warner Bros cartoons where everything west of the Mississippi is a stinkin' desert.

[rasputin1952]

10. I was stationed at Ft Sam Houston for a bit...

while I enjoyed San Antonio...the state looked like high desert to me. I might go to grasslands, but when I was there a serious drought was hammering TX.

Take away energy subsidies alone and TX would fall through the cracks. As for the oil, the feds buy a lot of it to maintain the strategic oil reserve. TX could export all of it's oil to the rest of the world...however, the reserves simply aren't there for sustainability.

Tariffs and other import/export situations would devastate the economy, and if TX seceded, the don't have the wherewithal to set up a government and would the rest of the world recognize an independent TX, what could they offer? Oil, cotton, grains...the infrastructure would crumble almost immediately, crops would go untended as whatever currency TX came up with would be worthless. TX could not sustain itself.

[kentauros]

11. That's your opinion,

both on what you "observed" for our land and what you seem to like to research with regards to our primary industries. I don't agree, and feel it's all far more complex than your simplified ideas.

This is my state and I'm going to defend it. I may not have the level or kind of education as you, but I like it here and will defend against perceived attacks by those of you that don't live here or understand why we continue to remain here.

[rasputin1952]

12. I think it's fine to defend your state...

it's your right and that's fine by me.

My point was that your governor would easily destroy your state. The previous governor certainly tried, and then went on to try to destroy the country...came pretty close to it too.

For a state that gave us progressives like Ann Richards and LBJ, I'm kind of amazed TX went back to RW policies that have proven to be against the common citizen. From a state that gave us Sam Houston, Audie Murphy and Roy Benevidez, I'm hard pressed to find anyone inn the last 15 years that fits that mold.

I have nothing "against" TX, but reality tells me, that w/o the feds in TX, the state could not sustain itself for more than a short time.

[kentauros]

13. That's really a weak argument, you know.

At least I hope you know.

Without the fed's involvement in the entire country, it would quickly fall apart, too. The federal government has their fingers pretty heavily in most states. They govern us and they must be involved in all of our states. We wouldn't be a country if they weren't there.

I can only guess you're going back to that stupid secession comment of Perry's with this line of reasoning. Other than the teabaggers, no one else in the state backed him up on that. Anyone here that seriously considered it is an idiot. And I seriously doubt many other Texans would have gone along with such a thing without storming the governor's mansion and literally throwing the bum out.

Also, the position of governor not as strong as you seem to think. It's the Lt. Governor that has all the power at the top here. Perry's just a figurehead. Dewhurst is the one with the most influence over what gets done in Texas.

And for a country that gave us the likes of Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton, why aren't you additionally amazed that the American people chose two Bushes for the White House?

[rasputin1952]

14. The stupidity is that Perry made the statement...

does not show me a lot of intellect.

I would not have voted for that man if he ran for dog catcher. I didn't vote for either bush, I don't voter R in any election. I jsut don't agree w/anything they have.

[madrchsod]

6. perry took the stimulus money and put it towards the states debt

most of the jobs created were minimum wage jobs.

perry is the perfect republican candidate. he`s white,stupid,and will do exactly what he is told.

[WinkyDink]

4. Bush poured $$ into TX, it seems, with this very result/candidate in mind.