Do conservatives realize Texas is running a huge deficit when they point out half the recovery jobs are there?
Asked by
tedd (
14088
)
July 19th, 2011
With the economy recovering ever sluggishly, Conservatives are quick to point out that “half of the jobs made in the last 7–8 months were made in Texas.” No doubt trying to draw a correlation between the largest red state, which is pretty much entirely run by Republicans, and economic recovery (and ignoring all the increasing oil/gas jobs thanks to the state having a larger surplus than any other state in the country save Alaska). Rick Perry, the Texas governor is expected to join the race for the presidency soon even.
Well what they seem to forget to point out is that Texas apparently solved their jobs problem the same way the Federal government did. Texas is looking at a two year budget that will carry a minimum of a 22 billion dollar deficit (which even that number would be the largest in the country), and one potentially as high as 31 billion dollars. To top that off, there’s apparently no red meat to cut, so everything they’re looking at cutting is right out of programs like education, police, etc (and I’m not talking about jobs directly, just funding).
Are conservatives wise to keep pointing to Texas, and is Perry smart to even throw his hat in the presidential ring, with that gigantic problem? If I were the Dems I would be pouncing all over this.
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6 Answers
I forgot to say…. Everything is bigger in Texas :)
No, they don’t tie the two together.
Texas is near the top of the gimmie-pig states,, taking far more in federal dollars than they pay in taxes. They are in deep debt. They refuse to invest, and reap the predictable benefit of it.
TX is a rich Republicans paradise. They like it just the way it is. They cheerfully short-change education because it means they have access to a desperate work force & our governor keeps preventing the EPA from declaring that our air quality is the pits, & that our big businesses (that are still in the state) are not polluting our environment. TX is the great big belt buckle on the Bible Belt & religion rules. If Perry should get the Republican nomination to run for President in 2012 & actually get elected – soon everything that is bad about TX will be applied equally to the entire US (no education, no social services, no rebuilding of infra-structure, women’s rights on the way out of existence, religion mandated from the Oval Office).
I guess if you compare with size and population…California has the worse deficit. California is a very liberal state. Texas is a very conservative state. They are both 1 & 2 in illegal immigrant population (which has a big impact on their deficit). If you look at the top 5 projected deficit short falls for 2012 4 out of 5 are liberal states. Texas is #4. So if you look at ALL the data the unemployment rate of Texas at 8.2 (which ranks 26 and is below the national average) compared to other states (especially California @ 11.8) it’s not as bad as you may think. #2 in population, #2 in illegal immigration, #26 in unemployment isn’t bad.
The biggest offenders of milking is California, New Jersey, New York, Illinois.
@vanguardian If by milking you mean getting more in Federal dollars than they contribute in tax revune, then your list needs rework. California leads the nation in contributing tax revenues. Your list is backwards. THat is the list of the #1, 2, 3 and 4 largest donor states. THey pay in far more than they get back. Texas is #7.But most of the red states are big recipient states; milking the system with one hand while they raise their other up to shake their fist at it.
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