Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance: Complete Basket-Case

[boutons_deux]

Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action and That's Why It's a Complete Basket-Case

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on June 16, 2011, Printed on June 17, 2011

http://www.alternet.org/story/151325/texas_is_a_shining_example_of_right-wing_governance_in_action_and_that%27s_why_it%27s_ a_complete_basket-case

Conservative mythology now holds up Texas as a shining example of right-wing governance in action. Republicans would have us believe that gutting the state's social safety net, denying workers the right to bargain collectively and relentlessly cutting taxes unleashed a torrent of “job creation” and, ultimately, prosperity.

Under governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry's term in office, Texas has indeed been a model of conservative governance, but the truth is that it has resulted in anything but prosperity for the people of the Lone Star State. In fact, Texas is not only a complete basket-case, it would be faring far worse today without the help of policies enacted by Democrats at the federal level – policies Perry lambasted as “irresponsible spending that threatens our future.”

The kernel of truth on which the tale of the Texas Miracle is built is that the state has in fact added a lot of jobs over the past decade. In a gushing lead editorial, the Wall Street Journal noted that “37% of all net new American jobs since the recovery began were created in Texas.” The Journal then spun that fact like this:

Capital—both human and investment—is highly mobile, and it migrates all the time to the places where the opportunities are larger and the burdens are lower. Texas has no state income tax. Its regulatory conditions are contained and flexible. It is fiscally responsible and government is small. Its right-to-work law doesn't impose unions on businesses or employees.

In the Journal's hyper-partisan view, the lesson to be learned is that “the core impulse of Obamanomics is to make America less like Texas and more like California, with more government, more unions, more central planning, higher taxes.” That spin was echoed during last week's GOP debate by none other than Newt Gingrich, who asked, “Why [would] you want to be at California's unemployment level when you can be [at] Texas's employment level?”

James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas, scoffed at the whole narrative, telling AlterNet, “the notion that our state government is a model is almost enough to beckon the spirit of Molly Ivins back from the shades.” Galbraith said “Texas has been a low-tax, low-service state since the time of the Republic,” and noted that it's “therefore impossible that this fact suddenly accounts for its better job performance over the past few years.” (Texas' record of job creation under Perry is the same as it was under former governor Ann Richards, a Democrat.)

“Texas is an energy state benefiting from high oil prices and the incipient boom in natural gas,” explained Galbraith. “That's an accident of nature.” He added that the state “went through the S&L crisis, had major criminal prosecutions and more restrictive housing finance regulations this time around; hence it was not an epicenter of the subprime housing disaster. That's called a learning experience.” Tighter regulation of the lending industry is also anathema to today's GOP.

Arguably the biggest sleight-of-hand in the Texas Miracle storyline, however, is that many of those jobs were a result of a huge surge in the state's population, much of it fueled by immigration from Latin America (rather than liberal hell-holes like California).

Texas' population grew by 20 percent over the past decade, and Hispanics accounted for almost two-thirds of that growth. A surge in people created greater demand for goods and services, which leads to more jobs. But the jobs being created in Texas aren't keeping up with the state's expanding workforce – the Wall Street Journal somehow failed to mention that during the exact same period in which it was adding all those new jobs, Texas' unemployment rate actually increased from 7.7 to 8 percent (it also failed to note that 23 states -- including such deep blue ones as Vermont, New York and Massachusetts -- enjoy lower unemployment rates than Texas).

But perhaps the most laughable claim in this whole narrative is that Texas has been “fiscally responsible.” Perry certainly adhered to the conservative playbook, offering massive tax breaks without the deep cuts in services that might inspire a voter backlash. As a result – an entirely predictable one – the Austin American-Statesman reported that “state lawmakers have spent much of the year grappling with a budget shortfall that left them $27 billion short of the money needed to continue current state services.”

CNN adds that while Perry was railing against the Democratic stimulus package passed over the fierce resistance of conservatives, the state “was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years,” and “it plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money.” The stimulus package created or saved 205,000 jobs in Texas, second only to California. But as James Galbraith told AlterNet, while “the state budget has not yet been cut drastically” due to the stimulus boost, “the key phrase is 'not yet.'” Now that the stimulus has run its course, “if projections for the current budget cycle are correct, things will get much worse in the next year.”

Indeed, those cuts are now on their way. The Texas legislature imposed draconian cuts to Medicaid, cut tuition aid to 43,000 low-income students and is weighing $10 billion in cuts to the state's education system. According to Texas state senator Rodney Ellis, D-Fort Bend, the 2012-2013 budget will underfund “health and human services in Texas by $23 billion, 29.8 percent below what is needed to maintain current services.”

But Perry's tax breaks are indeed part of the state's jobs picture; as Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi noted, Perry established several massive business tax breaks “designed to lure companies from other states.”

[But] the funds have been controversial. They have channeled millions of dollars to companies whose officers or investors are major Perry campaign donors and Perry has allowed them to keep their subsidies in many cases even when they fail to deliver promised jobs. More important for the purposes of judging Perry’s job-creating record, even those that do produce jobs don’t necessarily create long-lasting ones, or increase the state’s overall prosperity.

In a report written for Perry last spring, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School noted that such tax breaks “ultimately don’t support long-term prosperity,” because companies that can move easily “are looking for the best deal and when the deal runs out they move” again, taking their jobs with them.

He also found that Texas’ per capita income growth was the eighth slowest of any state in the country between 1998 and 2008. That's because, as the American Independent's Patrick Brendel noted, “Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage,” and the number of crappy jobs has exploded while this supposed Texas Miracle was taking place. “From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent,” wrote Brendel. As a result, Texas is now “tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers, while California had among the fewest (less than 2 percent).”

At a fundraiser this week, Rick Perry, who despite toying with the idea of secession in the past may now be eying a White House bid, told a group of Republican fat-cats that in his state, “you don't have to use your imagination, saying, 'What'll happen if we apply this or that conservative principle?' You just need to look around, because they've been in play across our state for years, generating real results.”

In this, Perry is absolutely, 100 percent correct. He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of Big Government while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas' budget gap in the short term, and now he's using the state's longer term fiscal disaster – one of his own creation – as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. As a result of these policies, plus immigration and other external factors, his state's added a lot of low-paying poverty jobs without decent benefits. He's added very little in the way of “prosperity.”

In the final analysis, Texas is indeed a shining example of conservative governance, as well as an almost perfect model for winning the race to the bottom.

[Borat Sagyidev]

It's true. Conservative redneck trash is set on destroying this country.
1) they hire illegal immigrants and insist on not being punished
2) they blame everything but themselves
3) they want to control everyone's social life
4) they insist on giving status in society at birth, as long as they get nepotism rights

we start deporting these morons and problems stop disappearing magically

[RandomGuy]

“Texas has been a low-tax, low-service state since the time of the Republic,” and noted that it's “therefore impossible that this fact suddenly accounts for its better job performance over the past few years.” (Texas' record of job creation under Perry is the same as it was under former governor Ann Richards, a Democrat.)

“Texas is an energy state benefiting from high oil prices and the incipient boom in natural gas,” explained Galbraith. “That's an accident of nature.” He added that the state “went through the S&L crisis, had major criminal prosecutions and more restrictive housing finance regulations this time around; hence it was not an epicenter of the subprime housing disaster. That's called a learning experience.” Tighter regulation of the lending industry is also anathema to today's GOP.

Pretty much sums it up.

Given the amount that they want to short change education in Texas so that they don't have to raise taxes, the very mobility of labor that Republicans say led to people going to a "low tax" state, will take companies out of the state to places where they can find an educated workforce.

I can only stand in awe of the slow-motion trainwreck they are setting up.

Texas' success is due to an accident of geography, but gutting of education funding at all levels, elementary through college, will be definitetly attributable to one party's policies, and that will have real-world effects.

[boutons_deux]

"slow-motion trainwreck they are setting up."

Not so slow. The school budget slaughter deliver immediate wreckitude in a few months.

[DarrinS]

Alternet vs WSJ. Hmmm

By the way, CA has a shitload of oil too.

Keep spinning

[RandomGuy]

Alternet vs WSJ. Hmmm

By the way, CA has a shitload of oil too.

Keep spinning

Do they have an Eagle Ford-scale natural gas boom as well?

[boutons_deux]

Yes, CA oil was a huge source of wealth, as was the SoCal aerospace (iow, govt stimulus) but CA's huge post-WWII boom was also helped by the best public, and free, university system that produced millions of college-educated workers, and entrepreneurs.

The oil is mostly gone, and a voter-determined-tax-policy and 60% legislative majority budget votes has screwed the UCal system badly.

[RandomGuy]

Alternet vs WSJ. Hmmm

By the way, CA has a shitload of oil too.

Keep spinning


James Galbraith, an economist at the University of Texas

Professor of economics vs. WSJ journalist op-eds

Keep spinning.

[Nbadan]

Poor people have a lot to blame for getting steam-rolled by the corporate-friendly Perry...rather than sitting home feeling disenfranchised by all politics they need to get their asses to the booths and vote their best interests..


ndeed, those cuts are now on their way. The Texas legislature imposed draconian cuts to Medicaid, cut tuition aid to 43,000 low-income students and is weighing $10 billion in cuts to the state's education system. According to Texas state senator Rodney Ellis, D-Fort Bend, the 2012-2013 budget will underfund “health and human services in Texas by $23 billion, 29.8 percent below what is needed to maintain current services.”

But Perry's tax breaks are indeed part of the state's jobs picture; as Time magazine's Massimo Calabresi noted, Perry established several massive business tax breaks “designed to lure companies from other states.”

[But] the funds have been controversial. They have channeled millions of dollars to companies whose officers or investors are major Perry campaign donors and Perry has allowed them to keep their subsidies in many cases even when they fail to deliver promised jobs. More important for the purposes of judging Perry’s job-creating record, even those that do produce jobs don’t necessarily create long-lasting ones, or increase the state’s overall prosperity.

[Nbadan]

Professor of economics vs. WSJ journalist op-eds

Keep spinning.

Not to mention, Galbraith is a well respected economists...

[TeyshaBlue]

Poor people have a lot to blame for getting steam-rolled by the corporate-friendly Perry...rather than sitting home feeling disenfranchised by all politics they need to get their asses to the booths and vote their best interests..

With any luck at all, the GOP ticket will take care of that for us.

*knocks on wood*

[Drachen]

With all this going on, I will say that I am happy that I was lucky enough to be awarded a 2500 dollar state grant for the next year of grad school.

[TeyshaBlue]

With all this going on, I will say that I am happy that I was lucky enough to be awarded a 2500 dollar state grant for the next year of grad school.

It's kicked the shit outta my daughter's scholarships this year.:depressed

[DarrinS]

Why are libs so bitter about TX doing well and CA doing shitty?

[DarrinS]

Not to mention, Galbraith is a well respected economists...

Dude's a liberal hack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Galbraith


:lmao @ you being on RG's side. I'm sure he appreciates it.

[DarrinS]

Fuck, maybe they can get asshat Krugman to weigh in. :lmao

[Spurminator]

What does Krauthammer have to say about it?

[Drachen]

It's kicked the shit outta my daughter's scholarships this year.:depressed

Well, I didn't get anything last year so I am pleasantly surprised... Couldn't have come at a better time either, since I just took a 10% paycut at work.

[Drachen]

Why are libs so bitter about TX doing well and CA doing shitty?

Really??? I don't care about CA or how they are doing (at least not in the context of this conversation). I care about TX doing shitty.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Why are libs so bitter about TX doing well and CA doing shitty?

move to texas and find out. we are the minimum wage capitol of the country! I'm proud to be a Texan!

[boutons_deux]

TX would do a lot better if it seceded from the Union (and the US pulled out all of its federal facilities out of TX).

[RandomGuy]

Dude's a liberal hack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Galbraith


:lmao @ you being on RG's side. I'm sure he appreciates it.

... and yet you can't really poke holes in what he has said.

If he is such a hack, doing so should be pretty easy, should it not?

[RandomGuy]

Poor people have a lot to blame for getting steam-rolled by the corporate-friendly Perry...rather than sitting home feeling disenfranchised by all politics they need to get their asses to the booths and vote their best interests..


the 2012-2013 budget will underfund “health and human services in Texas by $23 billion, 29.8 percent below what is needed to maintain current services.”

They are in for a shock, as those programs are required by law to be "actuarially sound", meaning you can't simply not fund them.

Either you kill them entirely or man up and raise the taxes needed to pay for them, as you are legally obligated to do if you accept them.

Schadenfreude.

I find it hilarious that the people most against raising taxes are the people whose lap this falls in, i.e. a problem that requires raising taxes.

[RandomGuy]

Dude's a liberal hack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Galbraith


:lmao @ you being on RG's side. I'm sure he appreciates it.


In a report written for Perry last spring, Michael Porter of Harvard Business School noted that such tax breaks “ultimately don’t support long-term prosperity,” because companies that can move easily “are looking for the best deal and when the deal runs out they move” again, taking their jobs with them.

He also found that Texas’ per capita income growth was the eighth slowest of any state in the country between 1998 and 2008. That's because, as the American Independent's Patrick Brendel noted, “Texas has by far the largest number of employees working at or below the federal minimum wage,” and the number of crappy jobs has exploded while this supposed Texas Miracle was taking place. “From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent,” wrote Brendel. As a result, Texas is now “tied with Mississippi for the greatest percentage of minimum wage workers, while California had among the fewest (less than 2 percent).”


Michael Eugene Porter (born May 23, 1947)[1] is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard Business School. He is a leading authority on company strategy and the competitiveness of nations and regions. Michael Porter’s work is recognized in many governments, corporations and academic circles globally. He chairs Harvard Business School's program dedicated for newly appointed CEOs of very large corporations.

Doesn't sound quite like a "liberal hack".

Yet another thing you have not, and probably will not, actually address.

So go hide behind the LMAO smiley, and let the grown ups who can deal with reality run the state, please.

[DarrinS]

Doesn't sound quite like a "liberal hack".

Yet another thing you have not, and probably will not, actually address.

So go hide behind the LMAO smiley, and let the grown ups who can deal with reality run the state, please.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723104576061884259192432.html

[ChumpDumper]

Light bulb.

[RandomGuy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723104576061884259192432.html

That doesn't address Texas' shitty job or school performance, nor its competiveness.

Sorry.

You want to claim that Texas is the shining city on the hill, with a Republican supermajority in the legislature and a Republican governor that somehow got socked with a 27bn budget fuck up among the least of its problems.

Thing is that the underinvestment in infrastructure and education don't show up for years.

Wait till the first few businesses start moving because they can't attract decent employees.

[DarrinS]

If you want to believe that there are no jobs here other than fast food, I guess that's your right.

[boutons_deux]

Maher trashing Perry's bullshit praying "solutions"

http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/new-rule-if-you-thought-current-gop-field

[boutons_deux]

Texas Republicans To Perry: Stop Lying About Preserving Our Rainy Day Fund

“We’ve got to get the message right. There’s been a lot of misinformation out there that there’s $6 billion in the fund that’s not been used. It’s been used,” said Rep. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock and no relation to the governor. [...]

Lawmakers have already drawn down $3.1 billion of the fund’s roughly $9.5 billion reserve to cover a deficit in the current budget. Then, to make the 2012-2013 budget balance, the state’s projected share of expected Medicaid costs is underfunded by $4.8 billion — for many, a conservative estimate.

That means when lawmakers come back in two years — and without a change in federal law diminishing the state’s obligation to Medicaid or an increase in Rainy Day revenue from an improved economy — they will need most of the remaining $6 billion to pay another past due bill.

“Effectively they’ve used it,” said Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/06/24/253345/texas-gop-perry-lying-rainy-day-fund/

==========

Like UCA, TX has a Repug-tax-cut-policy driven revenue problem, not a runaway (Repug) govt spending problem.

[boutons_deux]

Texas' Low Tax Policies Are Not Working As Well As Beck Claims

Beck hyped Texas' economy, stating that Forbes "did an interesting analysis of the debt of every state, and they found that Texas has the fourth best situation in the entire country."

Beck then lauded Texas for its low taxes, its recent AA+ bond rating from Standard and Poor (S&P) and its record on job creation. But he failed to note that that S&P has stated that Texas' "underperforming business tax" will make it "unlikely" for the state "to receive the top AAA rating." He also did not note that it is really minimum wage jobs that are "sharply on the rise" in the state.

S&P analysts praised Texas for strong cash-management practices. However, the rating agency warned that the current budget crisis and future demands to pay for public schools could create problems later.

S&P said Texas was unlikely to receive the top AAA rating because lawmakers have not addressed a structural deficit created by an underperforming business tax. The business tax was changed in 2006 and it has failed to meet expected revenue targets ever since.

he did not mention the fact that Texas took money from Obama's stimulus plan.

"[w]hile employment in Texas has been slightly more plentiful than in other states during the recession, the number of the lowest-paying jobs has also risen sharply in Texas." The Independent went on to state: "From 2007 to 2010, the number of minimum wage workers in Texas rose from 221,000 to 550,000, an increase of nearly 150 percent."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201106280002?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MediaMattersForAmerica-CountyFair+%28Media+Matters+for+America+-+County+Fair%29

[LnGrrrR]

Alternet vs WSJ. Hmmm

By the way, CA has a shitload of oil too.

Keep spinning

The Wall Street Journal Op-Ed page hasn't had a liberal article in the past year it seems.

[coyotes_geek]

FWIW.......

Forbes: Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S. (http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/113083/next-big-boom-towns-forbes)

Austin #1
San Antonio #4
Houston #5
Dallas #7

[DarrinS]

FWIW.......

Forbes: Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S. (http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/113083/next-big-boom-towns-forbes)

Austin #1
San Antonio #4
Houston #5
Dallas #7



Everyone's relocating here for the minimum wage jobs.

[ChumpDumper]

They're relocating here for a chance to subsidize F1 racing.

[Blake]

Under governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry's term in office

stopped reading here.

[Winehole23]

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/07/drug_trafficking_the_missing_p.php#more

[Winehole23]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2009/dec/13/drug-money-banks-saved-un-cfief-claims

[DarrinS]

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/07/drug_trafficking_the_missing_p.php#more


I didn't know boutons was blogging for the Dallas Observer.



A lot of those jobs are exceptionally shitty ones.



They're not just shitty jobs -- they're exceptionally shitty. :lmao

[Winehole23]

All the drugs might have some effect on Texas.

[DarrinS]

All the drugs might have some effect on Texas.

Something stinks about this "shitty jobs" argument. I can say, from personal experience, that SA is booming. For every single job in the white collar sector, there probably are two or three min wage jobs created. The white collar people need a place to eat, do their laundry, landscaping, etc. Nature of the beast, if you ask me.

[DarrinS]

I bet Perry is willing to put Texas' record next to Obama's natl record.

[ElNono]

Texas, specially the southern part, is reaping the benefits of the booming US-Mexico trade (http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Despite-drug-war-trade-with-Mexico-is-booming-1360569.php).

[DarrinS]

Eagle Ford Shale

[George Gervin's Afro]

HOUSTON -- Numerous sources within HPD's Helicopter Unit say they are upset because the department's fuel budget was just cut by 75 percent.

And now the choppers, which are used for public safety, are just sitting on the ground for most of the day.

"I have received information today that the helicopters have been reduced from about 20-plus hours in the air to about 3 hours in the air per day. That is unacceptable," City Council Member C.O. Bradford said.

Bradford knows a lot about the fleet. He spent 24 years with HPD and for seven years he was the police chief.

"We have about a dozen helicopters sitting out there costing about a million dollars each and they are new. These helicopters are probably two years of age or less. We cannot afford to have those helicopters, and all of the technology inside those helicopters sitting on the ground," Bradford said.

KHOU 11 News confirmed Monday that a new Bell 412 helicopter, purchased by the federal government for HPD, will arrive soon.

When it gets here, sources inside HPD said mechanics will drain all of its fluids and store it in a hangar. It will not be used.

"You can bet I will be calling the police chief, asking the mayor to do what we can do in this city to get that safety tool back in the air," Bradford said.

Even though HPD's budget has been cut by $40 million, Bradford and Houston City Council Member James Rodriguez say the helicopter cuts are a concern because it affects public safety.

"We need to find the resources in this city to get those helicopters back into the air," Bradford said.

http://www.khou.com/news/HPD-helicopters-grounded-following-fuel-budget-cut--125791023.html


shining example

[coyotes_geek]

Yes. The Houston Police Department's decision to cut their helicopter's fuel budget as a result of cuts enforced on it by the City of Houston reflects very badly on the State of Texas.

[boutons_deux]

"SA is booming" like Austin, because both cities are floating in govt/socialist $Bs from state, federal, military, civil service.

[George Gervin's Afro]

Yes. The Houston Police Department's decision to cut their helicopter's fuel budget as a result of cuts enforced on it by the City of Houston reflects very badly on the State of Texas.

I thought Texas' economy was booming.. so does Goodhair own the Texas economy or not?

[coyotes_geek]

I thought Texas' economy was booming..

Booming? No. Better than most? Yes.


so does Goodhair own the Texas economy or not?

Own? No. Get to take credit for? Yes.

[CosmicCowboy]

WTF do they need 12 helicopters for? Those bastards cost $500+ and hour to run just for fuel and maintenance not counting personnel to fly them.

I'd say from a cost/benefit standpoint it was a good decision.

[clambake]

WTF do they need 12 helicopters for? Those bastards cost $500+ and hour to run just for fuel and maintenance not counting personnel to fly them.

I'd say from a cost/benefit standpoint it was a good decision.

somebody might need to see their kids baseball game.

[baseline bum]

somebody might need to see their kids baseball game.

:rollin

[DarrinS]

Two of my neighbors are from California. They came here for the exceptionally shitty jobs.

[boutons_deux]

shitty TX jobs are better than no CA jobs.

"struggling" Cisco is laying off several 1000 to up their profits and stock price, so their execs and investors can pocket $Ms.

[clambake]

Two of my neighbors are from California. They came here for the exceptionally shitty jobs.

yes, the ones that can't cut it here are moving in next door to you.

you're welcome.

[coyotes_geek]

I really don't get the whole "shitty jobs" concept. Are we supposed to look at job creation for the unskilled/uneducated segment of the population as a bad thing?

[ElNono]

somebody might need to see their kids baseball game.

:lmao

[ElNono]

I really don't get the whole "shitty jobs" concept. Are we supposed to look at job creation for the unskilled/uneducated segment of the population as a bad thing?

I wouldn't equate "shitty jobs" to that, personally. I would equate "shitty jobs" to temporary/seasonal min wage jobs. There's unskilled/uneducated segment of the population that actually have decently paid, relatively low-skill jobs on a permanent basis.

[CosmicCowboy]

*

[coyotes_geek]

I wouldn't equate "shitty jobs" to that, personally. I would equate "shitty jobs" to temporary/seasonal min wage jobs. There's unskilled/uneducated segment of the population that actually have decently paid, relatively low-skill jobs on a permanent basis.

I don't have a problem with that definition, but I'm not sure that's how the term is intended when used as a retort to someone tryying to make a positive statement about Texas job growth. If the intent is to claim that some of those jobs "aren't really jobs", and the basis for that is that they're temporary jobs, why not just say that directly?

[boutons_deux]

It should be easy to find BLS or IRS what the distribution of wage levels for new jobs.

I remember that Europeans were astonished by American job creation in the 1990s, but those millions of new jobs, like 350K month at times, were mostly "shitty" low-wage hourly, no-benefit jobs.

[ElNono]

I don't have a problem with that definition, but I'm not sure that's how the term is intended when used as a retort to someone tryying to make a positive statement about Texas job growth. If the intent is to claim that some of those jobs "aren't really jobs", and the basis for that is that they're temporary jobs, why not just say that directly?

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but I think the rationale applies the same when politicos don't feel like distinguishing those temporary jobs from more stable jobs when trumpeting their job-creation powers.

[Halberto]

:lol so these are the jobs that get created when we spare the rich from heavier taxes???

[ChumpDumper]

Our guaranteed profits for toll road operators should be hailed as the gold standard of smallgovernmentfreeenterprise Texas

[CosmicCowboy]

Sure is a lot of monetary penis envy in this board.

[ChuckD]

:lol so these are the jobs that get created when we spare the rich from heavier taxes???

This. Our schools are turned to shit for tax breaks for McJobs.

[DMX7]

... I think it's time for us to just hand it over to God and say, "God, You’re going to have to fix this."

http://bilgrimage.blogspot.com/2011/07/rick-perry-wants-us-to-hand-it-over-to.html

[ElNono]

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/14/perry_politics_pulpit

:lol I really can't think that there's people that buy into it in this day and age.

[DarrinS]

Sure is a lot of monetary penis envy in this board.

No shit.

[ElNono]

In what sense?

[Halberto]

CosmicCowboy's white flag in every economic debate:


http://www.blogcdn.com/www.urlesque.com/media/2010/11/u-jelly-1289236915.jpg

[Winehole23]

No shit.Do you mean covetousness? Jealousy? Resentment?

What is "monetary penis envy" and who are you accusing?

[boutons_deux]

:lol I really can't think that there's people that buy into it in this day and age.

Ricky Perry is pandering to Ricky Bobby's Baby Jesus Bible-thumpers.

That's enough electoral votes from bubba states? Does a TX secessionist, anti-Constitutionalist traitor really have a chance?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A0-u85aAYg

[TeyshaBlue]

Ricky Perry is pandering to Ricky Bobby's Baby Jesus Bible-thumpers.

Wow..that alliteration is pretty tough....kinda like rubber baby buggy bumpers.:lol

[TeyshaBlue]

Our guaranteed profits for toll road operators should be hailed as the gold standard of smallgovernmentfreeenterprise Texas

Cintra approves of this post.

[Kamala]

Pretty much sums it up.

Given the amount that they want to short change education in Texas so that they don't have to raise taxes, the very mobility of labor that Republicans say led to people going to a "low tax" state, will take companies out of the state to places where they can find an educated workforce.

I can only stand in awe of the slow-motion trainwreck they are setting up.

Texas' success is due to an accident of geography, but gutting of education funding at all levels, elementary through college, will be definitetly attributable to one party's policies, and that will have real-world effects.

I am puzzled by the education cuts. The inequities of the texas school finance system are going to result in a huge lawsuit.

[Winehole23]

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jre02

[boutons_deux]

"real-world effects."

... only on the poor. The rich have the resources to buy their kids an education.

[boutons_deux]

Ten reasons why the Texas economy is growing that have nothing to do with Rick Perry

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/ten-reasons-why-the-texas-economy-is-growing-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-rick-perry/

[Wild Cobra]

Ten reasons why the Texas economy is growing that have nothing to do with Rick Perry

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/07/ten-reasons-why-the-texas-economy-is-growing-that-have-nothing-to-do-with-rick-perry/
If a democrat was in charge,. I'll bet you would look for and find an article that stated "Ten reasons why the Texas economy is growing that have everything to do with <insert democrat here>"

Remember, the media is that biased.

[Th'Pusher]

If a democrat was in charge,. I'll bet you would look for and find an article that stated "Ten reasons why the Texas economy is growing that have everything to do with <insert democrat here>"

Remember, the media is that biased.

This is particularly amusing coming from you. When you're not rambling off some ridiculous supply side economic rubbish you're making excuses for the GOP, tea party or some corporation.

[Wild Cobra]

This is particularly amusing coming from you. When you're not rambling off some ridiculous supply side economic rubbish you're making excuses for the GOP, tea party or some corporation.
No, I'm slamming the media.

[ChumpDumper]

WC is holding out for a hero.

Or a Texas government part changing job.

[boutons_deux]

"That could affect Texas, the state with the largest number of active-duty military personnel — 131,548, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas has the third largest number of Defense Department civilian employees, with 48,057.

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/politics/article/Military-braces-for-cuts-in-debt-reduction-bill-1698812.php#ixzz1Ty638Pf5"

Then add in all the 10s of 1000s of civil service employees and contractors supporting the above, and you see that TX is floating in taxpayer dollars from the other "56 states".

And Ricky Bobby Perry's God did it all for God's Chosen Pres candidate Ricky Bobby.

[RandomGuy]

Re: power grid.

[Winehole23]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ey9_9a5XAAU79eK?format=png&name=large

[koriwhat]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ey9_9a5XAAU79eK?format=png&name=large

Who cares what the dipshits in Minn. have to say when they can't stop the Viruses on their streets from destroying businesses and more?

[baseline bum]

LOL calftats calling Osterholm a dipshit