Tag Archives: Texas economy

political news, State news

Jobs vs. 'Oops' for ex-Gov. Perry

The task awaiting former Texas Gov. Rick Perry — gosh, it feels nice to write “former” in front of his name — will be to erase a singular moment from his first run for president.

He thinks “jobs” will replace “oops” in voters’ memory if and when he declares his intention to run for president in 2016.

(OK, he’s not yet a “former” governor, but the moment is close enough that I’ll take the liberty of using it here.)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2014/12/31/perry_hopes_texas_jobs_record_can_trump_oops_from_2012_125105.html

He’ll have to sell the Texas jobs record to voters looking for an economic medicine man among the Republicans who’ll be seeking to replace Barack Obama in the White House.

But that one moment still stands out as the definition of Perry’s first run for president. As Real Clear Politics reported: “It all boils down to the moment when Perry, in the midst of a 2011 presidential debate, was unable to recall the third of three federal agencies he’d promised to shutter, finally muttering ‘oops.’ Asked about it in a recent interview with The Associated Press, Perry said, ‘That’s like going back and asking a football player who dropped a pass to win the Super Bowl: ‘Did that bother you?’ ”

His campaign staff and close friends said the governor didn’t prepare sufficiently for the 2012 nomination campaign. He had a sore back and was medicated heavily to relieve the pain, they say. There was little staff preparation and development, they contend.

It all added up to a political disaster in the making.

It arrived on that debate stage in late 2011.

Can the governor take the credit for all those Texas jobs? Should he take credit? Well, they occurred on his watch.

But by the same token, millions of jobs were added nationally to company payrolls during the Obama administration. Does the president deserve credit for those numbers as well? My trick knee tells me that ex-Gov. Perry won’t give the president a nickel’s worth of credit for what happened nationally, but he’ll scarf up all the credit he can find for the Texas job growth.

It should produce an interesting tale that Rick Perry will be more than glad to spin in his favor.

First, he’ll have to purge our memory of the “oops” moment.

 

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Keep braggin’ on Texas, governor

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is proud of his state and is unafraid to say so.

Economically, if not politically, I have to agree that Texas has outshone much of the rest of the nation. Does the governor deserve credit for the successes? Partly, yes.

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/texas-politics/2013/11/rick-perry-texas-wins/

Perry recently got a glowing report on his state from Arthur Laffer, the godfather of supply-side economics, who says the state’s low-tax, business-friendly and low-regulation environment has helped businesses prosper while other states have languished in recent years.

Fair point.

What’s not accurate is for Laffer to say that Perry “is the person who is responsible for the Texas miracle.” Texas government is full of individuals who believe they deserve credit as well. The governor isn’t a one-man job-creation machine.

Still, for the governor to boast at a Texas Public Policy Foundation event in Austin is totally appropriate. It reminds, conversely, of how crass it has been for the governor to take that message into other states’ territory on these highly publicized and — in my view — questionable job-poaching excursions. He’s gone to places like California, Illinois and New York to declare to business executives that they should relocate to Texas, a move that would deprive other states of economic benefit.

Perry has been met with derision by governors of those states. Of course, it’s a highly partisan effort, given that all the states mentioned here are governed by Democrats — as opposed to Republicans, such as Perry.

Indeed, Texas’s economic success is well-known around the world. The governor can brag all he wants about how well the state is doing. I promise, the word will get out.