To: KLP who wrote (441407 ) 8/18/2011 10:37:47 PM From: goldworldnet 2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) | Respond to As Texas Economy Booms, Perry/Obama Records ComparedWednesday, August 17th, 2011 | Posted by Amelia Rufer http://uselectionnews.org/as-texas-economy-booms-perryobama-records-compared/854805/ Institute for Policy Innovation scholar Merrill Matthews decided to see for himself what Rick Perry and Barack Obama did with the circumstances they were given. The following are his findings from an economic comparison between Rick Perry and Barack Obama between roughly January of 2009 to June 2011:Obama’s Record Energy: Gasoline was $1.67 a gallon then. It’s now $3.79. Food: Average cost of a gallon of milk was about $2.65. It’s about $3.50 today. Housing: The median cost of a home was $229,600. Today it’s $217,900. Budget deficit: We fell $438 billion short of balancing the federal budget in 2008. We missed it by $1.4 trillion this year—nearly four times higher. U.S. debt: Total federal debt was $10.7 trillion then. It’s $14.5 trillion now—nearly 50% higher. Unemployment: Then, 7.3% of Americans were unemployed and 9.1% are unemployed today. To be fair, not everyone has done poorly under Obama. Federal government employees have made out like bandits. Mercatus Center (George Mason University) economist Veronique de Rugy noted last January that “federal employment has grown by 98,000 employees since the start of the recession.” And USA Today reported last year: “Federal civil servants earned average pay and benefits of $123,049 in 2009 while private workers made $61,051 in total compensation, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.” Perry’s Record A recent state-by-state comparison study by the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that Texas had a state tax burden of 8.4%, compared to a U.S. average of 9.7%. And the Texas gross state product grew 94.5% over 10 years, vs. 66.3% for the rest of the country. Texas far outpaces other states in job creation. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, director and writer-in-residence, respectively, at Southern Methodist University’s William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom write: “From January 2000 to June 2010 [Perry's tenure], Texas had a net increase of nearly 1.1 million jobs—more than any other state by far. In fact, Texas’ outsized gains eclipsed the total of the next five job-creating states: Florida, Arizona, Virginia, Utah and Washington.” More importantly, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Texas created 129,000 new jobs in 2009—a recession year. That was more than half of all the jobs created in the country. The Brookings Institution published a study earlier this year looking at job growth in major cities. Texas had five of the top 10 cities, with Austin leading the country in job growth. See why Obama is concerned about a Perry bid? Would you want to stand before the public in a presidential debate and defend Obama’s record compared with Perry’s? Not being able to defend his own economic record, or attack Perry’s, Obama would try to paint Perry in a negative light. That wouldn’t be easy. Perry served three terms in the Texas House as a Democrat, and supported Al Gore ‘s 1988 presidential bid. That was when there were still some conservative Democrats. Perry switched to the Republican Party in 1989. Because Perry is from Texas, Obama would accuse him of being in bed with the oil and gas industry. And yet Perry just signed a law requiring gas drillers to publicize the chemicals they use in “fracking” to extract the gas. As the Wall Street Journal reported on June 20, “Environmental groups said the law doesn’t go far enough, but they agreed it was an important step.” Obama would also accuse Perry of being out of touch with most Americans. But Cox and Alm of Southern Methodist University’s O’Neil Center found in a different study that “Texas led all other states with a net in-migration of 500,000 people from 2004 to 2008.” People are voting with their feet and moving to Texas. George Bush Clone? And Obama would certainly try to accuse Perry of being a George Bush clone, perhaps because President Bush wouldn’t raise taxes and neither has Gov. Perry. But Perry’s conservative record in Texas, especially on holding the line on spending, would demonstrate clear distinctions. * * *
