This article makes all of the right points as to why Governor Rick Perry of Texas would be the candidate most feared by Obama. Perry is the anti-Obama. Obama whines about the the economy  he inherited when he took office and continues to blame Bush for every conceivable problem he faces. By contrast, Perry stands on an 11 year record of job growth and expanding tax base due to plentiful migration to Texas. And remember, Rick Perry also inherited an economy from George Bush. However, he didn’t muck it up by forcing higher taxes and burdensome regulation on business.

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.

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.

Read the whole thing here.

Tags: Gov. Rick Perry

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 at 9:47 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Economy, Elections 2012, government, Headlines, Politics, Progressives, Regulation, Republican Party, unemployment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.