Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Rick Perry And Jobs

As Texas Governor Rick Perry gets into the race, the White House has primed the usual suspects with anti-Perry talking points and unleashed the galley slaves at George Soros' various media outlets.

One of the chief points of attack has been to downgrade job creation and economic growth in Texas. By now, you've heard 'em all:

  • 'Texas is riding an energy boom'

  • 'Lots of those jobs are public sector'

  • 'A lot of those jobs are low paying minimum wage jobs'

  • 'The Texas unemployment rate is 8.2, hardly the lowest in the country'

  • My favorite whiz kid over at Political Math has parsed the actual Bureau of Labor Statistics data ( via memeorandum) and decisively shoots down every one of these arguments. The facts are that Texas is creating jobs at a rate well above any other state in the Union ( 2.2% since the recession started), the median wage is about average for the nation, Texas actually cut public sector jobs, the energy sector is only 3% of employment, and the unemployment rate is what it is simply because people are fleeing Blue states like California and Illinois in massive numbers, looking for work. Texas isn't just growing faster than any other state in the Union, it's growing over twice as fast as the second fastest state. Even when you factor out energy jobs, that's still true.

    While I have mixed feeling about th eidea of Rick Perry as president, none of these arguments attempting to downplay the economic growth of Texas is worth yesterdays dirty dishwater.

    Now, one argument that's worth examining is that Perry was just lucky to have been at the right place at the right time, and the job creation in Texas had nothing to do with him.

    Fine, but if that's your argument, than you have to explain why President Obama can claim to have 'saved or created' any jobs at all. You can't say on the one hand that government creates jobs when it comes to President Obama and doesn't when it comes to someone who's been governor of Texas for a decade.

    Of course, the usual suspects will argue that anyway.

    The truth of the matter is that government doesn't create jobs per se, but low taxes, a lackof intrusive regulation and a business friendly climate do. To the extent Governor Perry has facilitated that, he can take a certain amount of credit....just as the current occupant of the White House deserves blame for promoting exactly the opposite.

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