If you watch or listen to enough Conservative propaganda, you'll believe that Texas is teh awesomest place to live in because of its tax rate and for job creation and it's all because of Rick Perry. His record of job creation is the same as Ann Richards by the way.

Alternet has a great story on the Texas Miracle.

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

Conservatives claim the "Texas Miracle" is a model for the nation, but it's actually a blueprint for winning the race to the bottom.

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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.”

Digby makes her usual excellent observations.