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Rick Perry is the luckiest politician of all time. You can debate politics and policy and read through his record, but the hard cold fact is that not even the state of Texas likes him. With an election that had a strong third party candidate, and a eligible write-in, Perry became the only governor re-elected with the lowest vote count in Texas history. Perry became the only governor ever to have been elected with less than 40 percent of the state's support. In fact, just barely over 38 percent. Which means he won his election with 62 percent of the Texas electorate voting for someone else.
Governor Perry was all over South Carolina talking about his record on jobs and the economy, but it seems the luck of Texas has very little to do with his leadership. This weekend the Houston Chronicle reported the top 10 reasons that the growth in the Texas economy had nothing to do with Perry's leadership, despite him taking credit for it.
In a state with a massive oil industry and military contractors, growth with high gas prices while we're in two wars is inevitable and it had nothing to do with what Perry was doing and everything to do with federal policies. More help for Texas businesses comes in the form of exploitation of immigrant labor being significantly cheaper, keep wages low, as well as average wages low. At the same time, Texas has avoided the housing bubble that other states experienced. While others were ballooning with home foreclosures, only six percent of Texas homeowners are in foreclosure.
Some credit Texas’ stability to state regulations on cash-out and home equity loans, which don’t allow borrowers to take out loans that total more than 80 percent of a home’s appraised value.
Wial said cash-out loans allowed borrows in other places to refinance their homes for more than their original mortgage value — driving up home prices and contributing to the eventual burst of the housing bubble.
“One force of the foreclosure wave didn’t exist in Texas,” he said.
So, Texas has benefited because of war, oil, regulation, and immigration - just to name a few. Doesn't sound very "tea party." Other benefits to the Texas economy includes drug trafficking, the state being a huge export state, and along with oil fracking has been hugely beneficial to energy companies looking for natural gas.
He's not a help to the Texas economy, and his policies on education are driving the state into the ground. Plus, he doesn't even like being part of the United States. He believes in the United State of Texas. It doesn't matter how he tries to spin it - Rick Perry is now running for a country he once said he state should withdraw from. When did Republicans become the anti-war, pro-immigration, pro-drug, anti-America Party? Did I miss a memo?
