Presidential wannabe Rick Perry is flitting hither, thither, and yon, spreading little “Perry Tales” about the economic miracles he has produced in Texas. Fantasy No. 1 is a creationist story about jobs. As he recently sallied across Iowa, he gushed that he has built “a job-creating machine in the state of Texas,” and a Perry aide flatly said, “The governor’s job-creation record speaks for itself.”
Actually, it doesn’t. Probe even an inch into the million-job number that Perry tosses around like fairy dust and you’ll learn that these are mostly “jobettes” that can’t sustain a family. Most come with very low pay and no health care or pension, and many are only part-time or temporary positions. Indeed, more than half a million Texans now work for minimum wage or less – a number that has doubled since 2008, leaving Texas tied with Mississippi for the nation’s highest percentage of its work force reduced to poverty pay.
Spreading even more fairy dust, Perry claims that his Texas Miracle is the result of his keeping the government out of the private sector’s way. But peek behind that ideological curtain and you’ll find this startling fact: During Perry’s decade, the growth in private sector jobs has been a relatively paltry 9% while the public sector has more than doubled that, increasing the number of local, state, and federal workers in Texas by 19%. One out of six employed Texans are now teachers, police officers, highway engineers, military personnel, or other government workers – and many of these jobs were created with federal money, including cash from Barack Obama‘s stimulus program. There’s his “miracle.”
Meanwhile, joblessness is on the rise in Texas, and the whole Perry Tale is about to go poof – thanks to his recent multibillion-dollar budget cuts that will destroy more than 100,000 good jobs throughout
the state.
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This article appears in September 16 • 2011.