Stage 7: A Miraculously Bogus Miracle

The Governor’s plans to run for president in the next election are undoubtedly one of the prime headlines in Texas politics these days. Speculation of his campaign has lead people to believe he will run with the highly publicized “Texas Miracle” as his pitch and how Texas managed to escape the recession as the rest of the country suffered. But wait a minute, can we really look right now at the condition of our state compared to the rest of the country and call it a miracle? In my opinion, heck no.

All it takes is just a walk up and down the drag here in Austin to get a taste of the poverty that persists in this state. Contrary to national belief, the economy is doing very poorly here as proven by a plethora of statistics. Texas’s current unemployment rate is about 9% which puts it in the middle of the pack with only 23 states having a lower rate. And while the rest of the country’s rates are decreasing, Texas’s continues to go up. Texas remains the leader with the greatest proportion and number of residents making minimum wage, and of that small spike in job growth that Perry often brags of, 37% of those jobs are at minimum wage or below. Not to mention that any of the roughly 1 in 10 people unemployed in Texas would call it their own “miracle” just to get one of those jobs. To put things in even better perspective, over the last 4 years weekly wages have increased by only .6% in Texas whereas they have increased 10% in California and over 5% nationally.

The numbers themselves prove that Texas is no exception to the tough times the country is facing. And while the rest of the country is on the mend, Texas seems to continue to regress. The billions of dollars in the recent budget deficit, which is expected to reach 27 billion in the upcoming year, will only increase unemployment rates with unavoidable layoffs. Having the highest proportion of uninsured people in the country at 25%, Texas will only increase this lead as Perry attempts to rid medicare by privatizing it.

Sure, the Governor seems like a nice guy with a good voice and all and probably good intentions, but any of the thousands of people that line up each evening at homeless shelters will tell you that the “progress” he has made for Texas in the last decade is bogus. The people of the United States deserve the know the truth about this presidential candidate’s miraculous claims before decide who to support. And unfortunately for Perry, besides this phony “Texas Miracle”, I don’t see much going in his favor.

Sources:
http://texaskaos.com/diary/6972/rachel-maddow-debunks-rick-perrys-texas-miracle-myth
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/03/governor-perrys-texas-economy_n_917460.html