CNN- Perry's Texas miracle is a mirage

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They don't think Barack Obama deserves any credit for creating even a sliver of new jobs, arguing that it's the private sector, not the president, who has power of the nation's economy.

But boy, are they giddy over Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who they say deserves all the credit in the world for singlehandedly creating new jobs in the Lone Star State. So, we are told, presidents don't create jobs but governors do -- especially if they're in your party and thinking about running for president.

Many of those who are pushing Perry to enter the presidential race are fiscal conservatives who think his No. 1 asset is that Texas has been on a rampage for the past 10 years creating jobs and luring companies away from states such as New York and California.

The jobs are real enough. The Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas recently estimated that, since June 2009, Texas has produced about 37% of the new jobs in the country. Perry claims the figure is closer to 48%. Either way, it's impressive.

according to data recently released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Texas has now become the second-largest economy in the United States. It displaced New York, and it seems to be closing in on California. Texas now represents 8.3% of the entire U.S. economy.

For this, Republicans waste no time crediting their Holy Grail of lower taxes and less government regulation. Texas has both of those. There is no personal state income tax, and the sales tax -- 6.25% -- is lower than it is in many states.

But...

If they were honest, Republicans would also credit immigration in the boom. Texas has a lot of that, too. An influx of immigrants -- both skilled and unskilled --allows companies to fill jobs Americans won't do. Then those companies hand out paychecks and pay taxes, all of which stimulates the economy.

But, as long we're being honest, we ought to acknowledge that there is another, not often talked about, dimension to the Texas Economic Miracle.

Or is it a mirage? Texas is a still a largely poor state, with weak infrastructure and a largely uneducated work force. Under Perry, the state budget deficit has surged to more than $25 billion, and the unemployment rate is higher than it has been in decades: about 8%.

"More than half of those new jobs have been filed by non-Texans. So it's people moving here to take those jobs. It underscores this bipolar state that we live in. You have a population in Texas that is generally lower educated, poor, isn't covered by health insurance ... all of these things ... so you can recruit these companies to come here from out of state but your own people, often times, aren't qualified to fill these jobs."

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-06-24/opinion/navarrette.rick.perry.candidate_1_new-jobs-perry-s-texas-perry-claims/2?_s=PM:OPINION

While I disagree with the criticism of Perry and higher education, (ask people in Illinois and Pennsylvania what it is like to have underfunded higher education) a lot of what he says seems true. For as well as the economy has done relative to the rest of the country, Texas remains one of the most impoverished states. It has major problems with its k-12 schooling, despite Perry's implementation of the 4x4 college prep requirement for all high school graduates.

As a politician though, Perry knows what he is doing. He has never lost an election, and could keep running forever here in Texas and probably never lose. He was down by 30+ points in some polls to Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson in the last primary and turned it around to win the primary by 20 points. A turnaround like that is pretty remarkable considering there was no scandal involved to help.