Even More On Perry's "Texas Miracle"

Rick Perry is quick to brag about his performance as Texas governor, claiming that Texas has created 1,000,000 jobs during his reign -- more than any other state. But as I have posted before, that is only part of the story. Far too many of those new jobs pay minimum wage or below and come without benefits.

In fact, Texas leads the nation in the number of jobs at or below minimum wage -- and is tied with Mississippi in having the largest percentage of jobs at or below minimum wage. Texas also also has a greater number of employers that offer their employees no benefits (which contributes to the 27.2% of Texans without health insurance -- the highest percentage in the nation). Finally, the number of people unemployed in Texas has grown in spite of the low-wage jobs created (and the unemployment rate is currently 8.5% -- higher than in at least 25 other states).

But it gets even worse. Texas is below the nation's median income for workers. And the state ranks third in income equality -- meaning their is a huge gap between the rich in Texas and the rest of the state's citizens. And the state's regressive taxation puts a much larger share of the burden on the poor, the workers, and the middle class, since their percentage of taxes to income is much higher than the rich have. Texas may be a miraculous haven for the rich, but it is a hard-times state for everyone else -- and getting worse with each passing month.

Considering the above facts, which I'm sure Perry won't be telling anyone about, it should then come as no surprise that the number of people living in poverty in Texas is growing. During the same period in which the 1,000,000 dubious jobs were created, at least 1,400,000 people slipped into poverty.

Poverty is defined as a family of four making less than $22,314 or a single adult making less than $11,344 (which is less than a full-time minimum wage job would pay -- and minimum wage certainly won't provide a decent standard of living, even for a single person). The Census Bureau has just announced that in 2010 about 15.1% of all Americans are living below the poverty level. While that sounds like a huge percentage (and it is), it is significantly less than the percentage of people living below the poverty level in Texas. Texas has 18.4%, or about 4.6 million people, living in poverty (nearly one out of every five Texans).

There is no Texas "miracle". It is just a figment of the fevered minds of right-wing Republicans. Texas is an economic disaster and the policies pursued by Perry are just making things worse. Now he wants to do the same thing to the whole country. Don't let him! George Bush caused serious damage to the American economy. His protege, Rick Perry, could deliver its death knell.