Newt Gingrich, The Ship Be Sinking

What SPECIFIC courses of action would you like to see from leadership?

 

I think I read in the WSJ over the weekend that 40+ percent of all jobs that were created in the country in last year came under Perry's watch in Texas.

I'm not suggesting that he's the only or main reason that happened, but that stat won't be ignored during the primaries or the general election if he gets that far.

 

The state's oil base gives it a considerable head start, and keeps the pressure off.

It's far from the master-and-commander governorship, given the evidence of who's held the office most-recently.

 

By no means would I give Perry any extra credit for Texas' job growth. The energy sector has certainly been the big reason.

But, Texas is very job/business friendly. Low cost of living. No state income tax. Low regulatory environment. Not a lot of zoning laws that can hold up projects. Right-to-work.

The states of the Northeast & industrial Midwest really could learn a thing or two from Texas.

 

I don't think it's accurate to say that the energy sector has been the big reason. While it's true that Texas' mining/logging sector has experienced high jobs growth (15.6% over the last year), as a share of Texas' employment base that sector is fairly small (only 2.2% as of May of this year)*. Jobs are much more numerous in construction, manufacturing and trade, and while those sectors' percentage increases haven't been as large, they've been impressive nonetheless. So I'd be careful about waving off the growth as a simple matter of riding a petroleum wave.

I do think it's silly to attribute this growth to Perry, and I don't think he'd be attempting to make that case. Rather, he'd be making the case that he represents an overarching philosophy that, in sum, leads to a favorable, jobs-friendly business climate.

*Source: The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M (http://recenter.tamu.edu/econ).

 

Yeah, like how to have, by far, the highest rates of uninsured and unhealthy people in America? It's easy to create jobs when you push the health care problem off to the Federal Government, and then constantly bitch about the Federal Government's health care plan!

http://www.mchd-tx.org/documents/uninsuredFastFacts.pdf

It also helps that you ride the wave of jacked up fuel costs -- a wave which is swamping consumers everywhere else across the country -- and then claim you've got a great economy as a result...

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/06/14/3152456/story-of-texas-job-growth-not.html

Perry's Texas has profited greatly from the $4 gas that killing the economy in the other 49 states. I imagine Obama's team will do a pretty good job of getting that message across.

 

Maybe that was what Perry was alluding to in those secession comments: The rest of the states might just kick those dastardly Texans out of the union!

 

"That's a bingo . . . "

 

Of course Perry can point out that Obama's policies, like shutting down all drilling in the Gulf after the botched capping of the oil leak last summer, are a primary reason for high prices.

 

If you think shutting down drilling in the Gulf had anything near a significant enough effect on supply to actually affect the price of oil, then may I interest you in some property I own in Florida?

 

Did I say that?

No, what I said was that if Obama wants to try and blame Perry for high oil profits, Perry can point out that gallon of gas was almost $2 a gallon cheaper at the end of the Bush admin than it is now under the Obama admin.

 

I always loved Dana Carvey's opening to one his short-lived sketch shows as Newt.