Since Texas Governor Rick Perry jumped into the race for the White House, the focus has been on Perry's jobs record in the Lone Star State. Perry's policies allowed businesses to create 70 percent of all the jobs created in the enitire country for the past two and a half years. Perry has essentially told the federal government to get lost and has promoted a pro-energy agenda.The democratic talking point surrounding Perry's jobs record has been, "Those jobs created in Texas were a result of President Obama's stimulus plan, not because of Perry policies."
DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz made this point two weeks ago in Iowa:
"There is a dramatic contrast with the governor of Texas" when it comes to his record versus the president's on job creation," Wasserman Schultz said. "Not the least of which is that it is extremely difficult for him to deserve credit for that job creation when you have rising gas prices that created oil jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you had military spending as a result of two wars that created military jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you have the Recovery Act championed by President Obama that created jobs in Texas that he had nothing to do with."
And once again, DWS and the democrats are wrong:
The Texas economy is reaping the benefits of energy production not just because Texas, like many other states, has access to abundant oil and natural gas reserves. Rather, the Texas economy is reaping the benefits of energy production because Rick Perry and other state government officials are encouraging rather than stifling energy production.
In states like New Jersey, the legislature supports an outright ban on shale gas production. Other states seek to tax and regulate energy production to a crawl. In North Dakota and Texas, however, leaders like Rick Perry have had the foresight to encourage rather than vilify energy production.
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The success of the Texas economy has been driven by wise policy decisions rather than blind luck, and Rick Perry deserves a Texas-sized share of the credit.
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