Gov. Rick Perry will say almost anything as he goes after the Republican nomination in hopes of making his way to the White House. There will be spin and blatant lies on how well Texas is doing. The truth is, the state that Perry has managed for 12 years in much like a Third World county.
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Under Perry, endless tax breaks for politically connected Texas corporations helped create a massive budget deficit that Perry first addressed with federal stimulus funds – money from a program he decried as a “misguided” desire “to spend our children’s inheritance” — and then by cutting spending on education and the state’s already threadbare social services to the bone. With the exception of a few economic basket-cases like Mississippi, Texas is way ahead of the pack in the race to the bottom.
Rick Perry’s line on this is obviously quite different. In announcing his candidacy last weekend, the governor bragged that “we have led Texas based on some just really pretty simple guiding principles. One is don’t spend all of the money. Two is keeping the taxes low and under control. Three is you have your regulatory climate fair and predictable. Four is reform the legal system so frivolous lawsuits don’t paralyze employers that are trying to create jobs. Over the years, we have followed this recipe to produce the strongest economy in the nation.”
Economic and social data on Texas gives a pretty good picture of what’s happening and how poorly people are doing in that state:
1. Texas leads the nation in the percentage of its population without health insurance (2010).
2. Only one state covered a smaller share of its poor population with Medicaid (PDF).
3. It’s also number 1 in the percentage of children who lack insurance (2009).
4. Texas ranks dead last in the number of women who receive early prenatal care (2010).
5. It has the sixth highest rate of infectious diseases in America (2010).
6. It ranked 35th in the share of its children being immunized (2010)…
7. …And 40th in overall health (2010).
