Rick Perry the Hypocrite Uses Stimulus Money to Balance the Budget

Governor Rick Perry is the gift that keeps on giving. First he's the highest and most visible government official to date to publicly state that our great State of Texas should secede from the rest of the union. I guess at the time it made him feel like some sort of edgy, rebellious guy, but sadly his buffoonish remarks made our great state the laughing-stock of the country.

Next he sat up in the middle of what may be the worse environmental disaster in US history - the Gulf Oil Spill - and said what occurred was an 'act of God'. He then went on to praise BP and pledge his continued support for off-shore drilling. In short Governor Perry is still yelling 'Drill Baby Drill'.

But hold on this gets better. Governor Perry went on to make the outrageous statement that what occurred with BP was an 'isolated incident' and an accident. I guess Mr. Perry conveniently forgot about the 2005 explosion at BP's Texas City facility. At the time it was one of the most deadly disasters to hit the US with 15 workers being killed and 180 people injured. When this so-called accident was investigated, it was discovered that BP was deficient at numerous levels.

Now, last I checked Governor Perry was in office in 2005, so he had to be aware of BP's propensity for accidents which makes his remarks even more disturbing. This means when we look at today's BP spill, we can't say it's isolated. We have to see this as part of a pattern by a company which has a history of being negligent. This is who Perry supports.

Normally I would suggest for Perry's gubernatorial opponent former Houston mayor Bill White to yell Drill Baby Drill at every chance to stick it to Perry, but sadly he too supports off shore drilling... What a thing to be in agreement with Perry. How sad is that?

With all this in mind, where Perry really takes the cake is with the stance he took on Federal stimulus money. Here's a guy who ran around bragging that Texas was above the recession. We now know that's not the case. Later he bragged we would not be taking any of 'Obama's Socialistic stimulus money. He said Texas can take care of her own... Well guess who used stimulus money to balance the budget? Below is a recent article that appeared in 'The Wonk Room' that breaks all this down...

Stimulus-Critic Rick Perry Only Able To Balance His State’s Budget Because Of Stimulus

by Pat Garofalo

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/05/26/perry-stimulus-only/

Back when the economic recovery package (i.e. “the stimulus”) was being debated, a handful of Republican governors garnered headlines by rejecting various portions of the funding. One of the loudest critics of the legislation was Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX).

At the time, Perry said rejecting the money “was pretty simple for us. … We can take care of ourselves.” “I am so concerned about the belief that has gained a foothold in our national consciousness that the best and only way to solve our nation’s problems is to drown them with taxpayer dollars,” Perry also said, adding that, with regard to the stimulus, Texas should “look a gift horse in the mouth.”

The Texas state legislature eventually pushed Perry to accept the money, but even in his official acceptance letter, Perry wrote that “I believe there are better ways to reinvigorate our economy and believe [the bill] will burden future generations with unprecedented levels of debt.” However, as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, the stimulus is the reason that Texas currently has a balanced budget:

[T]he economic downturn is catching up with Texas. Sales-tax revenue started falling in February 2009 compared with the previous year, and only started to recover a bit in April of this year. Although Mr. Perry has railed against the federal economic-stimulus program, billions of dollars from that initiative helped Texas legislators balance the current budget.

Texas faces an $18 billion shortfall in its next two-year budget, which amounts to 20 percent of the total. And Perry’s refusal to consider tax increases is setting the state up for draconian cuts. “There is no way that they will be able to come up with $18 billion in cuts,” said Eva DeLuna Castro, a senior budget analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities. “They would have to shut down our prison system.”

Perry is not the only governor to rail against the stimulus while relying on it to balance his budget. Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) called the stimulus “incoherent” and “largely wasted,” but still used it to fix one-third of his state’s budget hole.

According to the latest report from the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus not only helped states stave off budget cuts, but also raised GDP by between 1.7 and 4 percentage points, lowered the unemployment rate by 1.5 percentage points, and created up to 2.8 million jobs. This is 250,000 to 500,000 more jobs than projected. CBO estimates that the stimulus will be responsible for up to 3.7 million jobs by September.