If Texas is a miracle, I'll take Massachusetts.

Even on vacation, one cannot escape from the stupidity, pettiness, and lies…
So the Secret Service commissioned two armored buses for the President to travel domestically at a cost of $2.2Million.  If it’s not his vacations or his limousine, it’s now these buses that have the right wing firing up their mock outrage machine.  What would you have the Secret Service do rent the Partridge Family School bus and hire Shirley Jones to drive?  Besides, it created jobs (that’s sarcasm).  Move on righty.
I am very happy to see the truth seekers digging into Rick “The Miracle Man” Perry’s real record in Texas.  I do not doubt he is master politician, but he is not a great economist, no on second thought he knows as much about economics as I know about cow milking.  Not a freaking thing.  Let’s see; an energy producing state that had economic growth when oil was $140/barrel, he used federal stimulus money to fill budget gaps, he inherited a highly restrictive lending policy (some on his side would call it excessive job killing regulation) that kept the housing bubble in check, and he benefited from enormous Defense spending.  So now that it looks like it will be Perry vs. Romney for the GOP nomination, here is some state by state comparisons between Massachusetts (Taxachusetts) and Texas (No state income tax):
Metric
Texas
Massachusetts
Unemployment Rate
8.2% (flat in 2011)
7.6% (down from 8.2 in Jan)
Citizens w/out Healthcare
25%
3%
Median Income/Household
$57k
$81k
Science and Engineering Readiness Index
31
1


My takeaway from the above?  Texas may be creating lots of jobs, but they are low paying, its citizens are uninsured and there is little to no upward mobility.  Yet Perry is the free market Tea Party hero.  Ricky needs to be careful not to claim too much of a Texas miracle as Michael Dukakis did in 1988 when he went on about the Massachusetts Miracle that was fueled by Reagan’s deficit spending on defense and as soon as Dutch quit spending, hello recession and Massachusetts was screwed.
Big shout out to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz for saying no more campaign donations to any politician.  His goal: is to hit lawmakers right where it hurts: the pocketbook. "All it seems people are interested in is re-election," Schultz told CNNMoney on Tuesday. "And that re-election -- the lifeblood of it is fundraising."
Does anyone else get as nervous about how Germany and France have taken over the fate of Europe’s finances?  The Gauls, Goths, and Huns.  Yikes.
Does anyone else find it funny that Arizona had a state treasurer named Dean Martin and a state senate candidate named Jerry Lewis?  I am hoping for Joey Bishop for Governor, Sid Caesar for Attorney General, and Milton Berle for Secretary of State.
Back to the beach.

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