Bad news for the “job creator”

You may have heard by now that Rick Perry, the selfstyled “job creator,” had a bit of bad news this morning. And, for a change, it had nothing to do with the wouldbe president’s habit of plunging his foot into his mouth. This time, the bad news was that Texas’ unemployment rate rose from 8.2 percent to 8.4 percent in July, the worst level in nearly 25 years.

Yes, it is still lower than the national jobless rate (9.1 percent), and the state added nearly 30,000 jobs during the month. But what bit the governor was a 9,400 drop in government jobs, many the result of budget cuts that he has championed.

As we all know, many of those lost government jobs were in the public schools, whose budgets Perry chose to slash by $5.4 billion. Why?

So he could brag to conservative Republican primary voters around the country that he balanced Texas’ budget without a tax increase, while leaving $6.5 billion of the taxpayers’ money (from the Rainy Day Fund) in the bank.

Presidential? I don’t think so.

http://www.texastribune.org/texastaxes/2011budgetshortfall/texasaddedjobsjulyunemploymentrose/