#5: PERRY’S STIMULUS HYPOCRISY COSTS TEXANS
October 12th, 2009

Perry FailureDuring last spring’s legislative session, at the same time Rick Perry and his fellow Republicans were using over $11 billion in federal stimulus funds to bail themselves out of a state budget hole, the Governor had a chance to address the state’s Unemployment Insurance crisis. Instead, all Texans got from Rick Perry was partisan hypocrisy.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) Fund issue was a bipartisan, common sense issue until Rick Perry started his secession-laced ranting in an effort to win right wing Republican primary votes. A bipartisan, 22-9 Texas Senate supermajority voted to accept $555 million in federal stimulus funds to bail out the state’s mismanaged UI Fund, but Perry announced his intention to turn down the UI stimulus funds, even going so far as to liken out-of-work Texans to drug addicts, saying of the benefits, “This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs.” (Source: Austin American-Statesman)

  • Perry’s rejection of the unemployment funds drew bipartisan criticism because his numbers didn’t add up, a fact Perry conceded when he admitted Texas would have to raise the tax rate on businesses to make up for the projected unemployment fund deficit. (Source: KXAN News – via Burnt Orange Report)
  • Texas House Republicans caved in to Perry, and by failing to accept federal unemployment funds, Texans will pay more in the long run because  the state was forced to request a $643 million loan from the federal government to cover the shortfall in our unemployment insurance fund. (Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal).
  • Facing estimates that the UI Fund tax on businesses could quadruple, Perry’s appointees are considering a risky plan to issue $2 billion in bonds to repay the federal government and delay the tax increase until 2012, after the next election. (Source: Dallas Morning News)
  • In stark contrast to his hypocritical grandstanding about “bailouts,” Perry himself manages a corporate slush fund that has “bailed out” – with hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars – corporations like sub prime mortgage lender Countrywide and others who have laid off workers after getting tax dollars from Perry’s goodie bag. (Source: Associated Press)

For Rick Perry, partisan posturing and hypocrisy about the stimulus funds may be “business as usual,” but by playing politics in an effort to keep his job, he risked thousands of Texas jobs and guaranteed higher taxes for small businesses, and once again, failed Texans.

Next – #4: Perry Education Report Card: F

Previous – #6: Perry Taking a Toll on Texans

To read more about how Rick Perry has failed Texas, visit the TDP’s Top Ten Rick Perry Failures page by clicking here.

There are over 4.65 million school children in 1,031 school districts in Texas, and during Rick Perry’s 25 years as a career politician, he’s neglected all of them. In 2006, facing the threat of Texas schools being closed under a Texas Supreme Court order, Perry and the Republican-controlled legislature were forced to address the school finance crisis. Predictably, they only made things worse for Texas taxpayers and school children.

The first decade of the 21st Century has proven just how great Texas is – because Texas has done well despite Rick Perry, whose calculated political pandering has divided Texans, threatened our progress, and kept Texas from fulfilling its true potential as a national leader.

Texans have paid the price for the “Pay to Play” politics that profits Perry’s special interest cronies, including “Perry Payments” to foreign toll road operators, a failed deregulation experiment that leaves Texans paying the highest utility rates in the nation and insurance companies that have doubled the price of premiums since Perry took office.

It is with these failures of leadership in mind that we present the Top Ten Rick Perry Failures. Each weekday for the next two weeks, we will remind everyone of one of the many Rick Perry failures as we count down to #1.

Be sure to check back daily, share this page with your friends and family and join in our efforts to take back our state from failed Republican rule!