Texas spending kept rising for years with Perry as governor [Figures don't lie, but liars...]

Star-Telegram ^ | July 16, 2011 | Aman Batheja,

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Gov. Rick Perry's political stock has soared in recent months as he has traveled the country touting a decade of fiscal restraint in Texas under his leadership. Last month, Perry made Texas history by signing a two-year state budget that cuts overall spending for the first time in over 40 years.

Perry has long promoted the state's fiscal record as a model for the country and a key to why Texas has weathered the recession better than most other states. He has opposed new taxes and been vehemently anti-Washington, and his message is drawing interest among Republican primary voters nationwide.

Yet before the latest one, the Texas budget had consistently grown during Perry's time as governor, with total spending rising faster than inflation and population growth, state data show.

....Fed largely by state taxes and fees, general revenue has typically made up roughly half the Texas budget. It's the part of the budget that lawmakers spend most of their time arguing over during legislative sessions. Much of the rest of the budget is tied by provisions in federal law and the Texas Constitution.

When general revenue spending is examined by itself, the trends match better with the fiscal conservative image that Perry promotes. Though general revenue spending has grown with nearly every budget since Perry took office, it actually fell over the last decade an average of 0.6 percent every two years once those numbers are adjusted for inflation and the state's booming population growth. It rose during Bush's tenure.

"Obviously fiscal restraint is always something the governor has made a priority...He's the only Texas governor since World War II that has cut general revenue spending."

That distinction is one that Perry has touted repeatedly in recent years, from campaign commercials to the biography on the governor's office website..........

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Three budget terms used in the article: TOTAL SPENDING -- OVERALL SPENDING -- GENERAL REVENUE.

The GENERAL REVENUE (the 1/2 that Perry has some sway over) has dropped.

And this year, Perry and the GOP legislature (in a recession and lost revenue; with inflation and population boom) cut OVERALL spending for the first time in over 40 years for the 1012-1013 Texas budget.

FEDERAL funding makes up 1/3 of OVERALL spending. The state's GENERAL REVENUE makes up 1/2 of OVERALL spending. The Texas Constitution regulates the remaining 1/6 of OVERALL spending, which = TOTAL SPENDING

I say the MSM HEADLINE making the rounds was written to deceive and that the length of the article was meant to bury facts.

As my mother would tell me, "Figures don't lie but liars can figure."

Rick Perry has cut government spending in Texas and the MSM has written a headline to lie about it.

[BRK]

Perhaps thier goal was simply to confuse the issue, at which they have generally totally succeeded in an overall manner.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You got it.

Headline = lie by omission.

Article written to confuse, so reader goes with the headline soundbite.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

1012-1013

CORRECTION:

2012-2013

[veritas2002]

We know for certain who Obama and the Socialists are scared to death to run against: Perry, Bachman, Palin...hhhhmmmmmmm!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

It’s going to be one LIE after another coming from the MSM in order to support their president, who Drudge is reporting has 42% approval (I’m sure that’s a number created to favor him).

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Check the author of this hit piece: Aman Batheja joined the Star-Telegram in 2003 and has covered local and state politics since 2006. He is originally from New York but finds Texas politics more entertaining.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Interesting word “entertaining.”

The MSM creatively writes the script they plan to showcase in their misleading headlines.

He certainly is a creative fellow.

Ah, to be a fly on the wall when Aman Batheja decided which word to drop, which switcheroo to employ, what to emphasize, and what to sweep into a pile of confusion - a true MSM artist and craftsman of spin and deceit.

No doubt he’ll be honored with an award from his MSM cohorts for his “in-depth” “news” coverage of Rick Perry.

[Diogenesis]

Two questions.
First, what percent of the spending was due to Perry's
open border policies?

Second,the article says,
"In the final months of the 2000 presidential election,
then-Vice President Al Gore pointed to the growth of
the Texas budget under Bush to argue that he and President
Bill Clinton had more experience at reducing the size of government."

The RINO Perry WORKED with Al Gore before Karl Rove
transformed him to RINO du jour.

Did the RINO Perry really WORK with Al Gore to hurt Pres. Bush's
re-election, too, as the article suggests?

[tdscpa]

I have had problems in January occasionally, remembering the year. I have never had a problem getting the correct millennium!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Nice try troll.

Gov. Rick Perry has worked to secure the 1300 mile INTERNATIONAL border Texas shares with Mexico. The Feds ignore us. So Texans spend about $100 Million a year of OUR state tax revenue toward protecting an INTERNATIONAL border that should be secured with Federal funds.

Al Gore was a conservative southern democrat (I've given links and text to support the facts) when Rick Perry was a conservative TX democrat and supported him in the 1988 Democrat primary (which Mike Dukakis won/lost)

Phil Gramm, Rick Perry and other TX democrats switched to the GOP in the 80s (Perry 1989). Phil Gramm switched in 1983 and aggressively courted conservative democrats to switch sides (I've given links and text to support the facts).

Karl Rove worked on Rick Perry's 1st campaign for TX Agriculture Commissioner (1989). Since then Rove has not worked with Perry, and in fact has been an annoying thorn in Rick Perry's side (I've given links and text to support the facts).

[Cincinatus' Wife]

LOL!

A big “oops!”

[Diogenesis]

Cincinatus' Wife (PerryBOT):
"Al Gore was a conservative southern democrat
(I've given links and text to support the facts) ..."

Yes. Of course Gore was a "conservative".
Like you. Like Rick Perry.
What could more 'conservative' than the cult of
human-caused global warming.

Are you sure that you are at the right web site?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Did the RINO Perry really WORK with Al Gore to hurt Pres. Bush's re-election, too, as the article suggests?

Sorry troll, didn't mean to ignore that piece of BS you threw up against the wall.

You're wasting your talents. You could easily get a job writing for the MSM. It suits you.

EVEN this article suggests no such thing (you've outdone yourself).

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Yes. Of course Gore was a "conservative". Like you. Like Rick Perry. What could more 'conservative' than the cult of human-caused global warming.

Hi again troll.

Rick Perry: Al Gore's gone to Hell

Perry does not believe there is valid scientific proof of anthropogenic global warming. He has said several times that there is no scientific consensus on the issue.

On September 7, 2007 Perry gave a speech to California Republicans. He said, "Virtually every day another scientist leaves the global warming bandwagon. ... But you won't read about that in the press because they have already invested in one side of the story."

**************

And Diogenesis is invested in Sarah Palin running in 2012. And will not forgive me for posting Perry information and not still posting Palin threads.

[Diogenesis]

The article implies that (although it does not
mention the Rove origin of the RINO Perry) just
as your post indicates that YOU purport
that Al Gore is a 'conservative'.

Rick Perry is an "Al Gore"-type Conservative (per Cincinatus' WifeP

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Conservative

You left off the "southern democrat" part, troll.

......."During his time in Congress, [Al] Gore was considered a "moderate" (he referred to himself as a "raging moderate") opposing federal funding of abortion, voting in favor of a bill which supported a moment in silence in schools, and voting against a ban on interstate sales of guns. His position as a moderate (and on policies related to that label) shifted later in life after he became Vice President and ran for president in 2000…”…… Source

[Diogenesis]

Cincinatus' Wife (PerryBOT):
"Al Gore was a conservative southern democrat
(I've given links and text to support the facts) ..."

Yes. Of course Gore was a "conservative". ROTFLOL, VL.

It will be very helpful in the present and future
for FReepers to understand that you (and Rick Perry?)
call Al Gore (Southern Democrat) a "conservative".

[mazda77]

So is your glass half full, half empty, or as engineers argue, twice as big as it needs to be?

Perry has his issues that smack of the same go-along-to-get-along problems we have continually had with the squishy pubbies in DC. If he has any inclination to be a part of the establishment club, off to the showers with his campaign.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

Hey, everybody running has some non-conservative skeletons in their closet. Take Palin, for instance - she helps a RINO to beat a solid conservative in the 2010 AZ Senate race, she supports the sovereignty destroying LOST treaty, she’s been, ah, less than opposed to illegal immigration herself in the past, and she’s selectively for massive taxes on oil companies when it’s her particular state that’s getting the revenue.