Posted on 09/05/2011 9:32:08 PM PDT by Brices Crossroads
As Rick Perry's record is beginning to be scrutinized, the budget mess in Texas has started to receive national attention. Apparently, there is a $31 billion deficit in the current fiscal year that will necessitate drastic cuts. It has also come to light that Perry, rather than making the necessary cuts in 2009, took Obama stimulus funds and used over $6 billion of the stimulus to plug his deficit. The deficit has now exploded, as they tend to do when not addressed early, and the stimulus money has dried up and blown away like a tumbleweed, leaving the state awash in a sea of red ink. By contrast, in Alaska, Governor Palin in 2009 made a deep cuts cuts and refused most of Obama's stimulus money, accepting only 45%--that portion which did not grow the government, or have strings attached that would swell the budget in the out years. Perry, by contrast, took 95% of the stimulus funds he was offered, a cool $16.5 billion.
Consequently, Palin's Alaska currently sports a $3.4 billion surplus and $12 billion in reserves, while Perry's Texas has a yawning deficit and will likely have to raid its $9 billion "rainy day fund", in addition to instituting draconian cuts, to close it. It is no wonder, some of us have observed, that Perry has taken his traveling medicine show on the road. Things must be pretty hot in Austin right about now.
The comparison between Palin's record and Perry's is pretty damning by any objective standard. Palin left her state with a huge surplus and in the pink of fiscal health, even in the middle of a recession. Perry has doubled state spending and tripled state debt during his decade in Austin, and Texas currently faces a gigantic, unprecedented deficit. It is pretty hard to argue with the figures. So what has been the recourse of the Perry supporters? Well, as the saying goes, there are lies, damn lies and statistics. Let me explain.
Alaska, they observe, has the second highest federal tax allotment per capita in the nation. What this means is Alaska receives about $5,150 more per capita in federal spending than the US average. (DC is first in per capita spending, Virginia is third, Maryland is fourth). This statistic is meant to conjure up an image of the average Alaskan stuffing his mattress with all the federal largesse or getting in his Cadillac and driving over to the welfare office to pick up his check. It is intended to convey the image of a state that is "propped up" by federal government spending. These images are, however, false and the use of the "per capita" argument is a canard. This "per capita" figure does not mean that the federal spending goes to state government or even necessarily to the people. It just means that the federal government spends x amount of dollars (over and above what it collects in federal taxes) in the state, and when you divide that amount by the number of residents of the state, you arrive at the per capita figure.
D.C. is the federal city and produces nothing, so it surprises no one that it is number one, since its local government and most of its residents' salaries are publicly funded. Virginia and Maryland, which envelop the capital, have by far the most federal employees of any of the other states. Vast numbers of their citizens work for the federal government. Little wonder that their per capita federal spending is higher as well.
And what of Alaska? Well, two thirds of the state, an area considerably larger than the state of Texas, is actually owned by the federal government, and the owner has to take care of and manage its property, which costs money. 87 million acres--an area more than half the size of Texas--is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, which spends huge amounts of money to manage and superintend such vast tracts. Another 16 million acres comprise the vast Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, the world's largest fish and wildlife refuge, which is managed by another federal agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Not surprisingly, the federal government spends a lot of money managing land it owns in Alaska.
Because of its strategic location, Alaska is home to nine large military bases and nearly 30,000 active duty troop, which is a number that is nearly 5% of its population. It has the largest number of bases per capita and the largest number of troops per capita of any state. The funds to maintain these bases and their operations, as well as the salaries and benefits for these troops, are part of the overall federal spending in the state. No doubt there is an indirect benefit for the state economy in this spending but it is far less direct than in Virginia and Maryland, which have state income taxes and tax the salaries of their federal employees (Alaska has no state income tax). The bottom line is that the federal government decided to put a lot of military bases in Alaska to protect the rest of us, not to help prop up Alaska. Yet these expenses, like the expenses to manage federal lands, are included in the phony "per capita" calculus.
And, on the other side of the equation, it is worth noting as well that the federal government doesn't just give money to Alaska. It costs Alaska money. A lot of it. Here's how. The Congress and the White House have taken unprecedented steps to impede Alaska's development of its natural resources, specifically its moratorium on exploration in the ANWR, and its many regulations and restrictions on exploration elsewhere in the state. Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope produces 400,000 barrels a day (8% of U.S. production), the largest field in the United States. It is suspected that ANWR has reserves comparable in size to the North Slope, but the federal government refuses to permit the exploration. It seems to me a bad bargain for Alaska to get a few measly federal dollars for military bases and federal land management, which benefit the entire country, only to have the same federal leviathan with its boot on the neck of Alaska's ability to develop its own God given natural wealth.
Imagine how devastating it would have been in the early part of the 20th Century, during the great Texas Oil boom, if the federal government had slapped a moratorium on drilling in East Texas, killing in their crib the great oil strikes at Spindletop, Humble, Goose Creek and Ranger. Texas would never have overtaken California and Oklahoma to become the largest oil producing state, and one of the richest, in the Union. Its booming economy would have been strangled and the cause of death would have been listed as federal regulation. I for one am thankful that Texas did not suffer this fate, and I am just as anxious that the boot of the Interior Department and the EPA be removed from Alaska's throat as well.
Incidentally, in spite of these large federal handcuffs Sarah Palin managed to do a remarkable job in spurring energy production, both oil and gas, in Alaska through ACES and AGIA. And these policies, coupled with her firm control of spending, have placed Alaska on a sound fiscal footing.
Context is everything. Statistics, particularly those as deceptive as per capita calculations, are generally a diversion tactic. But when one's record is as weak as Rick Perry's, it is preferable to divert attention from that record rather than than to try to defend it. As an old lawyer once said, if you have the facts on your side argue the facts. If you have the law on your side, argue the law. If you have neither the facts nor the law, confuse the issue.
What we should care about is if the candidate will be a real president, one who will take care that the laws be faithfully executed. That’s from the Constitution.
Anybody - - even you, even me - - would be better than our current teleprompter reader.
We’re getting lost in the minutia, and as you exhibited, the act of reducing to the ridiculous.
Why don’t you ask Christie of New Jersey how many of his are legal, or Brian Sandoval in Nevada, or Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, or Bobby Jindal of Louisiana??? Their ratio of legal/illegal population is just as great as Texas. Huh? Huh? Huh?
Cheers!
OK??
[This is someone’s unsourced opinion vanity. It should be pulled as it’s not news!]
I don’t know, I got a hell of a lot of insight out of it. But I guess when Perry’s flaws are pointed out, someone needs to censor them.
On the contrary, putting oil wells in East Texas only improved the view.
After the wells went in there was finally something interesting to look at.
LOL. Agreed.
[This is a Perry bashing thread — half the article bashed Perry, using FALSE numbers.]
So you are saying Perry has Texas in the black? Or are you just here to partisan bash?
Learn to read ,Never said that,But his Border Criminal Pets Damn sure are.
Doesn’t change the fact that not all that Fed money actually goes to the state, so the statistic is misleading. I don’t know about Texas.
I’m not a Perry basher. I’m a Palin supporter.
If she doesn’t enter the race I’ll vote for Perry.
But I know one thing about Sarah for certain that I don’t know the answer to about Perry.
Whatever she decides, it will be what she thinks is best for the country.
Isn’t the intent of the thread to compare AK with TX? If that is the case, we should be giving Gov Parnell at least some credit for whatever stellar achievements they have achieved. He has been there for over 2 years now.
I know people that love it up there,Fishing,Hunting,all kinds of winter sports and good money!
So what has he accomplished there?
And is he running for president?
Now, I know why Rick Perry got so aggressive with the Univ. of Iowa student a couple of weeks ago, who asked him about the Texas economy. Perry got in the kids face, poked him in the chest, then walked away as if the kid didn't give him a chance to answer. Rick Perry is a jerk. This is how he treats potential voters who have tough questions that he doesn't want to answer. Your true nature is coming out Perry.
As I have previously said. I am very dim to genuine intellectuals like yourself. Please keep enlightening me to the proper way to think.
Ding ding ding! I believe we have a winner!
Sure Cool BTW who appointed him?
[If that is the case, we should be giving Gov Parnell at least some credit for whatever stellar achievements they have achieved. He has been there for over 2 years now.]
Then certainly you should give Palin a heap of credit for pushing the Tea Party over the finish line in 2010. That is, if you are being fair. And you should give Perry zip for that effort.
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