mdn2000
Rookie
- Banned
- #21
No Unions, piss poor education, terrible public services and basically a gimme state in terms of the Fed, it's STILL in the hole.
Krugman's take:
Op-Ed Columnist
The Texas Omen
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: January 6, 2011
How bad is the Texas deficit? Comparing budget crises among states is tricky, for technical reasons. Still, data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities suggest that the Texas budget gap is worse than New Yorks, about as bad as Californias, but not quite up to New Jersey levels.
The point, however, is that just the other day Texas was being touted as a role model (and still is by commentators who havent been keeping up with the news). It was the state the recession supposedly passed by, thanks to its low taxes and business-friendly policies. Its governor boasted that its budget was in good shape thanks to his tough conservative decisions.
Oh, and at a time when theres a full-court press on to demonize public-sector unions as the source of all our woes, Texas is nearly demon-free: less than 20 percent of public-sector workers there are covered by union contracts, compared with almost 75 percent in New York.
So what happened to the Texas miracle many people were talking about even a few months ago?
Part of the answer is that reports of a recession-proof state were greatly exaggerated. Its true that Texas job losses havent been as severe as those in the nation as a whole since the recession began in 2007. But Texas has a rapidly growing population largely, suggests Harvards Edward Glaeser, because its liberal land-use and zoning policies have kept housing cheap. Theres nothing wrong with that; but given that rising population, Texas needs to create jobs more rapidly than the rest of the country just to keep up with a growing work force.
And when you look at unemployment, Texas doesnt seem particularly special: its unemployment rate is below the national average, thanks in part to high oil prices, but its about the same as the unemployment rate in New York or Massachusetts.
What about the budget? The truth is that the Texas state government has relied for years on smoke and mirrors to create the illusion of sound finances in the face of a serious structural budget deficit that is, a deficit that persists even when the economy is doing well. When the recession struck, hitting revenue in Texas just as it did everywhere else, that illusion was bound to collapse.
The only thing that let Gov. Rick Perry get away, temporarily, with claims of a surplus was the fact that Texas enacts budgets only once every two years, and the last budget was put in place before the depth of the economic downturn was clear. Now the next budget must be passed and Texas may have a $25 billion hole to fill. Now what?
Given the complete dominance of conservative ideology in Texas politics, tax increases are out of the question. So it has to be spending cuts.
Yet Mr. Perry wasnt lying about those tough conservative decisions: Texas has indeed taken a hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens. Among the states, Texas ranks near the bottom in education spending per pupil, while leading the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance. Its hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/07/opinion/07krugman.html?_r=1&src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
Yippee-ka-yay Motherfuckers.
What a funny article. Imagine how terrible for Texas to eliminate over spending by not spending. That is just fucking crazy.
Its hard to imagine what will happen if the state tries to eliminate its huge deficit purely through further cuts.
Yes, further cuts, government has suffered enough. To burden government with further decreases in spending is tyranny.
Imagine the cruelty.