Other Governors would do well to look at the Texas model and see what can be adapted to their State.
Having lived in both states, would give the nod to Texas hands down because there is not a lot of political correctness in the state like has permeated California over the years where hard work is replaced by lawsuits in many instances or handouts from the Government.
This November, Oklahoma plans to join Texas with a Republican Governor Mary Fallin after eight years wandering with Gov Henry who is not the most energetic person on the face of the earth.
We have some really good Governors now in Perry, Pawlenty (MN), Barbour (MS), Daniels (IN), Jindal (LA), McDonnell (VA), and Cristie (NJ) for starters who make a deep bench for Republicans. We need to add to their ranks in 2010 starting with Oklahoma. Pawlenty is not seeking reelection to explore running for President so MN will be in play. We would expect to see maybe Daniels and McDonnell also consider getting in the Presidential race which right now is wide open. We believe Rick Perry when he says his heart is in Texas not in DC.
Low-tax Texas beats big-government California
By: Michael Barone Senior Political AnalystMarch 7, 2010
(AP)
"Stop messing with Texas!" That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas' anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.
His point was that the big-government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are resented and fiercely opposed not just because of their dire fiscal effects but also as an intrusion on voters' independence and ability to make decisions for themselves.
No one would include Perry on a list of serious presidential candidates, including himself, even in the flush of victory. But in his 10 years as governor, the longest in the state's history, Texas has been teaching some lessons to which the rest of the nation should pay heed.
They are lessons that are particularly vivid when you contrast Texas, the nation's second most populous state, with the most populous, California. Both were once Mexican territory, secured for the United States in the 1840s. Both have grown prodigiously over the past half-century. Both have populations that today are about one-third Hispanic.
But they differ vividly in public policy and in their economic progress -- or lack of it -- over the last decade. California has gone in for big government in a big way. Democrats hold big margins in the legislature largely because affluent voters in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area favor their liberal positions on cultural issues.
Those Democratic majorities have obediently done the bidding of public employee unions to the point that state government faces huge budget deficits. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to reduce the power of the Democratic-union combine with referenda was defeated in 2005 when public employee unions poured $100 million -- all originally extracted from taxpayers -- into effective TV ads.
Californians have responded by leaving the state. From 2000 to 2009, the Census Bureau estimates, there has been a domestic outflow of 1,509,000 people from California -- almost as many as the number of immigrants coming in. Population growth has not been above the national average and, for the first time in history, it appears that California will gain no House seats or electoral votes from the reapportionment following the 2010 census.
Texas is a different story. Texas has low taxes -- and no state income taxes -- and a much smaller government. Its legislature meets for only 90 days every two years, compared with California's year-round legislature. Its fiscal condition is sound. Public employee unions are weak or nonexistent.
Excerpt: Read more at the: Washington Examiner
No comments:
Post a Comment