When Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-Pray with Me Now) jumped with both boots into the GOP presidential primary on Saturday, he made it clear that the centerpiece of his campaign would be his job-creation record.
Via CBS News:
Perry cited his ten-year record as governor as one basis for his campaign, saying that 40-percent of the nation’s new jobs since June 2009 have been created in Texas.
Not so fast there, boot-boy. Here’s New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:
What Texas shows is that a state offering cheap labor and, less important, weak regulation can attract jobs from other states. I believe that the appropriate response to this insight is “Well, duh.” The point is that arguing from this experience that depressing wages and dismantling regulation in America as a whole would create more jobs — which is, whatever Mr. Perry may say, what Perrynomics amounts to in practice — involves a fallacy of composition: every state can’t lure jobs away from every other state.
(Stats from Huffington Post here.)
This will be the ultimate he said-they said dustup throughout the primary season. Stay tuned to the hardworking staff’s Rick Perry-And-Thrust (pat. pending) updates for details.
Campaign Outsider 