---a Sacramento Bee editorial slamming a radio ad airing in California that features Texas governor Rick Perry saying, "Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas Governor Rick Perry, and I have a message for California businesses: Come check out Texas."
The Bee's response to that was:
Yes, come check out Texas. Check out a state that ranks dead last in the percent of its population with high school diplomas. Come check out a state that is last in mental health expenditures and workers' compensation coverage. Come check out a state that ranks first in the number of executions, first in the number of uninsured, first in the amount of carbon dioxide emitted and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water.
The San Francisco Chronicle added:
The Lone Star State knows it will have arrived when Texas trumps California as the prime stop for presidential candidates shaking down new-economy entrepreneurs for donations - and wealthy individuals who can live anywhere, such as the former Massachusetts governor who defeated Perry in the GOP primary, stop choosing La Jolla... Until then, Gov. Perry, keep those advertising dollars flowing into California.
The Bee closed with this:
As the late Molly Ivins said of her native Texas, "It's a low-tax, low-service state – so shoot us. The only depressing part is that, unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don't."
And finally? from the Dallas Morning News:
The Cowboys? Now you’re meddling.
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These commercials are all over the radio. Californians don't think too highly of Rick Perry. Anyone who is running a business that could just up and leave has already left, it's no secret that states with no income tax are attractive to rich people. Problem is that you have to live in Texas...
A lot of people would consider that "A deal breaker"
You could also go up north to Oregon. No income taxes either, I've heard. With better schools and services than in Texas. Not sure many people can stand the weather in compensation.
Oregon has income tax but no sales tax. Our governor is also a doctor so you don't have to put up with the ignorant mumbling that passes for gubernatorial discourse in Texas. Our governor actually can name 3 governmental agencies without an oops!!
Er... sorry. We have income tax. But we do not have sales tax and we have pumpers that pump your gas so you can stay comfy in your warm car on all those rainy, windy days. :)
Just for Texans who are recent graduates of the educational system, those big words I said stand for governor talk in your language. I wouldn't want to be accused of confusing them.
You are misinformed. We have income taxes. We just don't have a sales tax. Yet. The eastern part of the state is desert, so those who can't stand rain could create a few jobs there.
No income tax in Washington either but remember, it is always raining...ha.
I deeply apologize for my error in the previous comment. Thanks for correcting me! I will need to check my state fiscal policies in greater detail...
"Californians don't think too highly of Rick Perry."
I would say it is a good bet that sentiment is more widespread than just California.
Not at all, I love Rick Perry. He's like a bug zapper for fundagelicals, they all flock to his presence. The more of those morons that move to Texas to bask in the glow of a governor who thinks like they do the fewer there are to plague my existence. The ones I feel sorry for are the children though, they have no choice in the level of ignorance being forced upon them.
You don't actually have to live there if you are an absentee CEO. Instead you live in your headquarters somewhere that they care about educating your kids and keeping the place liveable for you.
Perry talks about how we have a balanced budget, but he sort of neglects to say how he managed to cover over a $27 billion deficit. He did it on the backs of kids on Medicare and on kids in the public school system. He cut roughly 10% ($5.36 billion) from the public school budget, and this year, when asked to restore the money, he flat out refused, but brags that he has a surplus this time. Oh, and the Texas Miracle and increasing employment? The "Miracle" has to do with the price you pay at the pump, nothing that happened in TX. And the employment is low paid, low skill work. There is a reason that TX leads the nation in percentage of workers at or below minimum wage.
He wonders why employers aren't enthusiastic about coming to TX? It might have something to do with the fact that people here are basically uneducated.
(Sorry in advance for the following rant)
Let us not forget that Perry turned away millions in Federal money for the Women's Healthcare program and medicaid that the state is supposed to receive in order to attempt to shut down Planned Parenthood. So he basically screwed hundreds of thousands of women and children who are uninsured.
Also, the state of Texas has received billions as part of the Nation Mortgage Settlement and not a penny has gone to help distressed homeowners or those who were wronged by deceptive practices by the mortgage companies involved (which devastated poor and working class families and neighborhoods). It has all gone to the general treasury in Texas.
I imagine the devastating cuts in education and the settlement money that is supposed to help working families who have been financially ruined by the mortgage crisis have created a great "surplus" that he says he is going to give "back" to the "taxpayers" - meaning the wealthy and corporations, who didn't pay a thing into the state coffers and have nothing to do with the so called surplus .
Yep - Texas is incredibly business friendly. Especially to the predatory credit card and Pay Day loan companies because there is no cap whatsoever on how much interest they can charge.
So yeah, it's great to be a white male 1%-er in Texas because the rest of us pay for it all.
I think the governor is so wrapped up in evangelicals telling him that he's their messiah that he honestly doesn't realize that outside of Texas, he is widely considered just a bad joke. His 2012 campaign should have taught him some humility and taught him not to leave his home state, but reportedly, he still has national ambitions, which at this point can only be considered delusional.
Yes. Excellent response. The rich will love you , Perry, but they don't work!! Oh, I forgot, you got all the workers you want and are trying to send some of them back!
If they were able to sent some of them back it would increase the percentage of educated people in that state.
Not by very much. Considering how much states like Texas and Georgia do not invest in education, one would have a similar chance of raising the percentage by expelling a lot of native Texans or just by expelling Rick Perry.
Pro golfer Phil Mickelson may be the only California resident dumb enough to believe the Perry radio spots. No one who has children is likely to want to move them from a California public school to one in Texas; no one who has a daughter and wife will want to subject them to the way Texas takes over control of what women may or may not do with their own body; no one in their right mind would knowingly trade Sen. Boxer or Sen. Feinstein for Sen. Cruz.
And who on earth would want to live in a state that elected both George W. Bush and Rick Perry governor? Talk about Dumb and Dumber ...
One of the most damning features of the state - at least the Houston area - is the pathetic air quality and the high cancer rate. Come to Texas, you'll make low wages and just breathing the air will kill you.
Texas is a joke, which makes Perry the perfect governor for that state. I think his boasts about Texas and job creation were blown up pretty well during the primaries last year.
Y'all come down, leave civilization like dem cement ponds and fancy eatin' tables, share a road apple with your ol' buddy Rick. We'll be waitin' for ya. Take your shoes off.
With the way Texas has screwed up their education system where would businesses find qualified personnel to work for them. Will they have to truck warm bodies in from other states or bribe the politicians into relaxing border security so immigrants from schools that teach reality can supplement the labor supply.
It might be good for business but the workers are getting screwed in Texas.
Per capita income Texas : $39,493
Per capita income California : $51,914
That is as amazing difference in income.
Yeah, when it comes to screwing, which state has a more penile shape?
The answer is obvious and I realize Texans have been screwed for years, especially since their state resembles Betty White's strongest anatomical feature!
What a pounding Texas workers are taking day in and day out! -Kevo
LOL...my parents are moving back to Texas from Cali and all I can tell them is "that sucks for you two"
LOL
What is also interesting is that the State GDP (taking population into account) is about the same.
It must be good to be a 1%er in Texas, for the other 99%, not so much.
California to Texas: "Oh, snap!!"
Two people I do miss Molly Ivins & Anne Richards though.....They were the best people to ever come out of Texas....All the rest are idiots!
Ain't that the truth.
I can just imagine what Mollie would have been writing for the past 5 years! She was always a wonderful read! I miss her.
Let's not leave out Ann's daughter, the awesome Cecile Richards!
If the sequester goes through as it is written, Texas is in for a world of hurt, with a lot of military bases and defense contractors located there, all with good-paying jobs. I wonder how many of those folks will end up working at Taco Bell? Should make the Texas per-capita income number drop even lower than it already is.
its interesting to watch politics in texas. they usually vote gop and i can't figure out why. i guess the rich people there must give a lot of money to the gop. of course its a 'right to work' state. its interesting to note that unions have been in the decline since the mid 90s, and if you look at graphs, the middle class and the country have also been going down hill. so the gop has fought a semi successful fight against the unions. but the cost of that has been millions of jobs lost to asia, as well as huge deficits. good job gop! if consumers don't make enough to buy the goods and services that businesses are selling; then the country declines. we must keep our middle class in good shape in order to keep our country in good shape.
They used to vote Democrat till all the conservative Democrats became Republicans.
Texas, the state founded by failed politicians, cashiered Army officers, back alley assassins, bank robbers, thieves, murderers, cattle rustlers (and those were just the morons at the Alamo). No much has ever changed down there.
Texas: It's A Whole Other Country! (would that this was true)
Damn, am I glad to be as far away from that hell hole as I can be without getting my feet wet.
Makes me ashamed that my state, sad as it is, sent volunteers to help defend that @!$%#hole. Waste of men and bullets.
Gerrymandered districts are majorly screwing us up now.
How can the worst most corrupted state in America offer anyone anything , texas is the toilet bowl of the 100% criminally insane & murderous petroleum cartel and with the Petrochemical guys holding down 2nd place with such huge scumbags like Monsanto & Alcoa I'm utterly amazed that anyone in Texas has enough brain energy left in there tank to keep there own heart & lungs running . But tell Me how can there be that many so called Americans living there who collectively remain completely clueless about the reality of there own situation and blind to how they force the rest of us to endure it with there shear ignorance ? someone please put them sorry SOB out of our misery ....
"...I hear building a business in California is next to impossible..."
Yeah, remember the days of the tech startup in silicon valley. Where did they go? Oh, that's right, that's still happening.
In the words of General William T. Sherman: If I had to choose, I'd live in Hell and rent out Texas.
Man, you guys are tough. I've lived in Texas all my life except for being in foreign countries during my Army days. I was really glad to be back here.
That said, yes we have our supply of idiots here but not all of us are. The Shrub and Gov.Goodhair have been bruises to our wellbeing but we're doing what we can to change that. We just need for someone to step up and challenge our so called Govenor in the next election that can send him packing.
On the California thing, I hope someone can put this on the tv's or print media that will remind voters that he's still an idiot and help us put him away.
Really? You're doing what you can to change that? Explain Ted Cruz, then, please.
And for every Californian that moves to Texas, will raise the average IQ of both states <bada bing!>
Ted, the Tea Party Darling has shown himself recently to be an even bigger idiot that we expected. I'm not sure if the Latino vote was responsible because of his name or if it was the Repubs and their straight party voting that caused it.Not much we can do about it right away..hopefully his record will work against him in the next cycle.
Rick Perry may be a doofus, but it doesn't do much good to compare Texas and California only by per capita income without considering cost of living. SOMETHING is drawing a lot of people to Texas, including many from California.
The thing drawing a vast number of people to Rick Perry's Texas in droves is the certainty that their children won't be forced, in school, to learn anything (remotely related to reality) that conflicts with the BS they get force-fed in church. To my mind it's a piss poor commentary on those parents who are too cowardly to have their beliefs questioned, but you can't remove children from a home because their mom and dad are voluntarily ignorant imbeciles. And, courts are loathe to recognize the systematic retardation of a child's intellectual development with religious douchebaggery as child abuse. In short, we can expect at least one more generation of intentionally ignorant morons seeking to codify the fantasies they hold, about the opinions of their invisible overlords, into the laws that govern all of us.
Don't mess with Texas. lol this is funny.
I wonder what the innovations in technology, the depth of cultural creativity, and the dynamism of higher ed is like in Texas, in comparison to California?
I'm with you Chuck. This is a tough crowd. We have W. to thank for the scourge of Rick Perry's governorship, we have Rove to thank for Bush beating Ann Richards in a scandal-ridden election, and we have an unfortunate and severe case of state jingoism that keeps the status quo intact.
Perhaps our main contribution to the American public is to serve as a warning for what these politicians can do when they're allowed to run amok.
Barbara Jordan.
I remember Barbara Jordan during the Nixon impeachment hearings. We lost a wonderful, thoughtful, insightful citizen when she died. Sigh... I could envision her running for president.
Do yourselves a favor - do not come to Texas. I hate it here. I'm disgusted by this campaign. Just when I think Perry can't sink any lower...
Actually, I take that back - send us some strong union leadership and a huge pack of progressive minded folks. Let's make sure this idiotic invitation bites these fools in the ass!
Just keep in mind that...
...if Christopher Columbus had sailed from China in search of a route to Europe, he would have landed at Santa Catalina Island.
If that had been the case, today there would be 300 million people living west of the Pacific Crest and Texas would be a poorly attended national park.
(Imagine the pioneers peering east from Reno, asking "We have to cross THAT to get to ... Missouri? Like that is going to happen!)
Does Texas still have drive-through liquor stores?
Yes, we do!
All the better to buy a tall boy to drown your sorrows in on your way home!
Especially if you come here from California to work for one of our thriving business doing bust ass, dirty work for slave wages and no benefits, workman's comp, or overtime!
I'm not sure this matters. California and Texas both look like wastelands that do nothing but burn come the summer time. I don't know much about business, but I'm pretty sure nothing having a forest fire next door is one of them.
Alva, I've lived nearly all my life in California. Yes, we have a busy fire season. But I still prefer California to Texas. The quality of life is far superior. If you think that California is a wasteland, you obviously have never lived here.
Joan, I was being a bit facetious.