As Unemployment In Texas Jumps, Blame Falls To Republicans
Vince Leibowitz | Sep 20, 2008 | Comments 0
It is yet another crisis that the Republican leadership in Texas can be faulted for: the unemployment race in Texas jumped to five percent for August:
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for August hit 5 percent, up from 4.3 percent in August 2007.
An estimated 603,900 people were out of work in August, up from 495,800 in August 2007.
The unemployment rate for Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington — not seasonally adjusted — was 5.1 percent, up from 4.2 percent in August 2007.
You may ask, “how can the Republican leadership in Texas be faulted for high unemployment?” The answer is because it is their fault.
First and foremost, consider that the Republicans claims of creating jobs over the last several years–a claim often touted by Texas Governor Rick Perry–weren’t necessarily true. They were creating jobs, but they weren’t doing anything to keep jobs in the state’s manufacturing sector. In addition, in spite of his economic development slush fund, Perry (not to mention the legislature) has done nothing about Texas’ growing trade deficit to China.
In addition, some of this job liss is directly attributable to the alleged “reform” of the Texas tax system in 2006 that put more burdents on small businesses. Small businesses are the ones creating jobs. And, in this economy with higher state taxes on small businesses, they aren’t creating jobs and are, in fact, downsizing.
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Filed Under: Texas Economy
