The real Texas: what Rick Perry fails to tell America

After entering the presidential race and effectively overshadowing the all-important/not-at-all-important Ames Straw Poll over the weekend, Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) is starting to be uncovered by progressive writers across America. Nobel-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman effectively exposed Texas' job growth during the recession, dubbed by Perry and his supporters as the "Texas Miracle."

"It's true that Texas entered the recession a bit later than the rest of America mainly because the state's still energy-heavy economy was buoyed by high oil prices through the first half of 2008. Also, Texas was spared the worst of the housing crisis, partly because it turns out to have surprisingly strict regulation of mortgage lending.

Despite that, however, from mid-2008 onward unemployment soared in Texas just as it did everywhere else.

In June 2011, the Texas unemployment rate was 8.2 percent. That was less than unemployment in collapsed-bubble states like California and Florida, but it was slightly higher than the unemployment rate in New York and significantly higher than the rate in Massachusetts. By the way, one in four Texans lacks health insurance, the highest proportion in the nation, thanks largely to the state's small-government approach. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has near-universal coverage thanks to health reform very similar to the "job-killing" Affordable Care Act."

The numbers Krugman leaves out of his column only support his point. He fails to mention that the housing crisis partially missed Texas because the Lone Star State ranks 45th in home ownership -- put simply, there are just fewer mortgages to default on in Texas. And according to the census bureau, Texas ranks 41st in doctors per capita, with Massachusetts unsurprisingly ranking first. All the bottom ten in this ranking, with the exception of Iowa, are all heavily Republican states and most are in the south. All the top ten, on the other hand are all heavily Democratic states and with the exception of Hawaii, are all in New England. Infant mortality rates in these states closely trend with the doctors-per-capita numbers, with Texas ranking 31st and Massachusetts ranking 49th, meaning only Washington state had a lower infant mortality rate.

This trend is normal in most life-quality statistics.

In the category of "persons over 25 with a bachelors degree," Texas ranks 30th, well above most Southern states, but far behind Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Colorado, and New Jersey which top the list, respectively. With the exception of Colorado, all the top 5 also rank in the top 10 in salaries for elementary and secondary teachers. In this category, Texas ranks 29th.

And statistics support Democrats like Gov. Pat Quinn (D-IL) when he says "jobs follow brainpower." Personal income, average annual pay, and median household income in Quinn's state, as well as heavily liberal states like Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey all rank well above Texas. And all these states have far lower percentages of citizens living below poverty level, where Texas ranks a staggering 8th.

This is why Perry chooses to focus on pure numbers of job creation, rather than more telling percentages. But if America wants to walk the road Texas has built since Perry became governor -- in 2000, when he succeeded George W. Bush -- then jobs will be the least of our concerns.

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More census data on state rankings