Texas: America's Very Own China?

[white cloud]

Some views that really hurt and are so true WOW Thanks Perry

By The ReverendPublished: May 11, 2013


The state of Texas is special. And GOP Texas Governor Rick Perry wants everyone to know it.

What's special about Texas? It's a state which actually touts it's similarities with China as a justification for businesses to move out of the state they're in now, and relocate to the Lone Star state. Well.....no in so many words...but the message is clear.

Governor Perry was asked whether better regulations in Texas could have prevented the huge explosion recently at a West Texas fertilizer plant which killed 20 and injured over 200. According to the NY Times, this was his response...

....Mr. Perry responded that more government intervention and increased spending on safety inspections would not have prevented what has become one of the nation’s worst industrial accidents in decades.

That answer reminds me of the response by many on the right to universal background checks for purchasing guns. Lawbreakers won't obey laws.....therefore any new laws only punish, or inconvenience law-abiders. Conclusion: the existent of laws in a society are evidence of a society which is not free.


http://www.ohio.com/blogs/mass-destruction/blog-of-mass-destruction-1.298992/texas-america-s-very-own-china-1.396866

[white cloud]

1. We need that

Battle Ground Texas fast

[DhhD]

5. Most of the business that Governor Perry brought to Texas have left after getting Tax Abatements

Who paid their taxes? Blue Texans and Red uninformed Texans made up the difference as Property Taxes were dropped to record lows in 2005-06; therefore, shifting the tax burden to the lower middle class and the poor.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/news/60515letter.html

Edited to change 2005-60 to 06.

[Buzz Clik]

2. Do you believe that, white cloud?

Do you live in Texas?

[Bongo Prophet]

3. Battleground Texas = effort to make Tx blue

I could be wrong, but I think that is what White cloud is referring to - the effort to win tx back from the backwards GOP.

Edit to add that I live in Tx and agree with that sentiment.

[DhhD]

4. Buzz Clik? Do you believe in RED TEXAS?

[douglas9]

6. After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation

WEST, Tex. — Five days after an explosion at a fertilizer plant leveled a wide swath of this town, Gov. Rick Perry tried to woo Illinois business officials by trumpeting his state’s low taxes and limited regulations. Asked about the disaster, Mr. Perry responded that more government intervention and increased spending on safety inspections would not have prevented what has become one of the nation’s worst industrial accidents in decades.

“Through their elected officials,” he said, Texans “clearly send the message of their comfort with the amount of oversight.”

This antipathy toward regulations is shared by many residents here. Politicians and economists credit the stance with helping attract jobs and investment to Texas, which has one of the fastest-growing economies in the country, and with winning the state a year-after-year ranking as the nation’s most business friendly. .

>snip

But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade. Fires and explosions at Texas’ more than 1,300 chemical and industrial plants have cost as much in property damage as those in all the other states combined for the five years ending in May 2012. Compared with Illinois, which has the nation’s second-largest number of high-risk sites, more than 950, but tighter fire and safety rules, Texas had more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/after-plant-explosion-texas-remains-wary-of-regulation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[DhhD]

7. What percentage of the new jobs in Texas pay minimum wage and below minimum wage?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/07/17/the-texas-jobs-juggernaut/the-minimum-wage-trap-in-texas

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/25/rick-perry-flat-tax-plan_n_1030129.html

The BLUE inequality is widening quickly. That is a fact!

Also, who in their right mind is going to accept going back to have no insurance coverage due to pre-existing conditions? Obamacare is up for another vote in the US House. Texas Democrats need to make the vote well known.
Republicans did not vote for SS changes. Will they be stupid enough to vote to appeal Obamacare? Let us hope so!