Paul Burka thinks Perry's comments are going to haunt him, as they well should.
Paul Burka of the Texas Monthly: "This gaffe is going to stick. It is going to be national news. It will come back to haunt him in a campaign spot. If Hutchison can't make something of it, the Democrats can. You cannot be callous and cavalier when people are losing their jobs and their homes. I don't care how ideological the Republican base is. Unemployment in Texas just reached the 8% mark. Everybody knows someone who is suffering in these times. Everybody has lost part of their life savings. It could cost him the race."
Perry continues to show his heartless contempt for the hardworking and struggling people of Texas. Refusing to accept federal stimulus funds to extend the unemployment benefits for the unemployed and denying the existence of a severe recession reveals just how out of touch Perry is with the needs of the people he is supposed to serve. As far as I am concerned, we deserve much, much better than this.
Houston, where Perry was speaking, lost 95,100 jobs between August 2008 and August 2009, adding to the overall rise in unemployment for the state of Texas to 8%. Perry's state also leads the nation for people lacking health insurance. Texas would have a much higher unemployment rate if it were not for President Obama's stimulus program, which has provided billions in investments and over 70,000 jobs so far. Nonetheless, Perry not only considered rejecting the stimulus, but has called it a "burden."
This story should be on the front page of every newspaper in the state tomorrow morning.
