Rick Perry is So Proud; State May Have to Lay Off 9,800 Workers – 9,800 workers could likely be laid off as the state grapples with a projected two-year budget shortfall approaching $21 billion. Mike Gross, vice president of the Texas State Employees Union, said he expects there will be much more pressure to lay off employees next year than in 2003, the last time Texas faced a similar budget crunch. Gross said, “We can afford to do better by our people.” For now, state leaders have protected public school aid from the cuts, though people from across the political spectrum say it is unlikely that schools will be left untouched.
“If the Legislature is going to balance this budget primarily through budget cuts, nothing can be off the table,” said Dale Craymer, president of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. Colleges and universities are expected to add to the final job loss tally when the budget is completed next year. The University of Texas, for instance, has said 600 jobs could be eliminated if a full 10 percent cut is required. At Texas A&M University, the number of affected jobs would be 400.
Rick Perry is too Incompetent to Do a TV Ad Correctly – Governor Rick Perry and his campaign have released their first television ad of the campaign season. The opening seconds of the ad shows one of the store’s workers carrying flowers to put outside the store. But …
“I didn’t know he was going to use our store in an ad. No, I don’t support Governor Perry or his views.”
–Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery in South Austin
Mitch McConnell’s Funny Tax Math Deems Obama a ‘Small Business’ – If Mitch McConnell (R – KY) is taken at his word, then President Obama is a small business. In the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, the senate Republican leader has employed a definition of “small business” that, Bloomberg reports, is fairly broad.
To come up with McConnell’s figures, he has expanded conventional notions of “small.” Former staff director of the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation Ed Kleinbard told Bloomberg that the senator’s definition includes not just “part-time Web designer[s]” but also “investor[s] in a hedge fund” and “partner[s] in a law firm with a billion dollars of revenue.” It also, Bloomberg notes, includes the president, who, according to his tax return, last year took in $5,623,690, most of which came from book sales. McConnell’s definition would also include billionaire George Soros
In Rick Perry’s Texas, the Voices of Women are Unwelcome – The Dallas Morning News revealed that Perry’s planning a “male-oriented” fundraising dinner where “a few, select men can pay $15,000 each to eat pheasant and wild sausage and have conversation with the governor.” How about their wives and “significant others”? Well, they’re welcome to join the men for post-dinner festivities.
You Have Been Mislead About Party Popularity; Republicans Are Actually Far Less Popular with Voters – The Republican Party’s unpopularity marks a critical difference between the election this November and 1994, when the party’s sweep of more than 50 seats won it the majority in the House for the first time in 40 years. Then, the official argued, Republicans had been out of power for more than four decades and voters were ready to try something different. This time, voters know what they would be getting with Republicans in charge and don’t like it, the source said. Here are some recent poll results:
AP Congressional approval/disapproval
Dems 38/60
Reps 31/68
CBS/NY Times, 9/15
Dems 30/58
Reps 20/68
ABC/WaPo, deserve reelection
Dems 34
Reps 31
Brendan Nyhan posted a terrific graphic at pollster.com (Be careful, Republicans are shown in blue, Democrats in red, opposite of what we are used to seeing):
Regards,
Jim
Andy Hailey