Perry’s Texas

Ross Douthat looks at the Perry record. This amused me:

The question is whether Perry himself deserves any of the credit. Here his critics become much more persuasive. When Perry became governor, taxes were already low, regulations were light, and test scores were on their way up. He didn’t create the zoning rules that keep Texas real estate affordable, or the strict lending requirements that minimized the state’s housing bubble. Over all, the Texas model looks like something he inherited rather than a system he built.

Yes, like Barack Obama, he inherited it from George W. Bush. I doubt the Democrats will get far with that argument.
UPDATE: Phil Klein takes apart Paul Krugman’s characteristically dishonest critique of Douthat.

3 thoughts on “Perry’s Texas”

  1. Another amusing thing about the “he inherited a good model” thing – doesn’t it just mean that the model is something worth emulating on a national scale to the degree possible. Isn’t that what the whole “laboratories of democracy” thing is about.

  2. It’s a fair point that Perry may have inherited a good situation from Bush, but on the other hand, he knew enough not to screw it up too.

  3. I heartily endorse Paul H.’s point. Knowing when not to screw with something that is working right is a solid job function of executives, just as it is for engineers.

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