Fact-Checking Rick Perry’s Announcement Speech

Posted by | August 15, 2011 16:59 | Filed under: Top Stories


Glenn Kessler gives him two Pinocchios overall.

Perry: “Since June of 2009, Texas is responsible for more than 40 percent of all of the new jobs created in America. Now think about that. We’re home to less than 10 percent of the population in America, but 40 percent of all the new jobs were created in that state.”
Fact: Texas, as a state rich in oil and national gas, has also benefited from increases in energy prices that have slowed the economy elsewhere in the country. Higher energy prices have meant more jobs in Texas. Though Perry proudly claims the job growth is the result of a low-tax, anti-regulatory environment, others have pointed to a big investment in education in the 1980s that, yes, was the result of a tax increase.

Perry: “We’re dismayed at the injustice that nearly half of all Americans don’t even pay any income tax.”
Fact: Perry is referring to federal income taxes, but slightly understates the situation. The most recent estimate, by the nonpartisan Joint Committee for Taxation, is that 51 percent of taxpayer units (such as individuals or couples) in 2009 had no income tax liability. However, the most precise way to interpret the data is that 22 percent had no actual income liability, while 30 percent received refundable credits that wiped out what they owed in income taxes.

Perry: “We don’t need a president who apologizes for America. We need a president who protects and projects those values.”
Fact: We examined this claim in great detail some months ago, and there is no evidence Obama ever apologized for America…Go back and look at our original column, which includes a number of examples of George W. Bush saying much more apologetic-sounding phrases than Obama.

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Copyright 2011 Liberaland
By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.

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