DNC chair: Texas economy no credit to Perry
One day after Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz hammered Perry's record on job creation and accused him of making "inaccurate" comments about President Obama's economic accomplishments.
Wasserman Schultz, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," told Norah O'Donnell that she was "incredibly proud" of Mr. Obama's efforts at turning the economy around - and argued that Perry does not deserve credit for Texas' strong job creation record.
Texas's unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, about one point less than the national average, and 40 percent of the nation's new jobs since June 2009 are in Texas, though many are low-wage.
"There is a dramatic contrast with the governor of Texas" when it comes to his record versus the president's on job creation," Wasserman Schultz said. "Not the least of which is that it is extremely difficult for him to deserve credit for that job creation when you have rising gas prices that created oil jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you had military spending as a result of two wars that created military jobs that he had nothing to do with, when you have the Recovery Act championed by President Obama that created jobs in Texas that he had nothing to do with."
She continued: "So it is way overblown to suggest that the job creation in Texas is squarely on the shoulders of [Perry's] policies."
Perry announced his bidfor the 2012 Republican nomination in South Carolina on Saturday with a speech grounded in attacks on President Obama. The Texas Republican enters the race as one of the frontrunners for the nomination, and many have already pegged him as the biggest threat to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's candidacy.
In his Saturday speech announcing his candidacy, Perry accused Mr. Obama of "downgrading" American financial stability.
"The fact is for nearly three years, President Obama has been downgrading American jobs, he's been downgrading our standing in the world, he's been downgrading our financial stability, he's been downgrading our confidence, and downgrading the hope for a better future for our children," he said.
When asked about those comments, Wasserman Schultz defended Mr. Obama's record and called Perry's statements "inaccurate."
"I am incredibly proud of President Obama's accomplishments," she told O'Donnell. "This is a president that took on the health insurance industry and reformed healthcare to make sure that every American could have coverage and insurance companies couldn't drop you or deny you coverage; took on Wall Street, made sure that banks were not ever again too big to fail; made sure that we began to get our economy turned around -- so I think Americans are appreciative of the hard work and effort and accomplishment that President Obama has made."
"Certainly those accomplishments are not reflective of any of the governor's inappropriate comments," she said, adding that Perry's comments were "inaccurate."
