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Perry, O'Malley clash over jobs, healthcare
Washington (CNN) – Red state-blue state governors Rick Perry and Martin O’Malley debated job creation and healthcare on Wednesday, with Perry equating adding people to Medicaid via Obamacare with “putting tens of thousands on the Titanic knowing how it’s going to turn out.”
Both men are thought to be contenders for the White House in 2016 and on CNN’s “Crossfire,” they aired out some of the key issues that are likely to define their campaigns should they run.
Perry: Medicaid broken like the Titanic
CNN's Stephanie Cutter questions Texas Gov. Rick Perry on why his state is refusing help from Obamacare.
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Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
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Former Special Adviser for Green Jobs under President Obama, co-founder of Rebuild the Dream, author and attorney
Very good article! We will be linking to this great article on our website. Keep up the good writing.
http://community.cookinglight.com/member.php?315067-bioandchic
I live in the State of Texas and I am glad to see Rick Perry take his clown show on the road. Maybe he will decide to
move to another state or country.
Wouldn't it be More Productive if Our Elected Leaders Started Working Together as AMERICANS for AMERICANS and AMERICA, instead of just bickering, stalling and posturing for the next election as democrats and republicans! The American People have had it with this unproductive BS! The way that both parties having been operating for years just stinks! Neither party has really been looking out for the best interests of the US Citizens who elect them and who they're supposed to represent.
Both parties have sold out the bulk of the American citizens, who they're supposed to represent, by allowing the incursion of illegal aliens and the "out-sourcing" floodgates to open wider and wider without taking any sensible measures to stem the tide.
It shouldn't be all about Democrats or Republicans! It should be about Americans, especially our elected officials, doing the right thing for our country and its citizens. All the single-minded, left versus right, ideological one dimensional bull has got to go!
The Citizens of the United States of America need our elected leaders from both parties to start working together to actually start trying to fix the real problems in our country like "out-sourcing", illegal immigration, the out of control costs of health care insurance and our reliance on foreign fuel. Fix them together as Americans! – Because united we'll stand, but divided we'll fall.
We need Leaders – Not politicians!
Part of the problem with debating these types of issues is that it's hard to get really accurate statistics to use to base an argument. Firstly, it's very hard to compare a big state like Texas to a small state like Maryland. Wages are not good statistics to compare because the costs of living in each place vary so drastically. For instance, according to CNN's Cost of Living calculator, if you live in Baltimore, MD, and currently make $50,000 a year, you can expect to earn a comparable salary of $41,960 in Houston Texas (or only 17% less than your Baltimore salary.) On the surface, that sounds horrible, BUT if you consider price differences in the two cities (Groceries are 24% less, Housing is 35% less, Utilities are 9% less, Transportation is 6% less, and Health Care is 1% less) AND you have NO state income tax, and even with no state income tax, you only pay 0.25% more of a sales tax than Maryland (MD = 6% and TX =6.25%), you will find that you probably have more buying power in Houston than in Maryland.
When you look at statistics on minimum wage, you have to put them into context. For instance, the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics will say that Texas has the highest number of people earning at or below minimum wage, however they are only looking at the Federal minimum wage rate. Texas' minimum wage is the same as the national minimum wage, whereas a state like California is actually $8.00, which means that almost all of the workers earning the lowest possible wage in the state of California are not counted in the federal statistics. Also tipped employees are included in the minimum wage statistic. Again, you have to look at buying power as well. For instance, if you compare living in LA to Houston, you are more likely to earn more in LA, however, expect to pay almost 50% more for housing, and over 20% more for groceries. Also, Texans don't have a state income tax, whereas Californians are expected to pay 5.8% of their income over to the state. In the end, a person with a lower salary in Houston may actually be better off, when considering buying power, than someone living in Los Angeles.
So even if you think you have it bad in Texas, when you hear these discussions of wages, you may actually find, if doing a little more research, that you may actually still have more buying power than in other places.
The Governor of Maryland was absolutely correct and Perry lied as usual. I am a Texan and even though jobs have been created here, they are low paying jobs and unless you have two of them, you cannot survive. Many people come here looking for the promised land and then cannot afford to go back where they came from so they take whatever low paying job they can find. I do wish that someone on your show had known the information in the link below. Texas has the distinction of being Number 3 in the United States, not a reason to be proud.
http://homes.yahoo.com/photos/states-where-the-most-people-go-hungry-1379553026-slideshow/states-where-the-most-people-go-hungry-photo-1379552918300.html