Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Texas' economic success

After his unsuccessful run for US Senator, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst probably felt like he was the inspiration for “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You“. Seems like every political pundit in Texas has written an obituary that has him curling up and withering away, afraid to show his face in public. Fortunately for Texas and Texans, he has chosen to get up off the floor, dust himself off, and get right back into the game. And it looks to me like the entire process made him a whole lot stronger in terms of dealing with the media and if this interview with Melissa Francis of Fox Business News is any indication, the pundits had better rewrite those obituaries.

What a great job outlining why Texas has been such a success. I especially liked this exchange between the two:

Melissa: Speaking of which, Texas has created half a million private sector jobs since 2009. You’ve cut more than 30,000 state and local government jobs.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: yeah.

Melissa: would you say that’s a victory? other places would say, oh, you cut government jobs.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: No, no we want to cut government jobs. we want more private sector jobs. Over the last three years, Texas has created more net new jobs than the rest of the country combined. Think about that. 8{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the population has created more than 92{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the population in jobs.

Melissa: Why is cutting government jobs important? Other people say that is taking money out of the economy.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: No, no.

Melissa: Well let me hear it. Fight for the other side.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: I’m in the oil and gas business. been in it all my life. I’ve been Lieutenant Governor almost 10 years. And what you want to do is create productive jobs. With all due respect, you need a certain amount of people in government but when we cut government that is reducing the costs that the taxpayers, that they have to pay. So that is good thing.

Melissa: Yeah the money to pay government workers doesn’t come thin air, it comes from taxes.

Lt. Gov. Dewhurst: And that’s why we have one of the lowest tax rates in the entire country.

Amen to that! I’m excited to see that Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is going to continue to push the Texas Legislature to keep taxes low, keep the regulatory burden light, and fight for Texans. I’ve met and interviewed a lot of smart businessmen and politicians but none smarter or quicker with numbers than David Dewhurst. I have no doubt that Texas will continue to lead the country economically.