After enjoying a record 10 years as governor, Rick Perry travels from one campaign stop to the next, spinning the yarn that everything’s A-Okay in Texas.

Don’t believe him. Rick Perry is a savvy, 25-year career politician. He sticks to friendly audiences full of handpicked supporters, because he can’t peddle his hype to a group of real, struggling Texas families. He’d rather hide out in his $10,000-a-month, taxpayer-funded rental mansion than defend his miserable record.

What he brags about most is balancing the Texas budget. He always fails to mention, however, his letter to President Obama accepting his $16 billion share of Washington D.C. stimulus money to fill the gaping hole in his last budget.ⁱ If Perry hadn’t begged for stimulus money, Texas might be in as bad a shape as California.

And since he took the stimulus money and ran, we have watched government-related jobs shoot upⁱⁱ, while private sector job losses have left us stuck in an even deeper ditchⁱⁱⁱ. Perry won’t tell you that the Texas unemployment rate has even grown^iv more than the nation’s as a whole.

Now, with his new, record-setting, $21 billion budget hole, Perry’s really outdone himself^v. And he won’t have President Obama’s stimulus money to come to his rescue this time around.

Perry’s $21 billion shortfall means:

• Hundreds of thousands of children could be cut from the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps working parents afford coverage for their kids^vi;
• Skyrocketing tuition rates as parents are struggling to find the funds to provide a brighter future for their kids^vii;
• Key Perry allies will balance the budget on the backs of schoolchildren by stuffing more kids into already crowded classrooms^viii.

Instead of shooting straight about his record, Rick Perry is busy demanding credit for the success of everyday Texans. He even takes credit for the hard work of Texas small businesses after he raised their unemployment taxes to the highest level in a decade^iix.

The success of Texas families and small business owners can be credited to their own grit and determination, in the face of Perry’s reckless mismanagement of our state.

Texans are fed up with the cronyism and incompetence that corrupt our government.