This bit from Texas Governor Rick Perry appears to be contradicted by what has actually happened in Texas:
“The fact is, government doesn’t create jobs, otherwise the last two and a half years of stimulus would have worked,” Perry said this month in a speech to the National Conference of State Legislatures. “Government can only create the environment that allows the private sector to create jobs. The single most important contributor to our jobs-friendly climate here in Texas is our low tax burden, because we know dollars do far more to create jobs and prosperity in the people’s hands than they do in the government’s.”
The Washington Post calculates today that private sector jobs in Texas have fallen slightly since the recession began, by 0.6 percent. Public-sector jobs are up by 6.4 percent, and about one in every six Texas workers clocks in for the government. Compare that with conditions in Ohio, where government jobs have been lost and unemployment has begun to climb again.
What's more, Texas seems really, truly proud of what it has accomplished with federal stimulus money. The state government alone has been awarded more than $24 billion -- real money, even in a Texas-sized economy.
(h/t Ezra Klein)