Trying To Out-Asshole The Neighbors

Because South Carolina's Gov. Rick Sanford can't have a monopoly on teh st00pid, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is upping the ante in this little poker game by raising Sanford's plan to use $700 million to pay down state debts with the discretionary part of his state's stimulus package with Perry's own plan to outright reject $555 million in actual unemployment benefits.

Gov. Rick Perry set up a possible battle with the Legislature today by rejecting about $555 million from the federal government for expanded aid to unemployed Texans on grounds that the money would come attached with too many costly obligations.

Perry announced his refusal of the funds in Houston at a Bering’s Hardware store near the Galleria, where a store official said accepting that share of the nation’s so-called stimulus package might mean having to pay an additional $12,000 a year in unemployment insurance.

"Employers who have to pay more taxes have less money to make their payroll" and would have to raise prices on their products, the governor said. "The calls to take the (stimulus) money and sort out the consequences later are quite troubling to me."

To get the stimulus money, Texas would have to extend unemployment benefits to those who lost their jobs and now are seeking part-time work -- an idea that Perry said Texas has rejected repeatedly, partly because it might discourage people from seeking full-time employment. The White House also want states to expand benefits to more low-pay workers.

What a super guy! Actually screwing over out-of-work people in his own state now because businesses might have to pay higher unemployment insurance in three or four years.

Needless to say, the Lone Star State's legislature has promptly told Perry to go to hell.

The stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama allows for state legislatures to bypass the type of rejection Perry made today. Around the time of the Republican governor’s announcement, Republican Jim Pitts of Waxahachie, chairman of the Texas House Appropriations Committee, voted to accept the half billion dollars in unemployment aid.

He was joined by four Democratic state representatives at an Austin meeting of a legislative committee studying the stimulus aid. Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton voted no.

Waco-based economist Ray Perryman today told the committee, headed by Democrat Jim Dunnam of Waco, that "we’re probably better off taking the money."

Without the funds, Perryman said the state’s unemployment fund is projected to run dry this year, possibly triggering higher unemployment insurance levies on employers even without the state’s acceptance of federal funds.

So, now that Perry's stated reason for turning down the money and screwing over thousands of Texans in a down economy has been explosed as complete and utter bullshit, what's the real reason Rick Perry did this?

I think he owes Texas that much, at least.

We know the answer of course: he's angling for the GOP ticket in 2012, just like Sanford. But Perry is taking money directly out of the hands of the unemployed for his little martyrdom dog and pony show, unlike Sanford.

Any folks from Texas out there feel like rewarding Rick Perry for this decision?