Rick Perry, tea party darling, secessionist, and hypocritical fraud
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It never fails: the very same Republicans who whine the loudest about "big government" depend on it more than anybody else:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry likes to tell Washington to stop meddling in state affairs. He vocally opposed the Obama administration’s 2009 stimulus program to spur the economy and assist cash-strapped states. Perry also likes to trumpet that his state balanced its budget in 2009, while keeping billions in its rainy day fund. But he couldn’t have done that without a lot of help from … guess where? Washington. Turns out Texas was the state that depended the most on those very stimulus funds to plug nearly 97% of its shortfall for fiscal 2010, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Obviously, Rick Perry wants to stick us with the bill before they secede.
h/t: Matt Yglesias