Today in a speech in New Hampshire, Texas Governor and Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry told the audience, “America’s crisis is not bad luck, it’s bad policies from Washington D.C.”

The implication, of course, is that Rick Perry could do better, that he has the kind of economic wisdom to set federal economic policies right, and bring back good times for the USA. Perry’s presidential web site promises “to get the federal government’s fiscal house in order, simplify and limit taxes, restore the country’s good credit”.

Rick Perry’s record in Texas says something different. Perry has been Governor of Texas for years, and he’s left Texas an economic wreck.

In its most recent statistical measurement, the American Community Survey identifies Texas as in the 10 most impoverished states in the USA. Texas was ranked in 2009 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as one of the worst 10 states in terms of the percent of children living in poverty.

Rick Perry claims that the Texas economy is a “miracle”. Perhaps for wealthy oil barons, it is. Yet, the working people of Texas are more impoverished than their counterparts in almost every other state in the nation.

If the federal government was the problem, then the problem would be federal. It isn’t. In New Hampshire, the rate of child poverty is 11 percent. In Texas, it’s 24 percent. In Connecticut, the overall poverty rate is 7.9 percent. In Texas, it’s 16.3 percent.

After years and years as Governor, Rick Perry hasn’t lifted working Texans out of poverty. He’s sunk them down deeper into it. Let’s not allow Rick Perry to do the same to the entire USA.