The Texas miracle is that Rick Perry calls it a miracle.

CNN Money says that the fastest growing crop in Texas is poverty on the vine.

While it’s true that Texas is responsible for 40% of the jobs added in the U.S. over the past two years, its poverty rate also grew faster than the national average in 2010.

Texas ranks 6th in terms of people living in poverty. Some 18.4% of Texans were impoverished in 2010, up from 17.3% a year earlier, according to Census Bureau data released this week. The national average is 15.1%.

And while Texas did do well in job production, it’s jobs that pay poverty wages. In the past 4 years, we have doubled the number of workers who are making minimum wage.  More than half a million Texans are paid $7.25 an hour or less.  That’s about $15,000 a year, if the job is full time.

And being poor in Texas is harder than herding a swarm of bees through a snowstorm.  Rick Perry expects barefooted children to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

Our unemployment rate is up.  Our poverty rate is up.  But, goodgawdalmighty, our Governor is up in the polls, so it’s all pretty much worth it.

Thanks to Stephen and David  for the heads up.