TX Governor Rick Perry has long touted how fiscally responsible his state is and how reprehensible it is to take stimulus money from the feds. Too bad he couldn’t live up to his own rhethoric. From CNN:

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.

Even budget deficits are bigger in Texas

Texas, which crafts a budget every two years, was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years. It plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money, allowing it to leave its $9.1 billion rainy day fund untouched.

“Stimulus was very helpful in getting them through the last few years,” said Brian Sigritz, director of state fiscal studies for the National Association of State Budget Officers, said of Texas.

Even as Perry requested the Recovery Act money, he railed against it. On the very same day he asked for the funds, he set up a petition titled “No Government Bailouts.”

“Join our fight and add your voice to a growing list of several thousand Americans who are fed up with this irresponsible spending that threatens our future,” Perry wrote on his blog on Feb. 18, 2009.

So much for fiscal responsibility. Like other Republicans, he’ll rail against the money that’s being sent, but he sure will put it to use if he gets it.

What he and others fail to realize is that it’s a fairly simple math equation. You can’t cut taxes to the lowest point in 40 years, and expect to pay for everything you were paying for before.