Do conservatives realize Texas is running a huge deficit when they point out half the recovery jobs are there?

With the economy recovering ever sluggishly, Conservatives are quick to point out that “half of the jobs made in the last 7–8 months were made in Texas.” No doubt trying to draw a correlation between the largest red state, which is pretty much entirely run by Republicans, and economic recovery (and ignoring all the increasing oil/gas jobs thanks to the state having a larger surplus than any other state in the country save Alaska). Rick Perry, the Texas governor is expected to join the race for the presidency soon even.

Well what they seem to forget to point out is that Texas apparently solved their jobs problem the same way the Federal government did. Texas is looking at a two year budget that will carry a minimum of a 22 billion dollar deficit (which even that number would be the largest in the country), and one potentially as high as 31 billion dollars. To top that off, there’s apparently no red meat to cut, so everything they’re looking at cutting is right out of programs like education, police, etc (and I’m not talking about jobs directly, just funding).

Are conservatives wise to keep pointing to Texas, and is Perry smart to even throw his hat in the presidential ring, with that gigantic problem? If I were the Dems I would be pouncing all over this.