Perry made headlines during the 2009 legislative session when he turned down $555 million in federal stimulus funding to extend unemployment insurance , citing the strings attached, and he has made a talking point out of the “failed stimulus.”

But Texas took more than $17 billion in stimulus money in 2009 to balance the budgets from that biennium and the previous one. The fact is, he kept the state solvent by taking what he now rails against.

Next candidate, please.