Barack Obama went to Texas on his perpetual-campaign tour Thursday.

Texas is the state that, in terms of job growth, has basically propped up the entire U.S. economy, according to Texas Gov. Rick Perry:

The Texas Model works:

• While the U.S. lost 2.5 million net jobs over the last five years, Texas created 530,000 net new jobs.
• Over the last 10 years, Texas created 33 percent of the net new jobs nationwide.
• Texas has been the top exporting state in the nation for 11 straight years.
• Texas is ranked #1 on CNBC’s 2012 Top States for Business list.

And just this week, Chief Executive magazine ranked Texas the best state to do business for the ninth year in a row, and Site Selection Magazine ranked us the most competitive state in 2012. Mr. President, the Texas Success Story can be the American Success Story.

Investors Business Daily adds:

And since the recovery started in June 2009, Texas has outperformed Obama on every important economic measure.

Jobs: Private sector jobs have shot up 10% in Texas since June 2009, which is twice the national growth rate. And while U.S. employment is still 2% below its pre-recession peak, in Texas it’s 5% above the state’s previous high.

Labor force: Nationwide, the labor force — the number of people who have jobs or are actively looking — has remained virtually flat since the recovery started, climbing just 0.3% over the past 45 months. Texas, in contrast, has seen its labor force climb 6.2%, as workers flood the state.

Wages: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average annual wages in the U.S. rose 5.4% from May 2009 to May 2012. In Texas, they rose 6.1%.

Per capita income: Texans have also seen their per capita personal income grow faster than the nation as a whole, increasing 13.3% compared with 10.5% nationwide, Bureau of Economic Analysis data show.

GDP: And Texas’ economy has grown faster than the overall economy since Obama took office. Between 2009 and 2011, real GDP in Texas expanded 8.7%, while the nation’s overall GDP managed just 4.6% growth, according to the BEA.

And while Obama and his backers complain that austerity is now standing in the way of economic growth, Texas proves that more government spending and government jobs aren’t needed to grow the economy.

Overall state spending has been flat since 2010, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers, and BLS data show that state and local government jobs dropped 16,500 since the recovery started.

The two statistics that stand out like sore thumbs are personal income growth, which in Wisconsin has trailed the national average since the late 1970s, and government spending, which is twice what it would have been had the state had controls on spending on taxes back in the 1970s.

With discontent in this state over its subpar job growth, and of course the pathetic national economic “recovery,” Perry says Texas’ economy is based on:

 Low taxes

 Lawsuit abuse reform

 Predictable and effective regulations

 Balanced budgets

 Accountable schools and a competitive workforce.

Which of these apply to Wisconsin or the nation? Definitely not low taxes. (Wisconsin is fifth highest in state and local taxes and eighth worst in business tax climate, and when state taxes are added, the U.S. has the highest corporate income tax rate in the world.) Lawsuit abuse reform? According to the Institute for Legal Reform, Wisconsin’s legal environment ranks 15th. (Texas ranks 36th, which probably is the reason for Texans for Lawsuit Reform.) “Predictable and effective regulations”? In Wisconsin? The land of Damn Near Russia?

Wisconsin has a legally but not factually balanced budget. Our schools are definitely overrated (while the education establishment screams bloody murder about attempts to make schools accountable), and our workforce appears to be overrated as well in the opinion of the only people who count, employers. And on each of these points where more needs to be done, the Legislature, which according to media reports is controlled by the Republican Party, has done next to nothing.

What is the Wisconsin Model? High taxes, 3,120 levels of government, grossly excessive regulation, slavish financial devotion to public schools, and, by the way, below-average business and personal income. Three and a half decades (or more) of the same old thing isn’t working.