Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken had both encouraging - and dire - words for Texas' jobs outlook at a Texas Public Policy Foundation policy primer on Oct. 29.

Pauken discussed recent headlines on the number of people coming to Texas to look for work, thanks to Texas' low taxes and business-friendly environment.

But in spite of the good news, things have to change on the national level to keep Texas prosperous.

"We could still go down with the ship, even if we are the last to go down," Pauken said.

According to reports released this week, Texas saw only 1,100 jobs created thanks to roughly $540 million in stimulus funds sent to the state -- that comes to about $435,000 spent to create each job.

Isn't government bureaucracy wonderful?

Of those jobs, the largest number (254 jobs) were created in Kileen and Temple and were attributed to government contracts with Ft. Hood, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Pauken said that nationally, over the past decade, private sector job growth has accounted for 0.01 % of new jobs. (See the Free Republic article on this issue from August.) The largest job growth seen over the last decade has been in the government sector.

Pauken's conclusion is absolutely spot-on, and should be a major focus for our elected officials in Washington, D.C. if they want to save this sinking ship:

"We need to have a change in our tax and economic policy if we're going to get the economy turned around."