Rick Perry Runs for President: What Does This Mean for Your Wallet?

Rick Perry announced his candidacy for the 2016 presidential election Thursday at the Addison Airport outside Dallas. Perry boasts a formidable record as Texas governor, but comes into this run with an indictment for allegedly abusing power and an embarrassing 2012 presidential campaign.

Rick Perry as President: More Jobs, Less Taxes and No Minimum Wage Hikes

Although some would argue it’s unlikely Perry will get elected while running against the more prominent and less controversial Texas Republican Ted Cruz, his economic policies are still worth examining. On his campaign website, Perry addresses some of the most important issues that could impact your finances if he were to become president.

1. Job Growth

From 2007 to 2014, Perry oversaw the addition of 2.2 million new jobs in Texas while he was the governor, according to his campaign website. Texas contributed nearly 30 percent of all new private-sector jobs in America while he was in office, and the number of women in the workplace also grew by more than 1 million.

As president, he also wants to make sure “that every American can find work” and those already employed “can earn more.” Based on his track record and his campaign promise, it appears that Perry as president could mean more job creation and opportunities for unemployed Americans.

2. Taxes

Perry doesn’t only want to help put Americans back to work; he wants to help them keep more of their hard-earned money. In Texas, he “cut taxes over 75 times for more than $17 billion in savings to Texas taxpayers.”

Tax cuts would likely result in more take-home pay, increasing your paycheck and decreasing the amount you have to pay come April. “We need to make life more affordable,” states Perry’s website, “by helping Americans keep more of what they earn, and by lowering the cost of everyday expenses.”

Related: How Hillary Clinton as President Could Affect Your Paycheck

3. Health Care

Many economists claim Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, decreased both the nation’s medical bill and provided affordable health care to many who could not previously afford it. Perry, however, opposed the health care plan and refused to expand Medicaid in Texas.

If programs like Medicare and Medicaid are eliminated under Perry, Americans who currently qualify for those programs — like seniors, the unemployed and those below the poverty line — might have to pay out of pocket, risking higher medical expenses in the long run.

4. Minimum Wage Hikes

Although not stated explicitly anywhere on his campaign website, Perry has previously said on record that he doesn’t believe there should be a federal minimum wage hike. In 2014, he told CNN that he doesn’t “think that it’s the government’s business to be setting the minimum wage out there.”

He later explained on Iowa Public Television that the minimum wage should be left “to the small businessmen and women,” reports PolitiFact. If you earn a low minimum wage right now, having Perry as president might not increase your paycheck in this regard.

Perry is going into this race knowing that he is an underdog, even admitting his failure in 2012 to CNN, “Anyone who watched the campaign knows it was a very humbling time for me. But that’s not necessarily bad. I judge people on how do you react to failure.” As much as Perry is an unlikely GOP nominee, he is someone to watch in the 2016 election.

Photo credit: Christopher Halloran / Shutterstock.com

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Rick Perry Runs for President: What Does This Mean for Your Wallet?

This article by Misha Euceph first appeared on GoBankingRates.com and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.