SUPPOSE YOU WERE A TEXAS REPUBLICAN. AND SUPPOSE YOU WERE A SLEAZY LIAR. BUT I REPEAT MYSELF.

George W. Bush's successor as governor of Texas, Republican Rick Perry, is running for reelection. As Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle notes, he's telling people in his campaign ads that he saved them money -- and he wants to make sure they know exactly how much:

...Standing in front of a pleasant, modest house (or a school in another version), the good-looking governor touts the accomplishment.

As he speaks, large print echoes his words:

"$15 billion tax cut."

"Governor Rick Perry."

"$2,000 tax cut."

That last line accompanies him saying, "The average homeowner will receive a $2,000 tax cut."

There's just a slight problem:

If you, like many television viewers, turn away during commercials, you'll miss the small print on screen: "Over first three years."

Oh, wait -- there's another slight problem:

...Perry chose to use the average sales price, as calculated by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. That is $180,000 statewide.

But the average appraised value on which taxes are actually calculated is about $123,000 statewide....

The higher the value of the house, the greater the value of the tax cut.

(Houses that are currently selling are priced higher than the average house, you see.)

So the average homeowner won't save $2,000, even over three years, because Perry's "average" homeowner isn't really average. How much will the average homeowner save?

Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt ... projects an average savings of a miniscule $23 next year, less than $2 a month, or about the tax increase on two packs of cigarettes.

The next year, Bettencourt predicts an average savings of another $268.

(Why? Because average appraisals are going up, which eats into the tax cut. And many school districts will also pass tax increases.)

Lies, damned lies, and Republican statistics....