>> especially how they're different. california has the highest poverty rate at 23.8% while texas rate declined to 16%. what does that mean? what can we take from those stats? >> let's talk to somebody who's lived in both states. the vice president for the policy -- rather for policy at the texas public policy foundation. he is also a former california lawmakers and author of "the texas model book." thank you for joining us today. >> thank you for having me. >> we're going to put up another graphic that shows folks the highest taxes in america at the state level. california is fourth. texas is 45th. the conventional wisdom would be if you're paying higher taxes, you would have lower poverty in that state but it's exactly the opposite. >> it is exactly the opposite. in fact, what we're seeing with this new poverty measure that looks into both the cost of living and the value of government services as well as taxes is we're seeing