The One Question Scott Walker Cannot Answer Is...
Why, after three years of friendly GOP legislatures and pro-business budgets driven to validate Scott Walker's signature 250,000 new jobs pledge is Wisconsin's job-growth only half the national rate?
One paragraph in this short piece posted by Madison station WKOW-TV sums up the data:
Wisconsin ranks 37th in private sector job growth over the 12 month period that ended in June. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says from June 2012 to June 2013 private sector job growth went up by about 1 percent. The rate across the country is 1.9%, nearly double Wisconsin's rate.Aware that his failure to create promised jobs shreds his credibility and imperils his re-election, Walker, in a separate interview, defines his promise as a "goal," but doesn't explain why his policies are not working:
...Walker also reiterated his commitment to creating 250,000 new private sector jobs by the end of his term. According to PolitiFact Wisconsin, fewer than 100,000 new jobs have been created to date, with just over a year left to go.
“I still have it as a goal,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s a magic number.” In fact, “I would love for it to be well over 250,000.”Actually, it was a magic number - - used repeatedly by Walker to brand and underpin his campaigns for Governor in 2010 and 2012 - - and the Journal Sentinel put the right frame on it when it endorsed him in 2010 for the job for which it said he was most qualified:
Scott Walker has said repeatedly during his campaign for governor that he will develop strategies to create 250,000 new jobs during his first term.
It's a big promise - one that has been derided by his critics. But for the sake of Wisconsin, Walker had better be right.And if Walker were closing in on the 'goal' [Sic], you'd be hearing "250,000" more than you've heard "4th and eight," and Team Walker would be ordering Mission 250,000 Accomplished banners and giving away the T-shirts.
But the data show Walker only 42% of the way towards meeting the promise with just a year left on the clock - - a timeframe of his choosing - - meaning even though both Walker and the newspaper miscalculated, it is Wisconsin that is paying the price.
12 comments:
The math seems fuzzy here.
42% of 250,000 is 105,000, not less than 100,000.
That's not the 250,000 jobs hoped for in the 4 year term. But then again, Obama got re-elected midway through the term.
Can't blame Bush.
The jobs that have developed in Wisconsin are not of the high pay variety or of manufacturing in nature that might offer stability and security. The irony is that when elected it was projected that if Wisconsin mirrored the rest of the country in job growth the 250,000 figure would have been reached easily and even surpassed. Lets be clear demand creates jobs and demand results from people having increased income or discretionary earnings to spend on goods and products. CEO'S have increases their incomes but not the rest of us. The devastation he imposed on public employees carried over to the private sector to the point that now neither public nor private employees have seen their economic status improve and for most it has weakened. Companies aren't going to rush into a state and establish a business hub when there is no market and depressed employment.
Interesting to read the Journal Sentinel line from back when, since I believe they are now saying (recent editorial page) that governors do not create jobs, period.
In a recent article (12/26) in The Shepherd Express (expressmilwaukee.com), Lisa Kaiser fact-checks Gov. Walker's book while also noting that his 250,000 campaign jobs pledge goes unmentioned.
Finally, some more food for thought, I hope. I found online this lengthy but thoughtful editorial plea on the subject of politics and jobs creation in Wisconsin: http://www.beloitdailynews.com/opinion/editorial-stop-spinning-and-get-to-work/article_99936122-69f1-11e3-aec9-001a4bcf887a.html
One last thing, if I might. On the jobs numbers, I think it is helpful -- and telling -- to compare Wisconsin's numbers regionally, not just nationally.
Has the aircraft carrier, Mission Accomplished, yet begun its journey up the St. Lawrence seaway to Lake Michigan and the Port of Milwaukee? Or will they be putting in at Oak Creek?
enoughalready, I agree that a regional comparison is more useful than a national comparison -- in part because it makes Walker's record even worse. I have seen data for surrounding states (including in this blog, as I recall) and all other states in our region have better job-creation records (and better jobs created than in Wisconsin, as noted above) in recent years . . . Walker's years.
It took moments for someone to say "Can't blame Bush" and offer some transition to Obama's failures but, even in the Republican "otherworld" major economic collapse, especially when combined with giving reckless tax breaks during two unfunded wars, takes years if not decades to recover from. Factor in an extremist GOP blocking virtually any job creation programs in favor of spending time voting against Obamacare" 41 times or concentrating on crazy issues lie phony voter ID crisis and mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds, you have the most disfunctional,divisive government in memory. Walker has, at best, ridden the coat tails of Obama's national recovery but Scotty's numbers don;t even come close to keeping up with the rest of the country. Being the darling of the Tea Party is, apparently, more important than actually governing. We should hold Walker to his campaign rhetoric: no 250,000 for Walker in the Governor's office.
Wis. is #37 of 50 states. Obama is president of all 50 states. Those of you that want to blame Obama for the miserable job creation in Wis. are not thinking.
What do you want him to do? Start a solar panel company?
Oh Tom, please.
You do realize that 105,000 jobs are 105,000 more than this state's Democratic leadership under Jim Doyle. AND, given the national debt created under the Obama administration's reckless monetary policies, which will crush the next generation into the next great depression, Governor Walker is strongly positioned for re-election.
The largest hurdle facing our state is masking the indelible images of the capital protestors during the Walker recall saga from the minds of potential investors and job creators in Wisconsin's private sector economy. Those days left an impression to the nation of what potential employees are capable of.
Anon- Time to go back to GOP operative class, cause that's some seriously discredited and weak sauce there. Especially after the Lt. Gov. is shown asking "What can we do to love you [oligarchs] more?"
Jake,
I've mentioned this before to you.
I'm non-partisan but conservative, blue collar, union dues paying, hard working, family man.
So was my father before me.
The democratic party left me 2 decades ago - and many more like me.
I'm, in many ways, Republican like much more so than I will ever be Democrat. And, if there was a conservative blue collar party, I'd likely run for office and would be strongly supported. I've had the offer.
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