PolitiFact Monday updated the modest progress that Gov. Walker is making on meeting his 250,000 new jobs/10,000 new businesses pledge.
The posting is in a short list of "Hot Topics" near the top of the paper's home page - - and begins with this summary attributed to Walker that introduces the paper's tracking of Walker's high-profile promise:
Will "get government out of the way of employers ... who will then help Wisconsin create 250,000 jobs by 2015, and as we create those new jobs, we will be able to add 10,000 new businesses.”
Sources:And here is the PolitiFact accounting to date:
Campaign news release
...the tally stands at an increase of 65,400 private sector jobs since Walker took office in January 2011.
OK: But when I went to close the loop by clicking on the highlighted campaign news release source, up comes this message: "Not Found, Error 404"The [Sic] means he has 184,400 jobs to add in the remaining 21 months of his term -- an average of 8,780 per month -- to meet his promise.
I tried it several times. Maybe it works for you. Maybe it's there somewhere, but I don't see it.
And the pledges Walker featured in his 2010 campaign and repeated in his 2011 recall campaign with the specific job and business creation numbers he put into Wisconsin political lore also do not appear in an issue item I did open - - "Putting Wisconsin Back To Work."
It contains a few paragraphs of political talk, finger-pointing backwards and employment history as Walker sees things, but no mention of his pivotal 250,000 jobs-or-10,000-businesses-to-be-created pledges, or even those goals, in that history:
People are frustrated and uncertain about the future – and with good reason. Before I took office, Wisconsin lost more than 150,000 jobs between 2008 and 2010.
Yet, far too many politicians seem intent on offering more of the same tired tax and spend plans that increase bloated bureaucratic red-tape and make it even harder to create jobs.As I noted in an earlier post today about the diminution of the pledges by Walker:
Once upon a time, Walker's 250,000 new jobs pledge was his mantra:
"I want my Cabinet secretaries to have branded across their heads, '250,000 jobs,'" Walker said at a December 2010 meeting of the Dairy Business Association. "I want them to know their job is on the line because my job is on the line to create 250,000 jobs in the private sector."
Well, Walker's not touting that bit of fancy much these days, as the goal is unattainable.
In fact, on Walker's official office website, under "Creating Jobs," we get this instead of the numbers, the pledges and the predictions:
Creating jobs is about more than just a campaign promise.But a version (call it "Scott the Facilitator") is still there in his campaign bio:
Governor Walker remains committed to helping Wisconsin’s private sector create 250,000 jobs by 2015.Not quite ""my job is on the line to create 250,000 jobs in the private sector...."
But read and copy it before it goes the way of error message 404, as that's where links in this item lead you now:
...you can find the pledge on the 17th of 19 pages at the "Press Releases" link:
I've posted about it several times...and this is where on his site to find it, including this intro:
Scott Walker Unveils Plan to Bring 250,000 Jobs and 10,000 New Businesses to Wisconsin by 2015
My suspicion is that Scottie, being the conniving creep he is, figured he was taking over at or very near the bottom of the economy and that 250,000 jobs would materialize just from the normal pace of recovery after a recession. So by his reasoning he could shower the already well off with payoffs and slash their taxes, and then at the end when the jobs appeared, say, "See, I did it." But then he got greedy and stuck it to rank and file public employees, creating a drag on the economy which, combined with the slower-than-usual comeback from this deep recession, made his goal impossible to reach. He needs to be held fully accountable for his abject failure on the jobs front. Also (can you do this, James?) someone needs to anaylze what those 60,000 or so new jobs include. If I were a betting man, I would bet the majority are in fast food, tourism or low-wage retail, while many of the jobs being lost in large chunks on almost a weekly basis are in higher-paying, high-benefit manufacturing sectors. If true, his jobs performance would be even worse than so far it appears.
ReplyDelete"250,000 jobs: Not Found"
ReplyDeleteAlternatively, there's a 404 joke to be made.
How many family-supporting public sector jobs were lost in the same period? How many private sector jobs were lost? Or are we to supposed to think that gross jobs = net jobs?
ReplyDeleteGood point Max B. The number of jobs should be adjusted by a factor representing the relative wages for those jobs.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that if you did so, the anemic jobs growth Walker has seen would turn negative pretty quickly. Losing a middle income salary from an eliminated teacher job, which was replaced by a barely-minimum-wage service job is hardly a one-for-one trade.
Remember, the Walker administration is good at erasing things from computers...see the redistricting scandal for more information.
ReplyDeletei hear walker tried to enlist the cast of "inglorious bastards" to carve "250,00 jobs" on his cabinet's foreheads.
ReplyDelete