Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Backing GTAC's Hired Guns, Rebecca Kleefisch Misfires

In a discussion with a radio station up north, the Lt. Gov. endorses the heavy weaponry, but jumbles up the talking points:

Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor says worker safety is a priority at the Gogebic Taconite mine site in Iron County.  
The company has drawn criticism for hiring military-style security guards armed with assault weapons to patrol the drilling area. Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch points out GTAC is working to bring jobs to the area.  
“I think we have a duty to make sure that those folks, who are working to better that double digit unemployment rate that we talk so much about, are safe.”
Double-digit unemployment rate? 

Where is that rate, and who's the "we" that are talking about it "so much?"

Specificity, please.

I knew the Walker/Kleefisch job-creation record has been weak these last 30 months, but to be fair and balanced the data (enter Wisconsin at that link) do not reflect a double-digit unemployment rate here. 

Walker has had his factual troubles with similar numbers, though in Walker's case, he was over-stating the value of falling unemployment rates.

So neither of them can get the numbers or their import straight.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There's probably a double-digit unemployment rate in Iron and Ashland Counties.

Of course, the way to fix that is to hire drillers from Minnesota and mercenaries from Arizona.

Anonymous said...

Yes, it was over 10% in Iron County in May (note that county-level unemployment data is not seasonally-adjusted).