Massachusetts better prepared for Walker masquerade

Glad to read that people outside Wisconsin are figuring out that Walker has been bad news for Wisconsin.

It appears as if Massachusetts' activists were more prepared Monday for Walker's talking-point whitewashing of the economy he's crashed in Wisconsin than Iowans were last weekend.

Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman and state Sen. Tom McGee, Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Steve Tolman and a handful of state lawmakers spoke against the "shadowy Republican Super PAC masquerading as a taxpayer subsidized non-profit" and against Walker's "record of attacking working families."

"Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s time in Wisconsin is marred by an anti-working family agenda that's resulting in the worst job creation in the region while Wisconsin’s middle class has been shrinking at one of the fastest rates in the country," said Massachusetts Democratic Party executive director Matt Fenlon. "Massachusetts voters won't be fooled by the talking points of a Republican presidential wannabe who came here to address a fundraiser for a shadowy Republican group."

I had noted earlier that Walker told Iowans that things were better in Wisconsin under his direction, but data on everything from wage growth to job creation to road deterioration is shown by data to have worsened since he was sworn in four years ago:

*... Wisconsin is facing a projected 2015-'17 budget deficit - - in fact, Walker had the state skip a recent debt payment because the projected deficit has risen to $283 million - - so the budget Walker has submitted for the upcoming biennium will be adjusted by the Legislature into balance as state law requires through some combination of added fees, taxes, spending cuts or borrowing.
And before you let Walker say he's never proposed a state tax increase, the record shows he proposed three in his 2011-'13 adopted budget aimed at low-income Wisconsin residents, according to the state government's non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau and reported by PolitiFact. 

*  Finally, about the state's falling rate of unemployment. Yes, that number is down in the post-recession recovery, but beware how cherry-picked that number is from among many other statistics that show how poorly our state's economy is performing since Walker took office. 

Wisconsin under Walker has fallen to 40th among the states in jobs added, and to 42nd in wage growth - - with virtually all the jobs created since 2010 clustered in low-wage categories, according to a review of official data by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development.

Walker is signaling that he anticipates a long campaign, so activists have their work cut out for themselves. On the other hand, the record about Walker and Wisconsin is filled with information that exposes who he really is and where he would take country.

Here is one summary post about Walker's history in Wisconsin, and there are more than 7,000 other posts at this blog since early 2007.

All free for the taking.