Strong piece explains MN's lead over Walker's stalled WI 'plan'

[Updated] A recent piece in The American Prospect about why Minnesota's economy is out-performing Wisconsin's is a must-read for Wisconsin politicos and media working to cut through Scott Walker's bogus claim that Wisconsin is now a model for national replication:

Minnesota and Wisconsin offer something close to a laboratory experiment in competing economic policies. Since the 2010 elections of Democratic Governor Mark Dayton in Minnesota and Republican Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin, these neighboring states with similar populations and economies have pursued radically different strategies. Dayton embraces good government, progressive taxation, and high-wage policies, while Walker has chosen shrunken government, fiscal austerity, and a war on labor.

More than four years later, the two states’ achievements in population growth, jobs, pay, and quality of life offer a clear contrast. (See "The Politics of Offense and Defense," by Sam Ross-Brown, part of this package from The American Prospect magazine's 25th Anniversary issue.) Minnesota’s economy has outpaced Wisconsin’s. 

These results suggest that Walker, in his expected run for president, may have difficulty promoting a “Wisconsin Miracle” as a model for national policy. This story also offers a cautionary tale to newly elected conservative governors like Bruce Rauner in nearby Illinois: An attack on government and workers’ wages is not a prescription either for prosperity or for political success.

While the “experiment” is not perfect—there are minor differences in urban and industrial structure between the two states—it is clear that imposing fiscal austerity and undermining residents’ standards of living are not successful prescriptions for economic prosperity. As the presidential election ramps up, the hard economics of these two states offer us evidence on the choice between markedly different futures.

The Minnesota-Wisconsin dichotomy has been noted before - - and here, too - - as has Walker's unsurprisingly failed effort recently to spin it his way - - but The American Prospect piece expands the discussion.

Walker keeps selling his bill of false goods and we need all the help we can get to expose it.

For readers and campaign archivists, I also offer this section of one Walker summary updated posting on the same subject amplified by The American Prospect piece.

*  Walker promised repeatedly during his 2010 and 2012 gubernatorial campaigns that he and his conservative fiscal plans would create 250,000 private sector jobs in Wisconsin after one term in office.   

In September, 2014, following a string of disappointing official reports of slow, sluggish job growth in Wisconsin on Walker's watch, PolitiFact rated it a "promise broken." 

*  In mid-March, 2015, as Walker was criss-crossing the country and claiming to have turned Wisconsin around, federal data was released showing Wisconsin's job-creation ranking among the states had fallen during the last full year analyzed to 40th place from 31st, with new jobs added at one-half the national rate. 

* Numerous articles have been written about neighboring Minnesota's far better economy and job creation record during Walker's four years in office. There was recent testimony in the Wisconsin Legislature during its rush to pass so-called 'right-to-work' legislation that the bill - - now law through Walker's sudden change of heart about it - - would add to Wisconsin's relatively high bankruptcy filing total.

(Editing note: The early version of this piece used the wrong name in one reference to The American Prospect.)