Scott Walker had a bad week. Or course he is too self-absorbed to admit or possibly even acknowledge that things are not looking very good for the state of Wisconsin.
The latest jobs numbers are out from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they look pretty good…for the Democratic candidate for Governor. From June 2012 to June 2013, job creation in Wisconsin slowed by 37% compared to the results from the previous 12 month period. This equates to the slowest rate of growth in 3 years. While the rest of the country is accelerating their recovery, especially other mid-western states, Wisconsin added less than 24,000 jobs, compared to nearly 38,000 the previous year.
Democratic Spokeswoman, Melissa Baldauff commented: “Far from the ‘unbelievable amounts’ of new jobs Scott Walker promised after the recall, these numbers are the worst we’ve seen in the past three years. Wisconsinites are sick of hearing excuses for why we aren’t growing jobs like our neighbors in the Midwest and most of the rest of the nation.” -
Although,the unemployment rate of 6.5 percent here remains lower than the nation’s average of 7.3%, we have fallen off the pace considerably.
What is even more interesting is that the “job killing, tax and spend, hippie liberals of Madison” (of whom I am a proud member, thank you very much!) make up less than 10% of the state’s population, but have added 38% of the jobs. That means that throughout the rest of the state, job creation is nearly non-existent.
Walker’s infamous pledge to create 250,000 jobs in the state during his first term, could result in his undoing. In 2010, he stated that if he didn’t create 250,000, then he didn’t deserve a second term. With only 13 months left in Walker’s first term, he is barely one-third of the way to creating 250k. The state has only added 88,000 jobs, and remember, over a third of those jobs are in Madison alone. Wisconsin lost nearly 150,000 jobs during the downturn in 2009. Walker has not even gotten us back to that level, let alone kept up with population growth, meaning that he has not created a single net new job. In other words, if Walker were governor from the founding of Wisconsin until now, not one person would have ever held a job. (I stole that line from Michael Moore who said it about the Bush’s)
Another failed promise of Scott Walker is that he would create 10,000 new businesses in the state in his first term. Walker has recently come out and stated that he has now created 11,000 new businesses. The truth of the matter is that the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (which Walker touts as the “gold-standard”) has found that only 4,024 new businesses have been created. Where did walker come up with 11,000? He found a new way of calculating the number. The problem is that this new measuring-stick includes “non-stock corporations” which consists of clubs, little league teams, and girl scouts.
Scott Walker has been nothing short of a failure as governor of this state. When he crushed the unions, he had the support of the hard-right-wing, but the truth is that his stunt took $1,000,000,000.00 out of our state economy. That is money that could have been used at the mall, a local restaurant, Wisconsin Dells trips, new computers, or other non-essential activities/goods. Wisconsin needs to wake up and boot him out of office in 2014, or he is going to make a serious run for President.
That is to say if he actually runs in 2014.
Walker still has not declared his campaign, but he has certainly seen his falling poll numbers. Perhaps Walker will anoint J.B. Van Hollen to run in his place, so that Scott doesn’t have to go into 2016 having either just lost, or only won by a hair. When that decision is made and announced, we will finally see just how “Unintimidated” Walker truly is.
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