Friday, July 15, 2011

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! Part V

Just barely two weeks old, and Scott Walker's budget and union-busting law is already hard at work!

From BizTimesDaily:
New applications for unemployment benefits fell nationally last week to the lowest level in three months, but rose in Wisconsin.

National initial claims for benefits dropped 22,000 to a seasonally adjusted 405,000 in the week ended July 9, the U.S. Labor Department said today. That’s the lowest amount of new applications since mid-April.

The decline in last week’s claims would have been even steeper if not for a government shutdown in Minnesota triggered by a budget standoff. Minnesota said 11,500 state workers filed applications for jobless benefits last week.

In most years, jobless claims tend to rise in July as many U.S. manufacturers shutter plants to retool them for new products such as the latest auto models.

In Wisconsin, initial claims for unemployment surged last week to 13,547, up from 11,973 in the previous week, according to the state Department of Workforce Development.
So now we have even more people on an already overburdened unemployment compensation system and a Republican government that wants to delay and limit these benefits.  This means less money going to local businesses, forcing them to either close or lay off their workers, further exasperating the situation.  Add to that the greatly decreased spending power of public employees and you have an economy headed for a tailspin.

But the right wingers will tell you this is a good thing because they saved a whole 40 cents on their property tax, even as their neighbors are being foreclosed on.  Is it any wonder why they are losing popularity at breakneck speed?

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