Saturday, March 9, 2013

Scott Walker's Austerity Agenda Is A Real Job Killer

The Cap Times sat down and actually crunched the job numbers for the last two years, not only for Wisconsin, but for each state in the region as well as the nation.

To say that the Scott Walker's austerity plan is not working would be an understatement of epic proportions:

click to embiggen


If you would rather deal with the hard numbers, they have that too:


Let's see those numbers again.  The net change in total nonfarm jobs from January 2011 - the time that Walker took office - through December 2012:

  • National      +4,204,000
  • Wisconsin   -15,900
  • Illinois         +67,300
  • Iowa            +18,600
  • Michigan     +55,800
  • Minnesota    +72,200

Yup, not only did Walker lead us straight to the bottom, we are the only state in the region to have an overall job loss!

But I could have told you that.  In fact, I did.

Three months ago, I called out the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and their PolitiFarce people for making the false claim that Walker had created 25,000 jobs in that time:

To credit Walker with 25,000 jobs seems to be rather generous.

In the second half of 2011, when Walker's policies were in effect, he lost well over 30,000 jobs. Since then, the state has not seen many positive growth months and the ones we did were pretty small. I would find it surprising if the actually job numbers that can truthfully be applied to Walker is even above zero.
And as I pointed out then, I will again point out that it is not accurate to take the total from January 2011.

Governor Jim Doyle's budget and policies still held sway until July 1, 2011.  And as I have repeatedly demonstrated, while Doyle's budget was still in effect, we still had job growth, although the rate of growth did slow down and even started to turn as Walker and the Republicans started putting into effect their so-called "Budget Repair Bill":



Since it takes about three months for an economic policy to start having effect, it would be better to look at Walker's job totals starting after three month of his regime.  If one did that, it would show that his job loss totals are actually 24,500.

Unbelievably, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is still touting their false numbers.  They really owe their readers an apology issued on the front page, first section, above the fold.

As it has often been quipped, since Walker and the other Teapublicans are so gung ho about performance evaluation pay, how about we subject them to the same standards?

27 comments:

  1. Correction: The fiscal year begins July 1, not June 1 as you wrote about when Gov. Doyle's budget ended.

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    1. Actually you'll notice the break with the other states begins after March 2011- the same month Act 10 was jammed through (and upheld by Roggen-HACK and the other 3 corrupt WMC justices).

      It is not coincidental. Make them pay for their failures.

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    2. Act 10 was the beginning of the free fall. Why can't they see that?!?!

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    3. LOP

      You are dead on. WIth a little simple math you can also see why regions are depressed.

      One community here in northern Wisconsin lost 1.4 million dollars as a result of ACT 10 and an average $400.00 reduction in teachers pay.

      That's 1.4 million to buy new shoes, eat in restaurants, pay for home improvements, buy a new car .... to spend in the local economy.

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  2. Cap Times conclusion- as we all knew- is spot on because it is math, not rhetoric. Am anxiously awaiting the state-by-state comparisons that are due in a week or so. 42nd place will move to 43rd, 44th, or, 41st, 40th? No matter the move WI will remain in the bottom 20% well behind our neighboring states.

    There is a very real chance that 4 years of Governor Walker's "Open for Business" campaign will result in ZERO jobs. His (ad nauseum) repetitive "It's Working!" declarations are feeble attempts to tout success in the face of failure. Austerity as the pathway to job growth? LOLZ

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    1. It's working = we are rapidly becoming Wississippi.

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  3. These numbers coming from the same guy who said Scott Walker is going to jail? Taken with the same grain of salt.

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    1. Ok MR. A...please tell us the reality of Scott Walkers job creation...enlighten us.

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  4. "These numbers coming from the same guy who said Scott Walker is going to jail? Taken with the same grain of salt."

    Actually, these numbers are coming from the BLS. It's okay though, stick your head back into that little bubble insulating you from reality and protecting your fragile, precious paradigm. I know it's more comfortable to reaffirm your beliefs than to objectively examine reality.

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    1. ShaneJ
      Well defended, although, maybe the anonymous complainer doesn't know that BLS stands for the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Can't wait for the comparatives.

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  5. Well said, Shane_JMarch 9, 2013 at 8:37 AM, well said.

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  6. Walker killed wind power in Wisconsin, killing Wisconsin construction and manufacturing jobs, as many Wisconsin factories were building wind turbines and their components.

    Walker rejected high speed rail. That backwards move killed both construction and manufacturing jobs, with the train manufacturer escaping to Illinois. FIBs benefit from Walker, but not Badgers.

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  7. AND watch for our wood to ship to China as well as Chinese processing any ore that comes out of that mine...provided it survives court challenges.

    Not only is he shipping jobs our of state, he will ship resources as well. The WIGOP will not be happy until they have stripped this state of jobs, resources and money...all for their own gain.

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  8. Ohio isn't far behind with the secretive 1% Gov. Kasich. Well, let's see ... he approved fracking AND he approved carrying guns in bars. Other than that, I'm not sure he's done a thing except pay HIS cronies/employees a pretty generously higher wage than Gov. Strickland was paying his. AND we can't forget Kasich and his TAX CUTS for the rich.

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  9. Taking $900 million out of the sate economy with ACT 10 really worked didn't it.

    Shall we call him the austerity governor.

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  10. Can anyone point to one job Walker has directly created?

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    1. Michael Best Friedrich lawyer staff

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  11. To Jeff. How many potential jobs were created when every democrat in the state voted against the EPA and DNR approved mine bill?

    Bonus: Would Scott Walker's jobs number have gone up if a single democrat was on board for jobs in Wisconsin?

    The recall killed jobs - NOT Scott Walker. Unless you believe 9% unemployment is the norm. Illinois democrats have achieved this.

    As an honest Wisconsin resident could you Illinois democrats please follow your 14 idiots?

    Oh wait, they came back for more....


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    1. The only jobs the mine will be creating are more lawyers and healthcare when the locals get sick from the poison.

      Its funny to me how the repubs think the only way to create a job is to destroy the enviroment.

      The few jobs the mine will "create"will pale in comparison to the jobs the high speed rail would have created AND the train would have cost us less per year than this thing will.,

      The only way the recall cost us jobs was by the fail of the democrats to replace walker.

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    2. Anonymous, you forgot to mention that the DNR is controlled by Walker and also was OK with Herr Environmental polluting people's private water wells with human feces.

      And the numbers clearly show that we were losing jobs long before the recall.

      The Fab 14 went to look for the jobs, and the people, that Walker's been driving out of the state.

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  12. He has failed miserably. The only wins Walker and his cronies have been crowing about are companies that they managed to poach from Illinois and Minnesota...and those states are still handing Wisconsin their hat in jobs creation. It is really a sad state of affairs in Wisconsin.

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  13. oh wow, i am still trying to decipher what you said. i will keep trying.i don't want to be blamed for the zero job growth in wisconsin.

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    1. Let us organize a union excursion this summer to Chicago, to spend our modest vacation earnings, in a state that still supports our kind. And to those who continue to ridicule the Fab 14, may this migration be a lesson to you. Such a migration of capital, consolidated to the advantage of one state, may very well bring you to your knees.

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  14. You anti-jobs people are going to stop using everything with metal in it aren't you? After all one can not be against a mine and use anything made of the raw material that comes from it. That would make one a Hypocrite.

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    1. I presume you anti-jobs, anti-environment, anti-reality people have never used metal because there was never any mining without this reprehensible POS bill, right?

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  15. Capper,

    Do you really feel good about trying to stop an iron mine here so the resource can be mined in a foreign land, that has has fewer environmental laws, then transported here for your use causing a higher carbon footprint on everything made of metal you use?

    You are the epitome of anti environment if you use any metal anytime, any day. You are just too emotional or immature to reason that out.


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  16. I disagree, Walker's jobs agenda is an unqualified success. Everything Walker has done over the last two years was designed to keep wages low and to ensure employers a weak and desperate labor force.
    http://huckkonopackicartoons.com/scott-walkers-job-fraud/

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