Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Walker Budget Is Already Working! The Consummate Evidence!

In the most unsurprising news of the day, it was revealed that Scott Walker's Wisconsin not only ended up losing jobs in 2011, but was hands down the leader in the job loss department:
Wisconsin lost 12,500 jobs last year, ranking it tops among all states in lost jobs, according to revised numbers released Tuesday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The numbers reflect non-farm jobs measured in January 2011 and this January. Just five other states registered an overall job loss in the period, with Wisconsin's losses far outflanking everyone else. Missouri was next at 4,100 jobs lost.
It should also be noted that Walker's Wisconsin came in 47th with a gain of a whopping 900 jobs in the private sector.

What no on is touching is that the state lost 13,400 public sector jobs, not including teachers. Yet Walker and his apologists are supposed to believe that he balanced the budget (even though he didn't) without a massive layoff of government workers? I'd sure as hell call 13,400 people out of work as a massive layoff.

As one would expect, Mike Tate and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin jumped all over this:
New figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that Wisconsin led the nation in job loss in 2011 under the Tea Party extremism of Scott Walker.

Wisconsin was badly outpaced by not only neighboring states in the Midwest, but also by states in areas where the Recovery has not been as robust.

From January 2011 to January 2012, Wisconsin lost 12,500 jobs, even as the nation as a whole added jobs for 17 straight months.

"We have never led the nation in job loss and today we have evidence that Scott Walker has led Wisconsin to this ignominious mark," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Tuesday. "Whether it's failed leadership on mining legislation, destroying high-tech industries, salting the earth for vocational training, cutting spending on 21st Century education or turning his back on infrastructure investment, Scott Walker has shown the nation how NOT to create jobs. This shameful fact is one more reason he must be replaced."
With all due respect to Tate, I think he understated things.

Unsatisfied with the Dem's response, I looked to my friend Jake, who has an uncanny way of laying out the numbers and using them as a cudgel with amazing passion. He did as I had expected, for the most part. He lays out the numbers in a glaring light, showing that Walker had indeed failed the state. He further took these facts and skewered the spin that the Walker administration was trying to put on it.

But even Jake missed the mark on this one.

The fact is Walker did much worse than lose 12,500 jobs over the year.

As I have already pointed out, when Walker took over in January 2011, he had the benefit of inheriting Jim Doyle's budget, which was producing jobs, as shown in this chart:


As you can see, in the first six months of 2011, Wisconsin had gained more than 30,000 jobs - again, under the last part of Doyle's budget.

But in the spring of 2011, Walker and his Republican-controlled legislature started up with their Budget Disrepair Bill and other acts of malfeasance. Give these acts three months or so to start "working" and you can see it had the predictable and predicted results - the start of the job hemorrhage.

Ergo, Walker did not lose 12,500 jobs in 2011.  That number is how many jobs the state lost over the course of a year.

What Walker managed - or should I say, mismanaged - to accomplish was the loss of nearly 45,000 jobs in just six months!  Well, that's no way to start if he wants to create a total of 250,000 jobs like he promised he would!  Just imagine, if it wasn't for the leftover strength of the Doyle budget, Walker could have lost 90,000 or even 100,000 jobs in one year.

So I guess you can say that these number is the consummate evidence that Walker's budget is already working like he and the teahadist groups like AFP and MacIver are telling us - as long as you mean it's working at giving concrete proof why Walker needs to be recalled and replaced with someone who actually cares about this state and its people.  (And don't even get me going on all the other reasons...)

6 comments:

  1. don't forget the money that Walker took from the Bank bailout deal to cover his budget shortfall instead of giving it to Wisconsinites who need it to save their homes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was actually settlement money from the banks, not bank bailout, but you're right on the rest.

      Delete
  2. Holy crap, the WSJ reported the truth? The talking points memo from Lee Enterprises' headquarters must not have arrived on time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. On an equally important resource note, but one that is harder to evaluate, is the loss of human resources as the best and brightest brains have jumped ship to go on to more promising economic pastures. Someone should cross-reference the number of houses that went onto the market in the State after the Budget Disrepair Bill and the numbers of "migrants" leaving the State.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Democratic Candidates:

    See the chart?

    Use it! It's golden, it's a gift.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't worry, they won't use it. As a friend of mine says often, the Democrats *NEED* to show only two things about the current crop of Republicans.

    1) Their political philosophy is Unamerican.

    2) They are irresponsible.

    All else derive from these two issues.

    ReplyDelete