Asked Thursday about new numbers showing Wisconsin lagging in job growth, Gov. Scott Walker pointed to the uncertainty he said business owners felt because of the political tumult that rocked Wisconsin early in his term.
Meanwhile, his critics said the governor’s policies had created a drag on growth.
“The first year we had a lot of protests in the state,” Walker said, during an appearance in Milwaukee to promote business growth in the city. “We had two years’, almost, worth of recalls. A lot of employers here I think can relate to the fact (that) uncertainty is one of the biggest challenges for employers big or small or anywhere in between. There was a lot of uncertainty. The good news is that’s passed.”
And that’s why no business ever hires in any democracy at all, right? I mean, you move your business to some state and then they go and have an election and you don’t know who they’re going to pick! The uncertainty makes for a completely terrible business environment. Every two years there’s a different government and the uncertainty caused by that just scares the living crap out of business owners.
Yeah, that’s not a very good excuse.
The better explanation is that trickle-down economics sucks as much as economists say it does. Walker’s been attacking workers and the poor, which amounts to a War on Consumer Demand. The message businesses have been getting out of Wisconsin isn’t “Ooh, we’ve got scary protests and the government might change someday. Too many elections, run away!” it’s “Come to Wisconsin, where taxes are low and customers are broke.”
“The plunge in job growth, compared with other states, coincides exactly with Scott Walker’s time in office,” says Jack Norman, one-time research director of the Institute for Wisconsin’s Future. “This is no mere coincidence… Act 10 led to large cuts in public workers’ take-home pay, which was a blow to the state’s economy.”
Slash workers pay = slash consumer demand. It’s cause and effect and it’s inevitable. Walker isn’t offering an explanation, he’s making excuses. And the fact that he doesn’t plan to change his fiscal course should tell you everything you need to know about how serious the Wisconsin Governor is when it comes to serving his state. He’s not. He’s serious about preserving his wingnut purity by serving a failed ideology. He’s serious about winning the Craziest Person in America contest that will be the 2016 GOP presidential primary.
