The National Memo: Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) is a conservative hero with a record of taking progressives and unions in a state that went for Obama and beating them twice. He’s cut government, taken away worker protections and empowered the private sector, making him the Republican insiders’ favorite for the 2016 GOP nomination.The piece goes on to mention that Walker’s proposed budget “reads more like a campaign document than a plan to create jobs,” with your typical Republican tax cut for the rich and plenty of corporate welfare. “The governor is also rejecting Medicaid expansion and using the Affordable Care Act exchanges to kick 87,000 Wisconsinites off his state’s Badgercare program,” we’re told. The governor’s super-genius healthcare plan also costs taxpayers $150 million more than accepting the federal expansion.
His only problem is, his economic policies continue to fail — miserably.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has ranked the Badger State 49th in its 50-state Leading Index report for April. With an index rank of -0.74 percent, Wisconsin was one of only five states to show contraction.
…Walker doesn’t really have any positive economic data to point to. Since he took office, his state has fallen from 11th to 44th in job creation. Wisconsin’s wages are also declining at twice the national level.
The man is an economic disaster and a complete failure as a governor. Anyone still holding out hope for him to make good on his 250,000 new jobs promise is an amazing chump. It’s just not going to happen. Even he seems to have given up on it — it’s suddenly become a “goal,” instead of a promise.
At the center of this smoking crater lies the bomb that created it — bass-ackward Republican economic policies. He’s attacked demand at every opportunity and practiced the supply-side horseshit that has never, ever worked anywhere. You can’t cut workers’ pay and benefits, then expect them to keep up the same level of demand. Meanwhile, those big tax cuts haven’t managed to “trickle down,” mostly because they never do. Walker’s attacks on workers have had the effect that every serious person warned they would and Wisconsin’s citizens are paying the price.
[photo by Gage Skidmore]
