Not Up Front: Walker Jobs Deceptions Mount
Six Points About Walker’s Phony “Six Points”
MADISON-Scott Walker was anything but “Up Front” when he went on the show of that name this weekend to continue his serial distortions about jobs and his own abysmal record – and he even make up some new phony “points.”
Since the GOP candidate for governor’s make-believe six-point “plan” for jobs was revealed last week, he has faced bipartisan scrutiny over his past hostility to jobs-creation partnerships, the credit he claimed where none existed and over his gross fiscal mismanagement – but you wouldn’t know it from the deceptive responses and outright distortions he provided to host Mike Gousha.
In fact, Walker is making up new claims about GE Medical, General Mitchell International Airport and the taxes which the Walker administration has increased.
“Scott Walker has entered a make-believe place when it comes to Wisconsin jobs and the hundreds of millions in debt he has laid on the back of future generations,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate. “He claims private sector jobs that do not exist and which his reckless policies would have destroyed, partnerships that he has in reality opposed and facts that do not exist.”
Among the Walker deceptions from his interview.
1.) Walker claimed he “lowered our debt.”
In fact, he signed off on $400 million in pension bonds. (Pensions & Investments, 3/27/09)
http://www.pionline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090327/DAILYREG/903279989
2.) Walker claimed he created a “balanced budget” and reduced tax levies.
In fact, his budgets have consistently been millions of dollars out-of-balance. Recent headlines had him $10 million short. That’s a balanced budget? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/25/10
In fact, USING HIS OWN NUMBERS, Scott Walker’s OWN PROPOSED BUDGETS, Milwaukee County’s property tax levy has increased $39 million during his reign.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/85354702.html
3. Walker claimed his fantasy jobs plan was “talked about in detail.”
In fact, there are NO ACTUAL SPECIFICS in his plans beyond a few slogans. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/24/10)
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/85293842.html
4. Walker claimed that a 2004 deal that his partnerships created “2,000 GE health care jobs.”
In fact, Walker again is claiming a partnership that he opposed.
5. Walker claimed that the county was “intimately involved” in the M7 business group.
Beside the fact that he mocked M7’s efforts to create Wisconsin jobs as putting “lipstick on a pig,” this Walker claim is patently false. Under Tom Barrett’s leadership, the city of Milwaukee has provided $150,000 to the effort and Walker has been absent from any major decisions of the group he has derided yet now claims.
6. Finally, and perhaps most outrageously, Walker claimed that General Mitchell International Airport’s success has occurred, “Because we in county government have direct control.”
In fact, the blueprint for improvements was finalized around the time Walker was losing an Assembly race to Gwen Moore and have been funded entirely by user fees outside of Milwaukee County’s tax levy. Walker’s risky plans -which have not been enacted- to increase the user and gate fees would put Wisconsin travelers’ low fares in jeopardy.
