Scott Walker spent the better part of a week flying across the country to get in front of every camera and microphone he could find to promote himself as a presidential candidate for 2016. Meanwhile, here in Wisconsin, working families continue to feel the pain of his failed record on job creation.
Last week’s jobs numbers based on the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, the most accurate numbers available, provide more of the same bad news that we’ve come to expect in Wisconsin. Private sector job growth declined by 37% from the previous one-year period and by 40% from the year before that — the sharpest decline in job growth in three years. Gov. Walker’s policies may have gotten him national attention and pleased his extreme Tea Party base, but they haven’t moved Wisconsin forward one iota.
Anyway you slice it, Wisconsin is moving backwards under Scott Walker, while other states are surging ahead in their economic recovery. The New York Times recently opined Gov. Dayton is setting a progressive model that is paying off for the people in neighboring Minnesota. Gov. Dayton increased revenue for Minnesota and used it to invest in schools and infrastructure, now Minnesota is the fifth fastest growing state economy and the eighth best state for business.
“Wisconsin has a proud tradition of being a laboratory of democracy, but we don’t have to look any further than right next door to see just how badly Scott Walker’s Tea Party experiment is failing,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Tuesday. “While Minnesota is making smart investments that protect the economic security of the middle-class, Wisconsin’s working families are falling further behind each day, and it seems Scott Walker is content leaving them there while he travels up and down the east cost campaigning for president. We deserve better than someone who is only looking out for himself and his base. It’s time for a governor who work will day and night in Wisconsin to move our state forward once again.”
