Walker's Dismal Jobs Agenda Gets a Gold Star in ALEC's "Rich States, Poor States" Report

[sinkingfeeling]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/16729-walkers-dismal-jobs-agenda-gets-a-gold-star-in-alecs-rich-states-poor-states-report

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker got a boost last week from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in its annual Rich States, Poor States report. Despite Bureau of Labor Statistics data putting Wisconsin in 44th place for private-sector job creation, ALEC placed the state as 15th in the country in its ranking of economic outlook, giving Walker -- a former ALEC member -- a boost as he lays the groundwork for a re-election campaign and a possible Presidential bid.

Since Walker took office in 2010, job growth in Wisconsin has taken a nosedive. Wisconsin has consistently lagged behind neighboring states and the nation as a whole in terms of new job creation, a trend that was predicted by Federal Reserve economists shortly after reviewing Walker's 2011-2012 austerity budget. Walker's steep and controversial budget cuts abruptly moved Wisconsin from positive territory into negative territory as the graph below illustrates.




Good Jobs First and the Iowa Policy Project published a review of the methodology of previous ALEC Rich States, Poor States publications in their November 2012 report, titled Selling Snake Oil to the States: The American Legislative Exchange Council's Flawed Prescriptions for Prosperity. According to the authors, "Rich States, Poor States provides a recipe for economic inequality, wage suppression, and stagnant incomes, and for depriving state and local governments of the revenue needed to maintain the public infrastructure and education systems that are the true foundations of long term economic growth and shared prosperity."

[Pharaoh]

1. he could pour gasoline

on baby's and set them on fire and he would still get a gold star. Psychopathy love other psychopaths.

[AleksS]

2. They're just interested in giving him sound bites for 2014

They're just interested in giving him sound bites for 2014. They don't care about facts, etc. It's like the "job creator survey" he quoted so often during the recall. "The rich guys that I gave huge tax breaks to say I'm doing a good job!"

And it'll get repeated on the right wing radio over and over again, so when people hear the fact-based figures "44th in job growth" and worse than that (if I remember correctly) in wage growth (wage depression) they'll just assume those numbers are as bogus as the Walker camp numbers.

The most jobs Walker's created are in the cottage industry that's arisen to generate enough bullshit to bury his failures.