Thursday, January 26, 2012

Well, If That's The Comparison He Wants To Make...

I've notice recently that Scott Walker has been trying to cover his losing job record by highlighting the three years before him, such as in this press release:
The Governor also noted that the state has put a stop to years of job loss. After Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs over three years, the state created thousands of jobs this year, and the state’s unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since 2008.
I don't know who's been advising him on his talking points, but I hope he keeps them.

First off, bragging about the lowest unemployment rate is a losing fight for him, since we already know that is only reflective of the people that have given up looking for employment in the jobs wasteland known as Fitzwalkerstan.

But does Walker really want to compare his record to Doyle's? 

The three years that Walker refers to, we were going through not just a national recession, but a global one.  And even one accepts Walker's numbers as factual, that means that Doyle saw Wisconsin lose 50,000 jobs a year.

But thanks to my co-author, Keith Schmitz, and this handy chart, we see what was happening in Walker's first year as governor:


The only job growth for the year happened as a leftover of the Doyle budget.  When Walker's policies started taking effect, the jobs started leaving like crazy.

In the last six months of 2011, when Walker's policies and budgets were in full force, the state lost some 40,000-45,000 jobs.  Or to put it more frankly, it took Walker half the time to lose nearly the same amount of jobs that he is accusing of Doyle losing over the course during an entire year.  And during Walker's term, the rest of the nation has been gaining jobs as the economy recovers from the recession, while Doyle had taken the brunt of it.

Perhaps he could use that as a campaign slogan: "If you thought Doyle was bad, I'm twice as bad!

1 comment:

  1. Not related, but, here's one of my neighbors views on all of it:
    http://wisconsinwarrior.com/?page_id=428

    Can you guess who it is?

    ReplyDelete