Walker's Two Employment Gaffes

In Friday night's debate between Scott Walker and Mary Burke, Walker had two major gaffes when it comes to his dismal record regarding jobs and workers.

The first gaffe, as my friend karoli points out, came when Walker said that we don't have a job a work problem."  In other words, there's plenty of jobs out there, it's just that we Sconnies are too stupid, too lazy and/or are all druggies and can't fill those jobs.
problem, we have "

Fortunately, someone at Team Burke was actually on the ball and jumped on this gaffe:

On Saturday, Burke pounced on the comment during an appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

"I don't know how many of you watched the debate last night, but Governor Walker said in the debate that he didn't think Wisconsin had a jobs problem. Right?" Burke said. "Well, I want to be a governor who acknowledges the challenges that we have and is going to focus on the ideas that are going to move us ahead and will make sure that Wisconsin has a vibrant, growing, thriving economy so that when you graduate from college, there are going to be job opportunities for you to be able to stay in this state."

Democrats appeared eager to provide their own spin on Walker's statement, suggesting that the governor was somehow saying that anyone who really wants to work could find a job in Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, they miss the fact that the real problem isn't a skills gap, but a pay gap. We have a lot of skilled workers, but the companies don't want to pay the workers a fair wage. Therein is the real problem. If the companies would show a little respect and pay a fair wage, they would have more applicants than what they know what to do with.

The other gaffe, as I pointed out at Crooks and Liars, came during Walker's closing statement, when he said:

"You know, a lot has changed over the past four years. Think about it, we have the lowest employment rate we've had, well, since almost six years ago."

How about that?! Walker finally admitted that his agenda is not working - for us anyway.

Oh, I know that his apologists will point to the state having a supposed 5.8% unemployment record, but I addressed that issue as well:

Along with his other ALEC-driven policies, Walker and his Teapublican allies in the state legislature set about to screw with the unemployed.

Even though new unemployment claims were at an all time high, Walker understaffed the call center for unemployment compensation. Hey, if people can't get through, they can't file claims and thus they can't be counted as unemployed.

Then Walker and friends put an even tighter squeeze on the unemployed. They passed changes to the rules to make it harder to get unemployment compensation, wait up to six weeks for the first check if one was approved and made it harder to keep receiving benefits. Showing what cowards they are, they made these changes without so much as a public hearing.

Nothing like kicking people when they're down.

Now it's time for Wisconsin voters to kick him down and out.*

*Geez, I hope I don't get accuse of plagiarism now!

Unemployment Decompensation

Even as the national unemployment numbers continue to plummet, it was recently reported that in Wisconsin, the number of people filing new claims for unemployment compensation is so high that the state can't keep up with them:

John Dipko, a spokesman for the Department of Workforce Development, said the department
is working to handle the high call volume.

"We have additional staff working the phone lines and putting in extra hours to take calls during this temporary high-volume season, and we expect the situation will improve, especially now that the holiday-related office closures are behind us," he said in an email.

"We understand the frustration of those who may not get through to a claims specialist. We are monitoring call center activity closely and will adjust resources as needed to ensure individuals make the connections they need to file their claims."

The high volume of calls for unemployment claims should not come as a surprise to anyone. It was just a few weeks ago that we saw that Scott Walker's agenda has been working so well that Wisconsin led the nation in the number of new claims. It was so bad that Wisconsin had more claims than the second and third worst state combined.

It would be easy to just brush this off by claiming that it is nothing more than just one more example of Walker's incompetence and of his general disdain for anyone who is not a wealthy campaign donor.

I would submit to the gentle reader that this is actually what Walker and his Teapublican cohorts had wanted to happen.  I would suggest that just as he treated the poor in Milwaukee County as political pawns, he is doing the same with the unemployed and underemployed in preparation for his re-election and presidential bids.

Walker and his Teapublican cohorts have spent the past year making unilateral changes to unemployment insurance.  Some of these changes include delaying the time that an applicant gets their first check, making things harder to qualify for unemployment compensation, and making it easier to get kicked off of unemployment compensation.

Another one of these ALEC-driven changes includes dropping the length that unemployment compensation lasts as the unemployment percentage drop.

Because there's nothing like kicking a person when they are already down.

So now Walker has a double incentive to have low unemployment numbers.

One, he can try to use it to spin his public image as a job creator even though we damn well know he is far from being one.

Secondly, he can appease the corporate special interest which are bank rolling his campaigns, both for reelection and for his aspirations to be president.

By understaffing the call center for unemployment, Walker is able to delay people getting unemployment and is able to artificially suppress the unemployment numbers, allowing him to maintain his fragile claims to being a job creator and to keep more money for his corporate overlords.

Is it any wonder why Walker keeps referring to the issue of employment compensation as a "distraction."  If anyone were to take a closer look at the situation in Wisconsin, they would see that Walker is not the job creator he pretends to be.  They would also see how his draconian approach to unemployment insurance is slowing the state's economy even more, making it harder for everyone, not just the unemployed.

The one thing that is imminently clear is that Walker and his Teapublican friends in the legislature should be given the chance to enjoy the bitter fruits of their own work and be put in the unemployment line themselves.

Sean Duffy: Clueless and Classless

Reality TV star Sean Duffy (T*-Kochville) sent out a holiday email in which he expressed surprise that there were poor people in his district.  He was also surprised that poor people are suffering:

During this season of joy, I find myself more aware than maybe ever before of the people in our community who are in need of great comfort this Christmas. Whether it is a mother who is struggling to pay her utility bill, or a father who is dealing with the loss of his family’s health insurance plan, this week I have been fortunate to work with many people from our community on ways we can help the neediest among us and hopefully make life a little more comfortable for them.

Building Effective Awareness: A year ago I sat down with many of the pastors in Wausau and asked them, “What are the needs in our community?” I was taken back when all of them commented on the issues of hunger and homelessness in our community. I think I’m like a lot of people in our community who don’t know the issues that a lot of people who are having a tough time are facing. I wanted to do what I could with my team to make sure we can make a difference with those who have fallen on hard times and make sure we can collaborate together on community resources. Also collaborate on the Federal and state side to make sure resources don’t just flow to the urban parts of the country but can actually come to the parts of the country that have real problems but don’t have huge staffs to cut through the red-tape.

This is coming from the same guy who was complaining how he couldn't make it on his $174,000 salary and had to drive - oh, the horror! - a used minivan!

But it shouldn't come as a surprise to Duffy at all.  Scott Walker's agenda of austerity has been repeatedly shown to be an utter failure, causing unemployment to soar across the state.  Some of the highest unemployment rates are in Duffy's own district.  For him to be surprised that there were poor people and they were hurting shows just how out of touch he is with what's going on.

But as with all things Duffy, there is more.  There is always more.

Duffy is also a raging hypocrite.

Even as people were reading the piece of tripe he sent out declaring his compassion, he was also skipping out of Washington, D.C. without lifting a finger to address the 2.2 million Americans who were about to be cut off of unemployment compensation. Because of Duffy's inaction, 24,000 Wisconsinites have were cut off of their unemployment compensation on Saturday, with another 42,000 losing their lifeline in the first half of 2014.  This number includes the 2,770 people in his new hometown of Wausau that just found themselves cut off.

Robert Mentzer, regional opinion editor for Gannett Central Wisconsin Media, wrote a compelling column discussing the folly of letting these benefits come to an end, including this snippet:

“We shouldn’t let emergency federal benefits expire,” wrote Michael R. Strain, a think-tank scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, on the conservative site, “because the same fundamental logic that led to their being (correctly) enacted still holds today: The labor market is still in bad shape, the economy is still weak, there are three times as many unemployed workers as job openings.”

Unemployment benefits require the worker to be available and able to work and to be actively searching for a job. Cutting off the benefit isn’t going to magically force all these people to find jobs. The jobs aren’t there. Instead, Strain and others argue, it will cause many workers to leave the labor force permanently, making them the problem of public and private social services agencies.

Cutting unemployment benefits, in other words, is a very expensive way to save money.

So now we see that not only is Duffy clueless and classless, he's a major spendthrift as well.

Fortunately, the good people of the 7th Congressional District can make a change for the better in 2014.

Kelly Westlund is running to unseat Duffy.  With Westlund, the people of the 7th CD would have their voices heard in Washington and would have someone fighting for them.  That is a much needed change from what they have now - just another Koch Brothers owned sockpuppet.

*T = Teapublican

Solidarity Fish Fry, Week 10: A Lot To Digest

Chalk up the tenth Solidarity Fish Fry in the books.

As I've mentioned before, the one thing about these events is that it's never the same from week to week.  This one was no different.  Not only was there a lot of food to digest, there was a lot of food for thought that needs to be digested as well.

When I arrived, I noticed that the parking lot was pretty empty.  I was disappointed, but not too surprised.  Lots of people have holiday parties and are getting ready for Christmas.

Probably a bigger factor was the fact that the horrible events in Newton, Connecticut put a damper on everyone's mood.  It's hard to make it through the day after something like this, much less go out once you get home.

But there were still a fair number of us there and once again, I came away amazed at the good in people, especially after the day's news.

Even before I made it into the Hall, I saw the dashing Randy "Ironstache" Bryce and his even more dashing son in the parking lot.  We chatted excitedly about next week's Ultimate Solidarity Fish Fry as well as the other news of the day.

I had the pleasure of meeting Andy, the author of Wisconsin's Soap Box (now added to the Royal Blogroll).  He's new to Milwaukee and decided to use that to his advantage by taking on a new angle to the fish fry.  His observations from sitting in the non-union section are quite interesting:

After some reflection, it was easily detected who the professional and veteran staff was from the inexperienced more recent hires just working it as "a job." Maybe it was just my experience, and there's no denying that I'm viewing the situation through my own biased lens, but I could easily see the professional union staff working 10 times as hard as their non-union coworkers. I saw them working hard and being speedy with every request while maintaining a professional demeanor and personable smile. On the contrary, the non-union waiters were slow, cold, and apathetic to my dining experience. I was never once asked how my meal was, given a run-down of the dining options, or checked on to see if I needed anything additional.

I will be back to Serb Hall. The fish itself was quite good and the price for the meal is still very good. However, I will be specifically requesting one of the waitresses I saw across the room who made their guests feel right at home. Next time, I will be looking for the union label, and with good reason. My non-union experience seemed sub par to that of others.

But do make sure you read the whole thing.  It is rather well written and it is a rather accurate description of things.

I also had seen members of the Progressive Democrats of America and had the pleasure of meeting two of my 4.3 readers.

I had the honor of dining with State Representative Chris Sinicki, John Pokrandt and Kelley Albrecht.  The conversation was lively and ranged from political gossip to the events of the day to adventures in campaigning and some of the weird things we've come across.

And through the various conversations I've had, I learned many things (all of which I will expand on in later posts), but just to give you a heads up:

• Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele is still planning to go ahead with his ill-advised plan to further disrespect the voters by downsizing the board.  He will do so with the aid of his buddy, Representative Elect Joe Sanfelippo, whose claim to fame is abdicating his duties and profiteering off the county through his taxi company.  True to their nature though, they are doing it wrong and it will end up failing after costing taxpayers untold fortunes in legal fees as it's fought out in court.
• Besides the Right to Woe law, the selling out of our state to Gogebic Taconite, eliminating same day registration and other non-job focused laws, Assemblywoman Sinicki said that they are going after unemployment compensation again.  If you thought what they did the first time was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.  For example, unemployment claimants would have to wait six weeks before receiving their first check.  This bill is set to go on day one.  I'll share more as soon as I get more information.
• I have also heard that it's increasingly unlikely that the Honorable Maryann Sumi will run for the Supreme Court, confirming what Brew City Brawler had already reported.  While Sumi would have made a fine justice, I still prefer Ed Fallone.

Best of all, we were able to all help each other cope with the day's news by sharing our grief and our sadness and leaning on each other.  It's amazing what miracles a hug can do for a soul.

And as we are fond of saying, "One fish fry longer, one fish fry stronger."

Remember that next week we will be hosting some of the Palermo's workers, who stand in solidarity with the Serb Hall union workers.  But to make this successful, we need your help.  Please help out by donating generously to the Palermo's fund.  It's a great way to show your support for both groups, especially if you're not able to make it to a fish fry.