Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Scott Walker, the Mythical Job Creator

Scott Walker keeps touting that his policies have created jobs here in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, that's a bald-faced lie. Want proof? Take a look at this chart from the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization BadgerStat.


Most of the previous Governor's policies were in place until June 2011, and most of Walker's major policies weren't yet in effect, because Walker didn't sign his budget until June 26, 2011. In the 6 months prior, 38,800 jobs were created according to BadgerStat's latest report on Jobs and Unemployment. However, in the 6 months since Walker's policies have been in place, Wisconsin has lost 35,600 jobs! That's nearly 0 net jobs gained since Walker took office, and at the current trend, we'll have a net job loss under Walker next month or two. In fact, jobs were lost immediately following the budget signing, and Wisconsin leads the nation in job losses.

This chart shows that Wisconsin was on an upward jobs trend after the housing crash when Walker took office. So, the statement that the previous governor's policies were creating jobs into Walker's inauguration and early term can be seen from the evidence.



Walker promised that he would create 250,000 jobs in his first term, and BadgerStat has tracked that progress as well. Check out this chart to see how Scott Walker's policies bucked that trend, too.


We're clearly headed in the wrong direction.

Walker initiated two special legislative sessions this year under the banner of creating jobs. However, the sessions didn't focus on job creation. Instead, bills on things such as sex education and recalls were debated. In the end, Walker and the Republicans gave $2.3 billion in middle-class tax breaks to large corporations.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Walker Recall: Over 1 Million Signatures!

According to Bloomberg and WisPolitics, we've collected over a million signatures to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker! That's very close to the 1.1 million people who voted for Walker in 2010 and nearly double the amount required to recall Walker.

An exact count is expected to be announced at 3pm CST.

Enough signatures have also been collected for the recalls of Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and Senator Scott Fitzgerald.

This is great news for everyone looking to get Wisconsin moving forward again. Oodles of thanks to everyone who helped in this effort.

Now, we'll finally get to vote for Walker based on the policies he will actually implement. The work doesn't end here, it just begins. We must continue to fight on through the recall election.