Let us count the ways from the moment Scott Walker was elected governor.
It all began by smearing the state of Wisconsin as a tax hell by the rightwing Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) during Doyle's time as governor. Then the national housing crash caused a decline in demand, they said. The next big complaint was that there are too many regulations stifling growth. Then Barack Obama caused too much "uncertainty." Then they said the recalls caused too much unrest. Then they said, "if you stabilize the debt, we’re going to have growth," he-he-he. Then we needed to offer more incentives to entice business investment. Then they said Wisconsin has a workforce skills gap.
Now the latest excuse for Wisconsin lagging behind the rest of the nation in job growth is an aging population and a risk averse mentality. Well, that's the conclusion from the conservative-leaning Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
Twin Cities Excerpt:
Todd Berry, the president of the Taxpayers Alliance, said Wisconsin's elected leaders trade blame for the poor figures but that even the simplest political debates overlook crucial issues such as demographics, instead focusing more on tax incentives to lure companies from other states.
It sounds tantalizing if only we ignore the fact that Wisconsin has been heading in the opposite direction from the rest of the country for the past two years and there appears to be no let up in sight.
One Wisconsin Now Response excerpt:
"Gov. Scott Walker got everything he wanted over the last two years and the result has been complete failure," said Ross. "Now, his allies at the conservative Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance are trying to change the subject and blame the age of Wisconsinites and their heritage for the latest example of trickle-down economics being a total failure."
2 comments:
Did you read the actual report? It shows Wisconsin has lagged the nation since about 1996. That covers Gov Thompson, McCallum, Doyle, and Walker. The report specifically said it was not about short term numbers, but what has been going on long-term.
Yes I did read most of the actual report and I'm not necessarily bashing their conclusions as much as I see it as a continuation of timely excuses. It wouldn't matter if they trended back 30 or 50 years. Scott Walker has installed very specific concepts of governing that break deeply away from past standards. Of course that's not always a bad thing but in Wisconsin's case, the short-term results under Walker's proposals and all the forecasts I've seen show a worsening economy. It wasn't supposed to be that way - was it?
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