He's running for
President re-election as Wisconsins Governor, donchaknow, so the propaganda he spews is becoming even more ridiculous as he scrambles to avoid talking about the 250,000 jobs he didn't create (move along, nothing to see here, peasants).
At first he tried to backtrack on his one promise in 2010: that he, if elected Governor, would create 250,000 jobs in his first term. That, in his own words, was "the floor and not the ceiling" since he expected to "create" many more in his first term. He's not quite halfway there because of the austerity economy that he and his Republican Legislative majorities has put in place. He failed miserably trying to walk it back (scrubbing it from his web site and other places as well as trying hard to change the subject every time "the jobs question" comes up).
His latest failure is trying to pivot from "jobs" to "business creation". At campaign events he's patting himself on the back for "creating" 17,000 new businesses in Wisconsin. So shameless is this assertion that even his pals at PolitiFact and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel have called him out on it.
The problem they've exposed is how the numbers have been extensively padded solely to benefit Walker. They've been exaggerated to the point that Walkers numbers are simply a lie.
From PolitiFact in Wisconsin:
But his impressive-sounding talking point -- that 17,000 new ready-to-hire businesses have sprung up on his watch -- crumbles upon examination.
The count of newly registered "business entities" that Walker touts includes not only new ventures that bring new jobs, but thousands with no workers on the payroll at all -- and little if any prospect of hires to come.
An analysis by PolitiFact Wisconsin found Walker’s count includes:
-- Hundreds of nonprofit organizations, often volunteer-run, including Scout troops, condo associations, youth sports leagues, volunteer fire departments, historical societies, "friends" fundraising groups, scholarship funds and many more.
-- Thousands of limited-liability companies set up by real-estate investors solely to hold ownership of property or properties. Even investors as far away as Australia are on the list because they bought Wisconsin rental properties.
-- Out-of-state firms that registered in Wisconsin because they may want to do work here.
-- Startups that are just getting organized and not yet able to pay employees.
(bolding is mine)
That's right! Start a Boy Scout troop and you've just "created a business" which Walker will add to his massive count. New volunteer Fire Department? Hey, there's another "new business" "created" under Walker. Put together of "Friends of (insert name of candidate here) for fundraising and media ads - wow! Another "new business".
With "businesses" like those, it's no surprise it's a massive list.
The Journal-Sentinel editorialized on the ridiculousness of those phony numbers.
That's not what you'd think, to hear the governor tell it. Walker has suggested that all of the new entities he has recently cited are producing jobs or soon will be. As PolitiFact noted, Walker told a Door County business group in April: "On average — some will do more, some will do less — but if in the next year or so they each add up to 10 new employees, you add that to the more than 100,000 new jobs we've created and you see we surpass 250,000 new jobs."
Walker's goal, of course, is to deflect attention from his most high-profile campaign promise: The governor promised that Wisconsin companies would create 250,000 net new jobs during his first term. The latest scorecard shows 105,800 jobs have been created, and even the governor's most ardent supporters realize that he won't be able to fulfill his promise by the end of his term in January.
They end with:
The state needs to do whatever it can to reasonably and responsibly promote business creation. That serves the interests of the state and its citizens. Stretching the truth, as the governor is doing in this case, serves no one but himself.
Ouch. That one's going to leave a mark, particularly when that editorial appeared in the Sunday edition, the most widely read newspaper of the week.
What Walker refuses to recognize is that his failure to "create" 250,000 new jobs is entirely his fault, along with the GOP dominated Legislature. Wisconsin would have had those jobs at the pace we were at before Walker was sworn in.
The state did better than most of the nation after the 2008 economic collapse and were recovering at a decent pace in 2010. But one of Walkers very first actions (cancelling the high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison) sent Wisconsins economy back. Gone were the jobs to build the rail line which was completely funded by the Federal Government. Also gone was the new factory (and the hundreds of high paying jobs) that Talgo was preparing to build in Milwaukee to manufacture high speed rail cars. Not only do we not have those jobs, but Talgos facilities in Milwaukee were also recently shut down for good with the loss of existing high paying jobs.
After that, Act 10 took money from public employees as their paychecks, already low from giving up pay for well over a decade to retain benefits, were further gleaned to "pay for" benefits. Slashing state revenue sharing meant that local governments were laying off teachers and workers as their budgets were smashed with that financial loss (they were prohibited in Act 10 from raising property taxes to make up the shortfall).
Losses of jobs and lower paychecks meant less money in local economies that forced many businesses to close. Those closures simply added to the financial decline that continues today.
Life in FitzWalkerKochStan isn't easy. Having a Governor that lies about it makes it worse. And the lies are getting bigger and bolder since he's running for President re-election. .