For those of you who follow politics compulsively, you have by now realized that it is a necessity for ones sanity to take anything either side says with a grain of salt. Often, the truth is cast aside in pursuit of political gain. Who can forget Jon Kyl’s famous misrepresentation of fact while trying to discredit Planned Parenthood, in which Mr. Kyl claimed that his words were “not intended to be a factual statement”? Classic. Its not hard to discern why more than half of the nation pays little attention to politics and refuse to participate. Honestly, it is grueling and time consuming going from source to source trying to uncover a shred of truth regarding any matter. I get it. I really do.
However, Scott Walker has pushed the overdrive button on his propaganda machine, and the truth is being left in the dust. The Walker administration has done their best to suppress the truth, and keep the citizens of Wisconsin in the dark. Rather than rely on the intelligence and dilligence of his fellow Wisconsinites, Mr. Walker prefers to skew the results of unemployment data and studies assessing the impact of of the Afordable Care Act. Personally, I see it as an insult to all of us.
Let’s do a re-cap, shall we? So, the June numbers for Wisconsin unemployment came in and the data reflected a gain of 9,500 private sector jobs. Walker attributed this gain in jobs solely to his administrations effort to being back tourism to the state. Puke. I find it commical that Walker has taken the brazen approach to giving himself credit to the paltry gains in employment in June. When one scours the past data, it is clear that employment has always ticked up in the summer months to accomodate the influx of tourists to our beautiful state. To be fair, Walker did appropriate additional funds to tourism in his budget. But, to suggest that it is these policies that have enabled the “growth” in Wisconsins tourism industry in one month is nothing short of laughable.
Fast forward to July. New data out suggests that Wisconsin shed over 12,000 private sector jobs. What has Walker claimed is to blame? Naturally, it must be the weak national economy, along with uncertainty surrounding debt ceiling negotiations. Hmm…it seems contradictory to claim 9500 jobs as a result of your own efforts, yet the next month brush of 12,000+ job losses as a consequence of a poor national economy.
In fact, the unemployment rate for the nation crept down from 9.2% to 9.1% in July. While a gain of .1% can be considered as marginal at best, it is clear that the economy nation wide improved slightly. Furthermore, let us not forget that Wisconsin saw a mass migration of tourists from Minnesota while their State Government battled a shutdown over the 4th of July weekend. So, realistically, if Walker had been correct on the gain in June being tourism related, shouldnt the increase in tourists in July, along with his policies affected a positive jobs number for July?
Clearly, we can see the propaganda machine of the Walker Administration at work. When we gain jobs, of course it is because of his policies. When we shed jobs, well, hell, it must be because of the guy in the white house right? Whats that? We had an election in 2010 in which most of America was duped into believing you guys knew what you were talking about? really? What happened?
Where are the jobs? This question has been posed time and time again, often by the right. 8 months in to them having power and here we stand. Wisconsin had an unemployment rate of 7.4% when Walker and the Tea Party phenomenon took office. We now have a 7.8% unemployment rate. I thought we were open for business? It should not matter the national unemployment rate as Walker has done nothing but try to steal jobs from Illinois. So where is the mass migration we were promised? Nowhere. It is another fallocy. We refute clean energy jobs, refuse federal money to build infrastructure, and further push the middle class to the lower class. This is the new normal under the Emperial Walker.
The effort to propagate discord among partisans does not stop at unemployment numbers.No, this seems to be a trend, a trend even more evident in the past months. Perhaps, Walker is feeling the heat of the recalls and senses his time is limited. However, not having access to his thoughts leaves me to only speculate.
Yet, the accusations of the Walker administration doing their best to skew the results of a report concerning the effects of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) only go towards proving my accusations correct. For those who have not heard, notable economist Jonathan Gruber has come out claiming that the Walker administration pressured him into presenting evidence negatively. According to the Capital Times, Gruber said, “They picked out the most negative aspects of the report to highlight. Overall I think health care reform is a great thing for Wisconsin.”
So, Why, after having the highly regarded economist performing the study coming out and claiming that you his skewed results in your own favor for political gain, is Walker touting this study? The answer is simple, He is taking orders from his masters. His masters? Who exactly, you ask? Well, how about orgs. like ALEC, or supposed “free market” institutions like Global Health Cooperative? No, that cant possibly be, since Global Health Cooperative recently gave up covering state employees, and turned the customers over to WEA Trust, which is operated as a non-profit.
So, why? Could it be that he is insistent upon these ill-guided philosophies of the Tea Party? Could it be that the idea of the supposed “free market” reigns greater than his idea of a prosperous Wisconsin? No, it is simply because Walker created the Wisconsin Office of Free Market Health Care, and is now doing his best to justify his waste of tax dollars.
Let us not waste completely our time pouring over the reasons for Walkers lies, but let us instead pour over the data. By 2016, Wisconsin will go from having over 500,000 uninsured person to less than 200,000. The total gain is actually closer to 340,000, which is an impressive feat in less than 5 years. However, this flies in the face of the “free market” principle, which people like Walker adovcate so dearly for. My question is simple: Why does it matter who provides health care for Wisconsinites, or Americans in general, as long as they have access to adequate health care?
The overhead of Medicare is near 3%, overheard for a private insurer is near 15%. As I stated before, Global Health Cooperative is discontinuing coverage for state workers, and they cited the cost of insuring them as a contributing factor. Yet, WEA Trust is able to insure them and lose no money. Why? Like Medicare, there is no profit motive.
After railing on Walker, I do not wish to be dishonest with anyone. The report also highlighted those who will pay higher rates for insurance. Yet, I must warn you, this data has also been skewed by the Walker Administration. About half of those without employer sponsored insurance and those working for an employer with 50 or fewer employees will see an increase in premiums. This may sound like bad news, but the other 50 percent or so, will see a decrease in premiums.
To explain it best, the notable economist and author of the report Jonathan Gruber, according to The Capital Times,explained it as so,Gruber says it is because reforms will finally correct a longstanding health care inequity-the common insurance industry practice of cherry picking, or keeping rates low for the young healthy people by charging a lot or even denying coverage outright to the old and the sick with pre-existing conditions. “Here’s my counterspin,” Gruber says. “It’s not that people have to pay more. It’s that people have artificially been paying too little.” To end these “discriminatory practices where young and healthy people get a good deal and old and sick people get a bad deal,” he says, “what that means in the state of Wisconsin, which has a wild west market, is that young, healthy guys are going to get hit.”
Walker is lying to everyone. Whether it is a misrepresentation of unemployment data, denegrating the status of the union, or claiming health care reform will hurt us all,it is a lie. It is a direct insult to you and me. The answer is to educate yourself and push back against the idea that health care and a steady job are not American institutions. They are. The survival of the middle class and our status as the greatest nation to ever live depends on it.