It started with booing from the gallery.
I'll update as he speaks.
5:12 PM PT: Walker just got mic checked.
5:13 PM PT: Claims unemployment lower that he added thousands of jobs, balanced budget, without layoffs, added jobs, and claims he put money in Badger Care. What a bunch of hooey.
5:13 PM PT: "People create jobs, not the government"
They used to claim government created jobs to justify massively expanding government.
5:15 PM PT: Says we passed aggressive jobs plans last year with help from both parties. What a load of crap.
Again claims we added thousands of jobs in 2011. Says our unemployment rate is not only lower, but lower than Illinois.
Claims "improved climate" for job creators. Employers approve of his measures.
5:16 PM PT: Republicans are applauding each sentence wildly.
5:16 PM PT: Says adding 500 jobs was the biggest jobs progress since World War II.
5:17 PM PT: Owners of business say they're adding jobs because of the fine way Walker is running things.
5:21 PM PT: Points to a woman who took pay cut, then lost her job, and got a new job because of his policies.
Doubled job fairs, doubled number of staff to get people in jobs, targeting veterans for jobs help with his new Jobs Plan. Says full employment for returning veterans is his top priority. He says they're "good hires" because they're "well disciplined".
Employers need help cutting through red tape. He's going to ask all agencies to remove regulations that prevent jobs from being created.
They also want btter infrastructure. Wants ports, freight rail, and good roads.
5:21 PM PT: Wants "safe and environmentally friendly mining". Really. Srsly? There's such a thing.
Says this would bring jobs.
5:22 PM PT: Many standing ovations from republicans throughout the speech.
5:22 PM PT: "Frugality in government leads to freedom and prosperity for people".
5:24 PM PT: Claims he came into office with a $3.6 billion deficit. Says some states raised taxes, but he avoided that in Wisconsin.
Says he added $1.2 billion to Medicaid and Family Care (that's outright BS).
Says he refused to use "budget tricks".
5:26 PM PT: Claims he balanced the budget with "long term structural reforms". We thought more about the state than the next election, because that's what you elected us to do.
Wild applause from the GOP.
We kept our promises. Says "our ranking to create jobs went up faster than any other state". (I'd love to see that report)
5:30 PM PT: I pledged to not raise your taxes. He claims to have lowered the overall tax burden in the state (mine aren't lower - I checked)
He says he decreased the school property tax levy (yes he did - by prohibiting them from being raised). Claims levy reduced by $47 million. This puts real money in the hands of real people.
Big smile on his face mentioning 2 people who saved about a hundred bucks last year.
More needs to be done to protect the taxpayers. Mentions his comminssion on Fraud, Waste, And Abuse. He's implementing the reforms they recommended saving even more money.
Making a Waste, Fraud and Abuse Elimination Commission.
Disruption in crowd but it's unintelligible. The woman was quickly whisked away by security.
5:32 PM PT: Says he wants to improve our schools so every kid has access to a great education. (His sons look sullen in the gallery).
We can have great schools and protect taxpayers at the same time. Says he saved them money on employee health insurance. Claims those savings can go directly into the classroom.
5:34 PM PT: Talks about a teacher getting laid off because she was low in seniority. Now our schools keep staff based on merit and not their years of service (sure - denys them union rights and contracts). Says ignoring seniority allows the best and brightest to be kept in the classroom.
School principles happy to focus on curriculum instead of grievances.
5:37 PM PT: Thanks teachers and public servants in Wisconsin.
(now he's going to kick us in the ass)
Appreciates the hard work and dedication. Claims he avoided massive layoffs of public employees.
Much more needs to be done to improve our public education
Kids must be reading by 4th grade because reading taught only until 3rd grade. Created panel - Read to Lead - for suggestions. Funding screeners to assess students entering kindergarden as to reading skills and have higher standards for teachers.
5:39 PM PT: We want all our kids to learn reading early.
Most ambitious goal is to develop a plan to assess schools to determine schools doing well and poorly. Parents will be able to look at a report to see how it's doing. Fair, objective and transparent system will examine every school.
5:41 PM PT: Asking everyone for help across the state. Small business owners asked to hire 1 more person this year. Give him ideas on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse at a new website. Wants every citizen to become a reading mentor. Claims he's mentoring a kid and "it was fun".
5:42 PM PT: Don't personalize your differences. Your opponent today could be your ally tomorrow.
Another shout from the gallery.
Says he gets respect from everywhere he goes in the state (he must be wearing a blindfold to not see the protesters).
5:43 PM PT: The spirit of Wisconsin will help us improve the state of our economy, the state of our schools, and the state of our people
Now is the time to move our state forward.
5:44 PM PT: OK, he's done. I typed as fast as I could (and inserted a couple of comments of the outrageous stuff). So I'm going to the comments until Assembly Minority Leader Barca gives his rebuttal.
Rep Barca is being interviewed now:
5:48 PM PT: He cut 1/3 of the vocational schools so it's harder for people to obtain job skills. Also mentioned the extreme social agenda items that were done during the Jobs Special Session rather than anything related to jobs.
5:51 PM PT: Mentioned the cuts to alternative energy that eliminate the jobs in that sector.
Mentioned all the cuts and peel backs from public employees that leads to less spending.
Regarding mining, the localities don't support the current bill. Concerns about affect on water supplies. There are many questions about drinking water and environmental concerns so the bill as is isn't acceptable.
Hard to understand why Walker won't reach across the aisle or bring people together. His divisive policies are the reason that a million people signed recall petitions.
The Democratic rebuttal wasn't aired.
wpt.org will have video of the speech and the rebuttal.
I'm closing the post now since I postponed dinner long enough to listen to Walkers BS. Hope you all enjoyed. I'll be back later to read any new commentary.
Here's the Democratic Response from Rep. Barca, Assembly Minority Leader: