Scott Walker's Bumbling Economy and Slow Job Growth, and he had the nerve to criticize Obama?

I once wrote: "Scott Walker is stuck in the past, working on a manufacturing renaissance in Wisconsin. In fact, Walker is attacking, vilifying and stopping emerging industries he feels aren't part of the Republican Party platform, like wind, solar and mass transit." 

Well, now we're feeling it, which is just in time to give Walker four more years? Seriously? Walker was so sure about his vision of a manufacturing-mecca-in-the-Midwest, that he put all of his eggs in one tax cut basket:

The Manufacturers and Agricultural Production Tax Credit will reduce corporate tax liability for manufacturers to 0.4 percent from 7.9 percent by 2017.

Failed!!! So what did the manufacturers tax cut give back to Wisconsin?

Wisconsin added just 11,590 private sector jobs in 2016, good for a growth rate of 0.5 percent. Those numbers mark the slowest job growth of any year since Gov. Scott Walker took office. 

Contributing to the slower growth in 2016 was a decline in manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin suffered a loss of 3,776 jobs in the state's second-largest industry.

Tim Smeeding, an economist at UW-Madison who noted 2016's flat job growth in the Wisconsin Poverty Report released earlier this week, said, "Manufacturing employment has been dropping in this country for 40 years. Other jobs in other industries - there aren't enough startups - there's not enough going on."

Walker's laser like focus on manufacturing, encouraged by the lobbyist at Wisconsin Manufacturing and Commerce, owns this collapsing job market. In the report below by WKOW's Greg Neumann, Walker offered up this distraction:

"Our biggest challenge isn't creating jobs, it's finding people to fill them," wrote Tom Evenson in a statement. "Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is 3.2%, the best it’s been since 2000 ... We’ve seen a strong ramp up in private sector job growth so far in 2017."

As anyone knows, since time began, there has always be a lot of jobs that go unfilled. So to focus on the impossible task of filling those jobs, instead of creating new jobs in emerging industries, you get the lowest job growth numbers in Walker's six years, .05!!!



And this didn't help either; out migration of labor:

Walker has ignored the biggest engine of job creation, small and medium businesses under 500 employees. And in today's economy, that means venture capital for startups, many of which are in the tech industry. WKOW's Greg Nuemann explained:



Here's an even more in-depth look (4:30 min.) at the need for venture capital in Wisconsin:



Gig Economy...does Scott Walker even know what it is? He should as governor. Yahoo Finance talked about it in the video clip below, and Techtarget defined it below that:

A gig economy is an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations contract with independent workers for short-term engagements.

A study by Intuit predicted that by 2020, 40 percent of American workers would be independent contractors ... this digital age, the workforce is increasingly mobile and work can increasingly be done from anywhere, so that job and location are decoupled. That means that freelancers can select among temporary jobs and projects around the world, while employers can select the best individuals for specific projects from a larger pool than that available in any given area ... financial pressures on businesses leading to further staff reductions and the entrance of the Milennial generation into the workforce ... businesses save resources in terms of benefits, office space and training. They also have the ability to contract with experts for specific projects who might be too high-priced to maintain on staff.

Republican Opposition to rebuilding U.S. Infrastructure is Destroying Manufacturing: Ironically, Republican policies are making Walker look like an even bigger fool. 

As the Economic Policy Institute's Robert Scott advises:

Taken together, steps to eliminate trade deficits (by ending currency manipulation and unfair trade) and rebuild U.S. infrastructure could easily generate sufficient demand for manufactured products to return most or all of the 5 million manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2014. Growing trade deficits and the shortfall in demand caused by the Great Recession, and not productivity growth, are the major causes of manufacturing job loss in this period.

Manufacturing and Coal Renaissance??? It almost seems like Walker is longing for the days of big manufacturing plants pumping out billowing clouds of pollution from their towering smoke stacks. Take Walker lap dog AG Brad Schimel's editorial defending the dying coal industry as a way to save manufacturing...well, it pretty much says it all:

As one of the top manufacturing states in the country, Wisconsin has much to lose if the Obama administration succeeds in its plan to destroy the viability of clean-coal electric generation. Manufacturing jobs in our state depends on affordable and reliable electric power.

 If coal is so cheap...? 

Electricity rates paid by businesses and residents of Wisconsin now rank highest among eight Midwest states.

Walker still waiting for Manufacturing Renaissance, which ain't happening!

I once wrote back in August of 2015: "Walker is stuck in the past, working on a manufacturing renaissance in Wisconsin. In fact, Walker is attacking, vilifying, and stopping emerging industries he feels aren't part of the Republican Party platform, like wind, solar and mass transit."

So Scott Walker decided to put out this braggadocious tweet thinking this would cinch his reelection:

Look, "#2" would be great if we were talking about a large number of jobs, with the promise of even more jobs to come in a growing industry:

In March of 2017, WPR reported that Wisconsin lost "4,000 Jobs in 12-Month Period Ending In September 2016. A total of 27 states lost manufacturing jobs over the same span, and so did the national economy:"

University Michigan Labor Economist Don Grimes: "No political leader if they had looked at the data and understand what's going on, should ever bet their future on manufacturing job growth. Because it's not going to happen."  

But wait, there's more: Walker also said this about the weak manufacturing jobs numbers, that incredibly, makes the manufacturing tax credit even more irrelevant:

Gov. Scott Walker said fewer manufacturing jobs might not be such a bad thing for Wisconsin, as long as wages are increasing.

"It's not just how many jobs — it's are those jobs paying at a significant level. If we see wages go up in manufacturing, to me, that's my ultimate goal. Overall, it’s just a different type of manufacturing – you’re going to see more and more automation. You can have successful manufacturing companies that don’t necessarily match all those (previous) numbers."

You gotta wonder who Walker is listening too:

Check out the 6 reasons by the manufacturing tax credit should be deep-sixed here, from the Wisconsin Budget Project. I'm not done piling on either...

Urban Milwaukee: The Manufacturing and Agriculture Tax Credit reflects the danger of letting nostalgia for the past drive economic policy, of succumbing to the hope that we can return to when manufacturing drove the Wisconsin economy. While it is important not to write off manufacturing, it is also a mistake to expect a return to the days of well-paid, but low-skilled and highly repetitious mass manufacturing jobs. Those jobs are either being automated away or migrating to nations with much lower labor costs.

In its fixation on manufacturing jobs, Wisconsin runs the danger of neglecting the investments needed to build a new economy. It blocks serious planning for what comes next. Ending the manufacturing tax credit would free up roughly $300 million that could be directed to more productive uses.

Even Trump's former National Economic Council director Gary Cohen knows the basics, it's all about the service economy now. That's why we need a minimum wage hike now. Besides tariffs, people are leaving manufacturing:

Cohen: "We create jobs through services...the big increase is we saw more need for workers in business services...not manufacturing. In fact, we saw more voluntary leavers from the manufacturing industry, because as the job market tightens, people will volentarily leave the manufacturing industry and go into the service industry." 

Today service employment has grown to around 130 million, while goods producers have been stuck at 20 million for the past 80 years.

Finally, this from Michael J. Hicks, professor of economics and the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University:

MSN: Over the past 50 years, American jobs have steadily moved away from factories, mimicking the shift from farm to factory in the 50 years before that. The cause of each phenomenon was largely the same: technology, automation and the associated productivity growth meant we needed fewer workers to produce even more goods.

The causal factor in the decline of many Midwest places was simply dogged, stubborn, almost prideful ignorance about century-long changes to the world economy ... it has mistakenly convinced millions of Midwesterners that factory jobs may once again be plentiful. They won’t; even as manufacturing production will continue to expand, employment will not.

Peak manufacturing employment in the Midwest is nearly five decades behind us, when Chinese and Mexican exports were trivial. Yet far too many communities continued to pursue “jobs attraction” policies that failed them since the 1960s.

Nationally, manufacturing employment growth has slowed since April, and here in Indiana, it dipped into negative territory for two consecutive months. The manufacturing portions of the Fed’s Midwest economic index have been negative for four months. To be clear, the worst is yet to come as both tariffs and their lagging effects will plague us well into 2019.

And, in an underappreciated farewell speech, President Obama made it quite plain “. . . the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas. It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete.” Like him or not, that statement is as true and obvious as the rising sun. 

Ignoring almost the whole of those truths, today we pursue a trade war. It is ironic that the very places that ignored the economic changes of the past half-century will be the first to feel the spreading pain of this bad medicine. 

Walker "qualifies" Jobs Promise..."not how many jobs...it's how many people are there to fill them."

See what happens when you let Scott Walker get away with one major line of BS? He can say anything now...

Walker's campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs during his first term was flat out ridiculous, beyond ridiculous, impossible. No one with an ounce of integrity would have made that claim. Yet Walker did, and surprisingly, voters bought into it hook-line-and-sinker. Walker won based on that single promise. A few years later, Walker repeated his promise based on anecdotal BS from corporate CEO's. This was posted at Office of the Governor Scott Walker:

"In 2010, a mere 10 percent of employers said our state was headed in the right direction; in 2014, 96 percent said Wisconsin is headed in the right direction. Creating jobs is about more than just a campaign promise." (hey it was a promise, not just a goal!)

Ah, Never Mind? Is there any doubt Walker is a conniving career politician? 

Gov. Scott Walker is brushing off a Milwaukee newspaper article claiming Wisconsin is about 60,000 jobs short of his 2010 promise to create 250,000 private-sector jobs in four years. He's adjusted that pledge...

"I qualify that now saying ... I got more people employed than ever before ... it's not how many jobs are created, it's how many people are there to fill them. And so, I've shifted from that, and said my number one issue is workforce. I need to find those people."

Walker will find them leaving for other states:

Economists quoted in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article on Sunday said Wisconsin suffers a "brain drain" of college graduates to other states, and that Wisconsin needs to focus on improving the pay of current jobs.

Walker committed to Manufacturing Renaissance! Would I kid you? It was always painfully obvious that U.S. manufacturing was not coming back. But Walker wasn't having it, no matter how many experts and Democrats said otherwise:

Wisconsin's ranking was unchanged from a revised rank of 33rd for job creation, last in the nation for the second year in a row in terms of start-up business activity.

After 6 years, Walker is now reacting as if he'd discovered something new, acting like we were all just as backward as his administration, thinking tax cuts, out of state recruitment, tax free manufacturing...etc. would make Wisconsin a manufacturing mecca again:

Retired executive and business climate analyst John Torinus, who advised Walker on the original jobs pledge, said: "We know now that recruiting from out of state doesn't work. We know that manufacturing is automating and leaning so rapidly that it will not be an engine for job growth, even though its exports help the state's wealth creation greatly. Ditto for agri-business, the other major platform for the Wisconsin economy."

Walker ignored pleas to support small business startups until just recently, again, making Wisconsin last in the country:

Most new job and economic growth will come from start-ups, Torinus said, adding that "we are doing better on that score" in part due to state tax credits.

And while Walker continues to blame former governor Jim Doyle for the Great Recession, Doyle's recovery efforts would have resulted in higher monthly job growth than our duped business friendly Walker. Check out Political Heat for the complete analysis:

The MacIver Institute: Matt Mitchell, a Senior Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, looked to see if government incentives were all they cracked up to be. He discovered that states with more incentives per capita actually have slower real economic growth.

"If local subsidies worked as advertised, we'd expect to see greater economic growth in those states that give away more subsidies. But simple analysis of [Louise] Story's data suggests that, if anything, there is a negative  relationship between per capita subsidies and economic growth. Experts argue that offering these massive incentives are actually an admission of failure. A state with a great business climate should be able to attract business without the need for extra incentives."

Walker: A Deer in Reality's Headlights!

Remember this gem from early on in Scott Walker's first term as governor, still posted at Office of the Governor Scott Walker:

"In 2010, a mere 10 percent of employers said our state was headed in the right direction; in 2014, 96 percent said Wisconsin is headed in the right direction. Creating jobs is about more than just a campaign promise." (hey it was a promise, not just a goal!)

Can you say "sucker?" Of course they loved the idea of tax cuts, go figure.

But business leaders, economists and Democrats disagreed with Scott Walker's plan to reduce corporate taxes in the state, saying that was not a major deciding factor for businesses contemplating staying or coming to the state. Lifestyle, services, transportation, and an educated workforce topped their lists.

But Walker stuck with his purely ideological supply side plan, and it's now collapsing around him, with the announcements from Oscar Mayer and S.C. Johnson. Sadly there is little or no blowback from conservative voters. In 2017, Oscar Mayer would have gotten this Walker gift, which as we can see now, didn't influence Oscar Mayer's decision one bit:

The Manufacturers and Agricultural Production Tax Credit will reduce corporate tax liability for manufacturers to 0.4 percent from 7.9 percent by 2017. 

And Walker's only bragging point about the low unemployment numbers got really old a year ago, so let it go for gods sake. The graph below, from Urban Milwaukee, points out why the low unemployment rate may be partly due to losing workers to other states:

With no business sense or curiosity to ask Oscar Mayer about the merger and what it might mean for Wisconsin...:

Wisconsin's flagship economic development agency did not contact Kraft Heinz after the company's landmark merger, and it was not among the states that offered economic incentives to prevent layoffs at Kraft Heinz manufacturing plants.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said from what he could tell WEDC had not contacted the firm since a shift in ownership this year. "If WEDC failed to contact Oscar Mayer in the critical months of July and August of this summer, why would anyone think there is anything productive to be gotten out of WEDC?"

In another instance of Wisconsin media giving Walker a pass on accountability, Walker’s deceptive lie about WEDC contacting Kraft Heinz but never saying when, only got a mention. WPR:

Gov. Scott Walker told reporters Thursday that WEDC had made contact with Kraft Heinz, and that the company turned down help from the state.

"The bottom line is they've had contact with the WEDC in the past. We've provided assistance. They said they didn't need that assistance."

As it turns out, that contact happened a full two years before Kraft Foods Group and Heinz finalized a multi-billion dollar merger to become one of the world's largest food companies.

And no one in the press felt played or pissed off?

Here's local news coverage documenting Walker's excuses and failed policies:

Walker's not at fault again, while former Gov. Doyle is still blamed for Great Recession's job losses: Walker was quick to blame known liberal investor Warren Buffett, and not himself. Fox 6:

Scott Walker: "You'll have to ask people like Mr. Buffett and others whose companies engineered this decision. It has nothing to do with Wisconsin, it has everything to do with a corporate decision that was made by the merger of those two companies. It's not something where they've even made contact with us.”

S.C. Johnson announced plans to transition 175 jobs to the Windy City within the next two years:

Walker: "The bottom line is different there. They've got significant investment in the state. In this case, it was specific to marketing positions. They've had a hard time attracting those because they attract them globally, not just here in the Midwest.”

Walker's decision to revive a fading manufacturing base in the state at the expense of every other emerging industry, narrowed Wisconsin's options for recovery. Now Walker is using that as an excuse to justify job losses? 

Adding insult to injury, this was the headline today:

Burst of hiring: US employers added 271,000 jobs in October

Illinois Slaps Back: Wouldn't you know it, Chicago Business magazine provided a brief Walker history highlighting his vindictive efforts to hurt other states:

You may recall a news conference a couple of years ago at which Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker presented a $500,000 check to an Illinois trade show display company that was moving north across the border, declaring "There's a better place here."

Or the time the governor urged Illinois firms to "escape to Wisconsin."

Or the similar $500,000 ad campaign aimed at employers here and in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.Well, governor, let me introduce you to Oscar Mayer, which yesterday announced it's laying off 2,600 people all over the country—including in Wisconsin—but moving 250 well-paying jobs and its headquarters from Madison to downtown Chicago.

Not to mention consumer products giant SC Johnson, which announced today that it's bringing 175 jobs to downtown Chicago from its headquarters in Racine, Wis.

Touche, Gov. Walker. Perhaps this week's news will underline the point: Raiding the neighbor's pantry doesn't do much to enrich the neighborhood.

Here is a list of some of the jobs lost in the past couple of months. jsonline:

Dairy equipment manufacturer BouMatic LLC: Cut 59 jobs Tuesday as it closes metal fabrication, welding, machining and assembly departments at its Madison factory.

Joy Global Inc.: This week said it was closing its mining equipment facility resulting in the loss of 56 jobs. In October, the company said it was laying off 113 people at the National Avenue plant.

Harley-Davidson Inc.: Said in October it was cutting about 250 salaried jobs by the end of the year, across the company.

We Energies' parent company said in October it would cut jobs in Milwaukee and Green Bay.

General Electric announced in September that it would stop making engines in Waukesha and cut 350 jobs.

Caterpillar Inc., a heavy-equipment manufacturer in South Milwaukee that builds some the word's largest mining machines, says in September it's cutting about 10,000 jobs worldwide in the next four years.

Johnson Controls announced in August that the company plans to cut up to 197 jobs at its newest office in the Milwaukee area, in West Allis.

More bad news:

According to the Department of Workforce Development, 9,341 plant workers across the state have lost their jobs this year in mass layoffs between the beginning of the year and mid-October. That compares with 6,186 layoffs all of last year.

Trickle Down Disaster a Surprise? That's what the lobbyists at WMC are saying. BizJournal:

Kurt Bauer, president and CEO of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, said he was also surprised by the Oscar Mayer move. "I think we’ve done an awful lot recently to make Wisconsin a good place for food and beverage manufacturing … Bauer cited recent legislative changes like the Manufacturers and Agricultural Production Tax Credit, which will reduce corporate tax liability for manufacturers to 0.4 percent from 7.9 percent by 2017. "I think Wisconsin is as competitive as anybody in the upper Midwest." 

That said, the increase in mass layoffs so far this year compared with last year is disconcerting to Bauer. "But just look at the economic indicators in the last few weeks. It’s been mostly downward, with GDP in the last quarter only up 1.5 percent in the U.S."

I found this in May of 2009, and have posted it many times.

Sycophantic Walker to Trump, vilify Labor's free market choices.

Scott Walker was soundly trashed by Trump. It's a political wound that should never have healed, if Walker had any amount of moral conviction, but he doesn't.

WSJ: At the rally, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Walker of overstating the strength of the state’s economy, a criticism that fell on receptive ears of an audience that booed at the mention of their governor’s name. "He’s not doing such a good job, Scott Walker, but he’s convinced you there’s no problem. Both Walker and Cruz want TPP — that would hit Wisconsin so hard.”

Trump then read a long list of economic data points to make the case that Walker has failed: total state debt $45 billion, 20,000 fewer people in labor force than 7 years ago, 800,000 food stamp recipients; middle class hit hard due to loss of manufacturing; 15,000 jobs lost to NAFTA and more. “He’s not doing such a good job, Scott Walker, but he’s convinced you there’s no problem.”

"You had a $2.2 billion budget deficit and the schools were going begging and everything and everything was going begging because he didn't want to raise taxes because he was going to run for president. So instead of raising taxes he cut back on schools, he cut back on highways, cut back on a lot of things. And that's why Wisconsin has a problem and you're losing jobs all over the place."

Trump called the Club for Grow (he donated $15,000 to them for Scott Walker recall election) a“crooked outfit.” “He (Club for Growth) writes me a note asking for $1 million dollars. Now they are doing ads all over Wisconsin on eminent domain. By the way without eminent domain you would not have schools roads or hospitals... but they are complaining about eminent domain which is kind of funny because these people love the Keystone pipeline... which is all about eminent domain." 

He's now groveling at Trump's feet, hoping to get something he's opposed every waking moment of his administration, federal help.

Walker sells out our Packers, to a happy (?) Trump!!!

The president’s emphasis on concerns raised by CEOs across the country, that there are some 6 million job vacancies — the highest since the 1980s — largely due to a lack of qualified workers, echoes a similar focus on workforce development in Wisconsin by Gov. Scott Walker ... discuss the need for government and the private sector to work together....

Free Market Labor: It's rarely talked about, but labor is also a part of the supposed "free market," where businesses compete by offering wages, benefits and training. For Walker, who really has no concept of work, isn't buying that.

Walker's laser like focus on what has been a normal and perpetually long list of unfilled jobs (remember the thick "Help Wanted" sections), which by the way ignores the choices laborers are making while letting business off the hook to do their part by raising wages, is a sneaky way to avoid creating 21st century jobs.

You'd think with all the tax cut savings handed out to our starving class of corporate CEO's, they would have some money left over to boost wages and attract the best and brightest?

Believe it or not, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairwoman Martha Laning said something that didn't sound like she was reading it off a bumper sticker:

“Throughout his two terms, Gov. Scott Walker focused on giving massive tax giveaways to millionaires and out-of-state corporations. The same failed ideas of the last six years don’t need to be duplicated at the federal level. Wisconsinites need an economy that works for them all — not just those at the very top.”

Walker can't deny these 6 Hard Truths !!!

Trump and Scott Walker are riding on the coattails of the Obama economy. They shouldn't be if the press reported the facts. But instead, Walker statements go unchallenged:

WSJ: Walker spokesman Austin Altenburg (said) “Scott Walker keeps his promises.”

1. Walker's biggest and most reckless promise was the creation of 250,000 jobs in his first 4 years. Even as a campaign promise, it was just a ridiculous goal, and many knew that. But the press ate it up and gave voters the impression it was possible. Wow. So, eight years later? 

JS: Gov. Scott Walker presided over an increase of 213,000 private-sector jobs in Wisconsin, short of the 250,000 new jobs the Republican promised in his first four years. Wisconsin lagged the nation in the pace of job creation in the seven-year period, when the nation added private-sector jobs at a 15.2 percent rate. Wisconsin ranks 34th out of the 50 states in the percentage increase (9.4 percent)

The reason?

The increase in private-sector jobs in Wisconsin in 2016 was 70 percent lower than the increase in 2015, and that the figure was based on data given to the WKOW TV by Walker’s administration. Democratic Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (Aug. 2017): "Under Scott Walker, Wisconsin is "still 16,000 manufacturing jobs lower than we were during the recession."

2. Walker Keeps Bragging about his Tax Cuts...that went to Property, Businesses, and Wealthy: 

Walker has cut taxes by more than $8 billion, largely benefiting property owners, businesses and the wealthy. 

But so many missed out on that "windfall..."

In 2016 33.34% of households were renters according to Census ACS data.

3. Walker takes Credit for Obama Era's falling Unemployment Numbers: Unless Walker policies were helping states nationwide. Low unemployment was also not Walker's doing:

Unemployment is at its lowest levels on record, below 3 percent, though the steep decline in the unemployment rate since Walker took office aligns with a nationwide recovery from the Great Recession.

4. Walker brags about Lower ACA Insurance Rates Nationwide? Yup, Walker knows lower insurance increases are on their way this year, and not just because of his not so unique "reinsurance" program (which many other states are doing):

The price of a 2019 policy sold on the ACA exchanges will increase less than 4 percent according to an analysis of preliminary filings from insurers in all 50 states by ACASignups.net ... premiums overall are rising at about the same rates as medical inflation, a big change from the last few years. 

Katherine Hempstead, a senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (said) "After a very ... tortured birth and infancy, it sort of seems like the market is in some ways at a very stable place right now." She says insurance companies have figured out how to make a profit from the policies they sell on the ACA exchanges. 

5. Walker is rescuing us from Trump Party efforts to sabotage and kill the ACA. Which means...PREMIUMS WOULD HAVE BEEN LOWER NEXT YEAR:

Premiums would actually be falling next year but for the actions of the Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress that have weakened the ACA law itself and its markets. Those actions include getting rid of the tax penalty for people who don't buy health insurance, refusing to reimburse insurance companies for discounts they are required by law to offer to low-income customer, and encouraging insurers to sell stripped-down, short-term insurance. Those moves are draining healthy young people out of the ACA market. Analyst Charles Gaba says, "The reality is that if you didn't have those factors, if you didn't have the expansion of a short term plans, and especially the repeal of the mandate penalty for next year, average premiums would most likely be dropping by a good four or five percent."

The Wellmark, which abandoned the ACA market in Iowa last year, is returning. 

6. Wisconsin Wages Stagnant, workers ignored in Walker's Economy: Walker keeps feeding more money to those with more money. Nationally, wages fell:

 In Wisconsin:

Walker's Wisconsin can't even keep pace with Minnesota. And all that money going to robotic leader Foxconn?

Alternet: And (Americans) see their tax dollars pouring into the rapid development of a robot economy that will leave them and their children out in the cold.

The Haves and the Have-Nots... 

In the same year that workers took a pay cut, the CEOs of America's 350 largest corporations had an 18 percent jump in their pay, hauling in an average of $18.9 million each. In a lifetime of labor, the typical American worker would not be paid as much as those honchos took in one year. After all, workers can see in their daily job experiences that the Powers That Be -- corporate chieftains, economists, political leaders and others -- consider employees as a cost to be cut, not an asset to advance.

Walker stole Pence's economic policies, including WEDC (IEDC)!

Mike Pence helped Scott Walker, so Walker helped Pence prepare for VP debate. The Borg-like party of rugged like-minded individuals is beyond parody.  

Remember when Scott Walker beat up his Democratic opponent Mary Burke for plagiarizing her economic idea's? We all knew at the time this was just another case of projection.

The report below is shockingly similar to what Wisconsinites have been dealing with since Scott Walker became governor.  The mismanaged Walker travesty known as the "Wisconsin" Economic Development Corporation, is an outright copy of "Indiana's" Economic Development Corporation (IEDC). It even came with offshored jobs. See if any of the following sounds familiar, then compare below. INDY Star:

Since Pence became governor in 2013, the state has awarded millions of dollars in economic development incentives to companies that have moved production to foreign countries such as Mexico and China. Those production shifts have cost thousands of Hoosiers their jobs during Pence’s time in office.

An IndyStar analysis found that the Indiana Economic Development Corporation — which Pence leads — has approved $24 million in incentives to 10 companies that sent work to foreign countries. Of those incentives, nearly $8.7 million has been paid out so far.

During that same period, those companies terminated or announced layoffs of more than 3,800 Hoosier workers while shifting production to other countries, where labor tends to be far less expensive.

Compare: Scott Walker's WEDC, before he was fired as chairman...

Citizen Action of Wisconsin: Data kept by the U.S. Department of Labor shows that at least 11,331 Wisconsin workers have had their jobs outsourced to other countries the last five years since Governor Walker’s scandal ridden jobs agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), was launched July 1, 2011. This is a very low end estimate … It does not account for outsourcing to other states, or downsizing where it is not possible to prove the jobs landed in a foreign country or were impacted by global trade deals.

Wisconsin Manufacturing Wages Declining: Citizen Action of Wisconsin looked at the latest federal data, and found a startling decline in manufacturing wages in every Wisconsin metro area.
Real wages (adjusted for inflation) declined $1,430 between 2010 and 2015 - Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin: This data also directly challenges Governor Walker’s constant assertion that a co-called “skills gap” is the cause of Wisconsin’s economic woes. If manufacturers were really having problems finding skilled manufacturing workers, they would be raising wages, not lowering them. The state also lead the way in the largest drop in the middle class of all states.

Walker's Wisconsin: Four more years of lost jobs in manufacturing, lower wages, and bad roads/construction delays, etc.....

I don't think Scott Walker has gotten the message yet...think he will now? Na!

Manufacturing employment last year posted declines in 28 states, including a sharp drop in Wisconsin ...Wisconsin’s manufacturers lost 3,784 jobs in the period from December 2015 to December 2016, a drop of 0.8%, which was far steeper than the national average in the sector. 

The decline in factory employment is all the more baffling after the Republican-controlled legislature, with Walker’s support, enacted a deep tax cut ... took full effect in 2016. The Manufacturing and Agricultural Credit slashed the effective rate of state corporate taxes for all Wisconsin-based manufacturers to nearly nothing — from 7.9% to 0.4%.

The Walker manufacturing renaissance ain't happening, despite the outpouring of praise from bullshitting CEO's who predictably stroked Walker's ego for his "bold" tax cuts.

Average weekly private-sector wages in the state declined 0.6% last year, led by a 5.3% plunge in manufacturing wages.

Remember when Walker trashed the minimum wage because as governor he wanted people to get jobs that paid higher wages instead? What if wages don't get much higher? No plan.

The Journal Sentinel put together this truly telling piece:



The latest QCEW numbers should put a stake in the heart of Walker's reelection hopes.

Private-sector job growth rate of 0.5 percent was less than half the national average of 1.2 percent, putting the state 33rd in the national rankings for the second-straight year.

Put another way, according to the Journal Sentinel:

The 2016 data were the worst for Wisconsin since the current expansion began, following the severe 2008-'09 recession. The 2016 data also were the worst of the six years since Gov. Scott Walker took office in 2011.

The US created private-sector jobs at a rate of 1.3% in the latest 12-month period, more than double Wisconsin's 0.5% increase.

Among Midwest peer states, as measured in overall job growth, Wisconsin ranked 33rd behind Michigan (No. 15), Minnesota (No. 18), Indiana (No. 24), Pennsylvania (No. 28) and Ohio (No. 31), and ahead of Illinois (34) and Iowa (41).

Like a broken record, Walker's got nothing but the low unemployment rate to brag about, a gift from the Obama administration. But we're still "growing"...ever so slowly:

Wisconsin’s unemployment rate consistently has trended below the national rate for more than 30 years. "The bottom line is Wisconsin's economy is growing and adding jobs,” Workforce Development Secretary Ray Allen said in a statement.

Dane County, Madison Liberals to the Rescue: Democratic politicians in Dane County must be doing something right...

Dane County, which includes Madison and its technology spin-off industries, reported the state’s lowest jobless rate in April at 2.1%. Unemployment was worst across northern Wisconsin.

Mary Burke's Economic Sanity or Scott Walker's high CEO approval ratings?

Check out the great article in the Wisconsin State Journal showing the impact of Scott Walker's scattershot tax cut policy and tax shift to the middleclass. That's not an editorial opinion, it's shown in the graphs below. But more surprising is the measured and common sense approach finally articulated by candidate Mary Burke. 

Gov. Scott Walker floated a radical and controversial idea for Wisconsin; eliminate the state income tax. So far Walker has cut taxes by nearly $2 billion over his first term, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. Walker’s 48 tax cuts; income tax rate reductions, additional aid to K-12 schools and technical colleges that drives down property taxes, and deductions, exemptions and credits targeted at boosting businesses. Walker … says he will lower the tax burden each year in office … but rejected the possibility of raising the sales tax to make up the lost revenue.

If actual math, business and economic experience replaces Scott Walker’s failed pure ideological theory:

Democratic challenger Mary Burke says major tax reform isn't needed … Walker’s cuts have been based on a premise; lower taxes across the board will attract businesses, create jobs and facilitate further tax rate reductions, that some economists, researchers and Burke dispute.

Best line of the article (first highlight) and best criticism of Walker’s mess:

“Walker does believe in this trickle down. I don’t, and that comes from a business perspective,” Burke said. “I haven’t seen a lot in his plan that indicates how he’s going to grow the economy other than thinking it grows because you reduce taxes.” Burke said she favors more targeted cuts for the middle class and business startups over broad cuts that benefit the wealthy and companies that aren't adding new jobs.

She has called for raising the college tuition income tax deduction from $6,943 to $10,424, pledged to repeal a new private school tuition deduction expected to cost $30 million a year, and said she’s skeptical that the manufacturing and agricultural credit, which will soon cost $128.7 million a year, will create jobs. “Gov. Walker has created loopholes that carve out special deals, which means while some people are paying their fair share, others are not,” Burke said. “I will look at these loopholes and eliminate those that benefit only special interests.”

Click the chart (to enlarge), with 4 different tax change possibilities, and the impact (in red) on the state’s budget. Keep in mind, Walker admitted above that his “no tax” pledge to lobbyist Grover Norquist prevents him from ever raising the sales tax (but he did break that promise on the EITC & Homestead Credit):

Do cuts create jobs? Mike Leachman, director of state research at the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said past studies showing states that enacted large income tax cuts in the 1990s and 2000s had a mixed record on economic growth. Several tax-cutting states performed worse than those with higher taxes, and those that performed better were oil producers … cutting income taxes doesn’t spur major economic growth because they’re usually accompanied by reductions in government services. “You’re taking money from the pockets of teachers and other public employees and companies that contract with the government,” he said. “That money also gets out into the economy. On balance, it’s more or less a wash.”

Homestead Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit have eroded. Walker reduced the EITC for families with two or more children and repealed indexing provisions for the Homestead Credit, saving the state $169.6 million during his first term.

Walker/Republicans are their own worst enemy in Manufacturing Decline, and it'll only get worse.

The nation could learn a lot from the way Scott Walker is managing Wisconsin, and none of its good.

Wisconsin was once a manufacturing powerhouse. But since we heard that giant sucking sound, where jobs and manufacturing left the U.S. via our disastrous free trade agreements, those days aren't coming back anytime soon.

But you can't tell that to Scott Walker, and voters should find that unsettling. Walker is stuck in the past, working on a manufacturing renaissance in Wisconsin. In fact, Walker is attacking, vilifying and stopping emerging industries he feels aren't part of the Republican Party platform, like wind, solar and mass transit. And that doesn't bode well for a Walker led U.S..

Here are two charts Walker will never look at, to the detriment of everyone else looking for some leadership:

Add to that the GOP push for tax cuts and user fees, as an answer to the complaint, "I don't want to pay for someone else's trip to the state parks; someone else's public college education; someone else's health insurance; someone else's community entertainment facilities; and someone else's freeway improvements.

It's a national movement too. Republicans refuse to pay for a massive job creation no-brainer rebuilding the nations infrastructure. They are also big on new free trade agreements that gave us the horrific looking charts above, all the while resisting a higher minimum wage that will increase demand.

As the Economic Policy Institute's Robert Scott advises:

Taken together, steps to eliminate trade deficits (by ending currency manipulation and unfair trade) and rebuild U.S. infrastructure could easily generate sufficient demand for manufactured products to return most or all of the 5 million manufacturing jobs lost between 2000 and 2014. Growing trade deficits and the shortfall in demand caused by the Great Recession, and not productivity growth, are the major causes of manufacturing job loss in this period.

Walker's backward Fossil Fuel Energy Policy Killing the Return of Manufacturing in Wisconsin!!!

There's a reason why Scott Walker's Wisconsin isn't seeing a manufacturing Renaissance; his big oil pals are getting rich overcharging big business. I know, crazy right? Esquire Magazine's Charles Pierce explains Walker this way:

Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to run their Midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin.

Walker's embarrassing AG lapdog Brad Schimel wrote an opinion piece recently in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He claimed...

As one of the top manufacturing states in the country, Wisconsin has much to lose if the Obama administration succeeds in its plan to destroy the viability of clean-coal electric generation. Manufacturing jobs in our state depends on affordable and reliable electric power. Because of the degree to which our state economies rely on manufacturing jobs, we will be disproportionately affected by the president's so-called "Clean Power Plan."

An outrageous lie the press failed to followup on.

Electricity rates paid by businesses and residents of Wisconsin now rank highest among eight Midwest states ... The analysis was released at a time when one of We Energies' largest customers, Charter Steel of Saukville, is raising concerns about the utility's rates and a power plant construction program that has left We Energies with more power than its own customers need.

The fact is, the states biggest manufacturers are getting pummeled with high utility rates, ending any chance they'll expand in Wisconsin. There's not peep coming out of the Walker administration, because they're in the pocket of big oil and energy. Look what he's done to the PSC. The rhetorical stall tactics have run their course:

Charter says We Energies has been telling customers for years to be patient because rates in surrounding states will catch up...

But that hasn't happened. In fact, the price difference is getting worse due to We Energies over expansion, which comes in at twice the planned required reserve:

Wisconsin exceeds the 7.1 percent planning reserve requirement set by MISO for 2016. Wisconsin’s planning reserve margin for the 2016-2022 period is between 14.2 and 17.5 percent.

Just as bad, the big cuts to "Focus on Energy" will kill whatever advantage we had:

An analysis of the state's energy situation found that residential electric bills in Wisconsin actually rank below the Midwest average, because customers here are using far less power on average than those in other nearby states ... nearly $8 a month below the average of all eight Midwest states ... Energy efficiency and the conservation program  Focus on Energy have helped keep average Wisconsin residential usage flat over the last two decades," said the report, 

But Walker couldn't help but mess that up too....

Wisconsin's electric utilities back the bill, which would cut funding for the Focus on Energy program by $7 million at a time when electricity costs in Wisconsin have risen above the national average. But the program's supporters cite its savings, pointing out that the program has delivered $3 of savings to customers for every $1 spent. 

Theresa Lehman, director of sustainable services at Miron Construction said at a time when capital spending budgets are tight, the program offers incentives that help customers cut their costs by allowing them to afford the upfront expenses of switching to more efficient LED lighting. St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton is saving $30,000 a year. Another client, Lake Mills Elementary School, received $100,000 in incentives from the program and is now saving $85,000 every year on its energy costs.

Walker's disconnect is unsettling. Hie rhetoric gives the appearance prices are steady right now, even while they increase, even without Obama's Clean Power Plan:

The federal Clean Power Plan was put on hold last month in a 5-4 vote by the U.S. Supreme Court. Wisconsin has joined with coal mining and coal-reliant states to challenge the rule, citing the impact it would have on the state's manufacturing sector.

Walker's Manufacturing Tax Cut = 4,000 lost manufacturing jobs, but who cares, wages up.

It won't matter to "Stand with Walker" Borgites, but their unintimidated leader's job's recored still stinks, and probably still won't be enough to throw this bum out of office. WPR:

The job loss figure comes from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, which economists regard as the most accurate job metric.

1. Wisconsin lost more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs in the 12 months leading up to last September, marking the worst such period for the state since the end of the Great Recession.

2. The drop came at a time when Wisconsin was spending nearly $300 million a year to cut manufacturers’ income and corporate taxes in an effort to grow the state’s manufacturing economy.

3. A total of 27 states lost manufacturing jobs over the same span, and so did the national economy.

4. The same employment report showed Wisconsin added 25,562 private sector jobs from September 2015 to September 2016, which ranked 32nd in the nation in overall private sector job growth.

"It mostly shows the limited power of politicians and efforts by state government to change economic forces," said Don Grimes, a labor economist at the University of Michigan. Grimes said that’s largely because manufacturers have improved their productivity to the point that they can make more goods with fewer people.

But now this is all good news for Walker. Completely ignoring his failed manufacturer tax cut, Walker said he cares more about raising wages in the industry, not how many jobs?

Gov. Scott Walker said fewer manufacturing jobs might not be such a bad thing for Wisconsin, as long as wages are increasing. 

"It's not just how many jobs — it's are those jobs paying at a significant level. If we see wages go up in manufacturing, to me, that's my ultimate goal. Overall, it’s just a different type of manufacturing – you’re going to see more and more automation. You can have successful manufacturing companies that don’t necessarily match all those (previous) numbers."

Walker said Wednesday some jobs that have left Wisconsin may be coming back in smaller numbers, but they offer workers higher wages. Walker said higher-paying jobs will require more skilled workers in the state.

Chicago-Milwaukee Regional Metroplex Hub could have used a High Speed Rail System. Another Bad Decision Scott Walker.

Now Scott Walker is all about working with Illinois, instead of bashing it in a desperate attempt to lure businesses over the cheddar curtain.

jsonline: A nascent movement to take the first baby steps to unite the metro-area economies of Milwaukee, Chicago and Gary, Ind., into a three-state economic bloc gathered rhetorical traction Friday.

"We should work together," said Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at a daylong economic symposium, called a "Summit on Regional Competitiveness," hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Oh, I see, Walker is playing up to the Federal Reserve Bank (Philly), who just to predicted Wisconsin was number 2 for POTENTIAL job growth. Coincidence, hardly.

Walker, the same guy who killed high speed rail and made it more difficult to build a wind energy industry in the state, is now gung ho for everything?

Shared Midwestern industries such as advanced manufacturing, agriculture, food processing, water technology and clean energy are some of the most obvious opportunities to reach across state lines and look at common industrial clusters, Walker said. Those industries all have export potential in global markets, said Walker, addressing the 500 attendees at the Chicago Fed.

Who is this guy? Not the Walker we know and want to replace in 2014. A regional hub was also an idea floated during the high speed rail debate and Walker debacle.

It began with a 2012 study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a global economic think tank based in Paris, which studied the "extreme fragmentation" in the Chicago-Milwaukee region. But Walker might seem to be an unusual advocate for regional cooperation after his administration became associated with efforts to goad employers to leave Illinois after it spiraled into a post-recession fiscal crisis that caused taxes to rise abruptly. Quizzed on Friday by Chicago news organizations about poaching, however, Walker denied it was any sort of cross-border strategy.

Making the argument every Democrat made at the time, Walker now wants to take credit:

Walker said proximity to Chicago is an advantage when he travels in China and India. "There are 12 or 15 megacities in the world," and greater Chicago is one of them, and Milwaukee's location in Chicago's halo gives the Brew City recognition, Walker said.

These were a few of the comments from readers who had a much longer memory than the reporter:

Wait - Walker- you killed the commuter train and the HSR between Chicago and Milwaukee. How quickly you forget your sinister ideologue .

This guy is so two faced. The first thing you do if you want to endorse a Milwaukee-Chicago Metroplex is FUND MASS TRANSIT.... you know HIGH SPEED RAIL... moron!!