Hey nation, Walker's increasing poverty in Wisconsin.

My head still hurts when I think of Scott Walker's excuse for not raising the minimum wage, and I'm paraphrasing, "We don't need to raise the minimum wage, we need to help people get better paying jobs."

Magical thinking is never helpful, and pretending there aren't any minimum wage jobs that need pay hike is irresponsible.

But destroying union wages and benefits, passing right-to-work, pushing the end of prevailing wages and a jobs plan that attacks any business not in the good graces of the republican party, isn't exactly putting food on the table, fattening our wallets or making families feel more secure.

Walker's policies are just now taking their toll:

jsonline: Despite modest improvement in employment, poverty rose slightly in Wisconsin between 2012 and 2013, according to a study released Tuesday by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

The Wisconsin Poverty Measure rose from 10.2% in 2012 to 10.9% in 2013, around 2.5 percentage points below the official poverty rate.

"We thought the economy was getting better because we saw more jobs and we were surprised when we saw poverty go up," said Julia Isaacs, a report author and senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute. The Wisconsin Poverty Measure accounts for family income and such benefits as food assistance and refundable tax credits.

And guess who ran on the deception things were getting better? The same guy I quoted above, Scott Walker:

As jobs were added in 2012, the poverty rate declined she said. In 2013, there were still more jobs added but poverty increased. "Looking more closely, while jobs are going up in Wisconsin, a lot of the growth is in jobs in low-wage occupations," she said.

Under the Wisconsin Poverty Measure, the child poverty rate increased slightly from 11% in 2012 to 11.8% in 2013, while the elderly poverty rate rose from 6.2% in 2012 to 9% in 2013.