Republican Scheme: Outsource Jobs, Lower Wages in Manufacturing, Create a Slow Recovery to bash Democrats in Election.

Amazing, Scott Walker's approval rating actually went up in the latest Marquette Poll, even after the bad news about jobs came out in Wisconsin.  

Walker Outsources Work: He's not stopping the jobs from leaving, that's for sure. It looks like his CEO friend forgot to mention their plans to outsource: 

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.

Walker is hoping for a Renaissance of Manufacturing with ACT 10 and right-to-work supply of Low Wage Workers: No, Democrats weren't just making this stuff up. In fact, here's Trump from 2011 on lowering wages with RTW:

Wisconsin Manufacturing Wages Declining: Citizen Action of Wisconsin looked at thelatest federal data, and found a startling decline in manufacturing wages in every Wisconsin metro area. 

Real wages (adjusted for inflation) are going down for manufacturing workers in every Wisconsin metro area. On average, annual wages declined $1,430 between 2010 and 2015 - Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin: “Declining wages damage small business because workers have less to spend at the local grocery store, supper club, coffee shop, and dry cleaner. The result is less employment, and a further drag on local economies.” 

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 Blames Obama for Slow National Economic Recovery? But can't because sabotaging the recovery was the Republican plan all along. Now voters are mad, shouting for Trump. As you can see, past presidents spent a lot more and experienced big recoveries:

A little-noticed report from the Economic Policy Institute earlier this month should have been national news … The recovery since 2009 has been historically slow, and the disappointing pace can be explained entirely by the fiscal austerity imposed by Republicans in Congress.

“Had government spending during Obama’s tenure behaved the same way it did during Reagan’s, government spending would currently be roughly one trillion dollars higher than it is,” The Week‘s Jeff Spross explained.

Since the Stimulus ended, the kind of good jobs that come from construction or public investment and are readily available to Americans who don’t have college degrees have dried up — purposely. They’ve done it to increase economic anxiety, which they know will increase resentment of all sorts, including the racial resentment that has driven much of the resistance to Obama.

Obama's Recovery Act's Energy Program saved $5.2 billion, and created 62,902 jobs.

If American wants to lead, why not in clean energy, it's a no brainer. And yet, the facts below won't mean anything to anti-environment, anti-government, anti-American, anti-job creating freeloaders who are happy with fossil fuels. Republicans are still saying the Recovery Act was a failure:

This document presents findings from an evaluation of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) Program ...

 from 2009 to 2015. It was funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA or Recovery Act) and was a one-time program.

Labor impacts ... EECBG produced a net total job gain of 62,902 job years for the BPAs studied. 

EECBG saved $1.7 billion in social costs of carbon due to energy savings alone and an additional $62 million in social costs avoided from displaced energy as a result of renewable generation. 

Bill Savings and cost-effectiveness ... produced $5.2 billion of total cumulative savings on energy bills, 70% of which were realized by residential consumers, 29% in the public institutional sector, and 1% the commercial and industrial sectors. 

Here are some graphs:

Auto Industry Back, no Thanks to Republicans.

Rachel Maddow talks to Ron Bloom, who is on the presidents task force for the auto industry. Was the industry bailout so bad? Only if you think like a conservative.



Kokomo, Indiana was dying, now it's not. Thanks to the stimulus and auto bailout of Chrysler. Keith Olbermann has the story, with input from David Corn, who has something worthwhile to say for once. Watch the Republicans wish for the death of GM and Chrysler, and as usual, see how wildly WRONG they are again about business and money management.



And of course Rush had another drug addled moment on the subject of Motor Trends car of the year. Ed Schultz brings it into perspective:

“Anti-business” Liberal Madison WI, 31st Best City in U.S.!!! Republicans Stumped. Oh, and about that failed stimulus…

Scatching their heads, Republicans hope no one notices or remembers 3 weeks from now when they cast their ballot for an end to stimulus spending.

Wisconsin State Journal: Madison scored 31st highest among the nation's 200 biggest cities on the Milken Institute's Best Performing Cities 2010, issued this week. The assessment aims to determine which metropolitan areas have the best success at creating and keeping jobs, the quality of jobs produced and the overall economic performance.

Republicans like Ron Johnson would have voted against the stimulus, an Obama program that has failed miserably they say, because government doesn’t create jobs. It doesn’t… ?

Wisconsi State Journal: Construction company owner Dan Zignego describes himself as a fiscal conservative. But when it comes to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — aka the federal stimulus package — Zignego is on board. “It’s been a blessing,” he admits. “The last two or three years have been pretty tough and ARRA has saved a lot of our industry from having to lay even more people off.”

The Waukesha-based Zignego Co. is the general contractor on the $43 million reconstruction of the I-94 Badger Interchange, the single most expensive stimulus project in Dane County and the second-largest in Wisconsin behind the expansion of I-94 from Milwaukee to the Illinois border.

The Badger Interchange rebuild project has been in the state Department of Transportation pipeline since 2000 but was finally moved ahead by the $3.3 billion in stimulus dollars coming to Wisconsin. “This is one of the many projects around the country that was on hold because of lack of money and is now under way,” Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez said.

The expansion of I-94 to eight lanes between Milwaukee and the Illinois line isn’t slated for completion until 2016 and carries a final price tag of $1.8 billion. The work has been planned since 2000 but had been on hold because of a lack of funds. More than 200 private sector workers are drawing paychecks from the Badger Interchange project, including engineers, truck drivers and cement layers.

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