Scott Walker (R-WI) is a conservative hero with a record
of taking progressives and unions in a state that went for Obama and
beating them twice. He's cut government, taken away worker protections,
supported government-mandated ultrasounds and empowered the private
sector, making him the Republican insiders' favorite for the 2016 GOP
nomination.His only problem is, his economic policies continue to fail - miserably.
The
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has ranked the Badger State 49th
in its 50-state Leading Index report for April. With an index rank of
-0.74 percent, Wisconsin was one of only five states to show
contraction.
Experts do not read much into one month's data.
This index - which factors in average manufacturing hours, unemployment,
wage trends and building permits - often shows a wide margin of error.
The state has been especially rocked by the national decline in
manufacturing.
However, Walker doesn't really have any positive
economic data to point to. Since he took office, his state has fallen
from 11th to 44th in job creation. Wisconsin's wages are also declining
at twice the national level..
Walker's new budget - which reads
more like a campaign document than a plan to create jobs - offers a tax
cut that mostly benefits the rich and sucks public funds into private
ventures, in the form of school vouchers.
The governor is also
rejecting Medicaid expansion and using the Affordable Care Act exchanges
to kick 87,000 Wisconsinites off his state's Badgercare program.
Meanwhile, his promise of creating 250,000 jobs looks less and less likely to happen.
Austerity
seems to work about as well in America as it does in Greece. Maybe
losing the recall was the best thing that could have happened for
Wisconsin's progressive movement. Walker's job creation record is
speaking volumes about attacking the institutions that helped create
America's middle class.
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