...as governor of Wisconsin in 2011, job creation in the Badger State was eleventh in the nation. Not great, but not bad, either. Today, Wisconsin ranks 44th (out of 50). That's not great; in fact, it stinks.
From an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (my emphasis):
Asked Thursday about new numbers showing Wisconsin lagging in job
growth, Gov. Scott Walker pointed to the uncertainty he said business
owners felt because of the political tumult that rocked Wisconsin early
in his term.
(Republicans love to blame "uncertainty," don't they? Tell me, when is the future ever "certain?")
As for that "political tumult," what -- or whom -- do you suppose caused that?
Shortly after he took office in 2011, Walker and the Legislature
essentially ended collective bargaining for most public employees. That
sparked heated reaction inside and outside the Capitol and led to an
unsuccessful recall election challenge by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in
June 2012.
Whatever. I still believe what I wrote in a post last year:
The first thought I had, while driving for six and a half hours on
Saturday (mostly through Wisconsin), was that the Republicans and
Democrats in the Dairy State are essentially fighting over a dead body.
The economy in Wisconsin, if it ever was anything special, has long
been lost to history. The emergence in the Badger State of such tea
partiers as Scott Walker, Ron Johnson and Paul Ryan only confirm to me
that Wisconsin may have already evolved into a red state. What
does that mean? Like other red states, such as Indiana, Tennessee and
Mississippi, Wisconsin is gradually becoming a ward of the federal
government. In other words, like most red states, it will receive more
from the federal government than it sends to Washington in taxes. Stuck
between prosperous Minneapolis and Chicago, Wisconsin is resembling --
more and more -- Indiana.
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