So Gov. Scott Walker’s finally let the cat out of the cellophane bag. It turns out Walker, of all people, is a Republican candidate for president of the United States.
Golly, Wisconsin wondered whatever happened to him.
Some folks thought Walker was just ashamed to show himself in public after failing so miserably to create the 250,000 jobs he promised voters in 2010. Instead, he’s dragged Wisconsin’s economy down toward the bottom nationally at a time when most other states are recovering.
There were others who thought that possibly all those John Doe criminal investigations into political corruption had finally caught up with Walker and he was in a witness protection program somewhere.
But over the weekend Walker popped back into the state to sign another terrible Republican state budget and stayed long enough to make a quick announcement he was too busy running for president to stick around and face the consequences.
Then Walker immediately left the state to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
Of course, when your state continues wrecking its own economy by lowering wages for working people, dismantling public education at every level, financially devastating what once was one of the nation’s best universities and eliminating environmental protection for truly extraordinary natural resources, who can blame anyone for looking for a job elsewhere?
Extreme Agenda Has Failed
Still, there’s something extremely bizarre about Walker and several other governors seeking the Republican nomination for president this year in a teeming, knock-down, drag-out, free-for-all of candidates.
Remember when governors became serious presidential contenders based on their records of success?
Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis wasn’t a terrific candidate in 1988, but he legitimately captured national attention with what was called the Massachusetts Miracle, his state’s high-tech economic boom in the ’80s that dropped unemployment from more than 12% to less than 3%.
Walker and his fellow Republican governor/candidates, Chris Christie of New Jersey and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, are a far cry from miracle workers. Genuine miracles often involve healing the sick and dying, not denying them health care.
Christie and Jindal seem to be running for president just ahead of being run out of their own states. Approval ratings for Christie and Jindal among their own voters are around 30%.
The most recent Marquette University Law School poll in April showed Walker’s approval rating in Wisconsin also slipping, although not quite so drastically, to 41%.
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Walker’s extreme gutting of education funding was overwhelmingly unpopular. As a result, legislative Republicans restored some funding, but the difference is only slightly less devastating.
Walker suffered other embarrassments while he was nowhere to be found during budget deliberations. Walker was forced to withdraw his gratuitously petty attempt to remove from the university’s mission “the search for truth” and improvement of the human condition.
Press and public outcries also compelled Walker and Republican legislators to remove an outrageous amendment they tried to sneak into the budget under cover of darkness to hide their sleaziest, most disreputable actions from the public by closing off access to public records.
Long-running criminal investigations and top employees and associates going to prison create character questions for Walker in a national campaign. He also faces obvious competency questions with Wisconsin ranking 35th in job creation, 42nd in wage growth and by some measures experiencing the fastest disappearing middle class in the nation.
The real reason Walker and other Republican governors are forced to run on such poor economic records is that they’re wedded to a failed economic philosophy—the more you can cut government spending, the better.
Well, it isn’t always better. That’s how politicians destroy public education and a world-class university. Even worse, it’s how they destroy their own state economies.
What Walker calls excessive government spending that he’s been gutting with a vengeance, working people all over this state call their paychecks.
Walker started with demolishing public employee unions and taking billions of dollars out of the pay of all public workers. Then he signed a right-to-work law to do the same to the wages of private employees. His latest budget reduces prevailing construction wages for workers on local projects.
Without any public discussion whatsoever, Walker’s Republicans even slipped a measure into the budget allowing factory and retail employees to be worked seven days a week without a day off. Of course, they have to voluntarily agree, wink, wink.
The next logical step would be actual slavery.
Guess what, if every worker in your state earns less and less money, everyone has less and less money to spend on good and services. Business expands at a glacial pace while the economic engines of most other states create more jobs and increase wages for working people everywhere else.
Welcome to Walker’s Wisconsin Miracle. His work is done here. Now it’s time to see if Walker can work his magic on a national level and put a stop to this country’s economic recovery once and for all.
