Republican Gov. Scott Walker is now adding insult to injury of Wisconsin workers by making an outrageous attempt to shift the blame for his own terrible jobs record to the unemployed victims of his failed policies.
“We don’t have a jobs problem in this state,” Walker claimed in his first public debate with Democratic candidate Mary Burke. “We have a work problem.”
Damn those lazy, unemployed people in Wisconsin who aren’t working in the 250,000 jobs Walker promised to create in his first term although, whoops, he only got around to creating about 100,000, trailing most other states.
Actually, it wasn’t the first time Walker has made the ridiculous claim that Wisconsin doesn’t have a jobs problem, but he made the mistake of repeating it in the gubernatorial debate carried on statewide television.
Usually, he saves it for right-wing Republican audiences to justify his ugly proposal to deny food stamps and unemployment benefits to anyone who fails a drug test.
At a UW-Milwaukee rally the next day with populist Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Burke drew open laughter when she told students Walker didn’t think Wisconsin had a jobs problem.
“I want to be a governor who acknowledges the challenges that we have…and will make sure that Wisconsin has a vibrant, growing, thriving economy so that when you graduate from college there are going to be job opportunities for you to be able to stay in this state,” Burke said.
Walker later said Burke was taking what he said out of context, but then repeated exactly the same context to justify the absurd claim.
Walker cited as proof Wisconsin doesn’t have a jobs problem that there were 70,000 unfilled jobs listed on a state website.
Despite denials by Republicans, this is a good example of why it really may be important that Walker didn’t graduate from college. If he had, Walker might have learned in an economics course there are at least two major reasons why jobs go unfilled in a tough economy.
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One is that the jobs don’t pay enough for the skills required. If employers have difficulty attracting applicants to their jobs, they might need to raise the pay, perhaps even to a livable wage.
Another reason jobs go unfilled is that those out of work may not have the skills required. In that case, employers have to provide job training for new hires. Maybe they could use some of the hundreds of millions of dollars Walker showered upon companies as “incentives” for them to provide jobs.
Walker himself also is directly responsible for reduced training for skilled jobs in the state. As part of the largest cuts to education in state history—hey, Walker’s done pretty well with only a high school diploma—Walker cut back state funding of technical colleges to 1989 levels.
You need any more context for Walker’s ridiculous claim the state doesn’t have a jobs problem?
How about the fact Walker’s brazen lie was prompted by a reporter asking whether Walker seriously thought someone working full time could live on the state’s current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour?
Walker’s response demonstrated if the governor finds himself out of work after Nov. 4 his most marketable skill may be as a dance instructor.
Does Walker Want a Minimum Wage At All?
Instead of addressing the minimum wage—which Burke wants to raise to $10.10 and Walker doesn’t—he talked about his fond dream of one day creating jobs in Wisconsin that pay two or three times the minimum wage—jobs in welding, advanced manufacturing and technical fields.
Burke, such a dream killer, simply mentioned out loud how totally unrealistic it was to expect most unemployed retail workers and wait staff to find work as welders.
The reporter who asked the question then made another futile attempt to get Walker to answer whether he believed government had any responsibility to set a livable minimum wage.
Walker then waxed nostalgic about working at McDonald’s when he was a teenager living with his parents (although most fast-food workers actually are adults) and seemed to oppose even a $7.25 minimum wage because he said government shouldn’t set arbitrary limits.
So Walker really does want voters to believe the state doesn’t have a jobs problem. That it is Wisconsin workers who are making Walker look bad on purpose by intentionally being unemployed.
All those lazy, drug-addicted, unemployed bums should get jobs Walker hasn’t created paying two or three times the minimum wage after they acquire high tech skills at technical colleges whose training budgets Walker has gutted, using student financial aid Walker has slashed.
Or they can take one of those terrific McDonald’s jobs Walker remembers from high school although McDonald’s shouldn’t have to overpay them with a ridiculously low $7.25 minimum wage set arbitrarily by government.
Wisconsin has a jobs problem, all right. Its name is Scott Walker.
