Scott Walker’s Score Board

yougotschooled2016:

Scott Walker is running for president. Are we shocked? Probably not. What is shocking, is that after his track record running Wisconsin this man thinks he should be left in charge of the entire country. It might have something to do with the Koch confidence boost he’s been given. His last name might not be Bush, but that doesn’t mean that rich, white dudes (e.g., Charles and David Koch) won’t dictate his every move in a throwback to the Bush-Cheney years.

Now we could sit here and tell you what a jerk he is (who has that kind of time?), but instead we want to show you the negative effects Scott Walker has had on Wisconsin, and who’s paying the price for it.

To make this story even more interesting, let’s compare Scott Walker’s Wisconsin with its next-door neighbor Minnesota. It’s a tale of two states: Both economies grew from foundations in manufacturing, farming and mining, with strong histories of organized labor. Then came the 2010 elections. Both states, still reeling from the recession, elected new governors. Those two governors took these two states down two very different paths. No need to keep score at home, we’ll do that for you.

Today, Minnesota’s unemployment rate is 3.6 percent—far below the national rate of 5.7 percent—while Wisconsin’s job growth has been among the worst in the region and its income growth has been among the worst in the nation. Also, when Scott Walker said, “We showed that when we say ‘Wisconsin is open for business,’ we mean it,” the operative word was show. Last we checked, as soon as Wisconsin passed “right to work,” this 100-year-old Wisconsin company decided to move to Minnesota.

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Since his election, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton turned his state’s budget deficit into a projected surplus of nearly $2 billion. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has swollen his state’s budget deficit to a projected $2 billion.

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Meanwhile, Gov. Dayton has boosted the minimum wage, invested in public education and higher education, pushed for universal pre-K and supported workers’ rights. And, Minnesota has the most union members of any state in the Midwest.

And Walker? He has continuously slashed funding to public schools, is about to do it again, is dismantling the state’s public university system and has refused early education grants. And earlier this year, he signed a bill that makes Wisconsin the 25th so-called right to work state, which research shows, contrary to the hype, drives down wages and destroys good jobs. Why? To eviscerate Wisconsin’s labor unions (bring it, ISIS).

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We’ve got news for you, Scott Walker: Trickle-down economics doesn’t work for the majority of us, and frankly, it never has—it’s only great for rich people. We want a healthy middle class, and we need a different approach that begins with a high-quality public education that gives future generations the skills they need to get good jobs with fair wages, helping everyone climb the ladder of opportunity. And you say you want that too:

What has made America amazing has been the fact that throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage who stood up and decided it was more important to look out for the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures.

Scott Walker, June 5, 2012

However, Scotty (Can we call you that? Whatever.), a crucial step in this equation is to enable more workers to form and join unions. If you want a strong middle class, then you can’t take out the unions that built it. If you want a job where your chances of dying are lower, unions help! If you want good jobs with higher wages, then workers need a voice. And you, sir, are not that voice for Wisconsin and should never be that voice for this country.

Game over.

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