Kev3188 said:
Yep. Meanwhile job growth (low wage or not) in WI is still lagging...
BTW, for those that may not know, Walker was voted in largely on a campaign promise to create 250k jobs. Where are they?
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/promise-of-250000-jobs-hasnt-changed-scott-walker-says-b9985606z1-221486831.html
Promise of 250,000 jobs hasn't changed, Scott Walker says
Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday that nothing has changed in terms of his promise that the state would add 250,000 private sector jobs by the end of his four-year term.
Walker was reacting to critics, including the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, who say he had abandoned his 2010 campaign pledge by saying this week that the pledge "wasn't so much to hit a magic number."
In his response Wednesday, Walker offered a more nuanced approach about the promise, which became the centerpiece of his campaign and continues to generate comment and controversy.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with members of Competitive Wisconsin at the University Club in Milwaukee, the governor said, "We haven't changed our stance."
He added: "That promise, that pledge made in the campaign was... the reason we focused on it is because we saw the state losing 133,000 jobs before that. And so we wanted a big, bold aggressive goal. Whether we are at 249,000 or 255,000 or whatever the magic number is for us, we wanted to go from losing jobs to gaining jobs. All of our focus and attention is overwhelmingly on not just meeting that goal, but part of my nuance the other day... I'm not going to take a rest the minute we hit 250,000."
Using the word "goal," Walker said the full accounting of jobs created while he is governor won't be known until next year. He added that his administration was focused on helping employers create more jobs.
"And that's why we have a big, bold, aggressive goal," he said.
In a conference call with reporters Wednesday, state Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate noted that, in running for governor, Walker presented the jobs number as an ironclad promise, not a goal. Walker joked about branding the figure on the foreheads of his cabinet secretaries and said 250,000 jobs was
"my floor, not my ceiling."
"Now he's moving away from that as fast as possible," Tate said.
Tate was reacting to comments Walker made in Merrill on Monday. During that stop,
Walker said: "My goal wasn't so much to hit a magic number as much as it was, in the four years before I took office, when I was campaigning, I saw that we lost over 133,000 jobs in the state. I said, 'It's really not about jobs, it's about real people, real jobs like those here, and more importantly, affecting real families all across the state.'"
http://www.isthmus.com/daily/article.php?article=36684
Gov. Walker downplays promise of 250,000 new jobs
...
Walker's campaign website included a link of his plan to add 250,000 new jobs through at least April 3, according to a cached version of the site. It was replaced with a new menu of issue offerings, including one that mentions the 250,000 number in connection with tourism. But it's not part of his section titled "Putting Wisconsin Back to Work."
According to Ciara Matthews, Walker's campaign spokeswoman, "The governor is still committed to his No. 1 priority of helping businesses in Wisconsin grow and create 250,000 jobs by the end of his term."
But a review of Walker's Twitter posts and archived press releases by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism shows that his mentions of this jobs pledge have tapered off amid growing evidence that the state will likely fall short...
http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/interactive-data-job-growth-under-scott-walker/html_91c1d53c-86a3-11e2-8ee8-0019bb2963f4.html
Interactive data: Job growth under Scott Walker
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/29/walker-jobs-pledge_n_3838356.html
Scott Walker's Office Tries To Disappear Story Doubting Jobs Pledge
...
The Wisconsin governor's office tried to persuade northern Wisconsin NBC affiliate WJFW to pull a Monday report with the headline, "Walker backs off campaign jobs pledge at Merrill stop." The online story said he was moving away from his promise to create 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term.
"Walker's press secretary, Tom Evenson, called Newswatch 12 on Tuesday, and asked if we could be persuaded to take Monday's story off our website," said WJFW in a
follow-up story. Instead, the news site linked back to its original story.
According to WJFW,
Walker, visiting a local business, said Monday, "My goal wasn't so much to hit a magic number as much as it was, in the four years before I took office, when I was campaigning, I saw that we lost over 133,000 jobs in the state. I said, 'It's really not about jobs, it's about real people, real jobs like those here, and more importantly, affecting real families all across the state.'"
In
a speech in Milwaukee two days later, however, he "reaffirmed" his commitment to the promise.
"We haven't changed our stance," Walker said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Whether we are at 249,000 or 255,000 or whatever the magic number is for us, we wanted to go from losing jobs to gaining jobs. All of our focus and attention is overwhelmingly on not just meeting that goal, but part of my nuance the other day ... I'm not going to take a rest the minute we hit 250,000."
The Milwaukee Business Journal
reported that
Walker also said his promise was an "'aggressive goal' that he doesn't regret." A recent Journal Sentinel
evaluation of Walker's progress showed that
the state will need about 165,000 more jobs to fulfill the pledge by January 2015, when his first term expires.
In June, The Business Journals ranked Walker 40th out of 45 governors in job creation.
Walker has previously said that Wisconsin's relatively slow economic growth is the result of political distractions like the 2012 effort to unseat him with a recall election. He also has cited the passage of the Affordable Care Act, which became law more than six months before he was elected governor in November 2010, as another dampener on his efforts.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/24/1134424/-Walker-s-80-000-job-deficit
Walker's 80,000 job deficit
