As Republican Scott Walker mulls running for public office again, Fox News helped him cover up the lackluster job creation during his time as Wisconsin governor.
Walker, who was booted out of the governor’s mansion by voters in 2018, is considering another run in 2022. That is, if he decides not to run for the U.S. Senate that year. Naturally, preparation for any such campaign includes a visit to Fox News where a Republican politician is all but guaranteed a lapdog interview.
Walker’s visit to Your World last week was no exception.
Host Charles Payne teamed up with Walker to cheerlead for more tax cuts (which would clearly be part of any Walker platform). Walker claimed the Reagan tax cuts benefitted the country beyond his administration, into the George H.W. Bush administration and “ultimately continuing into the 90s under Bill Clinton’s administration.”
Payne did not point out that Clinton won largely because the economy was not doing so well.
Walker went on to say, “In Wisconsin, we cut taxes by more than eight billion dollars, reducing the burden on the hard working people of the state and its small business owners and farmers and others, and we saw last year more people working in the state than ever before."
"Governments that charge high rates and have high tax brackets typically see less economic opportunity [than] those that drop them," Walker said. "You lower the tax rates … those dollars go right back in the economy.[and] “revenues continue to go up."
At best, that is disputable. In fact, Wisconsin’s 2018 job growth was the slowest of Scott’s tenure. Based on federal data, the Wisconsin State-Journal reported that a total of approximately 250,000 jobs were created during Scott’s two terms in office, a number he pledged to create during his first term, alone. In fact, Wisconsin’s job growth lagged behind the national rate. “Wisconsin jobs grew 11.2% during the Walker era, compared with 17.3% job growth nationwide during the eight-year period,” the WSJ noted, which put the state in 29th place in job creation since 2010.
Furthermore, while the business-growth rate and increases in private-sector wages outpaced the national average, “The average private-sector annual wage in Wisconsin last year was $47,422. Nationally it was $57,198,” WSJ noted.
But for Payne, there was nothing not to love about Walker’s record. "It's really remarkable," he gushed.
Watch the puffery below, from the August 22, 2019 Your World.
Let’s remember that Walker was a DISASTER as governor of Wisconsin. He campaigned on attacking unions, and particularly attacking public employees’ unions. He did everything he could to alienate everyone but the Far Right conservatives in his area. He figured that would be the springboard for his mega-campaign for President in 2016, but it backfired when Trump sucked all the air out of the room. Walker wound up retreating in humiliation, while begging the other candidates to retreat too so he wouldn’t look as defeated as he did.
I’m thinking he could probably do better running for something a little closer to his abilities. Maybe Animal Control for the city of Wauwatosa.
https://politics.theonion.com/aides-struggle-to-stop-dozens-of-kerosene-soaked-republ-1837517131