By State Representative, Leon D. Young
Leon D. Young
Scott Walker may be many things, but a fool isn’t one of them. Walker took the oath of office touting his ability to create jobs. He proudly asserted that Wisconsin was now open for business, and pledged to create 250,000 new jobs during his first 4- year term.
But, a funny thing happened on the way to the office. Statistical data on job creation in Wisconsin , since Walker was elected, presents a far different picture of economic growth, which is a real dilemma for the governor.
According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the nation, Wisconsin lost almost 33,000 jobs in 2011. (Moreover, the BLS has been performing this junction since 1884.)
Realizing that he was politically vulnerable on the job creation issue, Walker has taken to the offensive in delivering his pre-emptive strike. He is currently flooding the airways with his latest campaign ad in which he attempts to portray himself as the “engaged public servant” – sleeves rolled up, looking squarely into the camera.
However, the real objective of Walker ’s latest ad campaign is to give credence to his miraculous job numbers, while discrediting the others. Courtesy of Walker metrics, he went from having lost 33,000 jobs in 2011 to suddenly having created almost 24,000.
There has been considerable discussion/debate about the accuracy of Walker ’s new job numbers, and that’s neither here nor there. However, the unflinching questions remains, if you are an unemployed individual in Wisconsin, do you really feel like your governor has succeeded in moving towards meeting his quarter million jobs goal by producing 23,000 jobs in his first year, when doing so is dramatically less than what was promised and still lagging the rest of the nation in getting people back to work?
In all fairness, I must concede one salient point to Scott Walker. He promised to move our state forward, which he has done — but only for his friends in the business community and the wealthy residents of our state.