Bad economic fortune telling brought to you by WISGOP, WMC
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate continues to drop, and while the economy still has a ways to go before it’s fully recovered from the disastrous economic policies of George W. Bush (worst President ever), we’re getting there, thanks in no small part to the Recovery Act and steady leadership from democrats in Madison.
Let’s go back, gentle reader, to the state budget debate earlier this year. Democratic leaders in the Senate and Assembly made it clear that corporations would no longer have the luxury of a truck-sized loophole in order to avoid paying their fair share. Closing the Las Vegas loophole was a top priority and was included as part of the final budget package signed by Governor Doyle
WISGOPers predictably came running to the defense of their corporate overlords with an even more predictable string of talking points. ‘What [combined reporting] does is kill jobs,’ complained Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) went one step further, calling combined reporting ‘a business killer [and] job killer,‘ right before he threatened to move to Texas, where, ironically, combined reporting is also the law of the land. Any good GOPer pile wouldn’t be complete without the Snake by the Lake, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, who said in September that he would ‘immediately repeal the job killing Combined Reporting’ law.
Not only are Wisconsin Republicans extraordinarily uncreative, they are consistently and unabashedly wrong. After combined reporting became the law back in June, the unemployment rate in Wisconsin has done nothing but decline
But when it comes to jobs and the economy, predicting the future isn’t the only thing Republicans do poorly; they can’t seem to grasp the reality of the present either.
As I’ve pointed out several times [here, here], the real leaders of the Wisconsin Republican Party at WMC continuously crush the supposedly ‘bad-for-business’ economic climate in Wisconsin. Yet time and again, I read reports about how great Wisconsin cities are for doing business. Here’s another one from BizTimes: ‘New study ranks Madison and Milwaukee among best cities for business.‘
Out of the nation’s 101 largest metro areas, Madison and Milwaukee ranked 12th and 20thhighest, respectively. So just what is WMC trying to do by bashing Wisconsin as bad for business? It certainly can’t be trying to attract businesses to come to Wisconsin with that kind of talk. Perhaps the scary rhetoric is just a tactic in an attempt to bully corporate-friendly lawmakers into enacting more corporate tax breaks and fewer regulations.
Whatever the motive one thing is clear: WMC will never stop misleading the public to get what it wants.