Scott Walker's Delusional Economic Panacea for America

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) greeting President Obama in LaCrosse, Wisconsin July 2.

President Obama is in Wisconsin today to talk about his administration's new overtime policy.  

Currently, employees in managerial positions who earn less than $23,660/year are eligible for mandatory overtime.  Under the President's new policy, the Labor Department is raising that threshold to $50,440.  This is going to make a lot a low-level managers happy.

Of course, Republicans are raising their conservative voices in protest.  Scream all they want, there is nothing the GOP can do about the change.  Raising the overtime threshold for managers is clearly well within the regulatory rights of the U.S. Department of Labor.

what eye thynk:   It does, however, provide another chance to air the same, tired Obama-is-a-job-killer epithet and talk about how GOP tax cut schemes will build the national economy faster, better, stronger than putting more spending money in employees' pockets.   

With the Republican economic low-to-no tax scheme failing so miserably in Kansas,  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) believes he can fill the void in the "Lower-Taxes Solve Everything!" cheering section.

Governor Walker, who will officially enter the Republican presidential race on July 13, wrote a piece for Real Clear Politics saying that President Obama could learn a few things from the conservative financial policies he has put into place in Wisconsin.

"Bright spots in the Obama economy are few and far between."

Apparently Mr. Walker doesn't think 46 consecutive months of private-sector job growth qualifies as a "bright spot?"  And, I guess the fact that unemployment has reached 5.3%--the lowest since April 2008 is just another ho-hum statistic for the governor of Wisconsin.

In another example of Mr. Walker's Republican selective blindness, his op-ed piece continues:

"To be sure, Wisconsin's economy has enjoyed a dramatic recovery over the last few years.  But our fortunes have improved in spite of--not because of--the president's big-government policies."

To see just how delusional Scott Walker is about the "dramatic recovery" he has brought to his state, you only have to look at the facts.  In 2011 Governor Walker said his benchmark for success would be the creation of 250,00 new jobs for Wisconsin workers.  He promised that his corporate tax cuts would be the panacea that would bring these jobs home.

As a result of his magic tax cuts, Wisconsin is now facing a $2 billion budget deficit.  And the governor's promise of 250,000 new jobs?  Well, he didn't do too well there either.  The man who thinks President Obama could learn a thing or two from him can boast of only 129,000 new workers. In fact, Wisconsin's job creation rate has put Mr. Walker's state near the bottom for job growth for the past four years.  The Badger State ranked 35th in the nation in 2011, 36th in 2012, 38th in 2013 and 38th again in 2014.

I'm at a loss to find the "dramatic recovery" Mr. Walker brags of having masterminded; and I'm not alone.  This past May, the Washington Post said Wisconsin's private-sector job growth rate was "one of the worst in the nation," leaving the state with a middle class that "has shrunk at a faster rate than any other state in the country."

Surely, even the blindest Republican groupie cannot help but find Scott Walker's braggadocio difficult to credit...unless they think a return to 2008 is something to which a U.S. president should aspire.