Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Walker ad full of lies, distortions -- and he's hoping you fall for it

Ad attempts to cover up job losses, budget deficit and tax increases

Gov. Scott Walker, perhaps anticipating that recall organizers will indeed reach the 540,208 signatures needed to initiate a challenge against him, issued a new "pro-ME!" ad that touts the "positive" aspects of his tenure thus far.

Unfortunately for Walker (and really, for the entire state), the "positive" picture Walker describes is grossly exaggerated.

To an observer of the ad who knows the facts, it is a frustrating minute-long diatribe that makes you want to scream "YOU'RE SO FULL OF IT!" nearly every five seconds. To someone who might not have had the time to follow the events of the past year so closely, however, the ad is very convincing, with its friendly music, images of Wisconsinites hard at work, and crowds applauding Walker for all he has done.

Let's break this ad down a little bit, looking at some of the major points Walker hopes will convince the state that he deserves to stay in office. First, the ad itself:



Titled "Results," the ad is laden with several exaggerations, false claims, and items worth pondering over. Here's a few for you to consider...
  • When I ran for governor, I promised to rein in spending, eliminate the deficit, and hold the line on taxes. And you know what? That's exactly what we did.
    Yet that's exactly what Walker DIDN'T do. Each of these items will be examined further down the line. But first, it should be pointed out that Walker left out the biggest thing he promised while he was campaigning for governor: that he would bring jobs to our state. Walker made a promise of 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term.It's interesting that Walker himself neglects to include that line in his opening statement, especially since it was the rallying cry of every Republican candidate, Walker included, during the 2010 midterm elections.
  • Thankfully, we wiped out a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes.
    There are two lies within this single sentence. First, Walker didn't eliminate the deficit -- at least according to his own standards on which he campaigned on. Walker promised to balance the budget using generally accepted accounting principles. These principles require that you not push the debt further down the road, properly balancing the budget (and your debts) within the fiscal year.

    But the governor didn't do that. In fact, Walker's budget is projected to create a $3 billion deficit under GAAP standards -- a larger deficit than what was projected to occur when Doyle passed his last budget.

    During his campaign against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barret, Walker portrayed his opponent as "Worse than Doyle." It appears that Walker's own budget fits that moniker quite fine on its own.

    Now, consider lie #2: keeping taxes down. Walker's budget created a net tax reduction of millions of dollars (reducing revenues and forcing major budget cuts in the process). But those tax reductions went primarily to the rich and to corporations. And the reductions more than made up for the tax increases that Walker imposed on working Wisconsinites.

    Gov. Walker reduced to a significant amount the Earned Income Tax Credit than many poor Wisconsinites depend upon. As per one example, a single mother with two kids would see her taxes go up two percentage points as a result of Walker's budget.
  • ...government workers are now contributing to their health and pension benefits...
    Except that government workers were already contributing to their health and pension plans. These plans are deferred payments -- that is, income these workers would ordinarily be earning but instead have determined they'd rather have in the form of benefits. What really happened was that Gov. Walker required a GREATER contribution -- which, in effect, is a cut to his employees' paychecks overall.
  • In the three years before I took office, Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs...[but] since the start of the year, Wisconsin has added thousands of jobs.
    Walker's statement here -- that the state lost 150,000 jobs in three years' time -- tries to imply that it was the fault of the previous (read: Democratic) administration. In fact, the loss in jobs was due to the national recession (which began under a Republican president).

    Walker then takes credit for the entire year of 2011, stating that we've gained thousands of jobs since he took office. Problem is, the jobs that did grow this year all occurred in the first six months -- that is, while Gov. Doyle's budget was still in effect. Since Walker's budget passed in late June we haven't seen a single month of net jobs growth in the state. In other words, Gov. Walker is taking credit for jobs created during Gov. Doyle's budget cycle, leaving out the fact that Walker's budget has yet to do anything substantial for job growth in the state.
Walker closes out his ad the only way he knows how -- full of lies that misinform the audience to whom he is speaking to: "Instead of going back to the days of billion-dollar budget deficits, double-digit tax increases, and record job loss, let's keep moving Wisconsin forward." Yet within that sentence alone, Walker lies to you three times more: he 1) created a budget deficit under his own standards, 2) increased taxes on the working poor and 3) has produced job losses in the state that are greater than any other states' losses during the same time period.

Presented in this manner, Walker is clearly trying to manipulate you into believing he's actually GOOD for the state. The million-dollar question is, will the people of Wisconsin buy it? Only time will tell.

23 comments:

  1. I think you mean "deferred payments", not "differed payments". Other than that, great article!

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  2. Any Wisconsinite that believes this crap needs a refresher course on the events of the past year!

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  3. I saw that error too but otherwise the liar has been PUNKED mega times in this article.

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  4. Let's not stop at recalling him. Let's exile him.

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  5. Ostracism would be too good for Walker.

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  6. Thanks for the comments and for the spot on mistake. I am a stickler for those spelling errors and it annoys me to great ends when I make them myself! I will make edits tonight...thanks again!

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  7. Well Illinois tops Wisconsin (according to the link above I clicked on with the information provided)with double digit unemployment. I am one such "number". With the highest budget deficit in the union, I am not proud of the fact that we lead most states in everything negative.

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  8. i like how his examples of thousands of jobs that pop up in script beside him only add up to 850.

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  9. Can't believe he has the guts to put "saved thousands of union jobs" in that ad after his attempts to destroy unions. The recall can't come soon enough!

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  10. The guy is an egotistical psycho who really needs to learn what the word HONEST means!

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  11. Do you think his daddy is proud of the lying son he raised? Will his lies hold at the "pearly Gates"?

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  12. You know, people keep saying that Gov. Walker is for giving big business all of these tax breaks. Did it ever occur to anyone that what he is really trying to do is encourage businesses to come to this state or at least stay in this state? Most of the jobs we have lost in this state is because of the unbelievably big tax rate there is on business here. The tax breaks he is giving to 'the rich' is nothing more than incentive to help our state economy. Fact is, almost anything can be manufactured out of state more cost effectively than here. Makes a person wonder if there is a direct correlation between the fact that Wisconsin is a highly unionized state and we have one of the highest cost for manufacturing in the country. I believe so. I also don't believe that it is a bad thing to have union workers contribute more for their health care and retirement. Listen, everyone in the private sector has had to do it for years now. Why should they be any different? We should all have to give some. I work at a bigger company and I am paying 55% of my insurance. I don't think asking them to pay 12% is in any way out of line. I am thinking that is still a hell of a deal. I also don't think asking them to kick in more for their retirement is out of line either. My company kicks in a whole 3%! At that rate I am going to be working unitl I die epecially at what I make per hour. So my thinking is that nobody should be complaining because the union workers still have it a lot better than others hands down. It's time to live in the real world people.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! Well said!!!!!

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    2. Point taken, but Walker is still a bold face liar!Divide and conquer huh.Just a puppet for the tea party.Tax breaks for the rich only help the rich.

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  13. Walker has lied since day 1. We all recognized to need to tighten our belts and reduce spending. We ALL were willing to do our part. The only thing Walker did was change the "ALL" to the working middle class. I'm so tired of shouldering his pack of lies and trying to make sense out of them. He needs to go, AND FAST. Talk about a person with no conscience!! His family, his church, his friends, his fellow Republicans should be ashamed to have their names associated with him. I believe the recall will support this last statement. We'll just have to wait and see.

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  14. From The Real World: If all Governor walker wanted to do was get the union workers to contribute more to their pension and healthcare despite the fact that those "benefits" are not really benefits but differed compensation, meaning part of those workers payment package - incentive for working jobs that require a degree and that generally pay LESS than private sector work WHEN THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS DOING WELL - then why didn't he drop the provision to eliminate collective bargaining when the unions agreed to contribute the extra money? If Union workers have it better than you - join a union, don't complain that no one should have job security, pension and benefits because you don't have them. We all should have them, and many of these state workers and ALL teachers have to get a degree for their position and then go back for additional training on their own dime every summer. I believe that the gov. does want to attract businesses to come here, but he's going to attract minimum wage jobs, with no job security, pension, healthcare or benefits for the benefit of the rich corporate owners not us. I don't want job like that. Do you? Who is going to move here to run these companies when our schools are suffering the worst budget cuts in the country? I think Wisconsin deserves better.

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  15. Most of the jobs have NOT been lost because of high taxes on business. Most of the jobs have been lost because greedy business leaders have outsourced the jobs to China and India so that their business can make more money for the top people in the business. Why doesn't this ever come up? People used to be able to make a good middle class living working at a factory. Now those jobs are gone.

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  16. Can we please start calling the increase in benefits payments by union workers what it really is. It is a tax increase. It is money out of the pockets of workers. Gov. Walker has raised taxes on the public employees, just like he is raising taxes on the poor who get BadgerCare by raising their premiums. Just because it isn't called a tax, doesn't mean it isn't a tax.

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  17. To anonymous defending Walker: you must have a hard time comprehending things. Unions HAVE been paying more towards their pensions and benefits. Instead of wage increases, they have opted to have heir benefits paid for in lieu of a wage increase. I just don't get how people can sit there and really think that these fireman, police, and state workers have it so good. They never get raises unless promoted, and if you new there salaries I think you'd sing a different tune. And don't hand me the "I'm a taxpayer and I pay your salary." that's true, but do you really think that police, fire, prison guards, etc. don't pay taxes!? Come on, if you think about it, they pay their own wage.

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  18. Walker lies and stupid people believe the lies, I am just amazed? Go ahead shout here about how Walker did good, but while you do that get your head out of the sand and read the article again.

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