There’s something about campaigns that makes politicians say some really stupid things. Take, for example, Lyndon Johnson’s promise to win the “War on Poverty” (ask the 46.2 million Americans living in poverty how that went.) Not to be outdone, George H.W. Bush famously vowed, “Read my lips, no new taxes” and then raised taxes two years later. Or, even more preposterously, Michele Bachmann pledged a return to $2 per gallon gas when she becomes president. OPEC? What’s an OPEC? Alas, our great state is not immune to bad promises, either. Believe it or not, our very own illustrious governor also bit off a little more than he can chew during his campaign. But no need to worry, Gov. Scott Walker; you’ll have another shot at campaigning again soon enough.
According to a press release by his campaign, Walker guaranteed, “I’ll get government out of the way and lower the tax burden so Wisconsin business owners and factories can create 250,000 jobs and 10,000 businesses in our state by 2015.” Seems like a good promise to make, right? After all, most politicians’ campaign strategies involve primarily repeating “jobs” as many times as possible. It’s rare to see a politician tweet without including “#jobs.” Of course, they wouldn’t do this if it didn’t work. Most Americans list either the economy or jobs as the issue most important to them. Tell the people what they want to hear!
How does Walker’s chances of fulfilling his promise look? You guessed it: not good. According to the latest report by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Wisconsin has seen a net increase of 20,100 jobs since Walker became governor. In other words, after almost a quarter of his term, he’s created fewer than one twelfth of the jobs he promised. Of course, one could argue that, assuming the economy gets back on track, the pace of job creation will pick up with it.
However, the numbers are once again discouraging (apparently math doesn’t like Walker, either.) October marked the fourth consecutive month of job losses in the state. As if that wasn’t enough, Wisconsin’s loss of 9,700 jobs in October looks even worse next to Illinois’ net increase of 30,000 jobs, which they managed despite having a Democratic (“job-killing”) governor. To add insult to injury, Walker’s own government has predicted that he won’t meet his own goal. According to an October report, the state’s Department of Revenue projects that the state will add 136,000 jobs by the end of Walker’s term – barely half of what he promised. I think a quote from Rick Perry might be appropriate here: “Oops.”
To be fair, this was a really idiotic promise to make, and hopefully most people dismissed it for the empty pledge that it is soon after hearing it. However, this doesn’t mean that Walker shouldn’t be held accountable for it next time he’s up for election. Whenever an incumbent runs for office, voters should look at his or her track record from the last campaign to see if new promises can be trusted.
It’s important, though, to remember that politicians from all over the political spectrum make promises that they can’t keep. PolitiFact counts more than 50 broken promises by President Barack Obama, including his failure to close Guantanamo Bay and pass a cap-and-trade bill. Most politicians are overly idealistic while campaigning for office and then get hit in the face with political reality after they win. So, as easy as it is to get caught up in the anti-Walker fervor, I do my best to take a step back from the situation and look at things from all viewpoints. But damn it, Walker, you make it really, really difficult sometimes.
Joe Timmerman ([email protected]) is a freshman intending to major in economics and math.
