Jobs

BREAKING AUDIO: Perdue's Closing Argument

Asked today about whether his company was closing down American plants as they opened others overseas, Perdue quickly responded, "Sure, we closed down plants all the time..." Listen to the breaking audio above. It's an interesting closing argument -- no pun intended -- to cap off what's been a disastrous last month for David Perdue's campaign, as a series of events shed light on both his business career and his worldview. His downward spiral began when an old deposition surfaced, revealing that Perdue himself had admitted, "I spent most of my career" outsourcing.  Asked the next day how he would defend that record, Perdue looked shocked -- "Well defend it? I'm proud of it!" he replied.

The Greedy Outsourcing Party

It's no secret that Mitt Romney's checkered business career was part of what doomed his election hopes in 2012. When people looked at Mitt Romney, they saw a vulture capitalist who was willing to close down American plants, lay off workers, and ship jobs overseas, so long as it helped their bottom dollar. Having run for president, Romney's business practices are likely the most infamous among Republican politicians, but he's hardly alone. This year, key GOP candidates in close senate and gubernatorial races espouse the same self-interested philosophy -- reaping profits while hurting American workers. In Georgia, David Perdue's campaign was rocked as POLITICO reported that Perdue had stated plainly in a 2005 deposition that he had "spent most of his career" outsourcing. This statement itself would have been severely damaging to Perdue's candidacy, but what was even more detrimental, perhaps because it was so revealing, was Perdue's dumbfounded response to the story. Asked how he would defend his outsourcing career, Perdue looked surprised -- "Well defend it? I'm proud of it!" In Illinois, billionaire gubernatorial candidate Bruce Rauner, who took a page out of Romney's playbook and funneled millions in profits to Cayman Island tax shelters to avoid paying American taxes, has demonstrated similar priorities. Rauner's vast portfolio while at GTCR, the private equity firm he co-founded, included directing H-Cube, a “premier global business outsourcing firm.” And just this month, we learned that a lawsuit has been launched by the former CEO of LeapSource, another outsourcing company where Rauner sat on the board, alleging personal threats from Rauner over her lack of success as their CEO.

The Massachusetts Outsourcers Vs. The New Hampshire Voters

Scott Brown's lackluster campaign is always in need of a lift. Maybe they're hoping for a car elevator kind of lift. That's right, Might Romney's coming back to town! Brown has truly bear-hugged Mitt Romney in this campaign, and it makes sense if you think about it. Sure, Romney lost New Hampshire decisively in 2012, but him and Scott Brown have striking similarities: Two proud Bay Staters who have yielded huge profits from their roles at outsourcing companies. Scott Brown says he won't create one job in New Hampshire. But if you want to create jobs overseas, you can't beat the Brown/Romney tag team!​

New Video — David Perdue: Proud Of Outsourcing

Pro-tip: If you're running for the United States Senate, and it comes to light that you have personally admitted that you've spent most of your career shipping American jobs overseas, you should at least pretend to feel bad about it. David Perdue apparently didn't get that memo.

BREAKING VIDEO: Scott Brown: "I'm not going to create one job. It's not my job to create jobs."

Here is Scott Brown's job creation plan in his own words:

"Here's the thing, people say, what are you going to do to create jobs, I am not going to create one job, it is not my job to create jobs. It's yours."

It Gets Worse: The Math on Scott Walker's Job Creation Pledge

With just a few short months left to go in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s first term, his signature campaign promise — the creation of 250,000 new Wisconsin jobs in four years — is destined for failure. Months ago, PolitiFact noted that “most everyone agrees his promise of 250,000 new jobs in four years won’t be met,” due to the slow rate of job growth in the state. Fast forward to this week and Walker’s job creation prospects have gotten even worse. According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics as reviewed by PolitiFact, Wisconsin actually had negative job growth in May and June, for a total of about -1,700 jobs. Not only has Scott Walker failed to add even half of the jobs he promised during his first term, job growth is backsliding in Wisconsin and significantly lags behind neighboring Midwestern states. We’re not math experts, but we do know that you can’t add jobs by subtracting them — yet Walker and his appointees have rewarded companies that outsource jobs out of Wisconsin, just one example of the misguided economic policies that make impossible the fulfillment Walker’s job creation promise. Politifact breaks down the latest BLS data on Wisconsin jobs — check out key highlights from their analysis after the jump.

Walker-Appointed WEDC Chief DEFENDS Giving Tax Breaks To Outsourcers

Wow. When it was first uncovered that Scott Walker's WEDC was giving massive tax credits to companies that ship jobs…

Scott Walker's WEDC Nightmare Continues

Scott Walker hasn't seen a good headline in a loooong time. Last week was no exception. Walker has been getting hammered by the media after a WKOW investigation revealed that Walker's economic development agency, WEDC, has given tax credits to companies that ship jobs overseas. Moreover, the companies at the heart of the controversy, and their board members, have donated significant money to the Walker campaign. The outsourcing debacle has been covered by ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates across Wisconsin, from Madison and Green Bay to LaCrosse and Wausau, and an AP story has been picked up across the country. Scott Walker is having all sorts of trouble bringing new jobs to Wisconsin. But he's pretty good at shipping them away.

Scott Walker, Where Are The Jobs? (They're In Other States)

Scott Walker isn't just failing to fulfill his own job creation promise--he's failing to keep up with surrounding states. A new report shows that Wisconsin has created about 45,000 fewer jobs than would have been expected if the state kept up with historical trends. Moreover, the analysis shows that by December of 2010, towards the end of the Doyle administration, Wisconsin had regained a higher percentage of jobs lost in the recession than any other state included in the study. But by September of 2013, after three years under Gov. Walker and his hyper-conservative policies, Wisconsin had recovered a fewer percentage of its jobs than Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa and Indiana. The state's job gap doubled in Walker's first year, and increased again in his second year. This report is more than just a confirmation that Scott Walker's agenda has been bad for Wisconsin. It's a real-world indictment of the very policies that the Republican Party constantly champions. We've been told time and time again that if only we slashed taxes and shrank government, the free market would bring prosperity to all. But this austere path has only stifled once-booming job growth in Wisconsin, and the state is set to spend $559 million more than it takes in next year. Walker's conservatism has long been the toast of the GOP. Chris Christie praised his reforms for making Wisconsin "a better place to live and work." Grover Norquist declared that "his success in Wisconsin will change America." And AFP president, Tim Phillips lauded his agenda as "the new model for the country." Well, the results are in. The model has failed. And America is not soon to follow in Walker's footsteps.

Wisconsin's Economy Is Struggling Under Gov. Walker, But AFP Has $866K To Tell You Otherwise

Scott Walker has long-been considered a darling of the Tea Party movement and a contender for the 2016 Republican nomination for president. But these days, things aren't going so well for Walker, who has been tainted by scandals, and new polling shows him tied with Democratic contender Mary Burke in his reelection bid. Cue Walker's allies, the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity. AFP has already poured $10 million into supporting Walker's extreme agenda in Wisconsin, just announced that they are spending nearly $900,000 on a new ad to help the embattled governor. The ad, which champions Walker's budget reform, is called "It's Working!" Only there's one problem: It isn't! The speakers in the ad praise Walker for his "bold leadership" on budget reform, "keeping education dollars in the classroom," and the fact that "Wisconsin's getting back to work, too." But just last week, it was reported that Wisconsin is set to spend $559 million more than it takes in next year, and job growth in the state continues languish in the bottom third, nationally. Scott Walker ran for governor promising to create 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term, but PolitiFact Wisconsin now says the current job growth pace "is not nearly enough to meet the goal." And on top of all that, he implemented the biggest education cuts in Wisconsin history. Yet another misleading ad from AFP, another poor economic record from a high-profile Republican governor (see Christie, Chris).