I think it’s safe to say that what Vice President Joe Biden calls a three-letter word, J-O-B-S, is the number one issue in the gubernatorial campaign. In fact, it is the only issue that Milwaukee mayor, and presumptive Democratic nominee, Tom Barrett wants to talk about, at least if one goes to his campaign website.
The first salvo in the current numbers war came from Milwaukee County Executive, and candidate for the Republican nomination, Scott Walker, who wants to create the conditions to allow the private sector to create a minimum of 250,000 jobs by the end of his first term. That would roughly duplicate the feat achieved in former Governor Tommy Thompson’s first term.
The second salvo came from Barrett, who wants to, in his first three years, merely replace the 180,000 jobs lost since the “start” of the recession at the end of 2007, by spending somewhere north of $900 million up-front in taxes, both state and federal. At the same time, he scoffed at Walker’s notion that it is possible to do that and add an additional 70,000 jobs in a fourth year, much less without spending something in the neighborhood of $1 billion in taxes.
Salvo three came in from former Congressman, and Republican candidate for governor, Mark Neumann, who while refusing to play the numbers game, also says that it is the private sector that actually creates jobs.
How dare you make fun of our vice president’s ability to count! Three-letter word, indeed. Well, Mr. Egg, you’re a three-letter word… oh. Never mind.