RADDATZ: And joining us now, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. Welcome, Governor.
WALKER: Thanks, Martha. Thanks for having me on.
RADDATZ: Mitt Romney dropping out this week said, "I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders who may not be as well known may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee." Is he talking about you?
WALKER: I think there’s a whole number of people. I mean, folks like my friend Marco Rubio I think fit that bill as well, but I think what he’s heard is what I’ve heard across the country, is that people want new, fresh leadership with big, bold ideas, and the courage to act on it. And if we’re going to take on a name from the past, which is likely to be former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I think for the party we need a name from the nature.
RADDATZ: But how do you stand out in that enormous field of GOP hopefuls?
WALKER: I think as your introduction showed, I mean, people can say something – you can give speeches all you want, but I think what we have is not only amongst Republican voters, but in our state, even with independents, people want people to lead. They don’t need to agree with you 100 percent of the time on every issue, but they are so sick and tired of politicians in both parties, particularly in Washington, who say one thing on the campaign trail and do something else. I think those 100,000 protesters four years ago who came in and around our capitol showed, if we think we’re doing the right thing for the people, it doesn’t matter what the intimidation factor is. We’ll stand up and stand up for them.
I don't know exactly how big and bold it is to run with the corporate agenda coming from ALEC, but whatever.
Let's look at a couple, three of Walker's big and bold promises and follow through on those promises.
Big and bold lie #1: Walker promised to create 250,000 jobs in his first term in office.
Reality: As of last September, there has been 102,000 jobs created since Walker took office. And many of those jobs came during the first six months of his term, before any of his policies or budgets took effect.
As if Walker's job abysmal job creation record wasn't bad enough, Wisconsin's wages are at the bottom of the scale as well. Hell, even Chuck Todd knew that!
Big and bold lie #2: Walker promised to eliminate the state deficit and claims to have done so in his first term.
Reality: Walker has a current deficit of $280 million which has to be cleared up by June and a projected deficit of a whopping $2.2 billion going into the next budget cycle.
This is easily explained. Those big and bold tax cuts Walker gave to corporations and the 1% did not help the economy. Those big and bold job and wage cuts gave to the people did not boost the economy either. Yet Walker is still talking about doing more of the same.
We all know the saying about doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
But there is one thing Walker did do. He did attack the public sector unions, which set up the scenario for Walker's failing jobs numbers and setting the state's economy into the downward spiral it is in.
The only thing is, that is about the only thing he didn't promise to do. In fact, he never mentioned it at all.
The thing with Scott Walker is that you can't just worry about the idiot things that come out of his lying, hypocritical mouth. You also have to pay attention to what he is not saying and then you get closer to the truth.
