Contact: Austin Altenburg
[email protected]

Column highlights Wisconsin winning on key economic measures

Madison – Under Gov. Walker’s bold leadership, Wisconsin has enacted conservative reforms that have led to Wisconsin’s comeback – and placed Wisconsin as a leader in the Midwest on several economic indicators.

Writing in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Minnesota economist John Phelan debunks a previous study by the Economic Policy Institute that touted Minnesota over Wisconsin. Phelan points out that Wisconsin is outpacing its neighbor in measures of economic growth, GDP per capita and reduction of the unemployment rate. With more people working than ever before, record-low unemployment and high levels of economic growth, Wisconsin is moving forward – and, under Gov. Walker’s agenda, preparing to win the 21st century.

Read more from Journal Sentinel here or find excerpts below:

ICYMI: Wisconsin under Scott Walker beat Minnesota by many economic measures
By: John Phelan
Journal Sentinel

There’s an old saying where I’m from: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. The recent report by the Economic Policy Institute comparing the economic records of Wisconsin and Minnesota since Governors Scott Walker and Mark Dayton took office in January 2011, is a case in point. It was seized upon by people, including a columnist for this news organization, who saw it as vindicating things they already believed.

But just as you should never buy a car without checking under the hood, you should never trumpet an economic report as proving your case until you have checked the numbers for yourself. If the folks who saw proof in the EPI’s report that Governor Dayton’s policies were so much better than Governor Walker’s had done this, they would have found that on some important measures Wisconsin’s economy has actually outperformed Minnesota’s. …

It is interesting to compare Minnesota and Wisconsin, but only up to a point. For each similarity the states have, there are differences too. Neither state — yet — is beating the other hands down over the last seven years. To say otherwise is to go against the data, which is why the EPI had to cherry-pick data to make that argument.

Whether a report supports bigger or smaller government, this or that economic policy, whichever way you lean, pop the hood and check the data for yourself. A bleeding heart is no substitute for an engaged brain.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email