On Sunday, Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss his reelection victory last week and was met with a barrage of questions from moderator Chuck Todd.
During the interview, the Meet the Press moderator repeatedly pressed the Republican governor from the left over his economic record and wondered “is it possible that the idea of cutting taxes as a way to create jobs and stimulate the economy just isn't working in Wisconsin?”
The segment began with NBC News Political Director asking Walker “about the Wisconsin economic record. Do you think it’s something that translates nationally?” Todd went on to suggest that the GOP governor’s conservative economic policies don't work in Wisconsin:
Compared to the national average, when it comes to wage growth, it’s below the national average, Wisconsin is. When it comes to job growth, it’s below the national average. And your tax cut policy has created a larger deficit, a $1.8 billion deficit hole that you're going to have to plug next year. And part of it is because revenues, state revenues, didn't come in as expected. Is it possible that the idea of cutting taxes as a way to create jobs and assimilate the economy just isn't working in Wisconsin?
The Meet the Press moderator went on to hit his guest from the left over his refusal to expand Medicaid:
One way you could potentially deal with your budget deficit is to accept Medicaid money, via the healthcare law. And you made an interesting, I can't tell if you were taking a veiled shot at Ohio Governor John Kasich in an interview yesterday with The Wall Street Journal.
But it was about, you basically were critical of him taking the money, which is going to make it a lot easier for him to balance his budget and he's going to end up giving health insurance to a lot of people just above the poverty line. You don't want to do that. Do you have any second thoughts?
For his part, Governor Walker pushed back and defended his decision to reject Medicaid expansion and noted that “for the first time ever, not a person in our state is on a waiting list for people living in poverty. They all have access to healthcare through Medicaid, but those living above it are transitioned into the marketplace and we don't put our taxpayers at risk.”
Todd didn't let up in his badgering of Walker’s economic record, this time over his efforts to reform union laws in Wisconsin:
There has been sort of an agreement I guess over the years, that if you come into the public sector, teacher, firefighter, police officer, that in exchange for not getting a private-sector-like salary opportunity, that you will get a pension, you will have protected retirement in the form of a pension, which of course, many in the private sector don't get. Do you believe still in that basic agreement?
Nowhere in the segment did Todd bother to highlight the successes during Walker’s tenure as governor and instead played up the numerous liberal objections to the Republican governor’s efforts to reform the state.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Meet the Press
November 9, 2014
CHUCK TODD: Joining me now is the governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, after winning his blue state for the third time in four years on Tuesday. Many rocketed Governor Walker to the top of just about everyone’s potential list of presidential contenders. Governor Walker joins me now. Good morning, congratulations.
SCOTT WALKER: Chuck, good to be with you. Thanks for having me on.
TODD: Well, let’s start here. Let's see, 52.3%, 53% in the recall, 52.3% for you. Barack Obama in 2008, 56%, 2012, 53%. There’s a pattern here. I think we know what your ceiling is, 53%. The president’s ceiling might be a little bit higher than that. Is there an Obama/Walker voter? And if so, who are they?
WALKER: Well, in our case, we had double digits with independents. We can't win in our state. Our state's a blue state historically, it’s been a blue state. We can't win without independents. We won, again, with double digit votes from independent voters. And probably one of the most exciting things for me was 18 to 24 year olds was statistically essentially a tie. So we reached out to young voters, not just traditional voters, who were voting our way.
TODD: You said something interesting. You thought that the reason why you had success in Wisconsin and that President Obama had success in Wisconsin is that you were both principled in your beliefs. Do you think that centrism doesn’t work in Wisconsin? That they want to pick either something progressive or something conservative, but they don’t want anything in the middle?
WALKER: I think in Wisconsin, we're very much like the rest of America. Independent voters, which decide elections in swing states like ours want people to lead. They want people to have big, bold ideas, and then act on them. Four years ago, my state, everything was blue. The Republicans were out of power in the Assembly, the Senate, and certainly the governorship.
Right after the November 2nd election of 2010, I told our new legislative Republican majorities, “It's put up or shut up time.” Meaning, if we're just a little bit less bad than the Democrats were before us, the voters would have every reason to throw us out. Four years later, here we sit. Not only did I win for the third time, we added to our majorities in the Assembly and the Senate and I think that’s a lesson for our friends in Washington.
TODD: Let me ask you about the Wisconsin economic record. Do you think it’s something that translates nationally?
WALKER: Well, I think in our case, certainly we had a little bit of a slow down early on with the protest. But in the last year, we saw the best from September to September, the best private-sector job growth we've seen in more than a decade. Our unemployment rate's down from 9.2% in 2010 down to 5.5%. And I think if you lower taxes, ease regulations, and put the power back in the hands of the people to create jobs, you can do just that. And you can do it all across the country.
TODD: But I've got to show you, compared to the national average, when it comes to wage growth, it’s below the national average, Wisconsin is. When it comes to job growth, it’s below the national average. And your tax cut policy has created a larger deficit, a $1.8 billion deficit hole that you're going to have to plug next year. And part of it is because revenues, state revenues, didn't come in as expected. Is it possible that the idea of cutting taxes as a way to create jobs and stimulate the economy just isn't working in Wisconsin?
WALKER: No, that's just the opposite. The reason revenues are down is because we cut withholding. Withholding at the state and the federal level level is where the government takes more of your money than you actually owe them and holds onto them without getting you interest. We cut that in April. So we anticipated that reduction of revenue because we gave the hardworking taxpayers more money back. And that $1.8 billion is based on a projection of no growth and no changes to the budget. That just doesn't happen.
In our case, if we have the average of the last five years of revenue growth, we actually have the next budget starting with more than a half a billion dollars in surplus. So the simple answer is, you compare us to Illinois where they raise taxes, we lower taxes by $2 billion in property and income, and we had a much, much lower unemployment rate and a much better economy than they do. Thank God they elected Bruce Rauner, because that'll help turn things around down there, just like we have in Wisconsin.
TODD: Now, one way you could potentially deal with your budget deficit is to accept Medicaid money, via the healthcare law. And you made an interesting, I can't tell if you were taking a veiled shot at Ohio Governor John Kasich in an interview yesterday with The Wall Street Journal. But it was about, you basically were critical of him taking the money, which is going to make it a lot easier for him to balance his budget and he's going to end up giving health insurance to a lot of people just above the poverty line. You don't want to do that. Do you have any second thoughts?
WALKER: No. From our standpoint, we did something unique, unlike just about any other state in the country. For the first time ever, not a person in our state is on a waiting list for people living in poverty. They all have access to healthcare through Medicaid, but those living above it are transitioned into the marketplace and we don't put our taxpayers at risk. I mean, think about it. States that have taken the Medicaid expansion are betting on the fact that the Congress and the president, who can't deal with the $17 trillion are going to magically somehow come up with new money. They haven't paid that money for Medicaid even to the states as we speak.
TODD: So you think Governor Kasich made a mistake?
WALKER: Well, again, every state is different. I'm not going to criticize individual governors. I'll just tell you in our case, I'm not going to bet on the federal government delivering on a promise that they can't make even before this Medicaid expansion. They've already shorted states like Wisconsin, they shorted other states across the country. Relying on the federal government for your balancing a budget is really I think a fool's bet.
TODD: Now, you made your name having to do with the collective bargaining issue in Wisconsin. There has been sort of an agreement I guess over the years, that if you come into the public sector, teacher, firefighter, police officer, that in exchange for not getting a private-sector-like salary opportunity, that you will get a pension, you will have protected retirement in the form of a pension, which of course, many in the private sector don't get. Do you believe still in that basic agreement?
WALKER: Well, in the end, I think providing for good, decent, hardworking public servants is a good thing. And we still do. When I did all this, my brother David's a banquet manager, his wife sells appliances at Sears. They are classic, American working family. He said, "I'd love to have the deal you're offering public employees.” We match their pension requirement, we asked them to pay just over 12% for their health insurance. The average family in our state's paying 20% to 25%. So we still provide a pretty good deal. And the benefit is, they don't have to pay union dues anymore—
(OVERTALK)
TODD: So you still believe in pension?
WALKER: --tenure.
TODD: You still believe in the pension for government workers?
WALKER: We have the only fully-funded pension system in the country because of our reforms and because of the reforms that were put in even before I took office.
TODD: I've got to ask you about 2016. You made a pledge in October that you were going to serve all four years. Does that pledge still hold?
WALKER: I said my plan was for four years. I've got a plan to keep going for the next four years. But, you know, certainly I care deeply about not only my state, but my country. We'll see what the future holds.
TODD: Do you defer to Paul Ryan?
WALKER: I love Paul Ryan. I've said many times before I'd be the president of Paul Ryan fan club. But I do think if we're going to beat Hillary Clinton in this next election, we've got to have a message that says, "Hillary Clinton is all about Washington." I think in many ways, she was the big loser on Tuesday because she embodies everything that's wrong with Washington. We offer a fresh approach.
Any of us, now 31 governors across the country have the executive experience from outside of Washington to provide a much better alternative to the old, tired, top-down approach you see out of Washington D.C. We need something fresh, organic, from the bottom up. And that's what you get in the states.
TODD: You're not deferring to Paul Ryan, then? It sounds like you believe a governor, not a member of Congress should be the Republican nominee.
WALKER: Paul Ryan may be the only exception to that rule. But overall, I think governors make much better presidents than members of Congress.
TODD: Governor Scott Walker, again, third election in four years. We'll see if you run again in two. Thanks for coming on Meet the Press.
WALKER: Thanks Chuck. Go Packers.
