Paul Ryan, when not touting that it’s time to build a wall on our southern border, is busy emailing tired phrases (‘game-changer’, ‘hard-working’, ‘bottom line’) in support of huge public subsidies for Foxconn.
Here’s the text of his recent email about Foxconn, so we may look back and see how the project fares against his promises:
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Ryan: Foxconn deal is a game-changer for Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel8/4/2017By now, you have likely heard the good news. The electronics giant Foxconn is coming to Wisconsin, with plans to add 13,000 jobs, in total, in our region.
This is an absolute game-changer. It means more good-paying jobs and opportunities for hard-working Wisconsinites. And it shows the rest of the country — and the world — that our area truly is a manufacturing powerhouse.
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I could not have been more excited to make our case to Foxconn’s CEO, Terry Gou. It went something like this: I was born and raised in southeastern Wisconsin. In the late 2000’s, Wisconsin suffered manufacturing loses, and it was devastating for people all across southeastern Wisconsin. But Wisconsinites are resilient—in the face of adversity, we push through. And today, manufacturing in Wisconsin has made a remarkable comeback, and things are only getting better.
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Of course, there is a lot more we can do, especially on the national level. Take taxes. Right now, we have this crazy system where successful small businesses in our country pay a top marginal tax rate of 44.6 percent. And our overall corporate tax rate is 35 percent.
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We clearly need to fix our tax code. Our committees in Congress are working on a bold plan as we speak. This is something I have been talking about lately with workers throughout Wisconsin, including employees at Allis-Roller, LDV, InPro, Geneva Supply, and InSinkErator.
With tax reform, you get tax cuts that will ease the burden on you and your family. You get a simpler tax code—so simple that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard. (Wouldn’t that be something?) And you get real fairness—fewer loopholes for special interests and a level playing field for everyone.
The bottom line is that, through all the drama and distractions in Washington, we are focused on the real problems that you care about—especially when it comes to jobs and paychecks.
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Foxconn’s decision is exciting, but it is just one step. In Congress, I will continue to fight for pro-employee, pro-business, pro-job policies. It’s what my employers in the First District care about, and it’s a privilege to fight for them in Washington.
To read the op-ed online in its entirety, click here.
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The Wisco-kid blathereth on…
“We need more tax cuts” and “We need to gift Foxconn with 3 billion bux of taxpayer money” are immiscible statements. Of course Ryan is probably talking about Federal Tax cuts and State and local Tax gifts. Which ignores the fact that all taxes come out of all of our pockets, unless we can dangle enuf job-bait to get our state/local taxes effectively cancelled forever, as Foxconn has done. How many state/municipal services will be cut even more to pay for the sweetener?
The usual supply-side bovine fecal refuse is being spread about how much the state will gain from the sugar it spreads, but the reality is rather few of the rosy forecasts actually come true.
Pretty much none of WEDC’s efforts have come to fruition and rather a lot of them have ended up in court or written off. WEDC is running this effort. They have alwys been a thinly disguised rebate shop for Republican political contributors. Their record is riddled with bad decisions, incompetent management and graft. And we are now going to turn them loose with $3B??
Why would be do that?
Paul Krugman has argued for years that Ryan is a fraud, and although libertarians and Krugman would differ on much, after reading Ryan’s light & contradictory press release (the latter justifying your fitting claim of the immiscible), I’ll agree that Krugman’s on the mark about Ryan.
Even assuming this plant is built – itself an uncertainty – Ryan’s are wild claims of closer to magic than economic policy.
Interesting question about Ryan: is Ryan only capable of moderately reasonable thought & action when the presence of better and more thoughtful men and women (both sharper & of better character) constrains him? Character and ability should reside within.
In a Trumpian environment offering neither ability, reasonableness, nor morality, perhaps one now sees what’s truly inside Paul Ryan: nothing much at all.