When something sounds too good to be true, that's usually because it isn't true.
That's what consumer agencies warn people when they are looking at promotional offers. And it applies to politics, too.
Case in point: Gov. Scott Walker's claim about job creation during June:
Walker noted that job growth in Wisconsin effectively accounted for about half of the new jobs in the nation in June, an abysmal month for job creation...
"It's incredibly important to put that in perspective," Walker said. "To have 9,500 net new jobs in the state at a time when the country saw just 18,000 net new jobs all across the country is incredibly good news, and it's driven by the rebirth of tourism in the state."
Half of the new jobs in the country were created in Wisconsin? If that sounds too good to be true -- well, you know.
Massachusetts, it turns out, accounted for more than the remaining half:
NECN: Peter Howe, Boston, Mass.) -- While employers and officials alike have been seeing a better recovery in Massachusetts than much of the rest of the country for months, the June jobs numbers may sound impossible to believe: Of all the net new jobs the sputtering national economy managed to create in June, more than half were in the Bay State alone.
"How about us, huh?" laughed Governor Deval Patrick after an event at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Thursday. Acknowledging that the state didn't have a whole lot of competition - the nation as a whole produced an anemic 18,000 net new jobs in June - Patrick said he's convinced the state's recent performance shows the value of smart, targeted workforce and infrastructure investment...
In all, Massachusetts in June created 10,300 new private-sector jobs, plus another 100 in the government sector.
So, that's 9,500 in Wisconsin plus 10,400 in Massachusetts, giving us 19,900 -- 110% of all of the jobs created in the nation.
But there's more.
Employers in California added 28,800 jobs to payrolls in June, a surprisingly positive number amid a weak labor market nationally... In contrast to California, the nation added just 18,000 net new jobs in June...
But Friday's job figures showed that some of the hardest-hit states performed well in June. Michigan added 18,000 jobs, and Minnesota, which was until recently embroiled in state budget issues, added 13,200.
Let's see. Michigan apparently added 100% of the new jobs created in the country last month. Add in the others and we're up to 443% of all of the jobs created in the country. Some fun now, hey?
Michael Rosen, an economics professor at Milwaukee Area Technical College, says:
Put the Walker jobs victory dance in perspective. Several states (Texas (+32,000), California (+28,800), Michigan (+18,000), and Minnesota (+13,200) had more job growth -- and Texas was responsible for almost 200% of net job growth in June ...which illustrates what a useless and misleading statistic DWD used. And the Wisconsin share of net job growth year over year is a lot less.
And, more importantly, there is ZERO evidence that any of this has anything to do with anything that Walker has done.
Amen.