If Scott Walker won, who really lost?

In the July 15 issue of the The Gazette, Wisconsin governor and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker had a guest column.

In the column, Gov. Walker brags about all the wonderful things he accomplished in Wisconsin and leads us to believe if it worked in his state then it should work for the entire country.

As someone who generally questions everything, I felt that I should take a closer look at the things Gov. Walker says he accomplished.

Walker states, 'In Wisconsin we took on unions and big-government special interests and won.” I find that amusing when you consider the ties he has with the Koch brothers and other special interest groups.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, stated, 'In Wisconsin, Gov. Walker has enacted policy after policy to weaken workers' rights and cripple our middle class. At a time when Scott Walker should have been focusing on creating jobs, lowering income inequality and raising wages for workers, he focused on extreme partisan politics and lining up campaign donors. When you look to Wisconsin's economy under Gov. Walker, you realize that a Scott Walker presidency is a scary, scary thing for America.”

Gov. Walker's Act 10 stripped collective bargaining rights from public employees. He pushed a union-busting policy that was labeled by his own party as the ' nuclear option” and 'dropping the bomb.” The result of this, according to a 2011 report by the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, is that ACT 10 combined with Walker's first year policies cost Wisconsin 18,000 full-time private sector jobs.

Walker signed anti-worker, right-to-work-for-less legislation into law even though he said that was not on his agenda while running for office in 2014. His budget set back prevailing wage standards for construction workers and removed the 24-hour rest period required in a seven-day workweek, some say, killing the weekend for Wisconsin workers. In 2012 Walker repealed a statewide law that helped women receive equal pay.

So what did Walker's self-proclaimed victory over workers really accomplish? According to a 2015 PEW Charitable Trust report, Wisconsin ranks worst among the 50 states in terms of shrinking middle class, with real median household incomes falling 14.7 percent. Walker promised 250,000 jobs in his first term but Wisconsin ranks 40th in job growth.

Walker also privatized Wisconsin's former jobs agency, now called Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. It has been involved in scandal and mismanagement from the beginning. A 2013 audit by Wisconsin's Nonpartisan Audit Bureau revealed a number of ways the corporation was breaking the law, and found that 12 million in taxpayer-funded loans were simply lost track of.

Walker Also enacted the largest cuts to education in Wisconsin history. He cut school funding more per student than any other governor in America.

But hey, at least he won.

The question is: 'if Walker won, who really lost”?

Sorry, Wisconsin working families.

' Rick Moyle is executive director of Hawkeye Labor Council AFL-CIO, Cedar Rapids. Comments: rmoyle@hawkeyelabor.us