Ron Johnson

Ron Johnson says he's a businessman, and that businesses, not government, create jobs.

Yes, sir, he's a job creator all right.

Out of work? Can't find a job? Ron Johnson doesn't care. He wants to cut off your unemployment.

Your job went overseas? Johnson says that's just how business works. He calls it creative destruction.

And when his company does create jobs? -- With a quarter million people in Wisconsin out of work, Johnson's company hires prisoners to work for cheap, with no benefits and the government paying their health insurance, the Associated Press reported today:

Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson, who has campaigned against government subsidies to business, employs up to nine prison inmates at his plastics factories whose health care costs are paid by the state, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Public records show that Pacur Inc. and Dynamic Drinkware LLC, two companies run by Johnson, employ up to nine inmates at a time through a state Corrections Department jobs program.

Johnson's companies offer private health insurance to the regular employees at the Oshkosh factories.

Here's what Ron Johnson said last July when asked "how is the economy in Oshkosh?":

We've had phenominal success with Oshkosh Corporation responding to a need of our U.S. Military in terms of secure trucks and they've responded to that with, what I would say, is an engineering marvel as well as a managerial marvel to get those contracts, so I would say in Oshkosh we're doing pretty well.

Now, as Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story from Oshkosh's Representative, Tom Petri, and Senators Feingold and Kohl:

In August, the U.S.

The Oshkosh Northwestern, (the only newsaper that is covering the Senate race), is reporting that the Johnson campaign refused to answer a very simply question:

The company biography says Pacur today also enjoys a healthy export business, especially from sales in China. Johnson’s campaign declined to say how much of that export business are sales to Bemis, which also has operations in China.

This is, of course, alluding to an important issue that progressives have been pushing, which is that Johnson's "we don't export jobs to China, we export plastic" is fundamentally untruthful:  Johnson sells most of its plastic products to Bemis and its subsidiares, which are controlled by his wife's family.  While Johnson's company has not outsourced to China, Bemis has outsourced numerous jobs overseas, including opening up three plants in China.

Although Ron Johnson likes to imply that he's been at the helm of his plastic company for the last 31 years, that's not accurate.

Pacur was started in Oshkosh in 1979 by the Curler family as a captive supplier for a Bemis Plant, which was accross the street and under the authority of Bemis CEO, Howard Curler (Johnson's billionaire father-in-law.)  Johnson started out as an accountant and worked under Pacur President Pat Curler.  In 1986, the Curler family sold Pacur to a company called Bowater.  After the sale, Johnson would stay on at Pacur as President.  In 1997, Johnson bought Pacur from Bowater and since then has owned the company.

So, for nearly eleven years, Johnson worked as an employee of Bowater and Pacur was a subsidiary of Bowater.

Although Bowater has recently merged with Abitibi, before that, they were one of the companies included on Lou Dobb's Exporting America list which they descibe as:

Here is a list of companies we've confirmed are "Exporting America." These are U.S. companies either sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers.

A few months ago Ron Johnson did an event at the hoity-toity Madison Club in Madison.  What made the news that day was that Ron Johnson referred to free trade agreements, which have costs Wisconsin 165,000 jobs, as a "great success" and that the job losses were simply a byproduct of "creative-destruction." 

However a newly discovered video that someone has posted on Vimeo shows that, at the same event, Johnson also made some other jaw-droppers.

First he says that the millions he is spending to buy Feingolds Senate Seat, is money well spent... an investment:

Questioner: On top of that, you're going to invest 10 million dollars in the race... well.... I don't if 'invest' is the right word, but do your neighbors think you're crazy or what? Johnson: I think 'invest' is the right word and I think that's a valid question-- six months ago I would have thought I was crazy...

Then, moments later, he says that deficit spending is OK if its spent on tax cuts for the wealthy:

Questioner: OK, you didn't like the stimulus plan... what would be your altnerative Johnson: No, no I'm absolutely opposed to that... Questioner: What's your alternative for helping the economy?

This can lead to no good.  The Journal Sentinel reports:

U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold charged Monday that his opponent, Republican Ron Johnson, had not provided any specifics on what he would do if elected senator to create jobs or cut the nation's deficit.

You can just see it coming.  The newspaper's crack squad of petty fiskers will search high and low and find one specific idea Johnson might have casually mentioned somewhere.

And then we'll get a nice long expose of that lying Feingold.

I actually bet someone the paper would endorse Feingold.  Now I'm trying to remember why,

In this campaign, there have been numerous glaring omissions by the media in their introduction of Ron Johnson to Wisconsin voters, but one of the biggest is that Johnson used to serve on the Green Bay Diocese's Finance Council. 

What is a Diocese Finance Council?  It's actually one of the most powerful entities within the Catholic Church:  By Canon Law, every diocese is required to have one, it has full control over the diocese's finances, and has the power to overrule the Diocese's Bishop on all issues related to the Church's finances. 

In recent years, Diocese Finance Councils have been in the news, because dealing with sex abuse lawsuits (as well as other lawsuits) is a financial issue and their responsibility. 

Here in Wisconsin, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) has for years been trying to get the Green Bay Diocese Finance Council to release the names of pedophile priests that the church has acknowledged, via civil lawsuit settlements, are guilty of sexually assaulting children.

Johnson has said that the Diocese Finance Council should release the names, but the obvious question is why doesn't Johnson just release the names himself?  Answer:  He can't, because he took a double-pinky promise oath to the Green Bay Diocese t