As Harley Davidson Workers Lose Their Jobs, Trump And Walker’s Foxconn Scam Gives Foreign Company $4.5 Billion

On the same week that American workers at Harley Davidson in Wisconsin found out that Trump may cost them their jobs, Scott Walker and the president celebrated giving a foreign company $4.5 billion.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported, “A newly released memo projects the public cost for a planned Foxconn manufacturing project near Racine could near $4.5 billion — nearly 50 percent more than the $3 billion cost initially cited by the project’s chief proponent at the state Capitol, Gov. Scott Walker. The figures were compiled by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau in a memo requested — and released Tuesday — by Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz, D-Oshkosh. The individual cost figures are not new but had not previously been compiled in a single document. They reflect costs to state government, mostly through tax credits for Foxconn over a 15-year period. They also include costs to local governments near the proposed site of the Foxconn campus, in eastern Racine County.”

While Trump is celebrating a deal that gives billions to a foreign company, Trump increased taxes on an American company

Earlier this week, Harley Davidson announced that they are moving production out of the US and to the EU due to Trump’s trade war. Auto manufacturers are warning that Trump’s trade war is going to cost the United States hundreds of thousands of jobs.

To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.

Trunp and Walker spent $4.5 billion for 13,000 jobs, while hundreds of thousands of auto jobs will be lost

Here is the basic math. 13,000 jobs coming in at the cost of $4.5 billion versus the loss of hundreds of thousands of auto jobs and an increase in car prices that is estimated to cost the economy $45 billion without factoring in the economic costs of hundreds of thousands of newly unemployed Americans. The math just doesn’t add up in favor of the American people. A 2017 study found that incentives like those given to Foxconn are inefficient and wasteful because companies take the taxpayer money and then fail to deliver on employment promises. Foxconn is a scam that is going to bilk taxpayers of billions and not deliver the promised economic boost. There is little connection to incentives and economic growth.

Trump and Walker just conned the taxpayers while hard-working Americans are losing their jobs. It is all a fraud that will soon come toppling down on Trump and the Republican Party.

For more discussion about this story join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association