ALEC - Releases Questionable Economic Data

I have been patiently waiting for the release of the bogus ALEC report Rich State, Poor State to get off the Google search – but it is still out there two weeks after it’s release with the red states hee-hawing about how well ALEC rated them.  Interesting thing is – most people wouldn’t want to live in those states.

There was an article out of PR Watch last week that is particularly cogent when it comes to documenting the biased and (IMHO) unrealistic prognostications made in the latest ALEC report.

Here are some pertinent snips from the PRWatch article about Wisconsin:

ALEC placed the state as 15th in the country in its ranking of economic outlook,

In the ALEC report – Wisconsin JUMPED UP 17 places on the ALEC report list.

Wisconsin must be doing something fantastic – correct – to move up SEVENTEEN places in one year.

Right?

Well – not so much!

Back to the PRWatch article:

Now remember this as we go forward:

ALEC placed the state as 15th in the country in its ranking of economic outlook,

Back to the PRWatch article

Bureau of Labor Statistics data putting Wisconsin in 44th place for private-sector job creation,

A recent Chamber of Commerce report placed Wisconsin 44th in the country for overall economic performance

A recent Chamber of Commerce report November 2012 it ranked Wisconsin 50th out of 50

  And the ALEC report – pretty much – isn’t worth the paper it is written on.

"A hard look at the actual data finds that the ALEC-Laffer recommendations not only fail to predict positive results for state economies -- the policies they endorse actually forecast worse state out-comes for job creation and paychecks. That is, states that were rated higher on ALEC's Economic Outlook Ranking in 2007, based on 15 'fiscal and regulatory policy variables,' have actually been doing worse economically in the years since, while the less a state conformed with ALEC policies the better off it was."

So long-term – things don’t look so good for ALEC states.

And this graph from the PR Watch article notes what LONG-TERM ALEC management of a state looks like (important to note Walker is one of ALEC's poster-children)..

Source:  PRWatch

THAT is what ALEC policies and legislation do to a state.

THAT my friends is what an ALEC #17 on the list state looks like.

Remember that!

If the numbers on Wisconsin are so questionable - the report itself needs to be considered questionable.

The American Legislative Exchange Council releasing biased, partisan reports and suggesting the report has some type of validity in news releases.  Would love to see one of ALEC's gurus - go head to head with real statisticians on their results - maybe then the concepts of validity and reliability of data could be explored.