GOP Senator Suggests His State Has 'Enough Jobs' After Local Manufacturer Opens SC Factory

Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin Ron Johnson claimed that his state has "enough jobs" and that he was okay with Oshkosh Defense sending 1000 new jobs to a facility in South Carolina to fulfill a contract for 165,000 "next generation" postal delivery vehicles — rather than keeping those jobs in the Oshkosh area.

John Bryant, president of Oshkosh Defense and executive vice president at Oshkosh Corporation, said that the company had worked with multiple local organizations to "explore opportunities to manufacture these vehicles in Wisconsin."

"Unfortunately, we could not identify an existing building that was viable for this project."

Instead, the company will repurpose a warehouse in Spartanburg, South Carolina for the large-scale manufacturing project, with production set to begin in 2023.

Johnson's Democratic colleague, Senator Tammy Baldwin, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"To me, it's simple — I want Oshkosh Defense to manufacture trucks in Oshkosh with Wisconsin workers."

Johnson, on the other hand, was evidently perfectly content to let those jobs go to another state.

"It's not like we don't have enough jobs here in Wisconsin.".

"The biggest problem we have in Wisconsin right now is employers not being able to find enough workers."

He continued:

"If it's more efficient, more effective, to spend those [federal dollars] in another state, I don't have a real problem with that."

Johnson has blamed pandemic aid programs or, as he calls them, "programs that are paying people and allowing them to stay on the sidelines," for keeping people out of the workforce — seemingly ignoring the reality of Wisconsin's abysmally low $7.25 minimum wage.

Twitter wasted no time slamming Johnson for his failure to advocate for his own state.

It's clear who he really represents.

While Senator Johnson seems to think that his state has plenty of jobs, it would seem that his constituents beg to differ. More stable and high-paying jobs are always a good thing for a state.