CNBC anchor Joe Kernen praised Gov. Scott Walker's (R-WI) efforts “to get your state's finances in order” and suggested “reasonable people” would agree with his economic record. In reality, job and wage growth under Walker have trailed behind the national average, and he “will skip more than $100 million in debt payments to balance the books thrown into disarray by his tax cuts.” 

Kernen began his February 19 Squawk Box interview by telling the potential 2016 presidential candidate that “we've been together every step of the way on this show since your first election.” He added, “I'm not going to recuse myself. But, you know, maybe [co-anchor] Andrew [Ross Sorkin] is here to grill you.” 

Kernen cheered Walker's economic and fiscal leadership. After Walker said he won his election because “in times of crisis, economic and fiscal in particular, they want leadership,” Kernen said: “If there was an objective person watching the way the governor of Illinois approached that state's problems, and the way you approached it, I would think most reasonable people would say it looks like the way to do this maybe isn't just raising taxes to cover an ever increasing state budget.”

Walker said, unchallenged, that Wisconsin's “tax burden is down, the economy is moving up, we've got a stable workforce, we've got all the sorts of advantages you want. And we're still -- plenty more work to be done, like it needs to be done across America, but there is a sharp contrast, no doubt about it.” 

CNBC viewers were left in the dark about what has actually been happening with Wisconsin's economy and state finances.

Reuters reported in a February 15 article that Wisconsin has lagged behind the nation and the Midwest in private-sector employment growth: “Private-sector employment has grown by 6.8 percent in Wisconsin under Walker, behind the national pace of 8.4 percent, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Private-sector employment in the industrial Midwest, from Ohio to Minnesota, grew by 7.1 percent over that period.”

Reuters also reported that Walker's economic development agency has “struggled” to drum up jobs and “has fallen short of its own goals by tens of thousands of jobs and failed to keep track of millions of dollars it has handed out.” It pointed out that critics have said the agency's “struggles highlight a significant gap in Walker's resume ... his middling record on job creation.”  

In a November 9, 2014, interview with Walker, Meet the Press host Chuck Todd noted that Wisconsin is “below the national average” when it comes to wage growth for the most recent year.

Walker's “middling” job creation record has resulted in the governor breaking his pledge to create 250,000 new jobs by 2015.  

The Wisconsin Republican also has a questionable fiscal record. As Bloomberg noted in a February 18 article, “Walker, facing a $283 million deficit that needs to be closed by the end of June, will skip more than $100 million in debt payments to balance the books thrown into disarray by his tax cuts. ... his state is under stress from a projected shortfall that could exceed $2 billion in the two-year budget beginning in July.” Since becoming governor in 2011, “Walker has steered more than $2 billion in tax cuts through the Republican-controlled legislature. The state reported a $759 million surplus on June 30, 2013.”  

Wisconsin observers have criticized Walker's fiscal moves. Wisconsin Republican State Sen. Rob Cowles said “Bad budgeting is bad budgeting whether it's done by a Republican or Democrat.” University of Wisconsin political science professor David Canon said the payment delays are “kicking a can down the road” and the “biggest drawback is that it means in any future budget year, we have less money to spend on UW, K-12 education, building highways, transportation and more money being spent paying off interest.”

Marc V. Levine, professor of history, economic development and urban studies at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, wrote last June that Walker's “failure” on reaching his job creation goal should lead to “a serious discussion of why the policy choices made after 2011 failed to generate job growth in Wisconsin at a level remotely close to national averages and what policy options might better address Wisconsin's jobs crisis going forward.”

Unfortunately, such a discussion didn't happen on CNBC.