How Tiffany Killed Job Growth

This letter to the editor, by John Krizek, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on August 20, 2026.

Since the Trump administration took office, more than a million jobs have vanished nationwide. In Wisconsin, the damage shows up in our neighbors’ paychecks and in small towns’ tax bases.

Federal cuts alone have eliminated roughly 2,400 jobs across our state, with federal employment falling from about 31,300 to 28,900. These were not faceless government jobs they were people providing veterans’ care, staffing regional offices and keeping public services running.

Manufacturing, the backbone of Wisconsin’s economy, has also taken a hit. A study by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute and the University of Illinois found federal tariff policies cost Wisconsin thousands of manufacturing jobs.

The wider picture is worse. Federal data shows manufacturing lost about 9,500 jobs between January 2025 and January 2026, as employers grew wary of unpredictable trade policies and stopped hiring or replacing retiring workers.

Job totals don’t show the full harm. Every lost paycheck hurts more than one family. When people earn money locally, they spend it locally, at grocery stores, gas stations, diners, repair shops and other small businesses.

Research shows that money spent in a community creates more local business activity as it moves from person to person and business to business. When Wisconsin loses thousands of paychecks, we lose more than those jobs, we lose the spending those workers would have brought to Main Street, from Superior to Kenosha.

Thousands of Wisconsin jobs and the local spending tied to them have disappeared under this administration’s watch. Congressman Tom Tiffany has voted for policies that helped bring us here, supporting an agenda that cuts the federal workforce and uses tariffs that put manufacturing workers at risk.

Wisconsin cannot afford a shrinking workforce. Our small businesses cannot afford the missing paychecks that come with lost jobs. We cannot afford a governor who puts loyalty to Trump ahead of our livelihoods.

It is time to hold Tom Tiffany accountable for the jobs and local dollars lost on his watch, before more Wisconsin families and businesses that depend on them pay the price.

David Crowley, the Democratic nominee for governor, will fight for Wisconsin workers.