MADISON — They say there’s strength in numbers. There’s also idiocy.

Exhibit A: The 38 Democrats in the Wisconsin Assembly.

Ignoring every sign, closing their ears to thousands upon thousands of small businesses begging for help, the Assembly’s minority last week stood by Pale Leader and sustained an economically disastrous veto. These useful idiots — again — put leftist politics ahead of reason and responsibility.

Gov. Tony Evers first shot small business and the Wisconsin economy in the back earlier this year when he vetoed a Republican bill that would have ended the $300 weekly federal unemployment bonus payment.

Business advocates and economic experts say the continuation of the enhanced pandemic assistance is keeping would-be workers out of the active labor force because they’re earning more in public handouts than they would at a job. That’s only worsening a worker shortage crisis that is forcing businesses to cut hours, cut production, and, in some cases close.

Evers, happy practitioner of government dependency, insists he doesn’t see any evidence to link the generous federal benefits to employers’ hiring problems. Small business owners throughout the state — many in Democratic-controlled districts — beg to differ. A Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Employer Survey shows Wisconsin’s workforce shortage has become a workforce emergency, with nearly nine in 10 businesses struggling to hire. A poll released last month found Evers under water, with 60 percent of respondents saying Wisconsin is on the wrong track. Seventy-six percent said they have heard about or have experienced trouble filling jobs.

The Assembly Dems argued that it’s not a worker problem, it’s a pay problem. They wrongly claim that employers are paying “poverty wages.” A quick scan of the want ads will disabuse even the most obtuse liberal of that notion. Employers are paying significantly higher wages, offering hefty signing bonuses and more just to get applicants through the door. To no avail. As business owners have said, they are competing with the government and the couch for workers.

Their cries have fallen on deaf ears. Not one Democrat would defy Pale Leader and stand up for small businesses — the same small businesses that Evers nearly wiped out with his pandemic lockdowns and restrictions.

The Assembly Dems, along with the governor, are the political equivalent of the three “wise” monkeys, who see no worker shortage, hear no worker shortage, and speak no worker shortage.

They are tools. And collectively they are Empower Wisconsin’s Tool of the Week.