This is likely to be brought up several times before the November election. On a campaign stop Republican candidate for governor, Tom Corbett, said:
Corbett added, “The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there and – I’ve literally had construction companies tell me, I can’t get people to come back to work until…they say, I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.”
The full quote and sound files for confirmation are at Scott Detrow's State House Sound bites. Given that the state's unemployment rate is about 9%, and that unemployment benefits are considerably less than the lost salary, Corbett's remarks are not going to sit well with those who are looking for work. Most Pennsylvanians, if not unemployed themselves, know someone who is. He isn't demonizing nameless faceless strangers, he's saying our friends and neighbors are slackers who would rather sit on their duff for partial salary while their kids skip meals and the family home goes into foreclosure than get off the dole and go back to work. I don't think that's going to sit well with the voters.
A number of other news outlets have picked it up this evening and it will probably be in tomorrow's papers. See Capitol Ideas and Commonwealth Confidential for more information, and be sure to read the comments.
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1 comment:
Mr. Corbett
I suggest you verify with the current PA Dept of Labor & Industry secretary, Sandi Vito who just had an editorial published in the local newspaper Times-News. You can read it yourself here: http://www.tnonline.com/node/115532. FYI, I am one of the half a million unemployed people in your state. My benefits are expired and I have no savings left because I was keeping up paying my debts while looking for jobs that do not exist or pay minimum wage for maximum experience. Mr. Corbett, you should look at the whole picture before you kick the people who are already down. Since I am now going to lose my home, car and phone, I will have no way to become re employed and am forced to move in with my elderly parents in Florida. This means I will not be able to vote against you in November, but I hope the remaining surviving unemployed job seekers out there will remember your ignorance when they go to the polls.
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