Corbett's remarks on jobless, not new
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett continues to come attack for his comments suggesting the jobless are coasting on their unemployment checks and not looking for work - comments he is now apologizing for making.
Corbett's remarks on jobless, not new
Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett continues to come attack for his comments suggesting the jobless are coasting on their unemployment checks and not looking for work - comments he is now apologizing for making.
But apparently it wasn't the first time Corbett questioned how hard the unemployed were working to find work.
At a stop at a Lancaster County unemployment office in March, Corbett said he saw people looking for work but they were the minority.
“I think, what I heard was that’s only 10 percent of the people that are on unemployment in this county,” Corbett said in reponse to a question from an Associated Press reporter. “The other 80, 90 percent, where are they? Are they looking for a job? And I think that’s a problem.”
Corbett's spokesman, Kevin Harley, told Capitol Ideas blog today that, in fact, Corbett believes "the vast majority of people on unemployment are looking for work and want to find a well-paying job."
Corbett's comments from the primary campaign in March were unearthed today by the campaign of his Democratic opponent, Dan Onorato.
Brian Herman, a spokesman for Onorato told Capitol Ideas, Corbett “can try to back himself out all he wants, but it’s what he really believes” about the unemployed.
“He’s inconsistent on every issue, but this is one thing he’s been consistent on,” Herman said.
On Friday in Elizabethtown Corbett told reporters:
“The jobs are there. But if we keep extending unemployment, people are going to sit there … 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,' " Corbett said last week.
During the March campaign stop in Lancaster, Corbett questioned the Congress-approved extensions to unemployment benefits saying:
“And it’s a problem. As you know, they’ve extended benefits because of the economic times – I understand. But there’s … two sides to that,” he said. “Yes, we are taking care of people, but are we encouraging them not to look?”
Click here for Philly.com's politics page.
Corbett is following the republican call to arms: villify the poor and working classes and protect the wealthy at all costs. The poor and working class families should think long and hard about casting a vote for Corbett. He will do exactly what Chris Christie is doing in NJ, protect the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the little guy. This type of politics that plays on people's fears and emotions to push a radical conservative agenda is very dangerous for the have nots of society. Corbett and Christie are no friends of the middle class.— slanted and enchanted- He's right. I'm in factories everyday and people are hoping to get laid off so they can sit home and collect for a year. If you put free food on the table everyday at noon, more and more people are going to show up.— Klambake
- "Free food"? On unemployment, you only get about half what you were earning before, you have to show you're making an effort to get another job, and cannot turn down acceptable employment. You also have to declare it as income on your 1040 form. It's not a free ride.— Library Spinster
