Pennsylvania is home to some of the top races in the upcoming election cycle, including contests for Governor and Senator. This state is always a challenge for candidates, with its dual voter constituencies of the Democratic/liberal cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh at the southern corners, and the great swath of conservative Republican 'Pennsyltucky' in between.
Given the challenge of trying to balance these two constituencies, you might think Republican candidates would try to avoid the more outrageous proclamations of their teabagger compatriots around the country.
Yeah, you might think that, but you'd be wrong. Over the past couple days, we've had the GOP gubernatorial and Senate candidates insisting that people are refusing to take jobs because they'd rather be on unemployment, that keeping people from losing their homes is a bad idea, and that being in the military isn't real work. Details and links over the fold...
Tom Corbett, GOP candidate for governor, created the biggest stir with his comment that business owners across Pennsylvania have told him that they want to hire, but can't find anyone willing to give up their unemployment:
"One of the issues, and I hear it repeatedly – one of the individuals said, ‘I can’t get workers. People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment....
They’re literally telling him, ‘I’ll come back to work when unemployment runs out.’ That’s becoming a problem....
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.
How about that! Pennsylvania's 9.1 unemployment rate would just shrivel up to nothing if we'd just stop giving all those lazy people unemployment insurance. That's terrific, Tom! And who are these companies who are telling you how eager they are to hire?
Corbett's spokesman, Kevin Harley, said later the owner of a plumbing company, whose name he did not know, told Corbett he had workers who did not want to return until their unemployment ran out. He said other employers had told Corbett they have jobs available and cannot find people to fill them.
Umm, can we maybe get a few specifics?
In an interview on CBS3, Corbett said, "I regret that in that one statement, I may not have been clear or complete as I possibly could."
He said he was repeating a story he heard from "five, six, seven different people across the state of Pennsylvania that they weren't able to get workers."
Maybe I'm not being clear. Can you give us some SPECIFICS?
[Corbett spokesman Kevin] Harley said Corbett would not be releasing the names of the companies he spoke to.
OK, well I'll be sure to send my resume in right away!
For the record, those unemployment check that lazy people in Pennsylvania are whooping it up on average $310 per week ($16,120 per year) and max out at 564 per week ($29,328 per year).
Not to be outdone, GOP Senate candidate Pat Toomey has been making waves of his own. Toomey, of course, truly is a teabagger, having served as president of the Club for Growth from 2005 to 2009, but as I said at the outset, now that the race is on, you might think Toomey would try and tone it down in an attempt to not totally alienate--or worse from his point of view, fire up--Philadelphia and Pittsburgh voters.
Or maybe not...
Toomey blasted Sestak for introducing legislation that would provide government guarantees for refinancing of homeowner mortgages that are larger than the value of the property. The bill has not moved since it was introduced in March 2009, but is "illustrative of Joe's mind-set," Toomey said.
I assume, then, that it is illustrative of Toomey's mindset that people should lose their homes and banks lose their loans rather than try to find a pragmatic middle ground wherein the mortgage clusterfuck would not turn into a lose-lose proposition for everyone and add to the ranks of the homeless.
An interesting side note is that Toomey made these remarks during a fundraiser at the home of teabagger activist Mary Ellen Jones. Ms. Jones is a small business owner who has enjoyed the advantage of a 2007 loan of $25,000 from M&T Bank, 50% of which was guaranteed by the federal Small Business Association. Jones was shocked...SHOCKED! that she had in any way been aided by government largess:
While SBA records list her name on the loan, Jones does not recall if M&T told her about the federal agency's involvement.
"If they ever told me, I totally forgot," she said. "A loan is not a bailout. You have to pay it back."
Kicking people out of their homes is one thing, but then Toomey uttered something that I would think would give pause even to his natural conservative constituency:
Joe Sestak never created a job in his life," Toomey told reporters. "He's never worked for a private company."
It is a refrain that apparently annoys the Sestak camp. The candidate's brother Rich, who is his campaign director, contended in a statement that Toomey has been denigrating Joe Sestak's 30-year Navy career, during which he achieved the rank of three-star admiral.
Not so, Toomey said when asked about it. He has nothing but respect for Sestak's service, he said, but it's just a fact that his opponent has never worked in the private sector.
So are you saying, Pat Toomey, that being in the military is not work, not a job, and that it does not qualify you for being in government service? Forget denigrating Joe Sestak's service. I think you've just denigrated everyone who has ever served or who is currently serving in the military. I guess paying soldiers is just another form of government dole, a form of unemployment insurance we should get rid of.
We're going to have an interesting four months here in Pennsylvania.
Dan Onorato for Governor
Joe Sestak for U.S. Senate