Kicking people while they're down
According to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate fell below 8 percent in September for the first time in four years. That's good news for the economy, but many jobless North Carolinians looking for work will still have to rely on jobless benefits to make ends meet.
Too bad for them the Republican candidate for Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, says applying for unemployment benefits should be more difficult. This summer, McCrory maligned jobless workers who receive the jobless benefits - which they've earned - as lacking incentive to find work. McCrory then described to the Fayetteville Observer his plans for "reforming" our state's vital unemployment insurance system by saying "Part of it is the process of applying is too easy."
Walter Dalton's campaign responded that "McCrory's shameful assertion that out-of-work North Carolinians prefer unemployment to the rigors of the job search sounded more like corporate interests pulling his strings than the reality faced by people across this state."
If you think workers who become jobless through no fault of their own deserve a governor who understands the difficult realities of unemployment, you are on the wrong side of Pat McCrory.
Unlike Walter Dalton, Pat McCrory thinks the unemployed have it too easy.