At the steps of Winter Garden City Hall, Working America member Dennis Maclaren held his 7 year-old son Aidan, choking up as he shared his struggles as a long-term unemployed graphic designer. “When I’ve applied for work over the past several years, it’s dozens of people vying for the same position,” Dennis exclaimed as he spoke the crowd of thirty community members in attendance. “I have long exhausted my unemployment insurance, but without them during these past years hunting for work, I wouldn’t have been able to afford a roof over my family’s head and food on our dinner table.” Dennis was one of many who came to Representative Dan Webster’s (R-FL) office on December 8th the national day of action to demanding Congress extend unemployment benefits for the millions without work.
The purpose of the gathering was to stand in solidarity with those who have lost their jobs during the economic recession, and to send a strong message to Rep. Webster urging him to remember all of his unemployed constituents when he votes for the extension of unemployment insurance in the coming weeks. “As a student I’ve been looking for work in my field for years now, and having to balance student loans with job hunting is an enormous burden,” said member Krist Cooper, who has been taking action with the Working America’s Unemployment Action Team. “How is unemployment extension even a debate? It’s a vital necessity for those currently without work, and first stepping into a jobless workforce.”
Outside of Rep. Webster’s office, a delegation of students, teachers, union members, religious leaders, and local city officials prayed and chanted for the passage of unemployment extension before the December 31st deadline. “If Congress does not act now, then 2 million people will lose their unemployment insurance by the month of January,” said Lorraine Tuliano, President of the Central Florida City Labor Council. “It’s time for our representatives to be accountable to their constituents and to stop playing political poker at the expense of millions of unemployed families.”
1.) While campaigning, make sure to promise to take action on the most pressing issue on the minds of Americans: jobs. Declare unequivocally and repeatedly that you will create 700,000 jobs in 7 years, and make “Let’s get to work” your campaign slogan. That way, voters can feel a sense of betrayal and disappointment when you do nothing to follow through.
2.) Start breaking promises right off the bat – voters love initiative! Despite a historic high level of unemployment in construction, reject federal money for a high speed rail project that would employ thousands of construction workers and engineers. Don’t give a good reason for your actions. That way, voters can assume you’re killing jobs for political reasons.
3.) Has your state experienced a huge economic hit because of a man-made, preventable disaster recently, perhaps an oil spill? By all means, do not make any effort to hold the corporations behind that disaster accountable. Even if other governors of your own party are making such an effort, continue to have more sympathy for those corporations then your constituents.
4.) One of the keys to being an unpopular governor is to demonize huge segments of your state’s population, and then watch it backfire. Here’s a good list to start from:
12.) At all times, lack compassion and understanding about the basic needs and priorities of your state. The majority of your constituents just want to find a decent job, put food on the table, afford health care when they get sick, pay bills on time, vote on Election Day, and make sure their children get an adequate education. Your job is to wake up every morning in your mansion, drive to work, and make sure all those things are as difficult as possible.
Got more to add to Rick Scott’s Guide to Popularity? Leave your suggestions in the comments, or tweet at us with the hashtag #RickScottFail.
Florida’s Rick Scott has retaken the title of least popular governor in the country among the 36 on which PPP has polled this year. His job performance mark has tanked from 36% approving and 52% disapproving when PPP last polled the state in September to 26-58 now, a decline of 16 points on the margin. His greatest fall has been with his own party, which stands at 46-31, down 22 points. Independents disapprove by a 30-55 margin.
More key numbers:
66 percent of those who identify as political “moderates” disapprove of Scott. 34 percent of those who identify as “somewhat conservative” also disapprove.
55 percent of Independents disapprove, and so do 31 percent of Republicans.
African-Americans, a sizable population in Florida, have truly soured on Rick Scott – only 5 percent approve versus 80 percent disapproving. 66 percent of Hispanics also disapprove.
In a hypothetical rematch with 2010 Democratic opponent Alex Sink, Scott would only receive 37 percent of the vote. Sink would net 48 percent of the crucial Independent vote, and 21 percent of Republicanswould cross party lines instead of voting for Scott.
This level of poor job performance is even more impressive when you consider Scott’s competition:
Michigan’s Gov. Rick Snyder, who despite calling himself in favor of “small government” is wresting away local the power of local governments in his state;
Maine’s Gov. Paul LePage, who indicated he would punish certain cities for not agreeing with him politically;
So how did Scott do it? How did he manage to get nearly 3 out of every 4 Floridians to think he is bad at his job? We’ve prepared a little cheat sheet, in case you want to be a terrible governor at home. Stay tuned for Rick Scott’s Guide to Unpopularity!
The following is a guest post from Becky Merola, a Working America member from Orlando, Florida. Becky is pictured above questioning Todd Reid, State Legislative Director for Senator Marco Rubio.
Working America’s Unemployment Action Team organized an event Friday, November 4 to hold Florida Senator Marco Rubio accountable for his rejection of the American Jobs Act. Fake job applications were filled out to be handed in to Rubio’s office in downtown Orlando. The idea was that since Rubio rejected the Jobs Act, which could have created 20,500 highway and transit modernization jobs, 25,900 educator and first responder jobs and 16,600 public school infrastructure jobs in Florida alone, then he must have his own better plan to create jobs. Those who filled out the applications would be the first in line for these positions. Rubio is also co-sponsoring a bill (the Reducing the Size of The Federal Government Through Attrition Act of 2011) to cut federal employment by 10%, which would result in the loss of 440,000 jobs. The personal delivery of the applications allowed “applicants” a chance to put a face to those affected by unemployment and under-employment. This event was held on the first Friday of the month, the day when monthly unemployment statistics are released.
Working America’s Young Worker Action Team in Orlando comprised of students from UCF and Valencia, arrived at Rubio’s office in solidarity with the Unemployment Action Team. Members of Student Labor Action Project at UCF are part of Working America Orlando’s Young Worker Community Team, and the students were able to contribute to the over 30 people in attendance, which also included people from Working America Downtown Action Team and the Occupy Orlando movement. Working America’s David Fernandez was one of the lead voices of the event and was able to get the message out to the multiple media outlets present. Applications were filled out the day of the event as well as before, and while waiting for someone from Rubio’s office to accept the applications the attendees began chanting in the street. Todd Reid, Rubio’s State Legislative Director, was sent to collect the petitions and while doing so was forced to hear the stories of those affected by the lack of unemployment in Florida.
After the petitions were handed in, some of those attending shared their stories. One was Ada Carrion of the Unemployment Action Team, who spoke of the difficulties she has had in losing employment and struggling to make a living on the jobs she could find. Another speaker was Becky Merola of SLAP at UCF, who spoke about how the current state of the job market is affecting students who are graduating with huge debt and no job prospects. With young people’s unemployment rate hovering between 25 to 30 percent, the unemployment problem has spread and even grown across generations.
While Reid was unable to give any solid answers on Rubio’s plan for unemployment, those in attendance were told he would be releasing a bipartisan jobs package in the next few weeks. This action was important to put an actual face on the people affected by unemployment. The Unemployment Action Team was able to make an impact, not only on Rubio’s office but those passing by, receiving several honks from local union bus drivers, and local media.
We will continue to hold Rubio and other officials accountable for their actions concerning job creation (or job destruction in Rubio’s case) until we see changes made. The Unemployment Action Team plans on being at Rubio’s office, or other local institutions and elected leader’s offices, every first Friday of the month. These monthly actions are being called “First Fridays” and will continue until progress is made. The Young Worker Action Team will continue to stand with our community and labor allies as long as politicians refuse to put the needs of students, workers and the unemployed before the economic interests of the 1%. For now we need to continue mass education efforts about the lack of jobs and the amount of people it is affecting so we can see more and more people get involved and make their voices heard to elected officials.
Last week, Pinellas County, on Florida’s west coast, voted to stop adding fluoride to its public water supply after starting the program seven years ago. The county joins about 200 jurisdictions from Georgia to Alaska that have chosen to end the practice in the last four years, motivated both by tight budgets and by skepticism about its benefits.
Public health advocates don’t agree:
But the United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the communities that stop adding fluoride to the water supply are misguided. The government continues to recommend the practice, which began in the 1940’s and has had its share of recent successes, including San Diego’s move to fluoridate water this year after a long delay. Some 72 percent of the population in the country drinks water with added fluoride.
Keeping fluoride in water is especially important today because many people cannot afford dental care, public officials say.
Fluoridated water has always been the subject of controversy. The John Birch Society insisted that fluoride in the water was a Communist plot. (For the record, there were no Communists in the fluoridated Massachusetts town in which I grew up.)
What is truly unfortunate is that these decisions aren’t always being made by rational, well informed people:
But Kenneth T. Welch, a Pinellas County commissioner who voted to continue adding fluoride to the water, said he was stunned by the commission’s decision, saying it was pushed by Tea Party supporters. He called for another vote on Tuesday but the outcome was the same. Fluoridation will end in the affected areas of the county by Dec. 31. The county expects to save $205,000 annually from halting fluoride use.
“Political rhetoric won out over science and the best advice of our medical and dental community,” Mr. Welch said.
This will have the greatest impact on the folks who are least likely to be able to afford dental care. Another victory for the anti-science crowd, but once again, hurting the most vulnerable.
At a time when unemployment nationwide is still at the official rate of 9.1 percent and poverty and homelessness are on the rise, a number of states have decided that those folks receiving any kind of benefit -food stamps,unemployment, welfare, public housing, or even job training-should have to undergo urine testing in order to qualify.
This year, 36 states considered drug testing for recipients of cash assistance from the major welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures; 12 states proposed it for unemployment insurance; and some also considered making it a requirement for food stamps, home heating assistance and other programs.
The New Hampshire legislature considered such a measure last session. A bill was filed that called for random urine testing of food stamp recipients. When it turned out that the testing would cost New Hampshire taxpayers between $3 and $7 million annually, while saving the state absolutely nothing, the bill went away.
This is the kind of stereotyping we saw back in the 1980′s: the welfare queen in her Cadillac. It’s part of the ongoing criminalization of poverty. There is no proof that folks relying on public benefits use drugs at a higher rate than other groups(like, say, Congressmen, who also rely on public benefits. Why aren’t they being drug tested?
The state of Florida did pass a law back in June that forces welfare recipients to pass a urine test. It doesn’t seem to be working out the way that Governor Scott said it would. From Mother Jones:
The way it was supposed to work, according to Scott and other supporters, was this: Everyone who took the test at a state-approved private lab (PDF) would have to pay for it out of pocket. (Never mind where a poor Floridian is supposed to scrape together 25 to 30 percent of their monthly benefit on their own.) If they tested negative for illegal drugs, they’d be reimbursed for the urinalysis, anywhere from $10 to $82, in their welfare check. Drug addicts would be out the testing cost and barred from receiving benefits for a year. The theory, then, was that the presumably huge population of drug-addled free riders would be kicked off the bus, and Florida would reap the savings. (The plan was briefly held up when it came to light that a health care firm started by Scott, Solantic, could get a contract for the urinalysis.)
But with 96 percent of applicants passing the test with flying colors (and another 2 percent getting inconclusive results), the state is having to buy back a lot of clean pee: 11.5 gallons at $34,300 every month, assuming an average sample size of 1.5 ounces and and average test price of $35.
The Department of Children and Families’ central region has tested 40 applicants since the law went into effect six weeks ago, and of those 40 applicants, 38 tested negative for drugs. The cost to the state of Florida to reimburse those 38 individuals who tested negative was at least $1,140 over the course of six weeks. Meanwhile, denying benefits to the two applicants who tested positive will save Florida less than $240 a month.
On the one hand, we hear a lot of gnashing of teeth from DC about job creation, yet on the other, we have the ongoing blame being heaped upon those who aren’t able to find work and are living in poverty, as if being unemployed or poor were somehow voluntary.
A Florida state legislator has some ideas on job creation for his district: He’s filed a bill to repeal the state’s ban on…dwarf tossing.
Dwarf tossing was the bar fad that came along after wet t-shirt contests and mechanical bull riding, back in the late 1980′s. The activity was banned in Florida in 1989, after it became controversial. The issue of the safety of those being tossed became something of a national concern.
On Monday, Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, filed HB 4063 to repeal the law. He says he doesn’t condone the dwarf tossing but he thinks the prohibition takes away freedoms and is against the American way.
“To me it’s an archaic kind of Big Brother law that says, ‘We don’t like that activity,’ ” Workman said. “Well, there is nothing immoral or illegal about that activity. All we really did by passing that law was take away some employment from some little people.”
According to the dwarfism advocacy group, Little People of America, this practice puts people who have dwarfism at serious risk of back and neck injuries. The group also finds that dwarf tossing is a demeaning and dehumanizing activity.
Asked about the demeaning nature of the activity, Workman said Tuesday, “What about the one employed by it?”
Great. Would we bring back child labor, while we’re at it? Would we strap Workman into a harness and toss him?
I suspect this won’t be the kind of “job creation” that lowers Florida’s unemployment numbers. The Republican Party proves once again that they are without any ideas on how to actually create jobs.
