At Jobs Center Where Corbett Insulted Unemployed, Onorato Blasts GOP Nominee As Out-Of-Touch

By ONORATO FOR GOVERNOR

LANCASTER: A day after the latest official jobs figures showed that 591,000 Pennsylvanians are unemployed and looking for work, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Dan Onorato today met with job-seekers at the Lancaster CareerLink where Tom Corbett said in March that most unemployed Pennsylvanians would rather collect benefits than look for work.

“A Harrisburg insider like Tom Corbett who doesn’t even recognize the problems families are facing will never be able to offer the solutions that Pennsylvania needs,” Onorato said. “I am the only candidate with the experience and the vision to get Pennsylvania back on track.”

On Friday, Corbett told Pennsylvania Public Radio that: “People don’t want to come back to work while they still have unemployment…. The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment the people are going to sit there…”

In Lancaster County, over 21,000 Pennsylvanians are currently unemployed, according to May’s official job statistics.

Corbett’s comment echoed a similar remark in March at the CareerLink Onorato visited today, when Corbett “provocatively suggested that Congress’ decision to extend unemployment benefits might be having the opposite of its intended effect and actually be serving as a disincentive to go back to work. ‘What I see here are people looking for jobs, but that’s only 10 percent [of the unemployed],’ he said. ‘What about the other 80 or 90 percent?’” [Capitol Ideas, March 18, 2010]

While Corbett has been busy blaming the victims, Onorato has successfully worked as Allegheny County Executive to encourage businesses to create jobs in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

Allegheny County’s unemployment rate is significantly lower than both the state’s and the nation’s. There are more people working in Allegheny County than in any other county in Pennsylvania, and under Onorato’s leadership the region has received accolades for its job growth, quality of life and ability to attract college graduates and families.

“Tom Corbett thinks Pennsylvanians would rather be unemployed than earning money for their families, and he simply doesn’t understand the economy,” Onorato said. “As Allegheny County Executive, I’ve turned around a struggling economy and promoted private sector investment to help encourage job growth.”

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