The Politics of the Unemployment Rate

What is her problem? Is she so involved with political posturing that the unemployment rate in Hernando County, currently 14.9% with no indication the upward trend will reverse itself anytime in the foreseeable future, is secondary to some flimflam notation that a hometown community leader should dare initiate dialogue that could create or redistribute jobs in the county?

Recent comments made by Representative Ginny Brown-Waite that election-year politics play a major role in Commissioner Rose Rocco’s intention to hold an E-Verify workshop are very troublesome.

What was the point of Representative Ginny Brown-Waite’s tirade that claims election year politics play a major role in Commissioner Rose Rocco’s proposal to hold the workshop with the goal to ensure Hernando County subcontractors employ legal workers, including documented immigrants, over those who envision themselves with the right to disregard our labor laws? For cryin’ out loud, illegal immigrants have spent the last decade sending mega chunks of our greenbacks back to their countries of origin! Billions upon billions of dollars.

Through the E-Verify system, contractors working for the county would be required to match an employee’s I-9 Form with Social Security Administration and Dept. of Homeland Security files. Although failure of an employer to provide an I-90 Form for each employee can result in fines of up to $11,000 per worker, Employment Eligibility Verification is voluntary unless a contract contains an E-Verify clause.

Rose should be applauded for taking the first of what will be many steps necessary to “make sure we’re hiring people who are legally here and paying taxes.” If it takes an election year to prompt a politician to initiate discussion that addresses an alarming unemployment rate, so be it. Registered voters will make of it what they will.

As American as a family sittin’ at the dinner table eating homemade apple pie, the BOCC voted in bipartisan harmony to place the matter on the agenda in the coming weeks.

The really bad thing about Ginny’s contentious attitude is that some unintended consequences may put into question her chances of remaining an incumbent office-holder.

Case and point being, it wasn’t until I began researching information for this column that I came across the name Jason Sager and his quest to challenge 5-term Brown-Waite in the August 24 Primary Election and become the Republican candidate for Florida’s 5th District on the November 2nd Mid-Term Election Ballot.

An audio-visual engineer, (hear me, see me), Sager embraces Jeffersonian principles of reason, individualism, liberty, limited government and a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution.

Thomas Jefferson, a most respected and beloved 3rd President of the United States, stated in his First Inaugural Address, “the general principles of our government”, including “the support of the State governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations for our domestic concerns and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies; the preservation of the General Government in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad;”

Nor would I have known that Sager agrees, in principle, with an initiative, ‘Bring Home the Politicians’, which is meant “…to relocate U.S. representatives directly to our local districts.” Mr. Sager explains it succinctly, “This is an idea to get our Representatives out of the hands of the lobbyists by bringing them to their home offices 75% of the time and only go to Washington to actually do the business of the Congress on the House floor.”

Which brings me to a recent Feedback Letter by Nancy Haynes, a local realtor, who related her contact with a staff member at the Congresswoman’s Brooksville office that lead her to come to the conclusion, “I am not important.” Ms. Haynes had wished to voice a concern that, as lending institutions continue to drag out the process of responding to offers on short sales, it is nearly impossible to get “the real estate market back on track.” With flexibility, when Ms. Haynes requested an appointment to speak with the Congressman, all she got were multiple responses of “not available”.

On the same page that Ms. Haynes wrote of her personal disappointment with Brown-Waite’s staff, in the lower left corner, the wise and witty Manny might have been referring to the Congresswoman when he said, “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” In a matter of days, Brown-Waite has already racked up a couple of ‘experiences’ in this election year.

If experience is a teacher, Congresswoman Ginny Brown-Waite has learned a few lessons from her own discourses.

If Congresswoman Brown-Waite should receive an open invitation to attend the yet-to-be but sure-to-be workshop on implementing safeguards to ensure contractors hired by the county employ legal workers, it would likely remain on her desk, unopened. Otherwise, an RSVP might lead to another ‘experience’.

A New Year, A New Blog

In continuing the theme of addressing and commenting on local issues, Hernando Hews 2010 is born.