Robach opens mouth in Ithaca paper - bunch of dumb falls out

Joe "Missing in Action" Robach showed up in the Ithaca Journal this morning in an article about unemployment. Robach is the chair of the Labor committee in the senate. You would hope he'd know what the heck he's talking about.

Unemployment insurance system strained

Senate Labor Committee Chairman Joseph Robach, R-Greece, Monroe County, said it's important to balance the needs of unemployed workers and protecting the business environment, he said.

...snip...

The report said New York's unemployment insurance fund is "significantly under-financed." New York ranks 49th out of 50 on the U.S. Labor Department's solvency index for state insurance funds. New York companies have paid taxes on a wage base of $8,500 since 1999, below the national average of $11,500.
...

New York had the fifth-highest long-term unemployment in 2007 among all the states, the report said. More than 22 percent of unemployed workers in 2007 had been unemployed for more than six months.

The unemployment rates for black and Hispanic workers are about twice that of whites, the study found. In 2007, 3.5 percent of whites were unemployed compared with 6.5 percent of Hispanics and 7.5 percent of blacks.

Yep. That's some "balance" you've got there Joe. You are "balancing" this sytem on the backs of workers and the strain is starting to show.

Rick Dollinger said:

"Joe Robach and his Republican friends refused to pass a bill that would force outsourcing companies to pay back their tax breaks," Dollinger exclaimed, "but then he turns around to the people who had their jobs outsourced and says 'sorry, we don't have the money' to help you look for another job. Instead, he says that investment would be bad for business. That's old time Republican corporate politics, and it has crippled our state."

"The most galling thing," Dollinger continued, "is Robach's suggestion that a business climate and the welfare of New Yorkers are somehow different things. If a "business" code doesn't benefit workers, then it isn't good for anybody. But that's how conservative Republicans like Joe Robach think. It hasn't worked nationally, and it sure hasn't worked here in Rochester. We need a change."