Rick Scott's Last Job Application?

To start this post, let me reveal the 147^th reason I’ve added to my list of reasons Rick Scott doesn’t deserve re-election:

Rick Scott is oblivious to the difficulties an average unemployed person has in finding a job.

I won’t formally post this one in the list on my blog (Rick Scott Must Go) until I get enough to reach 150. But it does raise a question. First, though, let me explain the background.

When asked what he planned to do about the dysfunctional CONNECT (DEO) website, Scott offered a clueless reply, which reads as follows: 

"The state's unemployment website has been a disaster, what are you doing to make sure this gets solved?" Brown asked Scott.

"First off, the most important thing we can do is help people get jobs," said Scott. 

"What do you want to say to the people who can't pay their bills right now because of this?" Brown asked.

"Again, my biggest job is to make sure people can get a job. We have 279,000 job openings in the state. We're recouping money, holding money back from Deloitte to make sure it gets better quickly," said Scott.

Source

My analysis for the listing is:

"Scott answers as though all one of the unemployed has to do, is walk outside and snag one of those 279,000 open jobs. He does not even consider the fact that many of those jobs have literally hundreds of applicants, dozens of them qualified. He also does not consider that the unemployed are competing for jobs with others who are still employed, but are looking for a new job because they don’t like their current one. Finally, it is a point of fact that there are still at least three unemployed people in Florida for every job available. Even if all 279,000 of those jobs were filled, we’d have about 550,000 unemployed people left who would need unemployment benefits. Scott clearly has lost touch with what it is like to have to beat the path to look for work."

This made me wonder, in fact, when the last time was that Rick Scott did have to look for a job the way most of us do. By that I mean, searching listings, filling out applications, and interviewing.

Actually, that’s hard to say.

As a kid, he had some nasty jobs as a fry cook, selling TV Guides, and as a phone booth cleaner. He enlisted in the Navy after high school, back in 1970. While in the Navy he and his wife saved money so they could buy a donut shop. The donut revenues paid his way through law school, and he became an attorney. In 1987, he and a partner had enough money to buy a hospital. That was the start of HCA. And then we know about Solantic, which he also started. (I got all this information from this article.)

So…when was the last time Rick Scott actually had to look for, and interview for, a job?

Possibly, he may have interviewed to join a law firm at some point. But if he didn’t, it looks like he hasn’t been through the process since…what? Did he interview for that phone booth cleaner job, maybe? Or, the one selling TV Guides? (I’d like to have heard his answers to, “Why should we hire you?” on that one.) 

Bottom line, Rick Scott hasn’t walked the job search trail most of us walk, since at least the mid-80s. He has no idea what it’s like to check the want ads, to fill out applications, to pound the streets and work the phones and be rejected repeatedly.

And this is someone who touts himself as a “jobs governor”?

No, he’s out of touch. And that’s yet one more reason Rick Scott must go.

**

As a bonus, here’s a comment on the latest effort by Florida Republican Party honcho Lenny Curry to insult the intelligence of Florida voters, which will also make my list as the 148th reason.

Curry, said "As Congress votes today to address cybersecurity concerns with Obamacare, Governor Rick Scott was right from the beginning when he raised privacy and security problems over aspects of this health care bill…Yet, Charlie Crist has dismissed these problems, embracing a bill that puts the privacy of Floridians' personal information at risk."

Wait a minute.

First of all, Scott formerly opposed the "pill mill" database for the same reasons -- then flip flopped and supported it.

Second, Scott didn't seem too concerned about such problems when he hired Deliotte (with its proven bad track record) for the DEO website, which had randomly handed out people’s Social Security numbers. Whoops.

And where, may I ask, has Crist "dismissed" these problems? Can we have a quote? Curry didn’t seem to have one.

No, the bill in question (the Affordable Care Act) hasn’t put the privacy of people at risk; at worst, the troubled implementation of it has, same as with the DEO website. But with that DEO website spitting out people’s Social Security numbers, Scott and Curry had best stop throwing rocks in their house before they break the walls.