Posted on 08/02/2007 4:32:30 PM PDT by neverdem
Chiding lawmakers for ignoring "the realities of the marketplace," Governor Spitzer stunned fellow Democrats yesterday by vetoing a bill that would have reordered the priorities of welfare offices by forcing caseworkers to steer female welfare recipients to higher-wage jobs in male-dominated fields.
With a stroke of his veto pen, Mr. Spitzer swung attention, at least briefly, toward a substantive policy disagreement in a capital consumed recently by personal recrimination and scandal.
The debate pits critics against the champions of a mid-1990s overhaul of welfare laws that many believe led to the sharp drop in welfare rolls in New York and across the nation.
Advocates of the overhaul say much of its success is due to the increased emphasis on getting welfare recipients back to work and on the road to self-sufficiency as soon as possible. Opponents charge that, while employment has increased, the single mothers who make up the bulk of the caseload are too often directed to low-paying clerical or service jobs that leave them mired in poverty. The legislation, they say, is an attempt to help women aim for higher-wage jobs that require more skills and typically employ more men.
Mr. Spitzer, a moderate Democrat who has been mostly silent on the issue of welfare, has taken the side of Mayor Bloomberg and other supporters of the reigning welfare philosophy.
Democrats said they were surprised and displeased that a governor who was endorsed last year by much of the labor community, including by the Working Families Party, would side with what they described as a conservative position.
"I'm very disappointed," a Democratic state senator of Manhattan, Thomas Duane, said. "He may have been influenced by the city of New York."
The legislation would have mandated that state welfare offices encourage recipients to seek training for "sustainable wage jobs"...
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Sure! Spitzer supports unlimited abortion-on-demand, same sex “marriage”, and gun grabs. To the establishment media, those are centrist, moderate, mainstream views.
Ignoring “the realities of the marketplace,” indeed!
“Forcing caseworkers to steer female welfare recipients to higher-wage jobs in male-dominated fields”? May the farce be with you...
Our plant had a laughable 50% female hiring goal; they’ve since scaled it down to a 20% female hire/train/promote/retain that takes “the realities of the marketplace” into account and rewards those managers who promote “enough” women with higher annual bonuses. As men do the vast majority, of the dirty, gritty, difficult, short-notice, emergency overtime, or technical work in the factory, many men are annoyed by this bias, so the company’s been bragging less about their female-friendliness, as of late.
I hope like that guy in Deliverance.
ML/NJ
He also cut health care spending. No bleeding-heart lib outside of Vermont would do that. For that I’ll give him credit— at least a little bit.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Thanks neverdem. Nothin’ like a NY DINO to baffle those morons in their state house.
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