Stephen Moore is an economic reporter for the Wall Street Journal and also the biggest argument for the invention of a human mute button. He pops up on various programs that I tune into and without fail speaks about his love of fiscal conservatism and big business so much that you’d swear he’s receiving a handjob from Goldman Sachs’ CEO under his desk.
Moore is rarely good for a soundbite or a quote of any kind, mostly because he giggles and stutters his way through the majority of the points he’s trying to make. But look beneath his I’m-a-ditzy-cheerleader-disguised-as-an-economic-reporter façade, and you’ll quickly find that, like many modern-day fiscal conservatives, everything he says is incredibly redundant.
Earlier this week, that redundancy reached new heights when he defended the recent trend of employers discriminating against the unemployed because…um…they’re unemployed! Moore attempts to make the same point that many conservatives like to make, which is that people who are unemployed don’t try hard enough to find jobs, and instead just sit back and collect their fat unemployment checks.
ANYTIME I hear a Republican publicly use that type of logic, it makes me wonder WHY ON EARTH anyone who’s struggling to find a job would vote for a Republican at all! They’re basically calling you a lazy unemployed loser, but you’re still going to vote for them?!
As someone who was unemployed for almost 2 YEARS, after the company I had been with for years went under, let me just say that to place EVEN MORE roadblocks in front of the unemployed is simply reprehensible. How is anyone supposed to get ahead these days when businesses are judging you based on things such as credit history and being unemployed (not to mention all of the other ways interviewers like to size people up)?
Moore was a guest on Hardball with Chris Matthews and (as usual) I found myself yelling at the TV, calling out names and generally behaving like a drunk heterosexual male at a Yankees game while his team is losing. Read the beginning of Matthews’ back-and-forth with Moore and then watch the full clip below.
Chris Matthews: I have to ask you, to start off at the bat — let`s go with Steve — what is the case for employers being allowed to say, don`t waste my time if you`re unemployed looking for a job; you`re not going to even get an interview here?
STEPHEN MOORE: Well, I don`t think it`s — I don`t think it`s right to say, like, you know, like Irish need not apply, unemployed need not apply. But I do think, Chris, that it is important for employers to be able to look at the worker job history, and if somebody`s been out of work for a long time, for better or for worse, that`s usually a negative on their resume. It doesn`t look — I always tell people, you know, the best way to find a job is to have a job. And so..
