Ali couldn't KO Sonny Liston in 8 seconds, but that's all it took for Renee Ellmers to knock her RNC handlers out cold.
Really, you can't make this stuff up. She opens her mouth and her handlers blink out.
"Back in my district the 99 weeks of unemployment has been a huge issue for my small business owners. They have jobs right now that they could be filling but they're not because people are living out that time and now they are dropping off. That's why we see an unemployment rate down to 8.6%, not because thousands of jobs are being created but because people simply aren't looking for jobs anymore."
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Mrs. Ellmers we are small business owners in your district who know the opposite is true. From Pittsboro to Sanford, to Lillington to Dunn, in your district, windows are boarded on Main Street. Small businesses have been slammed by low demand for products and services, lack of credit from banks and high rents. Lee County in NC-02, one of North Carolina's manufacturing centers, has an unemployment rate of 12%. People are begging for work. And, contrary to what you say, they get kicked off the unemployment rolls and unemployment insurance if they don't actively seek work. After 99 weeks of unemployment they have nothing but family, the kindness of strangers and the grace of God.
Many people can't afford food. This year, the Bread Basket in Lee County served Thanksgiving Dinner to 250 hungry people by noon, with more coming. Fortunately there are caring people like Susan Rosenthal who get up at 4am to serve the hungry.
Rosenthal said that tally is in keeping with recent years.
“Because of the economy, more people are having to turn to this for food,” she said.
Read more: Sanford Herald - Breadbasket feeds a full house on Thanksgiving
People in Sanford aren't lazy, Mrs. Ellmers, they are begging for work. Because Lee county worked hard to bring in manufacturing industries to build a jobs base, Lee County has been one of the counties hit hardest by the recession. Hard working people lost jobs, many forever. When the official unemployment rate recently dropped to 12% in Lee County, it was likely because people set up their own businesses, not because people quit. I know you are out of touch with your district, Mrs. Ellmers because you would have never said what you did if you drove through it every week like I do. I know people are struggling, desperate for jobs. The writer who wrote your speech never saw the chicken processing plant in Pittsboro that closed. As tough and low paying as those jobs were, people want them back. If your writer had any clue how hard people here work for so little he would shut the fuck up.
I know you married a surgeon, moved from Michigan and enjoy your life in the 1%, Mrs Ellmers, so you don't know the people here, but they have no quit in them. Please don't tell us we're lazy.
source: St Louis Fed (FRED)
source: WRAL map of NC state data