The problem for Jeb here though is that while he’s playing to his base, these things will (hopefully) come back to bite him pretty hard in the general if he gets the GOP nod. A lot of the people already working long hours, missing out on their family time and watching their lives pass by them on an assembly line or in a 4’ x 4’ cube, just to make ends meet are often the people who are paying the least amount of attention right now. Wait until the Iraq clip and this latest “just work longer hours” plan get run together in endless negative campaign ads. “47%” played a big part in sinking Romney and I’d hope Jeb’s comments would have the same effect. His Republican supporters can hoot and holler now, but in the end It’s just a big middle finger to the working class, and that never plays well in a Presidential election.
JEB isn’t have that moment behind closed doors, however…he is dropping it right out front for everyone to see.
But both comments are aimed at the same group. The 47% comment of Romney’s was fatal (or nearly so…there were just so many fatal wounds happening) to his campaign, but if you will remember, it was well received and defended by much of the GOP…with most criticism being along the lines of, “don’t say it outloud, but we all believe you”.
At this point, JEB isn’t worried about the General Election. He believes he will have plenty of time to “Aw Shucks” this one away, assuming he wins the nomination. Right now, he is focusing on dishing out whatever he believes the base wants to hear.
Which circles back around to the bigger problem with his campaign. Bush WILL walk this back, which will be another argument for a base that they just can’t trust a thing out of his mouth. His father gave them Souter, his brother gave them Roberts…and JEB is babbling on about Common Core and Immigration for All. I really think it’s still going to be a very tough road for him with the actual GOP voters.
Absolutely…I was thinking this was Jeb’s 47% moment. And it didn’t even did an undercover bartender video to capture the idiocy…Jebby flat out said it to the media.
I was typing the same message while you were 
In an interview with the Manchester Union-Leader, the first-in-the-nation primary state’s most-read paper, former Florida Gov Jeb Bush insisted “people should work longer hours", as a key part of his plan to drive higher economic growth.
Is Governor Jeb saying people should work hours that are longer than 60 minutes, or that they should work more of the standard 60-minute hours?
Right now those people have thirty-seven different candidates to choose from, so job one is to win their votes. If he says something that riles up Democrats, but sounds like common sense to those people, it’s a winner.
And as bad as we make it out to be, it’s spinnable for him.
Scott Walker has won three elections in a blueish-purple state by pitting people against public sector unions, where people supposedly get all kinds of kush benefits without working as hard as “regular” people. I think this is a winning issue for Jeb, even in the general.
Agree. He is a bad candidate with a toxic name, what could go wrong? Typical GOP.
The “work” remarks are all over Facebook, for starters, and it’ll stay in the blogosphere for a while while Heb figures out what to tell us what he really meant.
Heb released years of tax returns recently, and in 2012 he made $6 million, in 2013 $7.4 million and an overall wealth somewhere between $19 and $22 million.
Yeah, and as salaried everything over 40 was free to the company.
Bush is an idiot!
No, Trump is not better… I just want Jebby to be soundly thrashed by his lesser… I think whoever is the GOTP nominee, we’re heading for a landslide. If Dems and Independents will get off their butts and VOTE.
This is S.O.P. for Americans, who put in more hours at work than people in almost every developed country. Our four kids LIVE at work. They have far less free time…and thanx to the cyberworld, they are ALWAYS connected to someone (as opposed to taking time out to reflect). Moreover, their work is more intense,scrutinized and regimented.
I would call myself an academic success, retiring with publicaions and a fair amount of consulting and presentations at conferences…yet, my career as a Professor was like a Boy Scout compared to the cyber-leash these poor kids are on:
For me there was
- Mail by faculty mail box hung in the department office
- Letters (not 40 emails a day) occasionally coming to one’s office
- ten office hours per week
- one telephone, which I left (gladly) when I left my office
People like Bush are also busy in a certain sense:
Counting Money…[oh…I forgot! that’s what accountants are for]
Exactly. Even taking him at his word that he meant that we need to get more people working full-time instead of part time, he’s making it sound as if part-time workers are lazy.
Part-time workers work the hours they get. They’re just supplying their own labor according to the demand. Jeb ought to be saying “we need to get employers to hire more full time workers”, or “we need to encourage employers to convert their part-time employees to full-time”. He’s focusing on the Supply in a Demand-Driven labor market.
Even so, he’s still out to lunch on the whole issue of rising productivity and flat worker pay. Conservatives love to talk about how the Workforce needs to be “incentivized”. Well worker productiivity has been going up steadily for the last 30+ years while worker pay has remained flat. That is a Dis-Incentive to Produce.
And they want to talk about how lazy people are.
I worked as an Assistant Manager for a national retail chain in the 1980’s and we kept all our employees under 30 hours a week to avoid paying benefits. This practice was going on long before the ACA. The only difference now is that these employers use the ACA as an excuse not to pay benefits.
As far as I can tell Jeb is not employed so he has no call to criticize how much anyone works.
I don’t begrudge wealth…if it is acquired honestly and ethically. I do take offense when a wealthy person criticizes those who have acquired less yet work hard and for many hours perhaps at multiple jobs.
Jeb is currently unemployed so, wealthy or not, from my point of view he has no call to tell anyone they should work longer hours. It gives the impression, deserved or not, that he sees himself as better than someone else and “entitled”.
If Jeb! ever found himself working for a market wage, it would be the worst day in his, his extended family’s, and his 1000 closest friends’ lives. Combined. He would probably have to go home sick at noon.
Don’t you understand? When you’re born into a family like the Bush’s you may be wealthy, but you’re always on. There’s never a moment you’re not working to expand the families fortunes, have power meals, rushing hither and yon all for the purpose of fame, power and money. Sure, wage slaves may have to work 40+ hours per week for static wages/salaries, but to be of the Bush’s ilk is to be always on and no compensation is enough for that.
Wow. Has Jeb hired Sarah Palin’s speechwriter? Or the strategist who told Romney it was a good idea to denigrate 47% of Americans?
How can Jeb speak with that silver spoon stuck in his mouth?
Translation: “Americans must work longer hours so I don’t have to.”
Reminds me of his dad who showed how out of touch HE was when he could not say what a gallon of milk cost, and his dad was the smart one.