Florida police have raided the home of Rebekah Jones, the former health department employee who said she was fired for refusing to manipulate coronavirus case data. Jones documented the raid in a series of tweets published Monday, December 7.
They seized her computer, and all other electronic devices. …
During an interview with ABC news, Mnuchin said that Republicans are pushing back against the $600 weekly federal unemployment benefit because it is more than many people received from their jobs.
“Unemployment is supposed to be wage replacement,” the Treasury secretary told ABC’s Martha Raddatz. “So it should be tied to some percentage of wages.”
There is “a Yale study which found that there is no evidence that the $600 weekly payment is a disincentive to return to work.”
The actual disincentive, which Republicons continue to fail on and avoid dealing with, is fear of illness and death or disability in unsafe workplaces.
Workers in general under Republicons are facing recent exacerbated disasters beyond disgraceful minimum wages and concerted, litigious attacks against unions.
Wages and full-time employment are dropping precipitously even for those who keep employment.
Losses of employer health insurance are catastrophic, and simultaneously Republicons are suing to overturn the ACA entirely. There is also a massive upswing in covid testing and treatment super-charged as “out of network” pricing, even for those who do keep their insurance.
Destruction of OSHA workplace safety protections, with the added threat of indemnity shields for negligent businesses which will also inevitably break down Worker’s Compensation, are a terrible threat to workers during and beyond this current pandemic.
There is a core and crucial point Republicons dismiss regarding these $600 unemployment add-ons, even as Mnuchin admits unemployment benefits are supposed to be wage replacement during a limited period to allow for job searching…when there are any jobs.
The $600 add-on would not be necessary, except that in every state unemployment benefits are inadequate, and they are severely inadequate in red states.
➡ Minimal unemployment benefits are yet another subsidy windfall for businesses.
In Florida, wretched unemployment benefits were deliberately inflicted on workers to please business interests, in what is now a politically damaging and damning scandal which no Republicons are learning from.
“Of the 10 states where fewer than 15% of unemployed people received benefits in March, seven were in the South, while nine of the 12 states where over 40% of jobless people collected benefits in March were in the Northeast or Midwest.
…"Seven of the 10 states with the lowest maximum weekly benefits ($350 or less) are in the Southeast.”
A beach patrol of the United States Coast Guard armed with shotguns patrol the East Coast while on the lookout for suspicious activities and U-Boat sightings; Indian River Lagoon, eastern Florida, 1943
A beach patrol of the United States Coast Guard armed with shotguns patrol the East Coast while on the lookout for suspicious activities and U-Boat sightings; Indian River Lagoon, eastern Florida, 1943
The Republican Party in Florida served up “a sh*t sandwich” with unemployment.
And they’re trying to blame the previous Republican governor, Rick Scott, who, to be honest, does deserve a large chunk of the blame. Politico:
Privately, Republicans admit that the $77.9 million system that is now failing Florida workers is doing exactly what Scott designed it to do — lower the state’s reported number of jobless claims after the great recession.
“It’s a sh– sandwich, and it was designed that way by Scott,” said one DeSantis advisor. “It wasn’t about saving money. It was about making it harder for people to get benefits or keep benefits so that the unemployment numbers were low to give the governor something to brag about.”
Republican Party of Florida chairman Joe Gruters was more succinct: “$77 million? Someone should go to jail over that.”
Floridians who never had to think about politics now have a maximum unemployment benefit during a pandemic of $275.00 per week because Florida Republicans thought that was a good way to keep people off the rolls.
Pay attention: Republicans thought it was no big deal to put up barriers to unemployment insurance when unemployment was low, except they didn’t actually know how many unemployed there are because they put up barriers to finding out.
