Honestly, you could see it coming from a mile away.

In April, some folks on social media started to share photos of handmade signs at fast food restaurants that apologized for slow service and complained that “no one wants to work anymore.” Then, the media started to research those stories, regardless of how true they were. After that, Republican governors of 25 states used these stories as an excuse to end the additional $300 per week unemployment insurance Congress enacted to help laid-off workers make it through the pandemic.

Why would this happen? It's not difficult to figure out: We've seen huge strides in our economy thanks to President Biden's stimulus checks, supplemental unemployment insurance, and other safety net programs that are actually helping our economy AND our workforce. Things are getting back on track, which is some of the worst news possible for Republican governors who would rather see the economy fail so they can blame it on President Biden and flaunt it during their reelection campaigns. It's the same playbook they've used on Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act: Break the system themselves, call the system broken, and blame Democrats for all of the pieces lying around. All while Americans suffer.

Cutting off this unemployment insurance prematurely (the program is set to expire in September) is cruel. In an economy where wages should have increased by $10 an hour to keep up with the increase in productivity over the last three decades, these weekly paychecks help level the playing field between employers and employees. Without them, we're only making it easier for employers to refuse to pay workers what they are worth – and just continuing to allow billionaires to add to their wealth. When will enough be enough? When will our country begin to fight for the workforce and STOP funneling millions upon millions of dollars straight to the top 1% (the same 1% who have yachts and helicopters and are about to fly to space on their private rockets).

What's more, this policy represents terrible economics. Extra unemployment benefits are spent on both goods and services in our local communities, which in turn sends a huge injection of cash into the economy each and every week. It isn’t hard: the more money in people’s pockets, the more they’re spending at their local restaurants and shops, and the more jobs we can create. So we’re asking:

Do you agree with Republicans who have ENDED unemployment insurance early for millions of hardworking Americans?

These 25 Republican governors have it exactly backwards: We're not in a labor shortage, we're in a wage shortage. According to Heidi Shierholz, the senior economist and director of policy at the Economic Policy Institute, "Wages in leisure and hospitality plummeted at the start of [the pandemic] and stayed very, very low." Those wages only just recently recovered, and as they have, there's been a steep rise in employment in the leisure and hospitality sector of the economy.

Put another way, we've seen that workers are willing to go back on the job – just as long as they get paid what they deserve. It's the free market at work, in its purest form, but it turns out that 25 Republican governors would rather force Americans to work for starvation wages than pay them what they’re worth. In fact, economists at Yale University and the University of Chicago reported that supplemental unemployment benefits appeared to have little to no impact on whether laid-off workers would head back to work.

In other words, there's no economic reason to do this. Republicans are just playing politics. And they're hurting their fellow Americans – and the economy – to do so. Of course, these governors are just elongating the crisis our country faced … all so they can use it for reelection.

Now, it's important to note that these supplemental insurance benefits aren't set to last forever. The program is currently set to expire in September, giving our economy a chance to recover and allowing everyone the opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID-19. And while we'll absolutely want to take a deeper look at the numbers as we get closer to that cutoff date, right now, recovery is indicating we are on track to be able to phase out these extra benefits when it comes time.

But ending this program NOW – when more than 15 million Americans are receiving insurance benefits – is a disaster in the making. It's going to spark a vicious cycle that makes people less able to spend money in their local communities, less able to support small businesses, and less able to bolster our economy.

So with all of that information, we want to know: Do you agree with Republicans who have ENDED unemployment insurance early for millions of hard working Americans?

Thank you,

Paul