[The gift comes courtesy of the 25 GOP governors who opted not to
accept billions in federal unemployment benefits. As a result of their
callous decision more than 4 million lost $300 in weekly payments they
desperately needed.] [[link removed]]

WILL DEMOCRATS LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH?  
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Marc Dann and Leo Jennings III
November 8, 2021
Working-Class Perspectives
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_ The gift comes courtesy of the 25 GOP governors who opted not to
accept billions in federal unemployment benefits. As a result of their
callous decision more than 4 million lost $300 in weekly payments they
desperately needed. _

, Bert Gravy

 

This has been a month of bad news for the Democratic Party. The
conflicts around the infrastructure and Build Back Better bills and
the November election results make clear that Republicans hold
significant advantages with voters on critical issues including border
security, crime, national security, and the economy.

As bad as the news has been, however, Republicans and their corporate
benefactors may have recently handed Democrats a gift that will enable
them to get off the mat and actually pick up seats in the House and
Senate, take control of state legislatures, and evict Republicans from
governor’s mansions—if they are smart enough to unwrap and use it.

The gift comes courtesy of the 25 GOP governors who earlier this year
opted not to accept billions of dollars in fully federally funded
supplemental unemployment benefits authorized by the American Rescue
Act. As a result of their callous decision more than 4 million
involuntarily unemployed Americans lost $300 in weekly payments they
desperately needed.  The Century Foundation estimated that families
crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic would lose an average of $6,000 as a
result of the benefit reduction.

Why did the governors put so many of their citizens at risk and stop
more than $15 billion from flowing into their state’s economies?
Because Corporate America, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the
National Foundation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant
Association, and other trade groups told them to. As far as the
business community was concerned, the people sucking up the extra
benefits would sit on their lazy butts as long as the government
largesse was rolling in. Just kick them off the dole and watch them
take whatever job was offered, the Chamber said.

The GOP governors were more than happy to oblige, even though most
studies showed that a variety of other factors including family-care
responsibilities, school closures, an imbalance of available jobs
[[link removed]], fear
of COVID-19
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poor working conditions, and low wages were discouraging people from
returning to the workforce — not the supplemental benefits.  

Ohio’s Mike DeWine was one of the governors who ignored the facts in
order to serve his business supporters. On May 13, 2021 announced
would cut off the supplemental payments because the extra $300 a week
was “certainly discouraging people from going back [to work].”

As many expected, DeWine’s business buddies and fellow Republicans
gave him a standing ovation for denying 230,000 working and
middle-class Ohioans $900 million in benefits that would have enabled
them to pay their bills while strengthening the state’s economy.
What was not expect was the reaction from Ohio Democrats and the labor
movement: crickets, nada, not a word. The silence was deafening, the
inaction infuriating and frustrating.

So, the DannLaw and Advocate Attorneys legal team took up the gauntlet
by suing DeWine and the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services on
behalf of Candy Bowling and other workers who lost the supplemental
payments. They argued that under Ohio law DeWine was obligated to
accept the funds. To date, the Ohio Common Pleas and Appellate courts
have agreed and the case is now awaiting a hearing before the Ohio
Supreme Court.

Particularly important in this process were the messages from people
impacted by the benefit cutoff began pouring into DannLaw’s
Facebook [[link removed]] page and email
inbox the day the suit was filed and continue to pour in each week.
Hundreds of people have shared heart-wrenching stories that expose the
business community’s narrative about the supplemental payments for
what it is: a cynical lie meant to divert attention away from
the real reasons
[[link removed]] Americans
are reluctant to return to work.

Those epistles from the heartland are also why we believe DeWine and
his cohorts have handed the Democrats an incredibly valuable gift.
Along with their stories, people are directing their outrage and anger
at DeWine:

_DeWine’s pride is standing in the way of helping 200k+ Ohioans pay
their bills and feed nearly a billion dollars back into the economy
It’s a damn shame that election season is still a year away. How
else can you hurt us DeWine?_

_We should all start a petition to get Mike DeWine fired so that him
and his family can see how it feels to have everything on the
line…he doesn’t care because he doesn’t understand the people of
Ohio._

_Mike DeWine is outta there! He is a horrible human for this! When his
people needed him he left us out to dry with our families I don’t
trust him with anything!_

Similar sentiments are being expressed in every state where benefits
have been cutoff, including those like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and
Maryland that Democrats must win in 2022 and 2024. All the Democrats
need to do is identify the millions of working and middle-class folks
who have drawn a target on their governor’s back, organize them,
mobilize them, and get them to the polls. There are 230,000 of them in
Ohio, millions more across the country eager to take revenge on the
Republicans who hurt them and their families.

Will the Democrats and their allies in the labor movement exploit the
opportunity they have been handed? If Ohio is an indicator, the answer
sadly, is no. In the four months that have passed since the original
suit was filed, not one Democratic officeholder, party official, or
labor union has joined the fight in court or the court of public
opinion.

Their inaction stands in sharp contrast to the aggressive posture
adopted by the business community as demonstrated by the groups that
have filed amicus briefs against the lawsuit: The Chamber of Commerce
of the United States of America, the National Federation of
Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, the Ohio Chamber of
Commerce, the Ohio Business Roundtable, the Ohio Restaurant
Association, the Ohio Hotel and Lodging Association, the Ohio Grocers
Association, and the Ohio Trucking Association.

While dismayed by the lack of support, many Ohio Democrats are not
surprised. As we have written in this space multiple times, the
corporatists who control the Democratic Party have rendered it nearly
indistinguishable from the Republican Party on economic and
working-class issues. They have bought into the false narrative that
economic stimulus and development only occurs when billions of dollars
are handed out to corporations. We are not shocked that the party that
reacted to the housing crisis by doling out hundreds of billions of
dollars to the big banks while allowing 10,000,000 people to lose
their homes is reluctant to fight for the jobless. No wonder they sit
on the sidelines and refuse to fight for families who desperately need
a helping hand.

The callous and cynical decision of Republican governors to turn down
billions of stimulus dollars that could have helped their states’
economies creates a great opportunity. Democrats could not only
mobilize the workers who were screwed over by the decision. They could
also build a new narrative about how government is being held hostage
by its corporate masters. Denying support to working-class people who
can’t find good jobs should be exhibit A.

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