Wisconsin's Unemployment Follies

Upon the shutdown of many schools, churches, and businesses
in our country due to the Coronovirus pandemic which sent our
most vibrant, bustling economy into a sudden reversal, many
of our work force have suddenly found themselves out of a job
and without further paychecks. While the economy has made
remarkable progress in regaining ground, there are still many
Americans out of work, particularly here in Wisconsin, where
Gov. Tony Evers had locked down much of the state before the
Republican majorities in both chambers of the state legislature
sued the Evers Administration in the Wisconsin State Supreme
Court to stop the widespread closure. While successful, the
defeat for Evers and company has not brought back all of the
economic activity which gave the Badger State her economic
strength.

One sign of this is the still astounding number of workers who
filed for unemployment compensation upon getting furloughed
or permanently released from their jobs by their employers.
While Evers and his people have been swift in shutting down
many businesses, especially small businesses such as restaurants,
bars, bookstores, clothing boutiques and such they have been
shockingly negligent in preparing Wisconsin's unemployment
offices for the mass of people scrambling to get that particular
relief so that they could pay their rent, mortgages, car payments,
electricity bills, buy their groceries and such; many who have
applied in March have yet to receive a single check, including
your furloughed Peasant --- I was working for the local Goodwill
store near my home after suspending operation of my handyman
business due to some health challenges. Early on, it was difficult to
even reach their local unemployment offices online due to their
constantly crashing from the onslaught of displaced workers trying
to apply; telephoning did nothing either, as the offices had too few
lines and too few staff to receive and handle the crush of calls.

Now, Gov. Evers must have known that there would be a huge rush
of people trying to apply for unemployment due to the lockdown; 
One would think he would have arranged for more phone lines for
the unemployment offices and to hire more staff to take the calls and
assist the applicants in accessing their rightful benefits. But nothing
of the sort was done. Thousands of Wisconsites are in increasingly
dire circumstances, having been evicted from their homes, having
cars and other items repossessed, having the lights shut off, and
having their lives turned upside down. All by the inertia (or worse)
on the part of a governor who belongs to the political party which
claims to care about the Little Guy and Gal.

As of August 29 the Department of Workforce Development, which
handles the unemployment claims, received 6.15 million weekly
claims and paid 5.46 million of these claims, according to a recent
release by the department and reported in the Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel. More than 685,000 claims still have not been paid out and
are in adjudication. The department finally did hire extra staff to help
with the sea of claims, calls, and online inquiries, but the process
took months to complete. They did not give any indication, not even
a ballpark estimate, as to when the backlog of claims would be all
taken care of. And not a peep from our governor.

Many Wisconsin residents in the meantime lost the extra $600
provided by the CARES Act at the end of July because they couldn't
contact the unemployment offices in time. President Trump, along 
with Congressional Republicans and Democrats crafted this provision,
and it's being blocked by a Democrat governor who may be inert but
may be deliberately causing pain in order to attempt to con
Wisconsin's hurting workers into believing that President Trump
and the GOP do not care about their plight, that they are only
looking out for the interests of wealthy supporters, thereby angering
them into turning out at the polls for their candidate Joe Biden in
November. Similar things have been said about other Democrat
governors around the country.

Your resilient Peasant has since been recalled by the New Berlin
Goodwill store, and with receiving President Trump's arranged
$1,200 stimulus check in May, in addition to a very generous
income tax refund and some passive incomes I have been receiving
for some time, I have not had to face the hardships which many of
my fellow Wisconsinites waiting in vain for their unemployment
checks have suffered. I count myself lucky, and I pray for those
who have not been so fortunate. I also pray for a second term for
our president in November, and for the election of a Republican
governor for our state in 2022. May my fellow Badgers not be
inert two months from now when President Trump vies for 

re-election (yes!) nor two years from now when Governor Evers 

makes his re-election bid (NO!!!!!)

MEM