Update on the same topic from a different angle from Salon (December 1, 2021) on the following post - with a few more details which reinforces my definition of “GOP hypocrisy” that I redefine as “Goofy Oafish Partisans.”
Hypocrite #1 – IA Governor:
On October 20, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) announced a crackdown on unemployment
benefits. She required recipients to double their job-search activity, and she
imposed strict audits — with the threat of cutting off payments to anyone who
fell short — “to ensure that no Iowan receiving unemployment benefits unnecessarily
remains on the sidelines of the job market.” Nine days later she signed
legislation that pays vaccine refusers to “sit on the sidelines.”
In essence under the new law, anyone “discharged from employment for refusing to receive a vaccination against COVID-19 … shall not be disqualified for benefits.” BTW: That is not a left-wing policy of money for everyone or a right-wing policy of money for no one that we hear 24/7.
Instead, it’s a policy of pernicious hypocrisy: Welfare
for vaccine refusers, tough love for everyone else. Under these new laws, any
worker who gets fired for broadly defined “misconduct,” such as flunking an
employer-imposed drug test, is disqualified from unemployment benefits — but
employees who refuse COVID vaccination are glorified, protected, and
subsidized. The state must guarantee, in Reynolds’ words, that these reckless
freeloaders “will still receive unemployment benefits despite being fired
for standing up for their beliefs.”
Hypocrite #2 – TN Governor:
Gov. Bill Lee (R) who ended the federal government’s supplemental COVID-era
unemployment benefits said: “We are paying people to stay home. That needs
to change.” Then two weeks ago, he signed legislation that pays vaccine refusers to stay home. Under this
new policy, the state’s normal rule about employees fired for “misconduct” —that
they lose their eligibility for unemployment benefits — now can no longer be
applied to anyone who is terminated for “refusing to
receive a vaccination for COVID-19.”
Hypocrite #3 – Florida’s
Governor: In May, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) announced that he would end the Federal payments to unemployed
Floridians. These payments, he said created a perverse “incentive structure that discouraged people from working.” Then
he signed legislation setting up a similar incentive structure, exclusively for people
who defy COVID vaccine requirements (with lower payments than the $300 per week
in benefits the Feds gave). Under this new FL law, vaccine refusal can’t “be deemed misconduct
for the purpose of reemployment assistance” – e.g., if you’re unemployed
and you’re offered a job that requires vaccination, you can turn it down and
stay on the dole.
Yep, GOPers cited above and many more in the background: Bigtime hypocrites and apparently their base loves it - all the while hating DEMS with an historical passion .
Original post below:
How to resist Federal or state vaccine mandates, the booster shot, virus testing, and mask wearing as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) above demonstrates.
From Business Insider article the following article headline about drawing unemployment benefits for disobeying government rules in place to help stop and prevent CoVID spreading:
“Here are all the
states providing unemployment benefits for people who quit or were fired
because they're refusing to get vaccinated”
Highlights:
· FL, IA, KS, and TN are rewriting laws to expand
benefits to unvaccinated people.
· Mostly GOP-led states are stepping up resistance to
vaccine mandates, now in the form of expanding unemployment to them.
· Some of the same states were first to cut
unemployment amid the labor shortage.
Some states are starting to provide unemployment benefits to
people quitting or getting fired for refusing to get
vaccinated.
It's not the first time unemployment benefits have been used
to make a political point about the pandemic, but it's a reversal of a trend
from just months ago, when a spate of majority GOP-led states opted
out of federal unemployment benefits prematurely; in many cases, that
halted benefits completely for gig workers, freelancers, and the long-term
unemployed who were newly
eligible.
Now, some GOP-led states are spearheading resistance to
vaccine mandates by passing new legislation to ban them.
Click
the main article link to see the rundown of those state changes with a
focus on jobless aid addressed in the article.
Iowa: They were one of the first GOP-led states to end enhanced pandemic unemployment benefits for workers this summer. The $300 in additional weekly checks — along with programs that made freelancers and the long-term unemployed eligible for benefits — came to a close on June 12. But while Iowa-based freelancers and gig workers have been unable to collect benefits for months, unvaccinated workers are now explicitly eligible.
On October 29, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) signed
a bill that said: “Someone who is discharged from employment for
refusing to receive a vaccination against COVID-19 won't be disqualified for
benefits because of how they were discharged.”
Florida: The legislature approved a bill on November 19 extending unemployment aid to unvaccinated people as part of a package that banned vaccine mandates. DeSantis’ statement: “Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates and we had a responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the people of Florida.”
FL was among those that yanked federal unemployment benefits before their
expiration to prod people to find new jobs.
Tennessee: Lawmakers approved a bill barring government bodies, private businesses, and schools from requiring a COVID-19 shot or asking for proof of vaccination.
Part of the bill also expanded jobless aid to people who lose their jobs due to vaccine mandates, even authorizing retroactive payments for those eligible.
Gov. Bill
Lee (R) signed it into law earlier this month, seeking to reverse what
he called: “An overreach from the federal government as it moved to
mandate vaccinations in the private sector.”
Kansas: On November 23, Kansas lawmakers successfully passed a new measure that explicitly ensures people who were fired over remaining unvaccinated would still receive benefits. The bill says: “Workers would not become ineligible for benefits or be disqualified from receiving benefits if they have declined to accept work that requires compliance with a COVID-19 vaccine requirement, or had an exemption request denied.”
Kansas governor Laura Kelly (D) signed the bill into
law, saying she opted not to end enhanced benefits early
in the state over the summer, adding: “I know there are Kansans who
believe this legislation goes too far, and there are others who believe this
legislation doesn't go far enough. But, I was elected to lead, and leadership
means seeking compromise.”
My 2 Cents: Pay people for
resisting the vaccination and thereby possibly saving a life, including their
own, may help them financially, but for how long, sadly it also sets a bad
precedence all the while the GOP blames DEMS for their “free stuff” – this certainly
is free, too, isn’t for disobeying long standing employment and unemployment
rules about quitting a job and seeking benefits – which has been a no-no up until now.
Hard to measure the long
term impact of this… checks all around, stay home, and resist life-saving health
care – what a deal.
Thanks for stopping by.
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