Governor DeWine accepts Trump' s federal unemployment benefits package for Ohioans during the coronavirus pandemic as employment factors nationwide remain dim in the Black community, the U.S Department of Labor reports....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman at Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest
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| Ohio GOP Governor Mike DeWine |
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.
COLUMBUS, Ohio- Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine (pictured) announced Monday that Ohio has agreed to President Trump's coronavirus stimulus monies for states after benefits issued by Congress to unemployed Americans at $600 weekly ended Aug. 1 and Congress is at a stalemate on more money under the CARES Act.
Trump’s order, signed Saturday, allocates $44 billion in federal AID from FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund and requires that states contribute the roughly $15 billion by puling from federal coronavirus relief funds already distributed to states earlier in the crisis, funds that some states say they do not have and that have been utilized for critical coronavirus needs.
Unemployed Ohioans would receive $300 weekly in federal unemployment benefits in addition to state benefits under the plan DeWine agreed to late Sunday, reportedly at no costs to the state, the benefits slated to take effect in a month DeWine has said, and after the U.S. Department of Labor intervenes for clarity, and direction.
Another option, which DeWine rejected, would have provided $400 weekly per claim in federal unemployed aid from the White House on top of weekly state unemployment benefits Ohioans already receive, the most in dollars each week of which is $480 in Ohio, with entitlements to more for dependents.
Total weekly monies per each unemployment claim under the president's order differ, however, depending on the state at issue, Hawaii and states like Massachusetts opting out at some $856 in combined federal and state weekly benefits to their unemployed residents, and deep south states like New Orleans and Louisiana getting the short end at roughly $587.
Republican lawmakers, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the U.S. Senate, and House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, are demanding $200 and $600 respectively in unemployment benefits to unemployed Americans.
And no compromise is in reach, pundits have said, Republicans of whom control the U.S. Senate, and Democrats, the House of Representatives, the upcoming November election, in which Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will face off, a showdown on whether Democrats will take control over the Senate.
The president's order also hands out aid around evictions, payroll taxes and student loans, very little though as experts, some of them skeptical about the president's motives, and his stimulus package in general, saying it does little to hasten the impending eviction crisis that disproportionately impacts people of color, Black people in particular.
Layoffs relative to the pandemic have hit the Black community hard in service occupations such as hospitality, food service, health care and retail, lower paying jobs that keep Blacks in poverty
Work-at-home virtual jobs during the pandemic are also less attainable for Blacks.The unemployment rate has skyrocketed since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S in early March, Blacks unemployed at nearly 17 percent, and Whites 14 percent, and up above 20 percent for Blacks and 17 percent for Whites during the height of the pandemic in April, those figures considered faulty under the Trump administration with Black unemployment rates disproportionate high, and at nearly 27 percent by some accounts. Nonetheless, it is a stark difference from the good ole days when the nationwide unemployment rate, in May of 2019, was at 3.6 percent. Ohio's unemployment rates have traditionally been mirroring the national rate at around 14 percent currently, and above 17 percent unemployment in April as the coronavirus raged through the nation, and the world.
Ohio has reported more than 102,000 confirmed cases and 3,673 deaths as the nation faces a re-spiking of the virus.
The deadly virus for which there is no vaccine has spread to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and the nation has nearly 5 million reported cases and some 163,000 people dead, worldwide figures showing that there are 20 million cases globally and roughly 737,000 deaths.
More than 55 million Americans remain out of work due to the crippling pandemic.
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