$48,467,924 in Federal Grants under COVID perfectly okay.
But $300 a week to VALID UI Claimants, No?
News Events and Opinion
How do you live on $209 a week? $836 a month? (For example.) Crime will rise.
Evictions will start again and UI Claimants will choose between meds and rent or food.
ACT NOW! REMEMBER TO DO JOB SEARCHES!
Poll: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BLZFPLF
More Details to Come
The legal definition of an entitlement is as follows: “entitlement - A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs." (Senate, 2021)
Governor McMaster directed the agency to take the action in a letter (Click to see full size letter) to DEW Executive Director Dan Ellzey.
Individual Economic Indicators During Great Depression Vs. Conditions Today.
Before moving into a discussion of key economic and financial indicators, it may be necessary to ensure that the definitions of these key indicators be known, and the discussion between all be on the same page. The following terms have been selected from the Bureau of labor Statistics and hold true to those who are unemployment insurance claimants.
Introduction
I have written this in reverse. I am comparing what is happening now in real-time to the events of the Great Depression. Obviously, at the time of the Great Depression, social safety net programs for those who are differently skilled, unemployed, out of no fault of their own did not exist as they do today. It was within the scope of the government to create conditions that allowed the markets to expedite the growth needed to make corrections. On a microeconomic level putting money in the pockets of the American public will allow for what trickle down was meant to be. The funds spent by unemployment recipients get paid back into the communities to feed families, pay rent, utilities, feed families and get students back to school and breadwinners eventually back to work. Sources listed throughout this document prove this to be true. I also compare the national level current events to the actions of South Carolina politicians and activities of governors in several states.
Unemployment rate
The unemployment rate represents the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the labor force (the labor force is the sum of the employed and unemployed). The unemployment rate is calculated as: (Unemployed ÷ Labor Force) x 100.
Not in the Labor Force
In the Current Population Survey, people are classified as not in the labor force if: they were not employed during the survey reference week, and they had not actively looked for work (or been on temporary layoff) in the last 4 weeks (BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) 2021)
Per capita income
“Per capita income is a measure of the amount of money earned per person in a nation or geographic region. Per capita income can be used to determine the average per-person income for an area and to evaluate the standard of living and quality of life of the population.” (BLS 2021)
During the Great Depression:
During the great depression, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt served as President. FDR was a politician and member of the Democrat party.
During the peak of the great depression, there were a catastrophic number of people unemployed. There was no specific unemployment program in place at the time.
Currently:
Based on statistics from April ten million people are still from the COVID Crisis unemployment insurance claimants, looking for work and unable to find it. April State jobs and unemployment work data released last week show that as many as twenty-four states – mostly lead by Republican governors that are cutting unemployment insurance programs. These states’ conditions mimic national trends according to Economic Policy Institute.
The collected data, according to the Economic Policy Institute, “understate the weakness of those labor markets, as labor force participation has fallen since the pre-pandemic level. Nearly all the states cutting Unemployment Insurance still have fewer jobs then before the pandemic.”
Current conditions in the State of South Carolina for example, show that Unemployment rate statewide, based on an EPI analysis of state data of unemployment rate of 5.0% and a labor force participation rate of 57%. (Cooper, 2021)
“While about 20 percent of UI exits reflect a recall in normal times, this share rises to 75 percent in May 2020 before falling back below 50 percent by the end of October. Second, long-term unemployment has soared relative to 2019. As of the end of October, about half of the unemployed had continuously received benefits since the start of the pandemic. Third, we identify the emergence of repeated unemployment; more than half of the newly unemployed in October previously received benefits during the pandemic. Although this empirical finding is novel with respect to the pandemic, it is consistent with job-ladder models and other data on labor market flows.”
These findings are very telling, not only because these unemployment claim recipients returned to their previous places of employment for at least a certain period. In many cases the employment of restaurant, and bar workers were affected by the COVID crisis. The crisis caused social distancing restrictions, and operations restrictions with closing times pushed back to eleven o’clock, reducing the ability of employees to earn a living. These statistics, from the Economic Policy Institute prove, not only those claimants are seeking work, but seeking work and accepting the work with their former employers. It has been alleged that the CARES Act benefit package has disincentive individual claimants from seeking employment because the amount available for benefits may be higher than weekly wage rates.
A statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi mentions “Trump Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, along with many Congressional Republicans, falsely claim that the $600 per week in pandemic unemployment benefits those millions of jobless workers have been receiving are too generous and are a disincentive to going back to work.” It continues to state and quote a Yale university study that documents the claim, according to statement. “We find that that the workers who experienced larger increases in UI generosity did not experience larger declines in employment when the benefits expansion went into effect. Additionally, we find that workers facing larger expansions in UI benefits have returned to their previous jobs over time at similar rates as others. We find no evidence that more generous benefits disincentivized work either at the onset of the expansion or as firms looked to return to business over time.” (Cummings 2020)
Federal funds supporting emergency benefit programs, are collected on the federal level and not only benefit the underemployed, or unemployed, but also these federal funds are funds that would not normally be present within the monetary ecosphere. By denying these claimants to be awarded these funds while the evidence points to the employment opportunities have not been restored to pre-COVID levels keeps these claimants from spending the money within their communities. Small businesses, property owners, utilities, grocery stores and programs like mass transit are not receiving these needed funds. This is a type of trickle down that would work if it were not shut off by political mandate or strongly written letter to Director Ellzey.
Even though South Carolina has not returned to pre-COVID employment numbers, South Carolina Governor has removed the state from the federal benefit programs. He was quoted as stating "At the current time, there are 81,684 open positions in the state of South Carolina. The hotel and food service industries have employee shortages that threaten their sustainability. However, no area of the economy has been spared from the pain of a labor shortage," said S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce Director Dan Ellzey. "While the federal funds supported our unemployed workers during the peak of COVID-19, we fully agree that reemployment is the best recovery plan for South Carolinians and the economic health of the state. Last week’s initial claims numbers were the lowest since the pandemic began, and employers around the state are eager to hire and anxious to get South Carolina back to business." as the Governor downplayed the open positions in hotel, food service and hotel industries, he doubled down the rhetoric in a letter to Director Ellzey, Executive Director of SCDEW. (McMaster 2021)
Not only does the actions of South Carolina Governor McMaster act in contradiction to the monetary support intended to flow into a state with economic hardship in the form of unemployment, but if a sitting governor can force stop a “federal entitlement” along with many other Governors, what is stopping these governors from stopping other “federal entitlements” such as Social Security Retirement benefits.
Governor McMaster called Unemployment a “dangerous federal entitlement incentivizing workers to stay home” in his letter to Director Ellzey. (McMaster 2021).
As we have seen from the Yale study is rhetoric is simply not the case.
The legal definition of an entitlement is as follows: “entitlement - A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs. (Senate, 2021)
The Governor called the low employment of hospitality, tourism, manufacturing, and healthcare
employees as a “clear and present danger to our State’s businesses, and our economy.”
What we are seeing here is New York State style politics where downstate tourism interests are influencing the economy of the entire state. Businesses large and small, for the entire state, will no longer have federal funds be added to their registers, that would normally not be there if it were not for President Trump and the COVID Aid package but offers no program to substitute for these funds, because downstate tourism interests and hospitality cannot find enough people to work as cheap labor. Instead of showing grit and offering legislation forcing employers to increase the minimum wage, as demonstrated is too low, to a minimum of $17 dollars an hour, he is forcing families to make do with less.
All this is happening while a new Delta variant of the COVID Virus is about to hit the Country’s shores. We may be going through this crisis all over again.
The Governor at the same time he is so determined to cut assistance to the Unemployed, or underemployed, has no problem offering aid as long as he can use the aid as a self-promotional tool, such as the Governor’s Education Emergency Relief (GEER) Fund, signed in January of 2021. The purpose of this program is to help Unemployment Claimants obtain the training needed to obtain and maintain new employment, by use of the SC technical college. So, Governor McMaster does not mind spending eight million dollars of taxpayer money on a relief fund that offers scholarships to a small amount of technical college courses, but also nine million to public charter schools.
“The original GEER Fund allocation was a one-time grant funded by monies received through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. South Carolina’s initial GEER Fund allocation was $48 million. Today’s announcement completes the awarding of original GEER Fund monies that totaled $48,467,924.” (Dillane, M 2021)
So, there is $48,467,924 that he does not object to, but an additional $300 a week to the families’ breadwinners in South Carolina, the optic seems wrong. The Governor seems like he has no problem signing this but has an issue with the voting adults. 12 million dollars went to the Department of Juvenile Justice in a grant. (McMaster 2021)
References:
Glossary Term: Entitlement. (2018, January 19). Retrieved June 26, 2021, from https://www.senate.gov/reference/glossary_term/entitlement.htm
Cooper, D. (n.d.). There is no justification for cutting federal unemployment benefits: The latest state jobs data show the economy has not fully recovered. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www.epi.org/blog/there-is-no-justification-for-cutting-federal-unemployment-benefits-the-latest-state-jobs-data-show-the-economy-has-not-fully-recovered/
Cummings, M. (2020, July 27). Yale study finds expanded jobless benefits did not reduce employment. Retrieved from https://news.yale.edu/2020/07/27/yale-study-finds-expanded-jobless-benefits-did-not-reduce-employment
Ganon, P. (2021, February 11). Spending and Job Search Impacts of Expanded Unemployment Benefits: Evidence from Administrative Micro Data. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BFI_WP_2021-19.pdf
Labor Statistics, B. (2021, January 27). Definitions. Retrieved June 27, 2021,
Labor Statistics, B. (n.d.). South Carolina Economy briefly SC. Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.sc.htm
New Yale Study: 'No Evidence' Expanded UI Discourages Return to Work. (2020, August 03). Retrieved June 28, 2021, from https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/8320
McMaster, H. (2021, May 06). -6-21 Gov McMaster to Dir Ellzey re Federal UI benefit termination.pdf. Retrieved June 27, 2021, from https://governor.sc.gov/sites/default/files/Documents/5-6-21 Gov McMaster to Dir Ellzey re Federal UI benefit termination.pdf
Dillane, M. (2021, January 05). Gov. McMaster announces GEER Fund allocation. Retrieved from https://abcnews4.com/news/lowcountry-and-state-politics/gov-mcmaster-to-announce-geer-fund-allocation
South Carolina Office of the Governor Henry McMaster. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://governor.sc.gov/news/2021-04/gov-mcmaster-awards-over-12-million-geer-funds-sc-department-juvenile-justice
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