I think most people, regardless of their political views about the President, agree that the COVID-19 crisis puts many Americans\u2019 health at risk.\u00a0\u00a0And, I really believe, in spite of what I read on social media, that most Americans don\u2019t want others to get sick or die.\u00a0\u00a0But, some are desperate:\u00a0\u00a0they are afraid that they won\u2019t get paid, they won\u2019t have a way to buy food for their families, or pay their mortgage, or keep the heat on in the winter or the air in the summer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They feel that this crisis makes us choose between personal economic survival and other\u2019s illness and death. In fact, it\u2019s even worse than that, because they also know that they are risking illness and death for themselves, their families, and their friends. But they are willing to take that \u201cblind\u201d risk, rather than suffer the more obvious economic catastrophes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yesterday I went on a rant about some of this. Some of my friends (and they still are my friends) are clinging to aberrant scientists, or conspiratorial \u201cinsiders\u201d, who are telling them what they want to hear. They\u2019re told it\u2019s all a lie, a fake crisis to achieve some dark underlying goal. They reminds me of the anti-industrialism movement of the late 1800\u2019s, where workers took their shoes, called \u201csabots,\u201d and threw them into the factory machinery. It’s where we get our current word \u201csabotage\u201d from, and it was a desperate attempt to stop progress. It didn\u2019t work then, and I don\u2019t think it will now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been many mistakes in this COVID-19 crisis.\u00a0\u00a0We were late, so late, in recognizing the danger that the virus represented.\u00a0\u00a0We didn\u2019t act in a way that secured our country.\u00a0\u00a0The November elections will in part, be all about how that was handled.\u00a0\u00a0We all will get to weigh in then.\u00a0\u00a0But there has also been a failure of imagination, an inability to think beyond our current processes, that has left many Americans in this desperate plight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s look at our unemployment process. Here in Ohio, we have a state unemployment compensation agency that in the past processed between 20,000 and 30,000 claims a month. December 2019 was 29,389. January 2020 claims were 25,603, February 2020 20,498. Then the crisis hit: March 2020 unemployment claims were 540,542. While final numbers for April aren\u2019t out yet, we know that there were closer to 600,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So why is there surprise and consternation that the state is having trouble processing unemployment claims? A system designed to handle tens of thousands is now trying to deal with hundreds of thousands. It wasn\u2019t designed for the load, and in this moment of crisis, with offices closed and workers socially distanced, isn\u2019t \u201cscaling up\u201d very well. The current process might not even be able to handle the volume with a full \u201cscale up\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another \u201cidea\u201d is to cut the payroll taxes so that employees have more money.\u00a0\u00a0But the problem isn\u2019t getting money to the employed; it\u2019s about how to get money to those who have lost their jobs because of the crisis.\u00a0\u00a0Cutting taxes on non-existent pay gives you that old equation (and song):\u00a0\u00a0\u201cnothing from nothing leaves nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And how about the PPP, the Payroll Protection Plan that was supposed to allow small businesses to keep employees on their payroll, even if the business has to close. The system is for the business to \u201cborrow\u201d money from the Small Business Administration, and then \u201cif\u201d they use the money to pay employees and essential bills, the loan would be forgiven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0It\u2019s not about the fact the \u201csmall\u201d businesses were defined as having 500 employees or less, and that well financed and funded organizations from the LA Lakers NBA team to Harvard University to Ruth Chris Steakhouse (home of a very expensive flat iron steak) took most of the first $350 billion (the Lakers and Harvard have since returned the money).\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s that there were so many businesses applying for funds.\u00a0\u00a0Chet\u2019s Auto here in Pataskala, with five employees got in line with everyone else but just like the unemployment process, the system was overwhelmed with the volume.\u00a0\u00a0And the amount of money, including the next $310 billion added in, isn\u2019t even close to covering the need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We tried to use existing systems, unemployment benefits and small business loans, to grease the process of getting money out. It wasn\u2019t a bad idea in principle. Why establish a whole new structure when one already exists? But it\u2019s the old fire hose analogy: you can\u2019t pump more water through a maxed out two-inch hose. You need a bigger hose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We have an existing bigger hose.\u00a0\u00a0We even used it for just a moment.\u00a0\u00a0The IRS moves trillions of dollars every year.\u00a0\u00a0They have a vast database of taxpayers.\u00a0\u00a0When we wanted to pump out $1200 per person, the IRS process worked better than anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen, we know that health insurance through employment works well for millions of people, but fails millions as well.\u00a0\u00a0The US model of using employment as the sole means of financing people isn’t even perfect in a “perfect world”.\u00a0\u00a0Whatever the Dow Jones Industrial Average was in January, we are in a \u201cperfect world\u201d no longer.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So let\u2019s take the money that the US Government is going to spend anyway \u2013 and skip the middleman. We have already dropped FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS \u2013 ($4,000,000,000,000 \u2013 just had to write that down). And right now, there\u2019s lots of money leaking out the tiny hoses along the way to the people who need it. We’ve got a direct main line, the tax information. Let\u2019s use it to establish a national wage until we can open up the nation SAFELY again. Then more Americans can feel secure about both their economic lives, and their health. They can take \u201cthe risk\u201d of dealing with the virus first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And they can stop throwing sabots.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"