Our Leaders Need to Believe in Us: The American People
I’m so disappointed in Senator Lindsey Graham’s focus on the worst part of our humanity, the edge cases, the proverbial “bad apples”, rather than the overwhelming goodness of the American people. In an email I received from his office on March 27th, I read the following:
The CARES Act does contain a particularly egregious provision which I strongly opposed. The provision allows some individuals to make significantly more from unemployment benefits than they would working at a 40-hour a week job. I coauthored an amendment with Senator Ben Sasse to alter this provision to ensure that those who were forced out of work by the virus were made whole, but would not make more than they were making while working. Unfortunately, our effort to correct this provision was defeated by a vote of 48–48. I will continue working to correct it in the weeks to come.
In particular, what does “make significantly more” mean in terms of dollars? How many people make up the population of “some individuals?” These details were (purposefully?) omitted from the email, preventing intelligent people from coming to any fact-based opinions on the issue.
Without those facts to decide for myself whether I agree with his view, I’m left to make an uninformed opinion. So here it is: I don’t care.
If someone makes “significantly more” from unemployment benefits than working, how much can they possibly be making? I assume those folks are living paycheck to paycheck. So they get a couple of hundred extra bucks. Good for them!
God forbid those people sold stocks before the crash like some in Congress. Oh wait, they probably can’t afford to invest in the market. Maybe the Senator is worried the government won’t have the funds to pay for his next pay increase when he’ll vote a resounding “YEA!” Or perhaps the Senator is afraid of losing the money to pay for his free healthcare, which he’ll retain even after he leaves office.
I honestly don’t care about those who may or may not have sold stocks under questionable circumstances. And, I don’t care that Senators get free healthcare forever. I do care about our leaders making statements that are frankly, condescending, and offensive to the vast majority of good people who reside in this country.
I care about people in power using their authority to target those with the least and perpetuating the misguided rationale of evaluating personal character based on financial worth. Protection from dishonesty coming from Congress? In itself, that’s laughable.
Will a few “game” the system? Sure. Will those few get a couple of bucks more than they should? Yep. I’m still sticking with my original opinion: I. Don’t. Care.
There is a pandemic spreading throughout our country right now. I’m scared. People I know are scared. We are afraid of getting the virus, fearful about losing our jobs, scared about paying our bills if we’ve already lost our jobs, worried about how long it’s going to take our country to recover.
My friends and I are Senator Graham’s constituents, and we need and want to hear about hope, about the goodness of our neighbors, about American citizens coming together in a time of need. We need Senator Graham to lead from a position of positivity and belief in us, and faith in the American people.