Following the election, Republican officials, from Trump on down, talked non-stop about how the American people are intensely focused on getting by, rising costs and overall economic well-being.
And I don’t disagree with that.
But what staggers me is how those same politicians continue to take proactive steps to make things more difficult, everyday life more costly, and further squeeze everyday Americans who are already struggling.
It’s happening nationally, as Trump pushes measures that will increase costs on everything from groceries to health care.
And it’s happening at the state level too. In my state of Ohio, trickle-down economics and corruption are leading to higher property taxes and rising energy rates.
And just this week, Ohio officials were caught VIOLATING Ohio law to deprive Ohioans of benefits to which they were legally entitled. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of Ohioans, denied thousands of dollars. Each.
It’s a stunning violation of both the law and the public trust. At an even more stunning scale.
Here’s what happened:
The Law
There is an Ohio law (ORC 4141.43(I)), thank goodness, that commands that the state (through the director of Job and Family Services) “shall secure to this state and its citizens all advantages available under” various “provisions of the "Social Security Act" that relate to unemployment compensation.
In short, this law makes it clear that when federal law provides certain “advantages” (benefits) to citizens of Ohio (who, after all, are also Americans), it is the legal duty of Ohio officials to secure those benefits for eligible Ohioans.
In layman’s terms: if you represent Ohio, you must go to bat for Ohioans.
You just can’t say no because you feel like it.
By the way, you’d hope there wouldn’t need to be a law to say this.
But, again…thank goodness there is one.
Because…
…They Broke It
When COVID turned our lives—and many of our jobs—upside down, one of the things that politicians of all stripes (in DC, at least) agreed on was that Americans needed support to get through the crisis.
That’s one reason why Republicans and Democrats came together to increase unemployment benefits. In March 2020, Donald Trump signed that increase—part of the CARES Act—the same day it passed the House. The federal government immediately worked with states like Ohio to ensure that eligible Americans received this bipartisan unemployment, which began to happen. Later, Congress amended the benefits to provide $300 per week per eligible workers, for the period December 27, 2020 to September 6, 2021
It turns out, this added unemployment was an “advantage” that fell directly within the law I mentioned above. So under ORC 4141.43(I), Ohio officials shouldered the legal duty “to secure to this state and its citizens” that benefit.
Again, my caveman lawyer translation: you represent Ohio, so you have a duty to secure that federal benefit for eligible Ohioans. That’s your job, and your legal duty.
But what did Ohio do?
Despite this clear legal duty, Governor DeWine announced in May of 2021 that Ohio would no longer work with the federal government to secure this clear benefit for eligible Ohioans—even though the law required that DeWine and the director of Job and Family Services do so.
They cut Ohioans off and broke the law.
Courts Step In
Thankfully, those who the state illegally cut off from benefits got together and sued.
After a lengthy legal process, where the appeals court concluded that Governor DeWine “had a clear legal duty…to continue participation in the extended Federal Unemployment Benefits,” a district court this past week ordered that the State do its duty and ensure Ohioans receive the benefits wrongfully denied them. The loss of these benefits is causing “significant and irreparable injury” to those Ohioans for which it was denied.
The good news is that is it also clear that the funds for this federal unemployment benefit are still available—set aside by the original law and housed within the United States Department of Labor.
So the Court ordered the state to take all action necessary to reinstate Ohio’s participation in the extended unemployment extension from those available federal funds—covering the period from June 2021 to September 2021, when the federal extension expired.
So, how many Ohioans were wronged by the state’s illegal action?
It turns out, 300,000(!) Ohioans were deprived of the benefit in that June through September 2021 time period. And at $300 per week, across all those weeks, that means everyday Ohioans were illegally deprived of almost $1 billion by their own state government.
And as their attorney Marc Dann pointed out, these aren’t just any 300,000 Ohioans. They are among the state’s poorest:
“I bet you 95% of the class members don't have $400 in the bank for an emergency, at least that's based on the data that's out there…This money will come in, and they'll pay their bills, they'll pay for $7 eggs for their kids for a few weeks. And hopefully, they will benefit from it.”
The Question: Will the State Keep Fighting?
Unless…
Not only did the state break the law in the first place, the state and its attorneys have been fighting making these Ohioans whole ever since.
First, they tried to argue they didn't have a duty to stand up for everyday Ohioans in the first place. They lost that argument. But even then, they’ve been dragging things out ever since.
Now the key question is: will they still keep fighting 300,000 everyday Ohioans from receiving a federal boost they are entitled to?
More specifically, will the Governor and the sitting Attorney General—who is running for Governor—keep fighting everyday Ohioans even now by appealing (to a court who already ruled against them once)?
Time is of the essence here, by the way. As the court found, the federal money is currently available pursuant to the original law. The worry is that the new Administration is looking for any funds possible to pay for a new round of tax cuts for billionaires. And the monies owed to these Ohioans will emerge as a juicy piggy bank from which to take funds for those billionaire tax cuts. Money from Ohio’s poorest to America’s richest.
And they will no doubt try to justify it by saying— “oh, that money is still there and hasn’t been used.”
To which the response is: “well, $900M of it hasn’t been used because Ohio broke the law.”
A Pattern
This comes the same week that the media reported that Governor DeWine’s proposed budget includes a “trigger” that might cut an additional 700,000 Ohioans off Medicaid entirely if federal Medicaid funding falls beneath a certain level. Which, again, could very well happen from the same zeal to find cuts to afford tax cuts for billionaires.
As Dr. Amy Acton pointed out in a tweet yesterday, cutting off Medicaid for that many Ohioans will not only throw their life into chaos, it will increase health care costs for everyone:
Bottom line: when it comes to everyday Americans trying to get by, these actions speak far louder than their hollow words. Needless to say, actions like this are happening way beyond Ohio.
Day 75 — February 14, 2025
Seven more DOJ prosecutors resigned rather than participate in dismissing corruption charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams in what looks to be a clear quid pro quo (in exchange for the Mayor advancing administration policy on immigration.)
One of those who resigned penned a scorching letter explaining his decision: “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
And in case some try to dismiss Mr. Scotten as a left-leaning figure, he clerked for both John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh:
In the meantime, Vice President Vance shamed himself on the world stage as he lectured European countries on the weakness of their democracies and amplified Russian talking points. Both his offensive tone and words earned a swift rebuke from other leaders:
It’s hard to imagine any Western European country considering us an ally at this point.
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