Three heads shaking in unison.
Not angry faces.
Grimaces.
Resigned…communicating: “here we go again.”
I saw it up close.
The rare chance for everyday Ohioans to actually watch and hear how “The Man” makes his case…in person….against them and their interests.
Normally, “The Man” and the billionaires and oligarchs do their dirty work behind closed doors, or when no one’s watching (or can see). Or they bury their decisions and arguments under an avalanche of misinformation and confusion.
But in this case, “The Man” was forced to make his case against everyday Ohioans in the wide open. And these Ohioans took the time and drove the distance to watch it happen, in person, as “The Man'“ worked so hard to screw them over. Again.
And with a back row seat, I too couldn’t help but shake my head.
This scene played out in a Columbus courtroom. But in an age of billionaires and their politicians trampling over the interests of everyday Americans, it really is playing out everywhere. Just not so plainly, in the wide open, as it did here.
The Background
What’s the scene I witnessed first hand?
The State of Ohio (Governor Mike DeWine, through Attorney General Dave Yost) was attempting to convince a judge to delay—even longer—allowing 300,000 Ohioans to access federal unemployment benefits they are owed by the federal government from the days of COVID.
After years of the State illegally denying them access to those benefits, an action which was once again confirmed as illegal by a judge a few weeks back, here the state was trying to delay paying for even longer.
At first, years ago, the state’s argument was that it didn’t have a responsibility to connect Ohioans to these federal benefits to which they are entitled (as Americans). But Ohio law makes it clear that the state has a duty to “secure” these benefits. It can’t just cut its citizens off from those benefits.
Because of this clear law, the state lost its initial argument multiple times.
Now the state is even more desperate, and running out of arguments.
So this time, the state basically said: it’s complicated. Specifically, here’s what the state’s lawyers argued as Ohioans watched from a few feet away:
First, it will be really hard to find the people who are owed the dollars that Ohio illegally deprived them of.
The “system” that handled those payments back when Ohio first began violating the law “is not operating anymore,” the lawyers told the judge. And, if I heard it right, the contractor who handled that system is no longer there.
Next, the lists of claimants (the ones victimized by the state’s illegal action) is really long, they argued.
“There were a lot of claimants of those funds,” and there’s not a “practical way for [the state] to get an updated list.”
Plus, that list of who is owed is “four years out of date,” full of “old contact information.”
Finally, the state dangled the argument that the state would be saddled with major costs if it tries to track down all those it wronged in order to facilitate the required payments: “That would cost the state of Ohio thousands, potentially millions of dollars.”
Head Shaking
And it was amid all this that the three people in front of me shook their head.
And I didn’t blame them.
After all, the whole point of this hearing was the state of Ohio was the one caught breaking the law. 300,000 Ohioans are owed $900 million collectively, and the state kept that from happening.
So….if the “system” is shut down, it’s because the State shut it down. Illegally.
If time passing has made the contact information of all those people dated, that’s the state’s fault too.
If the list of claimants to track down is very long, well, that’s because the state screwed over that many Ohioans.
If four years have passed, it’s because the state has avoided following the law all that time.
And if there’s a cost to remedying the problem, the state is to blame because they broke the law.
So yes, it was maddening to watch the state place the burden of their own illegal actions and its consequences on the very people they wrongfully deprived. The argument boiled down to: “Your honor, we shouldn’t have to pay them yet because our illegal act impacted so many people, so long ago, that it’s going to be really hard to undo all the damage we caused.”
In Their Words
But the three Ohioans in front of me had an even better response than my lawyerly reactions.
After the hearing, I talked to two of them—a couple from outside Dayton. A third gentleman, going through a personal bankruptcy, had to leave.
I’ll call them Diane and Doug, to protect their privacy. Diane is part of the class who sued after Ohio’s illegal action. She was laid off from her health care job amid the pandemic, and also had to stay away from work because she is immunocompromised. This made her eligible for the extended unemployment benefits that came from the CARES Act.
Doug, her husband, was there to support her.
“Its been almost four years,” Diane told me. “I still can’t believe from the very beginning that they would do this.”
That’s when Doug chimed in: “I was a supporter of DeWine too….They just decided not to pay.” ‘Um, sorry,” he said in a mocking tone, impersonating “The Man.”
I mentioned that I saw them shaking their heads about the state’s excuses for more delay even after losing. That it was a long and out-of-date list, and that it would cost the state dollars to track everyone down.
And that’s when Diane laughed: “if we owed [the state] money, they sure would find us.”
And of course, she was absolutely correct!
When the state is collecting money owed by everyday Ohioans, it knows how to find them and it gets the money. Letters, phone calls, pressure tactics. Often imposing fines and interest on Ohioans who take too long to pay. You don’t get to tell the story—“sorry, the issue is moot!”
But when everyday Ohioans are owed money the state illegally blocked them from accessing, gee whiz, apparently it’s just too complicated and too expensive to figure how who these people are to be made whole.
Four years later, Diane and Doug are still waiting.
Doug explained to me that the absurdity of it all just sends the clear message: “Nobody cares about you. That’s pretty wrong.”
I then asked Diane and Doug about how they would use the funds that are now caught up in the Department of Labor—and are at risk of being swiped by Elon Musk’s quest for dollars to pay for billionaire tax cuts.
Her answer: “I can buy some eggs now.”
She chuckled and added: “That’s $3K during a very difficult time. Especially with all the grocery prices. I’m putting groceries on the credit card right now.”
Doug chimed in: “It’s righting a wrong.”
The Decision
Two hours later, the judge issued an order.
He didn’t credit the state’s excuses above. And he conceded that he believed “a partial stay is in the best interest of all parties”—by which he meant he was sympathetic to the plaintiffs, and wished he could kick-start some aspect of the payment process as the state appeals.
But he ultimately concluded that precedent required him to issue the complete stay (ie. the delay) the state asked for.
So “The Man” wins again.
The state doesn't even have to begin the process of trying to secure dollars owed to Diane, Doug and 300,000 other Ohioans. Which of course only means that months more will pass, the contact information will be even more dated, and it will be even harder and more expensive to track down all the folks wronged by the state.
And Diane, Doug and those 300,000 other Ohioans—who would use the $3,000 largely to buy groceries and meet other daily needs—will simply wait even longer.
All the while hoping that as Elon Musk scours the federal coffers for money to bankroll billionaire tax cuts, he doesn’t set his sights on their funds and swipe them.
Symbolic
Those three shaking heads. Those three grimaces.
“Here we go again.”
It’s all bigger than this case.
As Medicaid gets cut, as workers go through the ringer thanks to a billionaire takeover, as universal vouchers pay for well-off families to go to private schools while public schools are defunded, as tax cuts boost those at the high end but down below, taxes and prices go up amid monopolies and tariffs…
…those three Ohioans summed it all up.
But before dealt another setback even when they’re in the right and proved it(!), they at least got to see a glimpse of how it all plays out when they’re not in the room:
“If we owed money, they sure would find us,” Diane told me.
Exactly!
Diane understands “The Man” better than anybody.
Day 86 — February 25, 2025
The White House announced a new policy that it will choose which reporters are selected to be part of the press pool that covers and travels with the president—as opposed to the journalists themselves, the long-standing practice.
The implications of the change are self-evident, but here are some reactions:
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