Which is to say, as little as required by their gerrymandered laws. “We are pleased to report that the unemployment rate for Oklahoma fell to 4 percent for May 2021 ... Pre-pandemic in February of 2020 the state’s unemployment rate was at 3.1 percent. This indicates there is still room for improvement in helping people rejoin the state workforce,” Oklahoma Employment Security Commission Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt told the Tulsa World.
In order to cattle prod people out of the house and into the labor market, “Stitt announced May 17 that he was canceling the state’s participation in temporary federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs, including a $300 weekly payment,” the Tulsa World reported.
Stitt doesn’t have the balls to say the quiet part out loud, so we will: In a period of unparalleled social and economic tumult, he is betting that one percent of people still needing a hand are really just a bunch of lazy, greedy bastards sprawled on their sofas surrounded by empties rather than the single parents, gig-workers, artist types and every other person, who on one level or another were left with a world decimated by the professional and personal tsunami that washed over each and every one of us in the last 16 months. Some of us happened to end up on higher ground than others. But Republicans can’t even be bothered to toss a rope.
Please remember this at the ballot box next year — Stitt doesn’t care about your welfare. He couldn’t care less about your neighbor’s either. The only welfare he wants is the one your labor creates: corporate.
