My column for the Washington County Daily News is online and in print. It’s not often that I find myself on the same side as the editorial board for the Madison paper. Here’s s snippet:
After Governor Tony Evers failed the unemployed of Wisconsin with his inept management of unemployment claims, he is compounding Wisconsin’s misery with his failure to administer the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. What is more infuriating is that when questioned about it, Evers blusters and obfuscates with all the indignation of a career bureaucrat unacquainted with accountability.
[…]
Last week, Governor Evers admitted that his administration would be unable to begin inoculating the general public until June – over five months from now. It is a disgraceful admission of failure given with the banality of an indifferent government bureaucrat.
[…]
This subcommittee still needs to finalize Phase 1B before moving on to Phase 1C, Phase 2, etc. These are decisions that could be made in an afternoon. While Wisconsinites are suffering and being told that there is a medical crisis, Evers’ bureaucracy moves at its own pace – oblivious to the travails of the citizens it serves.
[…]
When confronted for his administration’s failures, Evers blames the federal government for not giving the state enough doses (despite having administered less than half of the doses available); blames Republicans; makes vigorous, if unsubstantiated, proclamations about the competence of his government; and refuses to accept any responsibility for his administration’s failures. However, despite his accusations and deflections, the simple truth is that Evers has failed to administer the doses Wisconsin has already been given.
Evers’ administration of the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been too slow, too bureaucratic, and too lazy. While Wisconsinites are being asked to forgo their livelihoods, upend their lives, and accept a retardation of civil rights in response to a pandemic, Governor Evers and his administration are behaving like it is just a another day at the office.
Another liberal failure.
Liberals fail, people die.
News Flash!! My wife and I just scheduled our vaccinations for next Wednesday. I’ll let you all know about the side effects.
Who cares.
And you thank President Trump for the vaccine.
Owen,
Do you have any evidence to suggest that Evers is responsible for the unemployment claims?
The J.S. has taken Evers side saying:
1) There is no money in accounts to use to improve the system
2) The Republicans are blocking Evers requests for more money (no one denies this)
3) Their were problems under Walker’s administration and he passed the buck.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/13/tony-evers-seeks-5-million-begin-overhauling-unemployment-system/6654582002/
Max, common sense tells you the Evers bunch was derelict and incompetent.
1) EVERYBODY knew by March 1 that there would be horrific layoffs coming. No change in operating hours or personnel at DWD.
2) The system may be old, but it ran just fine until Evers decided to blame it. How come it’s working NOW if it’s such a piece of crap?
Instead of increasing availability of on-line terminals for filing claims, Evers & Co. closed DWD offices around the state, leaving claimants ONLY a phone-option. Then DWD simply didn’t answer the phones.
All the jazz about ‘restrictions passed by Republicans’ is foofoo dust. They were NOT relevant to the problem which was simple: Evers didn’t give a shit and neither did the moron he appointed to run DWD.
I am listening Dad29, but it is not common sense. Both sides are blaming each other.
“under Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s administration, an audit showed the system at one point blocked up to 80% of calls because of the system’s limits during times of higher unemployment — an infuriating experience for callers that surfaced again in 2020”
From the article I have read most people who are having trouble receiving claims needed some sort of adjudication, which required a human.
The more I think about it the more difficult a problem it is. If there are not enough people to process unemployment claims, it might not be as simple as hiring more people. The job requires a lot of training about internal government procedures. Also while they may need a lot of people to process job claims right now, what type of job security are the new hires likely to have?
If they hire a bunch of new people are we willing them to keep them on long term knowing we may be paying them for doing very little work?
Is it true that DWD offices were closed? If so which ones and why? Did they close them to prevent the spread of COVID or because they in areas they thought that DWD workers might be targeted if claims got denied and conditions were bad?
State vaccination tracker. See which states are further down the path to herd immunity.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
You never heard of contractors? The State is crawling with them in IT–and other–positions. B the way, that’s exactly what they did–several months too late.
As to ‘not enough people’–how about some good old-fashioned forced overtime? Open the lines from 6A until 8P, reducing the per-minute load Little Union prettyboys don’t like that, but….
Little Tin-Pot would NEVER ask State employees to work overtime. We know who’s important to him.
The problem was the “management”, not the systems.