Just one week before election day and two weeks before the Supreme Court begins hearing arguments to overturn the Affordable Care Act, the Senate voted to confirm Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In response, Florida Democratic Party Chair Terrie Rizzo released the following statement:
“Republicans in the Senate, including Florida’s own Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, just voted to strip health care from millions of Floridians in the midst of a pandemic. Donald Trump has made it perfectly clear that he hopes this Justice will overturn the Affordable Care Act, ending protections for eight million Floridians with pre-existing conditions.
“Everything is at stake in this election and as Floridians, we have the power to elect a president who will fight to improve health care, not take it away. Make your voice count and vote early for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
During his 60 Minutes interview, Donald Trump said his mythical health care plan “is going to be announced very soon…when we see what happens with Obamacare.” After nearly four years in office, Trump again admitted that he does not have a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act if the Supreme Court sides with him and strikes it down.
Trump’s Closing Message: Please Ignore My Terrible Jobs Record
As we enter the final stretch of the election, Donald Trump is running on the worst jobs record of any president in modern history. And it isn’t close. Trump’s failed response to the coronavirus pandemic has not only put hundreds of thousands of Floridians out of work, but also put frontline workers in harm’s way without adequate resources to protect themselves.
Even before Trump’s foundering during this historic crisis, job growth was slower in Trump’s first three years than it was under the economy he inherited from President Obama. While Trump prioritized inflating the coffers of Wall Street and his Mar-a-Lago buddies, he left workers behind and attacked organized labor.
Let’s review Trump’s record of failing Florida’s workers.
Trump said he’d be the “greatest jobs president that God ever created,” but he’s didn’t deliver
- Trump’s failure to get coronavirus under control has hurt America’s labor market recovery and cost millions of jobs compared to other industrialized countries.
- Since the pandemic hit, nearly 4 million Floridians have experienced job loss at some point. Florida’s notoriously cheap and malfunctioning unemployment system makes the unemployment crisis especially painful for workers struggling to pay the bills and feed their families.
- Florida has lost more than 450,000 jobs compared to September 2019
- Florida continues to hemorrhage jobs on Trump’s watch, with tens of thousands more Floridians applying for unemployment every week.
- Job growth was slower in Trump’s first three years than it was under the economy he inherited from President Obama.
Not only did Trump oversee record job loss, he failed to help workers get through the crisis
- Trump allowed federal unemployment insurance to expire because he refused to make a deal with Democrats, who proposed a plan in May to provide additional federal help.
- Trump’s weak executive order did nothing for Florida’s workers because the state’s unemployment insurance system is so broken it did not qualify for the federal program.
Trump attacked organized labor, undermining workplace safety and job training
- Trump has issued multiple executive orders that restrict federal unions’ ability to represent their members. Some of the provisions included in the orders include reducing union release time and kicking unions out of their offices in government buildings.
- Trump has gotten rid of several OSHA safety standards and reduced the number of investigations that OSHA is taking part in.
- Trump has used the NLRB to crack down on unionization and issue anti-labor decisions.
- Trump has undermined programs that ensure workplace safety and support job training for workers.
Trump failed to provide adequate resources to frontline workers as the coronavirus pandemic hit, breaking his promises to American workers
- Trump ignored a 69-page National Security Council playbook that said the Administration should have begun procuring personal protective equipment in January.
- Trump wasted months by failing to ramp up medical supplies needed to keep health care workers and patients safe. As a result, many nursing homes and hospitals in Florida and across the country didn’t have the personal protective equipment they needed many months into this crisis
- President Trump’s sparing use of the Defense Production Act has left frontline workers struggling to protect themselves throughout the pandemic.
- As the virus spread in late March, Trump declared that states “have to get that gear themselves.”
There are countless stories of Florida’s frontline workers lacking the supplies they needed for months of this health crisis
- NBC Miami: ‘South Florida nurses joined in a nationwide protest Wednesday morning calling for more protection on the job in their battle with the coronavirus pandemic.” [August 5]
- Orlando Weekly: “Central Florida nurses are fighting the pandemic with very little personal protection” [April 8]
- Orlando Sentinel: “Orlando area nurses and health-care workers at HCA Healthcare hospitals are raising concerns about lack of personal protective equipment as the company reports $1.1 billion in net income in April, May and June, including $822 million from the CARES Act.” [July 31]
- Tampa Bay Times: “Nurses for HCA Healthcare are raising concerns about unsafe working conditions at three Pinellas County hospitals, alleging the company has not provided adequate staffing or protective equipment through the coronavirus pandemic.” [July 15]
- Bradenton Herald: “Nurses complained about the lack of protective gear in an environment where they aren’t even being told who may be COVID-19 positive. The hospital has since told all staff to wear masks, but they are surgical masks, which nurses say do not protect them from the coronavirus.” [April 2]