RACINE, Wis. — On the eve of President Trump’s visit to Wisconsin, Opportunity Wisconsin hosted a virtual conversation with State Representative Greta Neubauer, Racine Alderman and Opportunity Wisconsin steering committee member Trevor Jung, and Yolonda ‘Yogi’ Blair, owner of Yogi’s Pud’n, to shine a light on the Trump Administration’s failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the real impact it’s having on Badger State residents.
“We have seen President Trump say, ‘This is about me, this is about my polls, this is about my ability to get out to the golf course’ and I think that it’s one of the most shameful moments we have seen in this country,” said Representative Neubauer.
“The realities of deep economic inequities of this country have really been laid bare. If people were able to have savings, we would not have to see so many people right now who are afraid to be evicted, afraid they won’t be able to afford food, medication, or clothes for their kid…It did not need to be this way. There are other countries that showed us that there are ways to keep folks on the payroll and businesses afloat and we have not done that.”
It’s been 116 days since President Trump said we’d soon have zero cases in the U.S. We now have 2.4 million cases and more than 123,000 deaths. This health and economic crisis didn’t have to be this bad.
“The city of Racine is doing what it can, but we have limited resources. We haven’t received guidance or aid from the federal government, and we are losing the battle to contain this disease especially because of absence of leadership at the federal level,” said Alderman Jung.
Last month, Opportunity Wisconsin sent a letter to Congressional leaders demanding support for working Wisconsinites in the HEROES Act. The letter included a demand for “robust financial assistance for small businesses across the state struggling to make ends meet, in place of the mismanaged Paycheck Protection Program, which has failed to actually deliver relief to small businesses.”
“President Trump wasn’t helpful when people needed it, and it’s too late now,” said Blair. “[The Paycheck Protection Program] was not thought out, it was rushed, it was just for show.”
What the economy actually needs to recover is a government that helps end this pandemic, helps workers and families keep their heads above the water, and starts to fix the underlying weaknesses that have made this crisis so much worse than it needed to be.
“Opening the economy is risking the lives of the very people [President Trump’s] claiming to champion,” said Alderman Jung.
VIEW/DOWNLOAD THE FULL CONVERSATION HERE
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