A

ssuming all things go as
planned without any exten-
sions, Gov. Gretchen Whit-

mer’s COVID-19 stay-at-home order
is set to end at 11:59 pm on June 12,
with certain industries such as auto
manufacturers being allowed to
partially reopen before then. This
extension is part of a carefully cre-
ated protocol, known as MI Safe
Start, which gradually eases stay-at-
home restrictions based on how well
COVID-19 cases are decreasing in the
state. While Whitmer’s COVID-19
response has been lauded as an effec-
tive way to enforce social distancing
after the state reopens fully with-
out conditions, many of Michigan’s
workers will face the harsh economic
realities that being away from work
has inflicted upon them.

While Whitmer’s most recent

order allows for manufacturing
workers specifically to go back to
work despite the stay-at-home exten-
sions, more needs to be done so job
holders in all fields can see some
degree of security. In order to make
sure that Michigan’s economy does
not tank in a manner consistent
with the sustained high unemploy-
ment and homelessness of the Great
Depression and the Great Recession,
the state government should boost
spending
significantly,
preparing

businesses to keep the workers they
already employ and making sure ten-
ants can pay rent without fear of evic-
tion.

For many Americans in Michigan

and elsewhere, working from home is
simply not an option. Including din-
ing staff, salespeople at non-essential

businesses like malls and department
stores and other industries, many
people are losing their jobs because
they are not allowed to report to work
due to stay-at-home orders. People
are also losing their jobs because busi-
ness revenues have plummeted due to
stay-at-home orders. Naturally, this
causes unemployment to rise dra-
matically. Many have also resigned
to avoid contracting COVID-19.

While there are reports of hun-

dreds or even thousands of firms
hiring workers in Michigan right
now, these numbers are quite decep-
tive as these businesses are in spe-
cific fields, like healthcare, which
do not cover all of the newly unem-
ployed. With regards to Michigan
specifically, the state’s unemploy-
ment numbers exceeded 1 million
workers filing for unemployment
benefits, which is around 21 percent
of the state’s workforce. This is up
from 180,000 people filing for ben-
efits before the COVID-19 outbreak,
a rate of about 4.3 percent. This is a
level not seen since the Great Depres-
sion and made Michigan the state
with one of the highest unemploy-
ment rates (8 percent above average)
in the country. While it is entirely
possible that many of these jobs will
return once the economy reopens
and businesses have in-person con-
sumers, many establishments have
gone out of business due to the afore-
mentioned lack of revenue.

In Michigan’s restaurant industry

alone, approximately 10 percent of
all restaurants in the state may have
closed permanently (precise hard
data is difficult to come by given the

pandemic) in the month of April. To
this end, Michigan legislators like
U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich.,
have supported and co-sponsored
legislation such as the Essential
Worker Protection Act, which calls
for a federal interagency task force
overseen by Cabinet members and
other high-level officials to super-
vise federal support of newly unem-
ployed manufacturing workers in
Michigan. This task force would also
supervise the allocation of credit to
businesses to make sure they, and
the jobs they provide, stay afloat
during this crisis.

Although Whitmer does not have

the individual power to authorize
this level of financial oversight,
working with the state legislature
to pass appropriations boosting the
funding already being considered at
the federal level would be an ideal
pathway to building a financial
safety net not just for manufactur-
ers, but for all industries who need
the money to keep their workers
employed. This will help ensure
an improved level of employment
growth and stability that can be sus-
tained after Michigan is reopened.

Even though Michigan’s govern-

ment temporarily halted evictions
for failing to pay rent with a March
executive order from Whitmer,
those who owe rent will be hit with
those bills the state reopens, even if
they don’t have a job yet.

4

Thursday, May 28, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
OPINION

420 Maynard St.

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at

the University of Michigan since 1890.

BRITTANY BOWMAN

Editorial Page Editor

Alanna Berger
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Brittany Bowman
Emily Considine
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board.

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

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Editor in Chief

EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS

TUHIN CHAKRABORTY | COLUMNIST

Tuhin Chakraborty can be reached at

tchakra@umich.edu.

Whitmer’s exit plan is key to Michigan’s recovery

P

residential nominees consider
a smorgasbord of factors when
mulling the vice-presidential

nomination question. Could the person
step into my shoes and effectively gov-
ern? Will the person excite the party
base and get it to the polls? Is the person
popular among independents and mod-
erates? Does the person have national
name recognition? Is the person a fun-
draising machine? Do I like and can I
work with the person? Does the person
have skeletons in the closet or severed
heads in the freezer?

There is one additional vital question:

Will the selection adversely alter the bal-
ance of power in the United States Sen-
ate?

Typically, the answer is no. But when

it’s not, when either it’s a yes or a maybe,
the hopes of that aspiring nominee are
usually dashed instantly. For this rea-
son, many folks have discounted the
possibility that former Vice President
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic
presidential nominee, will pick Sen. Eliz-
abeth Warren, D-Mass., for the Demo-
cratic VP spot. In the 2020 elections, the
Democrats could retake control of the
Senate and Massachusetts has a Repub-
lican governor, who would appoint her
replacement. So why would the Demo-
crats make retaking the Senate even
harder for themselves?

For Warren, the calculation is more

nuanced. And if Biden does want to run
with her, he can ignore the “maybe”
answer to the question, as long as War-
ren files her Senate resignation by June
23, 2020.

Let me explain. Each state decides,

via its election laws, how a U.S. Sen-
ate vacancy gets filled. In one group
of states, the sitting governor appoints
someone to serve until the end of the
vacating senator’s term. In a second
group, the governor makes an interim
appointment until a special election. A
third group of states fully circumvents
the governor and holds a special election
to fill the vacancy.

Since 2004, Massachusetts has fallen

into the second category. Before that,
Massachusetts fell into the first catego-
ry. Why the change? Because in 2004,
the Democratic Party nominated former
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for presi-
dent. If Kerry had won, he would have
resigned his Senate seat, precipitating
the appointment of his successor by the
sitting Republican Gov. Mitt Romney.
Prior to the 2004 election, the Senate had
51 Republicans and 48 Democrats (plus
one independent, who caucused with
the Democrats) — which meant every
seat mattered. But Kerry lost, returned
to the Senate, the Democrats lost a net of
four Senate seats and the law change had
no effect until five years later.

In August 2009, Sen. Ted Kennedy,

D-Mass., passed away. At that time, the

Democrats held a 60-vote, filibuster-
proof majority in the Senate (thanks
to former Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.,
switching parties in April 2009 and
former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., ulti-
mately winning the Minnesota Senate
seat in July 2009). Then Democratic
governor of Massachusetts, Deval
Patrick, appointed an interim senator,
Democrat Paul Kirk, to serve until the
February 2010 special election, which
Republican Scott Brown won, busting
the Democrats’ filibuster-proof major-
ity, which the Democrats have not
recovered from since.

Karma is a … well, we all know what

karma is.

Senate vacancies can matter, which

is why presidential nominees consider
them. House vacancies don’t matter
because… well, presidential nominees
rarely pick a House member for VP
and because vacant House seats are
filled via special election per Article I,
Section 2 of the Constitution. Sure, one
seat might flip the House. But in recent
history, since the 63rd Congress in 1913
when the number of representatives
increased to 435, a one-member party
change could only have flipped the
House during two Congresses (in the
65th Congress between 1917 and 1919
and at various points in the 72nd Con-
gress between 1931 and 1933).

Since 1932, presidential nominees

have chosen a sitting U.S. Senator as run-
ning mate 18 times.

Only two of these running mates

represented a state that had a governor
of the opposing party: 1988 Democratic
VP nominee Lloyd Bentsen, a senator
from Texas — of “Jack Kennedy was a
friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack
Kennedy” fame — and 2000 Demo-
cratic VP nominee Joe Lieberman, a
senator from Connecticut. In 1988, the
Democrats held a +10 seat advantage
in the Senate. Though the Democratic
presidential nominee, former Mas-
sachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, still
should not have risked losing a Demo-
cratic Senate seat. In 2000, Republi-
cans held a +10 seat advantage, but the
election netted the Democrats five
seats, which evenly split the Senate.
Had Al Gore won the presidency, his
vice presidential nominee, then Sen.
Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., would
have resigned his Senate seat, leaving
the Republican Connecticut governor
to appoint a Republican to replace him
(at least until a low turnout special elec-
tion with an uncertain outcome).

Elizabeth Warren must resign

ZACHARY SHEINBERG | OP-ED

Zachary Sheinberg is an attorney and

LEO intermittent lecturer at the University of

Michigan Ross and can be reached at

zachs@umich.edu.

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com