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
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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

