Don’t Let The Whitmer Administration Memory Hole What They Did To You

Polling Shows Democrats Are About To Lose Power, They Desperately Want You To Forget About Everything That Happened In The Last 3 Years

“Gretchen Whitmer wants to distract voters and re-write history when it comes to her disastrous lockdowns that kept children out of the classroom and shuttered livelihoods,” said Gustavo Portela, MIGOP Communications Director. “Our lack of economic progress started before the pandemic began and has only gotten worse thanks to her policies while in office. Michiganders won’t forget her failure to keep the promises she made to voters and will vote to retire Whitmer this fall, electing a new Republican governor to bring opportunity and prosperity to all.”

Now We Know That Whitmer Has Learned Absolutely Nothing Over The Last Few Years 

·         Today marks the two-year anniversary of the start of the Whitmer lockdowns

• On Monday, Whitmer was asked by WDIV to reflect on how she handled COVID-19 and when asked if she would have done anything differently, Whitmer blew the question off.
• It appears that Whitmer has learned nothing from her mistakes and if reelected would not hesitate to lock the state down again.

Whitmer Shut Down The State’s Economy 

• The Whitmer Administration violated the constitutional rights of Michiganders in the name of public health through arbitrary rules.
  • Whitmer forced draconian, confusing, and arbitrary rules on Michiganders and businesses in the name of public health.
  • Whitmer ordered the shutdown of all restaurants, bars, theaters, libraries, gyms, casinos and other “places of amusement.”
  • Businesses operating outside were forced to close such as car washes, golf courses, landscaping companies and drive-in movie theaters.
  • Whitmer neglected to declare the auto industry an essential industry during COVID-19.
    • Whitmer even threatened to shut down auto plants if residents did not follow her mask orders .
• When the Pandemic hit in February 2020, Whitmer’s reckless and arbitrary business shutdown wreaked havoc on the state economy, causing Michigan to fall into a much deeper recession than the country as a whole.
  • The unemployment rate in Michigan skyrocketed 19.9 percentage points to a record high of 23.3 percent.
  • Nationally, unemployment only surged 11.3 percentage points and peaked at 14.8 percent
  • 37 percent of all small businesses in the state were forced to close – a much higher rate than the country as a whole.
    • As of January 2022, 7.9 percent of small businesses never came back.
    • Small business income dropped 57.4 percent during the pandemic.
• According to an April 2021 study sponsored by Facebook, 36 percent of small businesses in Michigan laid off staff during the pandemic with 56 percent of those small businesses reported that they laid off half or more of their staff.
  • 66 percent of small businesses in Michigan saw a reduction in sales over 10 percent.
• Today, the economy has still not recovered from the lockdowns:
  • 152,000 jobs, representing nearly 15 percent of the total jobs lost during the lockdowns, have still not been recovered.
  • There are still 22,500 manufacturing jobs, 7,800 retail jobs and 36,500 leisure and hospitality jobs that never recovered from the lockdowns.
• Unemployment is still up more than a percentage point from its March 2020 low.

Michigan Paid Out $8.5 Billion In Fraudulent Or Improper Unemployment Claims 

• The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) improperly paid out $8.5 billion in fraudulent or ineligible claims.
  • This was more than 20 percent of all money paid out by UIA.
• UIA knowingly paid out thousands of fraudulent claims after getting the fraud investigation unit.
  • Some fraudulent claims had names such as “Kimberly Kardashian” and “Kylie Jenner.”
  • Agency fraud protocols were lowered “intentionally.”
    • The UIA gutted their fraud investigation unit sending staffers to work call centers for nearly two months cannibalizing their ability to investigate fraud.
  • ID verification procedures were changed and were conducted over the phone instead of using the official forms and procedures for two months.
• UIA Director Steve Gray resigned in disgrace in November 2020.
  • It was later revealed he was paid $85,000 in hush money to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
  • House Oversight Chairman Steve Johnson (R-Wayland): “This is a public official being bought off with taxpayer dollars … what I want to know is, what are they hiding.”
• The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) reported that UIA did not run preemployment background checks on staff and as a result UIA employed 47 workers who had felony records including convictions for embezzlement and fraud.
  • In 2020, a lead claims investigator was arrested for stealing $1 million in pandemic funds.

Whitmer’s Lockdown Derailed Our Kids’ Educations

• Whitmer locked down our kids, depriving them of in-person learning for two years.
• Whitmer promised to bring back in-person learning by March 2021 but students in numerous cities like Flint, Ann Arbor, Detroit , Battle Creek and Lansing were still closed in early 2022.
• The impacts of the lockdowns were devastating:
  • The Education Policy Innovation Collaborate found that student progress slowed during the pandemic.
    • Math and reading scores lagged pre-pandemic levels.
    • Many pre-existing achievement gaps grew wider.
    • Black and Latino students fell further behind.
    • Students that lived in districts that offered in-person instruction outperformed those that were shut out of the classroom.
  • Failing grades rose 20 percent in elementary and middle schools and 35 percent among high-schoolers.
    • The surge in failures caused one school district to eliminate failing grades.
• Graduation rates fell in 2021.
• Child abuse and domestic violence skyrocketed during the lockdowns.
  • Instances of child rape, abuse and incest rose during the shutdown according to the national network hotline.
• Children with disabilities such as ADHD had a difficult time adjusting to a lack routine that comes with a normal school day.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics did not want to keep kids out of the classroom.
• Whitmer forced kids as young as two years old to wear face masks while on public transportation, at day care centers, summer camps and even while playing sports.

Despite Suffocating Our Kids, Whitmer Failed To Protect Our Most Vulnerable Population – Senior Citizens

• Whitmer ignored warnings from the Healthcare Association of Michigan (Nursing Home Association) who advised Whitmer to isolate COVID-19 infected nursing home residents from the general population.
  • Whitmer ignored the warnings and kept COVID-19 positive patients in the same facility.
  • Data was available in April 2020 that showed nursing home deaths were rising.
  • In July 2020, Whitmer vetoed a bill requiring COVID-19 positive patients to be transferred out of their nursing home to keep healthy residents safe.
• In December 2020, Whitmer vetoed legislation which would join Michigan in a 34-state nursing license reciprocity compact allowing Michigan to recognize out-of-state nurses and allow them to practice in Michigan.
  • The Michigan Nurses Association President Julia Schneider blasted the veto saying “participation in the compact would have been particularly helpful during the current COVID pandemic, as it would support needed nurse staffing in Michigan.”
• The Office Of The Auditor General (OAG) found that Michigan health officials unreported long-term care facility and nursing home deaths by 42 percent.
  • The report found that Michigan health officials chose not report patients who left a long-term health care facility with COVID-19 who were not expected to return to the facility and later died in the hospital.
  • Nursing homes were only required to report the total number of deaths and did not have to provide the names, date of birth, date of death or social security numbers of the deceased.
  • Nearly 2,400 nursing home deaths were not reported.
  • There were 8,061 deaths related to long-term care facilities between January 2020 and July 2021.

Polling Shows That The Democrats Are Facing A Tough Election And Could Get Wiped Out – They Are Desperate For You To Forget What They Did To You And Your Kids 

• The Cook Political Report has the Michigan Gubernatorial Election as a tossup

• A Detroit News Poll in January showed that Michiganders have a bleak view of the state’s future.
  • 48 percent of respondents said Michigan is on the wrong track compared to only 36 percent saying the state is on the right track.
  • If the election was held today, Whitmer would lose to a generic Republican and Republicans have not even picked their candidate yet.
  • Only 40 percent of respondents would commit to re-elect her with more respondents preferring the state is led by someone else.
  • Michiganders may like Whitmer personally but they also think she is bad at her job and want to explore alternatives.
• After the election of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, who won an upset victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe, Larry Sabado lamented that we were witnessing a potential foreshadow of the 2022 gubernatorial elections.