Evers puts out a plan to deal with COVID World. WisGOP responds with...nothing

You keep waiting for things to stop getting worse in regards to COVID-19 in Wisconsin, and it just doesn't happen. Today set another notorious record.

Your #COVIDWI_19 update shows a record number reported since yesterday of hospitalizations at 318 and deaths at 92. The 7-day average of new deaths reported has increased 880% in two months. Dig into the #data and please, help #StopTheSpread: https://t.co/3WmxIaBc1c pic.twitter.com/8DQnIBSY3h

— WIDeptHealthServices (@DHSWI) November 17, 2020

In light of this, Governor Evers unveiled his package of legislative changes to deal with the pandemic. Many of Evers' provisions simply extend rule changes that were put in place as COVID broke out and hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites lost their jobs.

The governor's plan would let the Department of Health Services issue an order prohibiting eviction or foreclosure actions for any period of time before Jan. 1, 2022.

It would fund community testing, contact tracing, vaccinations and public awareness related to COVID-19, although the exact amount of state funding would vary greatly depending on whether the federal government extends its funding.

Evers' plan would prevent insurers from capping coverage on prescription drugs that expired earlier this year.

Schools would no longer have to complete state assessments and report cards for the current school year under the governor's plan.

You can look at Evers’ plans by clicking here. There are also several other health measures in Evers' bill, including:

1. Requiring health plans that cover certain services in-person, to also cover those services if they are offered via telehealth.

2. Requiring that individuals pay zero out of pocket for “…every health insurance policy and every self-insured governmental health plan that generally covers testing for and treatment of infectious disease to provide coverage of testing for, diagnosis and treatment of, and administration of any vaccination developed to prevent COVID-19.”

3. Prevent individuals from being charged higher prices if they have to use an out-of-network provider to get diagnosis or treatment related to COVID, and their in-network provider is shut down. The state will help to pay the difference to providers.

There also are several unemployment-related provisions that re-establish laws from the Spring. This includes removing the work search requirements for people that are laid off, eliminating the 1-week waiting period for people to get unemployment benefits, continuing the expansion and easing of requirements for employers to put in work-share programs. Evers' bill will also allow Wisconsinites to receive both Federal disability benefits, and to receive unemployment benefits.

In addition, many of the costs in Evers' proposal has a subtext of “we need federal help because it costs us a lot of money to do what needs to be done."

Which makes some kind of extension/renewal of the CARES Act all the more necessary in the next 6 weeks. Because if that money runs out (as it is slated to do at the end of 2020), it will be near impossible for the states and local governments to continue doing what they’re doing without having to make cuts in other areas that are in need during the COVID World.

There is one additional item that Evers wants to use taxpayer dollars for, and that’s an additional $75 million in (unspecified) grants to small business. This would likely be something similar to what the Evers Administration has already been doing in the We’re All In program, and other bailout funds like today’s announcement of who is getting the $10 million in CARES money that is designated for Wisconsin movie theatres. Naturally, the gerrymandered GOP Legislature planned their own public event to respond, and discuss their ideas on how to attack COVID in the coming months. Well, at least that's what they were SUPPOSED to do.

Vos says Republican lawmakers don't have any bills drafted.

— Molly Beck (@MollyBeck) November 17, 2020

Then a certain Senator Dumbass from Delafield decided Robbin' Vos couldn't get the award for dumbest and most callous GOP of the day.

Kapenga said he didn’t like some of the main provisions of Evers’ legislation, such as banning evictions and foreclosures and continuing to suspend the waiting period to receive unemployment benefits.

“I’m not real keen on that stuff,” he said.

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) November 17, 2020

Sen. @chriskapenga: “I don’t think it’s a good idea for (@GovEvers) to be what I consider fear mongering. I think it’s OK to have a healthy respect for what’s going on with COVID and I think people can make their own decisions on that.”

— Patrick Marley (@patrickdmarley) November 17, 2020

Really, Kap? You think leaving Wisconsinites to make their own decisions on how to handle COVID is working out for us? On a day when 92 Wisconsinites die, over 1,400 are dead since October 1, and nearly 100,000 new COVID cases have been diagnosed in November so far?

And yet, voters kept 61 of 63 Assembly seats in the GOP’s hands, and actually gave them 2 MORE seats in the State Senate. I know gerrymandering is a big hurdle, but COME ON, at some point don’t you just fire people for sucking at their jobs and not caring about what's happening to their constituents? Or setting fire to torches, grab a pitchfork, and head to their houses?

The lack of accountability for WisGOPs' laziness and arrogance goes a long way toward explaining why COVID-19 continues to get worse as typical November weather keeps more Wisconsinites inside. And me and a whole lot of others in the "thinking and decency" parts of the state are out of patience with the way these mediocrities drag the rest of us down.