Ohio unemployment when Trump took office: 3.8 percent
Ohio unemployment now: 7.7 percent
Washington, D.C. — On Monday, President Donald Trump will travel to Swanton, Ohio—near Toledo—to hold a hangar rally at the Toledo Airport. This will be his fourth rally in five days, continuing a trend of disregarding coronavirus precautions with large unmasked crowds despite knowing the danger that the virus poses, which he admitted in a recently released interview from February. Last Monday, he held indoor events in Arizona and Nevada, violating his own administration’s coronavirus safety guidelines, and he was fined by the city of Henderson, which hosted the rally. Trump’s lies about and the chaotic response to the coronavirus pandemic has led to nearly 200,000 U.S. deaths, including 4,580 in Ohio.
Roughly 416,000 fewer Ohioans are employed now than when President Trump first took office in 2017—a 7.5 percent decline. Additionally, the president’s executive action on unemployment insurance has caused chaos in states across the country, reducing benefits by $300 per week. For perspective, a Center for American Progress analysis finds that, even if implemented, the president’s action would leave a typical single-parent family with one child in Ohio $1,295 short of making ends meet. Meanwhile, new reports show that if the Trump-backed lawsuit to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) succeeds, 863,000 state residents could lose health coverage and 4.8 million Ohioans with preexisting conditions could face higher premiums or be barred from coverage during the pandemic.
Instead of leading the country out of the pandemic, Trump has continued his long-time assault on Social Security by calling for the termination of a large portion of its dedicated funding source—payroll taxes. Trump’s proposal, according to Chief Social Security Actuary Stephen Goss, would wipe out the Social Security Trust Fund by 2023. More than 2,386,362 Ohio residents—or roughly 20 percent of the state’s total population—are Social Security beneficiaries
Learn more about how the Trump administration’s policies have hurt Ohio families and put them at risk below.
Autoworkers
Claim: “I will bring the auto jobs back to America and keep your remaining auto jobs in Ohio.”—Donald Trump in Toledo, Ohio, October 27, 2016
Reality: Nearly 3,000 automobile manufacturing workers have been laid off in Ohio since Trump took office—a 13 percent decline.
Profits over wages
Claim: “My economic plan is going to grow this economy, raise your wages.” — Donald Trump in Akron, Ohio, August 22, 2016
Reality: President Trump promised voters that he would prioritize the interests of the middle class. Instead, his administration is rewriting the rules to reward corporate interests and make it harder for working Americans to get ahead:
- President Trump has the worst jobs record in history and is the only president to have lost net jobs on his watch.
- Trump blocked a federal minimum wage increase for Ohio workers. Two million state workers were denied a pay increase, resulting in $6 billion in lost wages.
Taxes
Claim: “We will massively cut taxes for the middle class.” —Donald Trump in Wilmington, Ohio, November 4, 2016
Reality: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gave significantly larger tax cuts to the wealthy than to low- and middle-income workers.
- 394,770 Ohio households experienced a tax increase after the law’s passage.
- For the 2019 tax year, the average tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent of Ohioans was $37,650. The average tax cut for the middle 20 percent of Ohioans was $770.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Jesse Lee at [email protected].