There is a learning curve for everyone who’s elected to public office to get the hang of the job.
Our own millionaire governor learned the hard way when he ordered businesses across the state to close, and half a million people to stop working.
It turns out, Gov. Polis discovered, the great majority of people who have jobs actually need the salary they earn to feed their family and pay bills.
This came as a great shock to Polis who doesn’t really have to work, and even as governor, does’t seem to work that much.
Polis soon learned the government actually pays those who are out-of-work with the taxes collected from their former businesses, which Polis also closed.
Luckily for Polis, the federal government paid two-third of the $4.5 billion in unemployment benefits paid to Coloradans over the last 22 weeks, which was just enough time to cripple the food service industry, among others.
And now Polis is demanding President Trump give him even more federal tax dollars to keep paying bigger unemployment checks to all the people Polis put out of work.
Now Trump has offered to kick in an extra $300 a week, and is asking states to contribute $100 to pad unemployment checks $400 above their normal amounts.
Coloradans already collect fairly high unemployment wages compared to other states — $618 a week maximum, or $32,136 a year. That’s an hourly wage of $15.45 to sit on your ass and do nothing look for work.
Trump and Congress originally kicked in an additional $600 a week for unemployment wages to states where governors shuttered businesses for six weeks to stop the coronavirus from overwhelming hospitals.
For Coloradans making the maximum, that’s $1,218 a week, $30.45 an hour, $63,336 for an annual salary of unemployment.
This made Polis very popular with people he put out of work, but not so much with the people who’s businesses he closed.
So the millionaire boy governor threw a hissy fit and demanded Trump keep paying even more federal tax dollars to the people Polis put out of work.
It’s hard to begrudge folks from making extra unemployment, as they lost their jobs through no fault of their own.
But we are long past the emergency of possibly over-burdening hospitals, we’re told it’s safe for kids to go back to school, and a cure is reportedly on the way.
Instead of playing politics with unemployment benefits that pay more than the average Coloradan’s salary, Polis should refocus on reopening the economy and let folks earn their living.