Texas in Crisis: Where are our elected officials?
By: Sarah C
Tags: Unemployment, Politics, Coronavırus, Covid 19, Texas

Self-portrait as a banshee, April 2020, Terlingua, Texas.

“Sorry. We can’t take your call right now.” Followed by a click-that-broke-the-camel’s-back was what I last heard before I created a Medium account to write this. It is 11:00 AM. I began my attempt this morning to contact Texas Workforce Solution (TWC) around 9:00 AM. Here is my story, and here is what it’s like to (attempt to) get Texas Unemployment Benefits.

I’ll start by saying that this isn’t my first rodeo with TWC, but the current rising surge of unemployment and coronavirus cases in Texas, the gut-wrenching and heart-breaking COVID-19 crisis in El Paso, the fact that it is the holidays, people in the State of Texas are lined up for excruciatingly long lines at food banks just to survive, our senators are comfortably on a vacation that we paid for instead of working to help people, our attorney general, Ken Paxton, is busy being investigated by the FBI on top of five year-old, unresolved felony charges, and our governor, Greg Abbott, has been too busy trying to aid a Federal coup instead of focusing on the State that he is supposed to govern, is all mind-blowingly perverse and why right now I want to speak up with reckless abandon.

A month ago, I worked two one-time gigs for a total of $250, which I reported. The form asked if I would return to work there, and I made it clear that I would not. I requested my unemployment this Monday per usual, when I noticed a warning message telling me that this payment would be on hold because I reported “starting work” in my previous request. I called the number listed, (877) 892–3024, and a kind automated feminine voice told me that TWC could not take my call because they had too many calls to take. TWC’s official response to having too many calls is to not take any.

I gave up. The next day, I logged into my account to see if I could find alternate contact information. I found this message: “Please call TWC as soon as possible or your benefits will be delayed or denied. The telephone number is (888) 843–2965.” I called that number and literally received an off-the-hook beeping noise. I haven’t heard that noise since we accidentally left family landline phones off the hook in the 90's.

Now, I’m getting anxious. I see on the website that there is a general TWC customer service line that I can call at 1–800–939–6631. I call it with a rock in my stomach and my fingers crossed. I assume the call will be on hold for a while, and I am correct. I go outside to garden and shovel dirt and transplant some lettuce while I listen to elevator music. Then, I get the human voice. This feminine voice tells me that this was the wrong number to call and that I should choose the correct option next time. I ask what the right number and option are. (Spoiler alert: I already chose the correct option and it forwarded me to her.) I was confused, so I said okay, I’ll do that, and hung up.

Not making the connection, I called the number she gave, 1–800–939–6631, and voilà, there were the exact same three menu options that were there previously. I had already called this number. I angrily selected the same menu option again, the only correct choice, and was back on hold. Luckily someone answered fairly quickly. This woman seemed to genuinely want to help. She told me she would transfer me but did not have a direct line. She also informed me to say that if I were forced to call again, tell them I already spoke to contractors and needed to speak to TWC. Silly me, thinking I was already talking to TWC. She transferred me.

I listened to this round of elevator music with more hope, while I listened to an automated lady-voice tell me that TWC was busy and to hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, until she came back to tell me, “Sorry. We can’t take your call right now.” Click.

This. All for $750 to “cover” two weeks of living expenses. Texans are getting even less than that, if anything. I pay more in unemployment taxes than our millionaire, sitting president has paid in years. Federal student loan offices are already contacting me to make sure I know that I need to pay hundreds of dollars from my non-income starting in January.

People cannot feed their families. They cannot get healthcare. Their communities are in crisis from COVID-19, and they are forced to work in them. TWC sent out a notice that starting in November, everyone must make at least work search contacts. At the height of coronavirus cases in Texas, they are telling us that we need to work and put ourselves in the line of fire while they sit back and watch the show.

Have we grown numb to the fact that our elected officials are actively murdering us? It is a tragedy, and it is repulsive. Right now, I’m watching as Senator Ted Cruz whines to Congresswoman Alexandria Occasio-Cortez for holding him accountable because the GOP senators have had the power to pass a relief bill for months. MONTHS. Don’t take my word for it, pick through the legislative records to see what they decided to do instead. This baby-man is lounging around on Twitter on paid vacation like a pathetic Nero watching Rome burn.

But now we’re wondering, what would it be like to watch the GOP burn?

EDIT [12/10/2020]: I forgot to mention that my senator, Senator John Cornyn, wrote one of the bills to provide a COVID-19 liability shield for corporations, so companies can exploit and expose their workers to a disabling and deadly disease with no recourse. He is currently in the senate holding our survival checks as leverage against the democrats to pass the GOP’s favorite version of this bill instead of, I don’t know, just giving us and small businesses money so we DON’T have to work. Additionally, our Texas state government has increased their efforts to overturn the election and democracy in federal courts instead of helping the people who live in their state.