Since he began his self-quarantine earlier this week after being exposed to coronavirus, Sen. Ted Cruz has been safe at home, tweeting non-stop and abstaining from votes in the Senate.
For a job that makes its own hours and is salaried, that essentially amounts to paid sick leave.
That makes it even more outrageous that on Wednesday, his Senate colleague Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) blocked legislation that would have required employers to provide paid sick leave during the coronavirus outbreak.
Cruz, who ends his self-quarantine Friday, has remained eerily quiet about paid sick leave — a genuinely cowardly move considering 40 percent of Texas workers or about 4.3 million Texans, don’t have paid sick leave.
That means countless everyday Texas will have to risk showing up for work sick just to pay for rent or groceries.
In his address to the nation Wednesday evening, Trump said he would take emergency action to allow Americans to stay home without fear of financial hardship, hinting at paid sick leave. But it’s unclear what the details are or if Trump, who has so far made frequent misleading statements and false promises during the outbreak will actually act as his Republican-controlled Senate moves to block similar legislation.
So far, a little more than 900 cases of coronavirus, 29 of them fatal, have been confirmed in the U.S. according to the CDC. Of those, 23 cases have been confirmed in the Lone Star State.
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