Anger with GOP growing as $600 unemployment benefit lapses

[T. A. Gardner]

You mean like the 1.6 trillion for a new FBI office? That was bad... Oh wait. That was the Repubs who stuffed that in.
The fact is the money is a huge stimulus to the economy. It is demand. The multiplier factor in unemployment insurance is 1.9. That is a good payoff. https://www.nber.org/papers/w22625

Both sides do that and it is equally bad. However, the Democrats do more of it. They've stuffed the unemployment bill with masses of new spending on 'stuff.'

[PoliTalker]

Hello floridafan,

Americans angry with inaction from Senate Republicans and President Donald Trump on extending $600 a week unemployment benefits are accusing the government of not living up to its responsibility to care for the public during the Covid-19 pandemic as the boost in aid expired Friday.

“In the middle of this pandemic they’re playing with us,” said Candida Kevorkian, a 53-year-old California woman relying on the payments to survive, told the Washington Post Saturday.

The benefits are credited with keeping the economy from a complete collapse due to the ongoing nationwide Covid-19 outbreak and staving off a wave of evictions many advocates fear is coming now that the weekly infusion is gone. But the initial program, passed in the CARES Act in late March, only ran until the end of July.

House Democrats approved the HEROES Act, a $3 trillion stimulus package which included an extension of the unemployment benefit boost, in late May, but GOP lawmakers in the Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), took no action on the bill, instead presenting a competing bill known as the HEALS Act last month that cut the payment to $200 a week. That legislation was dead on arrival, however, not even generating necessary support within the caucus due to the level of spending.
The White House and the GOP Senate leadership floated a one-week extension for the benefits, but that fix—such as it is—was rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) Thursday evening.

“We recognize the gravity of the situation,” Pelosi told reporters Friday. “They don’t.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told MSNBC Friday night the choice to leave town was “inexplicable” and urged his GOP colleagues to negotiate a workable solution to the ongoing crisis with House Democrats.

“I hear senators making $175,000 a year complaining that these ‘lazy workers are getting so much money,'” said Brown. “People haven’t sunk into poverty in significant numbers at all during this pandemic because of the $600 a week.

Would you please post a link to the source?

[PoliTalker]

This is going to hurt the economy. All these people losing benefits will stop consumer spending.

[Nordberg]

Both sides do that and it is equally bad. However, the Democrats do more of it. They've stuffed the unemployment bill with masses of new spending on 'stuff.'

The Repubs are trying to force the liability exemption for employers in the bill. They do not want you to sue if a company does not do right about fighting Corona and you get sick. I bet you can guess how many would ignore the safety regs if they were exempt from the damage.

[Phantasmal]

Two things, hard to understand why they can’t compromise with $400 dollars, and secondly, where the hell is Trump, he is the President, and usually the President participates in negotiations over major issues especially during a crisis and we got Trump out playing golf

Oh, he’s negotiating, alright, to get the FBI building remodeled, he doesn’t want them leaving.

[PoliTalker]

Hello archives,

Two things, hard to understand why they can’t compromise with $400 dollars, and secondly, where the hell is Trump, he is the President, and usually the President participates in negotiations over major issues especially during a crisis and we got Trump out playing golf

The great deal maker spares us his expertise on this matter?

Say it isn't true.

[PoliTalker]

The federal hand-outs are going almost 100% into the economy.

Cut this off and the economy takes a dive.

Good luck with that, Republicans.

You want the heat for that, right before an election?