President Biden's COVID Relief Bill Remains Very Popular

The House of Representatives will approve the Senate-amended $1.9 trillion Biden relief bill today, and many checks will go out to individuals before the end of March. States and local governments will get financial aid, schools will get money to reopen safely, more funding will go to the vaccination efforts in each state, and unemployed workers will continue to get benefits.

Republican legislators voted against these things. Not a single Republican in either the House or the Senate voted for the relief bill. That was a mistake, because the bill is overwhelmingly popular with the American public.

The charts above are from a survey done by the Pew Research Center between March 1st and 7th of a national sample of 12,055 adults, with a 1.5 point margin of error.

Note that 70% of the public supports the relief bill.

GOP Opposes The Relief Bill (And The Wishes Of U.S. Public)

When the relief bill passed the House of Representatives, every single Republican voted against it. Now it is in the Senate, and once again, it looks like every Republican will vote against it. When asked, most Republicans say they don't think their opposition will hurt their electoral chances in 2022.

I think they are wrong! The American public overwhelmingly supports President Biden's relief bill. And you can bet that Democrats are going to repeatedly remind voters that Republicans voted against the bill when the next election rolls around. 

The Republicans didn't mind adding over a trillion dollars to the debt when it came to cutting taxes for the rich and the corporations, but now they claim we can't afford to help ordinary Americans get through the pandemic. This clearly shows who they care about, and who they don't care about. They care only for the rich, and don't care about the bottom 90% of Americans.

The chart above shows the overwhelming support for the relief bill. It shows the results of the latest Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 19th and 22nd of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,201 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 2.7 point, and for registered voters is 3.0 points.

$1.9 Trillion Relief Bill Contains Improvements To Obamacare

 

The House of Representatives has passed the $1.9 trillion relief bill proposed by President Biden. The bill now goes to the Senate, and can hopefully be implemented by March 14th (when expanded unemployment benefits run out).

The House bill contains everything President Biden wanted, but is likely to not include a minimum wage raise after it goes through the Senate. It will still have the $1400 checks for citizens, money to help state and local governments, money to help schools safely open, money for unemployment, money to help small businesses survive, and money to pay for COVID-19 testing and vaccination.

But the bill also contains something most Americans don't know about. It will contain some improvements for Obamacare. It won't solve our health insurance problem completely, but it will make it a little better. 

It doesn't do enough though. Biden, and other Democrats, campaigned on providing a public option that will help all Americans get health insurance. They still need to follow through on that promise.

Here's part of how The New York Times is covering the bill's improvements to Obamacare:

Now the Biden administration and a Democratic Congress hope to engineer the first major repair job and expansion of the Affordable Care Act since its passage. They plan to refashion regulations and spend billions through the stimulus bill to make Obamacare simpler, more generous and closer to what many of its architects wanted in the first place.

The Affordable Care Act has expanded coverage to more than 20 million Americans, cutting the uninsured rate to 10.9 percent in 2019 from 17.8 percent in 2010. It did so by expanding Medicaid to cover those with low incomes, and by subsidizing private insurance for people with higher earnings. But some families still find the coverage too expensive and its deductibles too high, particularly those who earn too much to qualify for help.

Tucked inside the stimulus bill that the House passed early on Saturday are a series of provisions to make the private plans more affordable, at least in the short term.

The legislation, largely modeled after a bill passed in the House last year, would make upper-middle-income Americans newly eligible for financial help to buy plans on the Obamacare marketplaces, and would increase the subsidies already going to lower-income enrollees. The changes would last two years, cover 1.3 million more Americans and cost about $34 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

For certain Americans, the difference in premium prices would be substantial: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a 64-year-old earning $58,000 would see monthly payments decline from $1,075 under current law to $412 with the new subsidies.

It was a blow to Obamacare’s authors when the Supreme Court allowed states to refuse to expand Medicaid, the health law’s primary tool for bringing comprehensive coverage to poor Americans. Multiple states have joined the expansion in recent years, some via ballot initiative, but some Republican governors have steadfastly rejected the program, resulting in two millionuninsured Americans across 12 states.

The stimulus package aims to patch that hole by increasing financial incentives for states to join the program. Though Democrats are offering holdout states larger payments than they’ve contemplated in the past, it’s unclear whether it will be enough to lure state governments that have already left billions on the table. Under current law, the federal government covers 90 percent of new enrollees’ costs. . . .

But the Biden health project still faces challenges, and it may disappoint his allies. The new proposed spending, which would bring the law’s subsidies in line with early drafts of the Affordable Care Act, is temporary. Making those changes permanent could cost hundreds of billions over a decade, a sum that may spook moderate Democrats once the economy is in better health.

And for many Democrats, the overhauls do not go as far they had hoped. Mr. Biden ran not only on subsidy expansions and technical fixes, but also on a lowering of the Medicare eligibility age and the creation of a so called public-option plan, government insurance that people could choose in place of private coverage.

GOP Thinks Opposing Relief Bill Won't Hurt Them In 2022

 

The Republicans are playing a dangerous game. They don't want to give President Biden what he wants -- the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. They seem to have decided that they will oppose everything President Biden tries to do, just like they did when President Obama was in office.

But this time things are different. There's a pandemic doing serious damage to the country. It has killed over a half-million people and damaged the economy (throwing millions out of work). While the Republican officials oppose the relief bill, the American people don't. In fact, a substantial majority of them support the bill -- 66% of adults and 65% of registered voters.

They are saying they don't think the voters will punish them in the 2022 election for opposing the relief bill. I think they are wrong -- especially if they are able to block the bill, or substantially reduce the bill's benefits. People have a long memory if you take money from their pockets, or cost them a job. And they won't forgive their family being hurt so the GOP can play politics.

The chart above reflects the results of a new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 19th and 22nd of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,201 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 2.7 points, and for registered voters is 3 points.

Voters Approve Of Biden - Favor Democrats Over Republicans

The charts above reflects the results of the new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 13th and 16th of a national sample of 1,259 registered voters, with 3 point margin of error.

It shows President Biden with majority job approval (55%), his COVID-19 relief bill with huge support (64%), and the Democratic Party (48%) with a much higher favorability than the Republican Party (31%).
 

The House Version Of The Stimulus Bill Supports President

The stimulus bill is currently being written in the House of Representatives, and it could be voted on as early as next week.

The House seems ready to give President Biden what he is asking for. They are ready to go big. The only question now is what the Senate will do when they get the House bill. Will they block it? Will they take big chunks out of the bill?

Here, from CNN, is what is likely to be in the House version of the bill that will be sent to the Senate.

Stimulus checks

The House bill would provide direct payments worth up to $1,400 per person. A family of four could receive up to $5,600.

Individuals earning less than $75,000 a year and married couples earning less than $150,000 would be sent the full amount.

But not everyone who received a previous stimulus check would be eligible for this round. The payments would phase out faster and completely cut off individuals earning more than $100,000 and families earning more than $200,000.

Unemployment assistance

The House bill would extend two key pandemic unemployment programs through August 29. It would also increase the federal weekly boost to $400, from the current $300, and continue it for the same time period.

Nutrition assistance

The House plan would extend the 15% increase in food stamp benefits through September, instead of having it expire at the end of June.

It also contains $880 million for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, known as WIC. Biden called for investing $3 billion in the program.

And it would allow states to continue the Pandemic-EBT, which provides families whose children's schools are closed with funding to replace free- and reduced-price meals the kids would have received, through the summer.

Housing aid

The legislation would send roughly $19.1 billion to state and local governments to cover back rent, rent assistance, and utilities for at risk, low-income households with unemployed members, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

It would also give about $10 billion to states and tribes to provide mortgage payment assistance and other financial help to homeowners affected by the pandemic.

And it would provide a total of $11 billion to provide rental assistance, homeless services and support, housing counseling, and mortgage support.

Tax credits for families and workers

The House bill would expand the child tax credit to $3,600 for children under 6 and $3,000 for children under age 18. 

It would also become fully refundable so more low-income parents could take advantage of it. Plus, families could receive payments monthly, rather than a lump sum once a year, which would make it easier for them to pay the bills.

The bill also enhances the earned income tax credit for workers without children by nearly tripling the maximum credit and extending eligibility to more people. The minimum age to claim the childless credit would be reduced to 19, from 25, and the upper age limit would be eliminated.

Education and child care

The bill would provide nearly $130 billion to K-12 schools to help students return to the classroom. Schools would be allowed to use the money to update their ventilation systems, reduce class sizes to help implement social distancing, buy personal protective equipment and hire support staff. It would require that schools use at least 20% of the money to address learning loss by providing extended days or summer school, for example.

The money is also intended to help prevent teacher layoffs next year when some states may be struggling to balance their budgets. The pot of money will remain available through September 2023.

Health insurance subsidies and Medicaid

The bill would make federal premium subsidies for Affordable Care Act policies more generous and would eliminate the maximum income cap for two years. 

Enrollees would pay no more than 8.5% of their income towards coverage, down from nearly 10% now. Also, those earning more than the current cap of 400% of the federal poverty level -- about $51,000 for an individual and $104,800 for a family of four in 2021 -- would become eligible for help.

In addition, the legislation would bolster subsidies for lower-income enrollees and those collecting unemployment benefits, eliminating their premiums completely.

Aid to states

The House legislation would provide $350 billion to state and local governments, as well as tribes and territories.

Vaccines and testing

The House bill provides $14 billion for vaccines, $46 billion for testing, contact tracing, and mitigation and $7.6 billion to hire 100,000 public health workers to support coronavirus response. It would also invest $25 billion in addressing health disparities and protecting vulnerable populations.

Minimum wage

The legislation would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 in stages. It would also guarantee that tipped workers, youth workers and workers with disabilities are paid the full federal minimum wage.

Help For State/Local Governments Must Be In Stimulus

Work on President Biden's stimulus bill is kicking into high gear now that the impeachment trial is over. One of the most argued about provisions of the bill is the billions included to help state and local governments.

Republicans are saying that help is not needed, but the chart above (using figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) shows the opposite. More than 1.3 million state and local government jobs have been lost in 2020 due to the Trump Pandemic Recession. Many of those jobs are needed, but state and local governments just can't afford them right now.

Republicans were willing to go big with a trillion dollar tax cut that went many to the rich and corporations. It is hypocritical that they now want to cheap-out when it comes to saving state and local jobs. 

The help for state and local governments must stay in the stimulus bill, and Democrats must be firm about this.

Public Strongly Supports President Biden's Stimulus Bill

 The charts above reflect the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between February 6th and 9th of a national sample of 1,500 adults (including 1,306 registered voters). The margin of error for adults is 3 points, and for registered voters is 3.1 points.

President Biden has proposed a huge $1.9 trillion stimulus bill to help Americans get through the pandemic and to end it. Republicans are whining that the bill is too large. They want to negotiate the bill down to a much smaller amount (even though most economists say the larger amount is what's needed).

But those Republicans are once again on the wrong side of the issue. As the charts show, the American public strongly backs all the major elements of President Biden's bill.

About 79% support the $1400 payments to those making under $75,000, 57% support raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, 79% support the $160 billion vaccine program, 70% supports the $400 additional unemployment benefit, 68% supports the funding for state and local governments, 75% supports extending the eviction ban through September, and 60% supports cancelling $10,000 of student debt for borrowers.

Those are not small numbers, and if the GOP continues to try and block the bill, they will be facing an angry public.

Biden/Dems Should Push To Pass ALL Of The Stimulus Bill

Joe Biden knows that many, if not most, Americans are in trouble thanks to the Trump recession. He has gone big with a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill -- a bill that would both give hurting people some financial help, and would provide the funds needed to fight the pandemic.

The bill makes sense, and all of it is needed. A smaller bill, like the one the GOP has proposed, would not provide the impetus needed to spur the economy or fight the pandemic.

Why won't the Republicans support Biden's bill? Why are they so intent at chipping away at it until it would no longer do what's needed?

The obvious answer is that they are afraid it would work! And that would make Biden and the Democrats look good -- something that would help them in 2022.

Here is what former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has to say about President Biden's proposal and the Republican opposition to it:

Ten Senate Republican have proposed a COVID relief bill of about $600 billion. That’s less than a third of Biden’s plan. They promise “bipartisan support” if he agrees.

Their proposal isn’t a compromise. It would be a total surrender. It trims direct payments and unemployment aid that Americans desperately need. Biden should reject it out of hand.

Republicans say America can’t afford Biden’s plan. “We just passed a program with over $900 billion in it,” groused Senator Mitt Romney.

Rubbish. We can’t afford not to. Millions of people are hurting. 

Besides, with the economy in the doldrums it’s no time to worry about too much spending. The best way to reduce the debt as a share of the economy is to get the economy growing again. 

Beyond COVID relief, Biden has other proposals waiting in the wings, such as repairing aging infrastructure and building a new energy-efficient one. These would make the economy grow even faster over the long term – further reducing the debt’s share. 

There’s no chance that public spending will “crowd out” private investment. If you hadn’t noticed, borrowing is especially cheap right now. Money is sloshing around the world in search of borrowers.  

It’s hard to take Republican concerns about debt seriously when just four years ago they had zero qualms about enacting one of the largest tax cuts in history, largely for big corporations and the super-wealthy. 

If they really don’t want to add to the debt, they have another alternative: A tax on super-wealthy Americans.

The total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires has grown by a staggering $1.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic, a 40 percent increase. They alone could finance almost all of Biden’s COVID relief package and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic. So why not a temporary emergency COVID wealth tax? 

Let’s be honest. The real reason Republicans don’t want Biden’s plan is they fear it will work. 

This would be the Republican’s worst nightmare: All the anti-government claptrap they’ve been selling since Ronald Reagan will be revealed as nonsense. 

Government isn’t the problem and never was. Bad government is the problem, and Americans have just had four years of it. Biden’s success would put into sharp relief Trump and Republicans’ utter failures on COVID and jobs.

If Biden gets his plans through, he and the Democrats would reap the political rewards in 2022 and beyond.Democrats might even capture the presidency and Congress for a generation. After FDR rescued America, the Republican Party went dark for two decades. 

Trumpian Republicans in Congress have an even more diabolical motive for blocking Biden. They figure if Americans remain in perpetual crises and ever-deepening fear, they’ll lose faith in democracy itself. 

This would open the way for another strongman demagogue in 2024 – if not Trump, a Trump-impersonator like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, or Trump Junior. 

If Biden is successful, though, Americans’ faith in democracy might begin to rebound – marking the end of the nation’s flirtation with fascism. If he helps build a new economy of green jobs with good wages, even Trump’s angry white working-class base might come around. 

Biden doesn’t really need Republicans, anyway. With their razor-thin majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats can enact Biden’s plans without a single Republican vote.   

My worry is Biden may want so much to demonstrate bipartisanship that his plans get diluted to the point where Republicans get what they want: Failure. 

Forget bipartisanship. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans didn’t give a hoot about bipartisanship when they and Trump were in power. 

If Republicans try to stonewall Biden’s COVID relief plan, Biden and the Democrats should go it alone through a maneuver called “reconciliation,” allowing a simple majority to pass budget legislation. 

If Republicans try to block anything else, Biden and the Democrats should scrap the filibuster – which now requires 60 senators to end debate. The filibuster isn’t in the Constitution. It’s anti-democratic, giving a minority of senators the power to block the majority. It was rarely used for most of the nation’s history. 

The filibuster can be ended by a simple majority vote. Democrats now have the power to scrap it. Biden will have to twist the arms of a few recalcitrant Democrats, but that’s what presidential leadership often requires.

The multiple crises engulfing America are huge. The window of opportunity for addressing them is small. If ever there was a time for boldness, it is now. 

The Public Approves Of Biden's $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Plan

 

The charts above reflect the results of the Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between January 28th and February 1st of a national sample of 1,075 adults, with a 3 point margin of error.

It's hard to understand why the GOP is opposed to President Biden's stimulus bill. It's not because it spends to much, because they are perfectly willing to spend when it comes to rewarding the rich. It has to be just because it was proposed by a Democrat (and they are afraid it will work, getting people to like the Democrats even more).

But opposing it is not winning them any friends. The public likes President Biden's proposal. About 68% like the bill in general, 78% like the $1400 payments, and 61% like that it would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The Republicans would be better off to jump on board and claim equal credit for passing the bill.

The GOP's Tiny Proposal Is Not A Plan - It's An Insult!

President Biden knows this nation is in trouble. The nation is suffering from both a pandemic and a recession. That's why he has proposed a $1.9 trillion plan.

The Republicans have come up with a different proposal. They want to trim the Biden bill down to only $600 billion. They are touting their pathetic proposal as a bipartisan effort to negotiate.

That's ridiculous! The GOP proposal would do nothing to solve the current problems -- either for the pandemic or the economy. It would have little effect on either. It just shows the Republicans are not really willing to negotiate in good faith.

The problems are big. The solutions must also be big.

Here is a part of what Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman had to say about this in The New York Times:

So 10 Republican senators are proposing an economic package that is supposed to be an alternative to President Biden’s American Rescue Plan. The proposal would reportedly be only a fraction of the size of Biden’s plan and would in important ways cut the heart out of economic relief. 

Republicans, however, want Biden to give in to their wishes in the name of bipartisanship. Should he?

No, no, 1.9 trillion times no.

It’s not just that what we know about the G.O.P. proposal indicates that it’s grotesquely inadequate for a nation still ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic. Beyond that, by their behavior — not just over the past few months but going back a dozen years — Republicans have forfeited any right to play the bipartisanship card, or even to be afforded any presumption of good faith.

Let’s start with the substance.

By any measure, January was the worst pandemic month so far. More than 95,000 Americans died of Covid-19; hospitalizations remain far higher than they were at previous peaks.

True, the end of the nightmare is finally in sight. If all goes well, at some point this year enough people will have been vaccinated that we’ll reach herd immunity, the pandemic will fade away, and normal life can resume. But that’s unlikely to happen before late summer or early fall.

And in the meantime we’re going to have to remain on partial lockdown. It would, for example, be folly to reopen full-scale indoor dining. And the continuing lockdown will impose a lot of financial hardship. Unemployment will remain very high; millions of businesses will struggle to stay afloat; state and local governments, which aren’t allowed to run deficits, will be in dire fiscal straits.

What we need, then, is disaster relief to get afflicted Americans through the harsh months ahead. And that’s what the Biden plan would do.

Republicans, however, want to rip the guts out of this plan. They are seeking to reduce extra aid to the unemployed and, more important, cut that aid off in June — long before we can possibly get back to full employment. They want to eliminate hundreds of billions in aid to state and local governments. They want to eliminate aid for children. And so on.

This isn’t an offer of compromise; it’s a demand for near-total surrender. And the consequences would be devastating if Democrats were to give in. . . .

So it’s OK for Biden to talk with Republicans and hear them out. But should he make any substantive concessions in an attempt to win them over? Should he let negotiations with Republicans delay the passage of his rescue plan? Absolutely not. Just get it done.

Public Overwhelmingly Supports An Additional Stimulus Bill

 The chart above is from the Politico / Morning Consult Poll -- done between January 8th and 11th of a nationwide sample of 1,996 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.

It shows that Joe Biden is on solid ground with his new stimulus proposal. About 84% of registered voters support an additional stimulus (64% strongly and 20% somewhat). Only 11% are opposed (5% strongly).

Trump Causes A Dilemma For The Republicans In Congress

Trump has finally signed the stimulus bill that would give most Americans a $600 check. But while signing it, he once again called on Congress to increase the $600 payment to $2000. 

That puts the congressional members of his own party between a rock and a hard place. They are the ones that demanded the payments be reduced to only $600, and refused to vote for a bill with larger payments (which Democrats wanted). Are they going to go against Trump (and risk his wrath)? Or are they going to kill the $2000 payments before it can become law?

The House voted on raising the payments to $2000 on Monday. They needed a two-thirds majority to pass the bill (House Resolution 9051) -- and they got it. They won on a 275 to 134 vote. 41 Republicans voted with the Democrats (evidently unwilling to explain to their voters, and Trump, why they would vote against it). Another 21 Republicans didn't vote. That was enough to get the Democratic bill passed.

Now the bill moves over to the Senate. The Senate resumes on Tuesday, and they will have to decide what to do with the bill. If a Senator votes against the bill, they will have to explain why to their constituents (and Trump)? If they vote for it, they will be going against the wishes of their party leadership.

McConnell may try to avoid having a vote on the bill, but I doubt that will work. Americans are going to want to know why the Republicans oppose the bill, and by not voting on the bill all GOP senators will be blamed.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Trump has screwed his fellow Republicans with his demand. What will they do? 

You Get A Pittance - The Top 1% Gets Billions In Tax Breaks

 The first stimulus bill was tilted toward the corporations and large businesses, leaving many small businesses out in the cold and giving most Americans $1200. The second stimulus is even stingier for most people -- giving them only $600 this time. But the rich will once again score big. There are $200 billion in tax breaks in the bill -- with $120 billion going to the top 1%.

Here's how former Labor Secretary Robert Reich describes the unfair stimulus bill:

Hidden in the bill combining Covid relief and government spending is a cool $200 billion in tax breaks. An estimated $120 billion of those tax breaks will go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. 

Those giveaways include:

—A $2.5 billion break for racecar tracks

—A $6.3 billion write-off for business meals, i.e. the “three-martini lunch” deduction

—A new provision under the Paycheck Protection Program that allows forgiven loans to also be tax deductible, giving businesses the ability to “double dip” into the program

The bill also creates an independent commission to oversee horse racing, at the behest of Mitch McConnell. 

There’s no question about it: This pandemic has both revealed and exacerbated our already staggering economic inequality. 

Republicans didn’t blink twice when they handed out $6.3 billion in tax breaks to their wealthy corporate backers, but when it came to getting direct relief to struggling Americans $600 was the best they could do. Their priorities couldn’t be clearer.

Senate GOP Is Worried - "Well, It Is What It Is"

Republicans in Congress are getting worried. They were already in a very tenuous position, but the failure to come up with more help for unemployed and hurting workers is compounding their troubles

They now face an Election Day in which they are blamed for the nation's recession (and the pandemic). That could easily translate into an Election Day disaster for them.

The following is just part of a great op-ed in The Washington Post by Jennifer Rubin:

There is no deal yet between the White House and House Democrats on the stimulus bill, the Heroes Act, which the House passed more than two months ago. The Senate Republicans’ bill, finally rolled out last week, was so preposterously insufficient even President Trump called it “semi-irrelevant.”

Senate Republicans are so irrelevant they are not even participating in talks between the president’s representatives — White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). That’s right: The Democratic minority leader is relevant; the Republicans are not.

That is because they have allowed the anti-government, anti-science Trump sycophants to disclaim any interest in the bill, thereby handing the reins to Democrats. Only recently does it seem to have dawned on Republican incumbents on the ballot three months from now that this is not a good place to be. CNN reports: “Republican senators are increasingly concerned over the state of stimulus negotiations on Capitol Hill. They’re frustrated over how long it is taking to reach an agreement and fearful that a deal may not come together at all as the country remains in crisis.”. . .

Let me suggest that Senate Republicans, angst-ridden over the failure to conclude a deal, should have taken action when Trump put his reelection above national security concerns; when he refused to hold Russia accountable for bounties on our troops; when he aired false, quack theories and contradicted expert advice; when he insisted on reopening states while the virus still raged; and when he held a rally endangering thousands of Americans. They could have removed him — rebuked him even or, at the very least, declared they would not vote for him in November — for any number of corrupt and malicious actions. Instead, they bet their careers and mortgaged their conscience to their political party.

Republicans are worried now? Hey, it is what it is.

Stimulus Bill Stalled - GOP Doesn't Care About Workers

The Coronavirus continues to rage across the country, preventing a substantial reopening of the economy. This has left millions of Americans out-of-work, and there is little hope of them returning to work until the virus is under control -- something the Trump administration is not even trying to do.

This country is currently in a recession (with the second quarter GDP shrinking by 9.5%). And making matters worse, the enhanced unemployment benefits have run out. This will make the recession even worse as many fall into poverty and face eviction from their homes.

This was foreseeable. The House Democrats passed a stimulus months ago. Sadly, the Republican Senate has not debated or voted on the House bill -- and their intra-party squabbling has prevented them from coming up with a bill of their own (which could be a starting point for negotiations with the Democrats).

Why won't the Republicans act to help American workers and keep the economy from sinking into an even deeper recession. Because they don't care about workers. They are quick to funnel more money to the rich and corporations, but not to help workers (who need help much more than the rich and corporations).

Here is some of what Paul Krugman (winner of the Nobel Prize in economics) says about the GOP intransigence in his New York Times column:

Above all, Republicans seem obsessed with the idea that unemployment benefits are making workers lazy and unwilling to accept jobs.

This would be a bizarre claim even if unemployment benefits really were reducing the incentive to seek work. After all, there are more than 30 million workers receiving benefits, but only five million job openings. No matter how harshly you treat the unemployed, they can’t take jobs that don’t exist.

It’s almost a secondary concern to note that there’s almost no evidence that unemployment benefits are, in fact, discouraging workers from taking jobs. Multiple studies find no significant incentive effect.

And unemployment benefits didn’t prevent the U.S. from adding seven million jobs, most of them for low-wage workers — that is, precisely the workers often receiving more in unemployment than from their normal jobs — during the abortive spring recovery.

By the way, a great majority of economists believe that unemployment benefits have helped sustain the economy as a whole, by supporting consumer spending.

So the attack on unemployment aid is rooted in deep ignorance. But there’s also a strong element of malice.

Republicans have a long history of suggesting that the jobless are moral failures — that they’d rather sit home watching TV than work. And the Trump years have been marked by a relentless assault on programs that help the less fortunate, from Obamacare to food stamps.

One indicator of G.O.P. disingenuousness is the sudden re-emergence of “deficit hawks” claiming that helping the unemployed will add too much to the national debt. I use the scare quotes because as far as I can tell not one of the politicians claiming that we can’t afford to help the unemployed raised any objections to Donald Trump’s $2 trillion tax cut for corporations and the wealthy.

Nor was disdain for the unlucky the only reason the G.O.P. didn’t want to help Americans in need. The recent Vanity Fair report about why we don’t have a national testing strategy fits with a lot of evidence that Republicans spent months believing that Covid-19 was a blue-state problem, not relevant to people they cared about. By the time they realized that the pandemic was exploding in the Sun Belt, it was too late to avoid disaster.

At this point, then, it’s hard to see how we avoid another gratuitous catastrophe. The fecklessness of the Trump administration and its allies means that millions of Americans will soon be in dire financial straits.