Comment: Break's over, Congress; renew $600 checks for jobless

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Noah Smith / Bloomberg Opinion

The extra unemployment insurance benefits that were handed out by the U.S. government in the early months of the pandemic to people rendered jobless by Covid-19 represent one of the most extraordinary and successful programs in the nation’s history.

The $600-a-week in assistance, often referred to as “pandemic UI,” was so generous that it caused an unprecedented spike in Americans’ disposable income: Despite a huge rise in unemployment, the poverty rate actually fell, thanks to these benefits. Most Americans are still able to pay their rent, holding off a much-feared wave of evictions. And amazingly, pandemic UI managed to accomplish this without keeping Americans out of the workforce.

One might think that paying people $600 per week not to work would result in a lot of people choosing to collect benefits instead of looking for new jobs; or even to quit their existing jobs, if they could credibly claim that they did so for pandemic-related reasons. But in fact, this didn’t happen. Job vacancies fell. Wages remained stagnant or even fell, suggesting that employers weren’t having a hard time trying to lure workers out of their homes. Economists generally agree that low labor demand from employers, rather than low labor supply from workers, is the biggest driver of high unemployment:

Unfortunately, this remarkable program has expired. President Trump issued a bizarre and possibly illegal executive order demanding that states continue the benefits at a significantly reduced level, with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency budget. But many states are not following the order, and FEMA has only $44 billion to spend on the program. Meanwhile, Congress — due back in session this month — has failed to extend the pandemic UI program in any form as lawmakers and the Trump administration remain at odds over new relief measures. This is going to put the livelihoods and well-being of millions of Americans in danger, and it threatens to blunt the strength of any economic recovery. Why hold back?

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-breaks-over-congress-renew-600-checks-for-jobless/?
Unfortunately Moscow Mitch could care less.

[Blue Owl]

1. K&R

[BComplex]

2. I wish there had been at least ONE pundit who would keep hitting on the fact that republicans

think that Americans making an annualized $30,000 per year is too much, and a disincentive to go to work.

$30,000 in 2020 is not enough to keep up with the rise in the price of fucking toilet paper, much less to pay your utilities and rent and car insurance.

Republicans think $30,000 is too much for an American to make per year. Just think of that. Here the republican senators are making $174,000 per year, but $30K is too much for us peons. That is sickening.

That's how much that $600/wk was ($31,200). But people still have to pay TAXES on that. It's not tax free.

[appalachiablue]

3. But some R's were screaming falsely that 'people won't come

back to work!'

When the pandemic began in Europe, countries funded employees at 70-80% through companies to stabilize the economy for all. The continent hasn't sunk yet, far from it.

[AmyStrange]

4. Even 30K to do almost ALL the hard labor in this country is insulting, and...

-

anyone who thinks otherwise has never had to do hard physical labor for a living.

Who do you think moves all that stuff onto trucks so it can be delivered to stores all over the country, and who do you think unloads all this? Warehouse workers, and they are the lowest paid people in just about every company in the U.S.

If all those people quit working, this country would not survive.
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