Republicans squabble over whether to let the economy burn [View all]

[Zorro]

Back on June 5, President Trump declared, “Today is probably, if you think of it, the greatest comeback in American history.” The occasion was a month of job growth, which he said was so spectacular that George Floyd was beaming about it from heaven. “This is a great day for him," Trump said. "It’s a great day for everybody.”

The “comeback" has not turned out to be quite so glorious. On Thursday, it was reported that 2.3 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, the 18th straight week in which that number exceeded 1 million. In Congress, this continued economic catastrophe has set Republicans fighting with one another, as their small-government ideology crashes against an economic nightmare that could cost them the White House and the Senate.

To begin, we should note that while most headlines are citing 1.4 million as the number of newly unemployed, that figure covers only those applying for traditional state unemployment insurance. When you add in those who applied to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program — which was set up for gig workers and others who aren’t eligible for ordinary UI — the total is 2.3 million for this past week. That brings the total number of Americans either on unemployment or waiting to get approved to a stunning 34 million.

So Republicans are grudgingly coming around to providing another round of assistance to the economy.

The first thing they’ve done is drop Trump’s demand for a payroll tax cut, because it was a dumb idea that no one except Trump liked. But Republicans are still squabbling among themselves, particularly over how much help to give those tens of millions of unemployed Americans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/23/republicans-squabble-over-whether-let-economy-burn/