It's been 183 days since the House passed the $3 trillion HEROES Act, and 47 days since the House passed their compromise $2.2 trillion bill, both of which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has refused to take up. And in 37 days, on the day after Christmas, another 12 million people could lose their unemployment insurance if Congress doesn't act before.
That's on top of the 4.4 million whose UI has expired so far, according to a report just released by unemployment researchers Andrew Stettner and Elizabeth Pancotti. Those set to fall of the cliff, the deadline set in the CARES Act back in March, are "7.3 million workers on Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the supplemental insurance for gig and self-employed workers, which ends that day, as well as 4.6 million people on Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation." That's the extension for people who've exhausted regular benefits. "Nobody is talking about this," Stettner told the Washington Post. "We're just careening into this huge cliff and it's like it's not even happening. People are just totally, completely ignoring the situation at a time when things are getting worse before they're going to get better in terms of public health. And that just really is going to constrain people's ability to get a job when benefits run out."
It also coincides with the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium, student and small business loan forbearance, and what emergency funding there still is for state and local governments. Which means the pain of losing UI will be amplified by big debt payments due and fewer local resources. All while this pandemic really digs in its heels.
It's very much as if McConnell intends for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to inherit a totally destroyed nation. To complicate matters further, the pandemic is actually hitting Congress. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an 87-year-old Republican, tested positive for the virus on Tuesday. Another Republican, Sen. Rick Scott is quarantined because of exposure. Yet another, Republican Rep. Don Young, also 87, was hospitalized with it over the weekend. While the House has been using proxy voting to try to make the business of legislating safer, McConnell hasn't enacted the same kind of rules in the Senate where Republicans regularly refuse to wear masks, escalating both tensions with and danger for everyone in their vicinity. And of course, endangering the ability of Congress to actually deal with the pandemic, should McConnell decide to stop playing games and take up legislation.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer are trying, demanding in a letter to McConnell that he meet with them "to produce a bipartisan, bicameral COVID-19 relief agreement that meets the needs of the country." They are talking about the fact that those 22 million people are about to fall of a cliff, and remind McConnell of that as well as the fact that "small businesses and state, local and tribal governments are warning of dramatic closures and cuts if the Congress does not act immediately." They point out that while the Democrats were willing to compromise in negotiations with the White House and lowered their request by $1.2 trillion, McConnell responded not by trying to find a meeting point and raising his offer, he lowered his proposal to $500 billion, down from $1 trillion, "despite the consensus from economists and experts that the country requires a much larger injection of aid."
"The COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession will not end without our help," they write. "It is essential that this bill have sufficient funding and delivers meaningful relief to the many Americans who are suffering. For the sake of the country, we ask that you come to the table and work with us to produce an agreement that meets America’s needs in this critical time." McConnell responded with a tweet, blaming Democrats for the impasse, as usual. Apparently, he sees the path to victory in the Georgia Senate runoffs as killing and impoverishing the maximum amount of people between now and January. And he has the gall to say "We just need Democrats to finally get serious about this."
And as if that wasn't all obnoxious enough, former Freedom Caucus maniac, current lame-duck White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is threatening the possibility of Trump forcing a government shutdown, saying he can't "guarantee" that it won't happen. As usual, Republicans are really the ones who hate Christmas. They can't seem to let a single holiday season go by without taking the nation hostage.