DEmocratic house majority leader steny hoyer released this floor update:
Members are advised that absent an emergency, the House is not expected to meet prior to Monday, May 4, 2020.
People, after just 3 weeks, are now in food bank lines that look like this:
And this:
Relief money is run through a system designed to screen people out.
Here is an example:
You earned enough money and worked enough weeks in your base period to qualify for benefits. To qualify, you must have worked at least 20 weeks during your base period. Your employment must be “covered” employment, meaning that your employer pays Ohio unemployment insurance. Not all work is considered covered employment and may be a reason why you will not qualify for benefits.
- In addition, you must have an average weekly wage of at least $247 during your base period for each week you worked. To find out your average weekly wage, divide your total amount of wages during your base period by the total number of qualifying weeks.
Imagine the horror of being a spouse that was not working, staying at home with a child, your working spouse gets laid off, spends weeks trying to file on an overwhelmed system, they contract a severe case of Covid and dies. Where is your relief money coming from then?
PPE shortages only seem to be less of a problem
Listening to Cuomo was enlightening today. We all know we are suffering massive shortages on PPE. He is pretty cagey, as is any hospital administrator interviewed if you listen closely. Pretty much Cuomo said they call each major hospital system daily for supply updates, and that they all report they have what they need “based on the new guidelines” which I bet involve using PPE not in the safest possible way because of shortages. He said something along the lines of “administrators say they are doing fine, you may hear something from an employee about shortages, but no one is reporting shortages given the new guidelines”
So really the PPE shortage is still an ongoing crisis, But not the only shortage.
The state of trade policy and manufacturing in this country is so terrible we can’t even produce enough swabs of cotton on the end of a stick to do the widespread testing we need to do to even contemplate reopening. That shortage persists.
Then there are the reports of FEMA giving supplies to private companies, many times after taking an expected order from a State, to distribute at significant mark ups. Those companies are just providing those supplies to existing customers, not where they are needed.
And then there is this
And then there is this making everything above worse by the day.
So what the fuck constitutes an “emergency” if none of that shit does?
