It is now 27 days since the $600/week unemployment insurance boost included in the CARES Act expired, and the next month of rent is due in five days. The $300/week Donald Trump promised with his executive order is unlikely to show up for anyone for at least another month. More than 1 million people filed new jobless claims last week, with an additional 608,000 filing under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for independent contractors, self-employed workers, and gig workers. “There are still huge numbers of layoffs taking place.” That's from Julia Pollak, a labor economist at the employment site ZipRecruiter. The Small Business Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau concurs, there is a larger share of small businesses laying off versus hiring employees. So much for the Republican orthodoxy that losing that sweet, sweet $600 would force people back to work. The jobs do not exist.
With that in mind, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows were slated to talk Thursday afternoon to see if Meadows would budge. Pelosi already has, shaving $1 trillion off the $3 trillion HEROES Act the House passed back in May. That bill is dead, having been murdered by Mitch McConnell. Never mind that another three months of severe economic damage has been done and the total needed to help correct is more along the lines of $10 trillion. Pelosi said ahead of the meeting "We're not budging. Understand this, they have to move.[…] They're just going to have to come up with more money."
She added "They aren't trying anything. We have said to them, 'We're willing to meet you in the middle.' […] If they are willing to meet us in the middle, then we can sit down and talk." As for this meeting with Meadows, "So this is, 'You called me? I'm returning your call. Are you ready to bring much more money to the table?'" Following the call, she revealed the answer: “This conversation made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods." That would be a "no," then. "The Administration’s continued failure to acknowledge the funding levels that experts, scientists and the American people know is needed leaves our nation at a tragic impasse," she said.
Tragic impasse, indeed, with Pelosi and Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer being the only people in leadership who seem to recognize and acknowledge that. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has taken baby steps, going from saying there wouldn't need to be further stimulus after CARES, to saying that he saw no urgency in May, or in June to take up HEROES, to a half-hearted "skinny" bill offered in July. He's offering that up again, now saying "I can't tell you today we're going to reach an agreement on another rescue package, but here's what I do think, I think we need another one." That's because he's now thinking about November. Literally: "I'm hoping that we can come together once again because the coronavirus is not involved in the American election. It does not care who wins."
Besides the 27 days since expanded UI benefits expired, there's a countdown to keep in mind: 34 days. That's how much longer the government is funded in this fiscal year. That means that the threat of a government shutdown is just 34 days away. It's almost certain at this point that it's that deadline that is going to drive the coronavirus relief negotiations. Congress is out until after Labor Day, and you can almost count on two hands how many working days they will have in September to take care of all this business. Over it hangs increasing unemployment, a U.S. Postal Service crippled by Trump corruption, increasing deaths and infections from coronavirus, and states and localities bleeding money with little in the way of revenue coming in.
That September 30 government shutdown deadline is going to drive the rest of the negotiations because that's how it always has to work with McConnell. He always defaults to brinksmanship over statesmanship, hostage-taking over taking care of the needs of the nation.
