I guess some of the Republicans in the US Senate woke up….
The extra $600 a week unemployment benefit IS good for the economy…
Republicans who get paid by us taxpayers over a $100,000 a year thought it was too much and wanted to end the extra money?
That was stupid….
Cutting back on benefit probably would be doable…
(McConnell said no more…But Treasury Sec Mnuchin gave a hint that the US Senate Majority leader was gonna be overruled by Trump’s political needs, not worrying about anything else)
Eliminating it would hurt on several levels….
Yes it would force some people to take ANY job…
But THAT would force a lot of people to worry and dissatisfaction…
The cut would also slow the support in buying power for those who would not be able find jobs….
The resulting problems would end up in the media months before Trump and other Republicans would be looking for some of those stranded to vote for them…
Hmmmm?
Faced with staggering unemployment numbers that are likely to remain elevated through the election, Senate Republicans are reversing their positions on ending a federal increase of state unemployment benefits after July.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) vowed in a conference call with House Republicans last month that Senate Republicans would block the $600 weekly boost to state unemployment benefits from the federal government.
Also last month, GOP senators involved in planning for a phase four coronavirus relief bill said there was overwhelming support for entirely ending the federal enhancement of state unemployment benefits.
Now with the national unemployment rate projected to hit or exceed 20 percent, the highest number since the Great Depression, a growing number of GOP senators say the federal government should continue to augment weekly unemployment benefits in some form — though most want it lower than the $600 figure.
GOP senators fear that the wave of protests, riots and other forms of social unrest that has rocked major cities around the country is linked to the bleak economic picture and that their majority is on the line.
There’s broad agreement within the Senate GOP conference that the $600 per week federal enhancement of state unemployment benefits — a core element of the $2.2. trillion CARES Act — is too generous and provides a disincentive for returning to work.
But many Republican senators, including members of the leadership, now say the federal government should continue to enhance state unemployment benefits or provide a back-to-work bonus of $450 per week for laid-off workers who return to their jobs.
One Republican senator familiar with the negotiations said GOP lawmakers have changed their mind on ending the $600 per week federal benefit entirely because they are starting to realize “once the money is out there in the economy its hard to take it back” and that that the nation may be saddled with “long-term unemployment”…..