Summary
We’ll be shutting down today’s blog shortly. Here’s a glance at today’s major news items:
- Trump signs order for coronavirus relief, with lower level of extra aid for jobless. The US president said on Saturday that he would extend enhanced coronavirus unemployment benefits and employment taxes into next year with executive orders, but cut the level of some of the support.
- Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota rally to be blocked at tribal land checkpoints. Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota’s 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday.
- Doctors and medical students across the US push to register patients to vote. An emergency room doctor in Boston is assembling thousands of voter registration kits for distribution at hospitals and doctors’ offices.
- Hispanic children eight times more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19, study says. Hispanic and black children are far more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than white children, a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.
- Biden denies Fox News ‘scoop’ that he’s chosen a running mate. The presumptive Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign has shot down a Fox News report that a running mate has already been chosen, describing a brief exchange between Biden and a reporter as “clearly a joke”.
Trump’s decision to unilaterally extend federal unemployment insurance through executive order will almost certainly prompt a legal challenge from Democrats on the grounds that only the legislative branch has the constitutional authority to determine federal spending.
But the US president brushed aside concerns on Saturday, suggesting that he believes public sentiment will carry the day.
“If we get sued, it’s somebody that doesn’t want people to get money, OK?” he said. “And that’s not going to be a very popular thing.”
As recently as Monday, White House senior economic adviser Larry Kudlow said: “We have got to fix and extend the unemployment issue right now. ... I don’t think that can be done administratively. I think that requires an act of Congress.”
Trump has since departed his Bedminster club for the Hamptons, where he is due to attend two fundraisers tonight.
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The question-and-answer session following Trump’s thinly veiled campaign speech was short even by the more abbreviated standards of the post-disinfectant era. He fields seven questions from reporters, mostly focusing on the legality of Saturday’s executive orders and the decision to reduce benefits from $600-a-week to $400, which he says “gives [people] a great incentive to go back to work”.
The eighth is a follow-up from CBS correspondent Paula Reid, who asks why Trump continues to make the false statement that he passed Veterans Choice, a program allowing veterans to get full medical bills paid at hospitals outside the VA (which in fact was enacted in 2014).
Rather than responding, Trump abruptly ends the presser and walks out amid enthusiastic applause from the club members at the rear of the ballroom as YMCA by the Village People plays over the sound system.
Video of the exchange. Notably it’s another example of Trump getting so agitated by a female reporter that he abruptly cuts off news conference. https://t.co/G1Mx2z3dgT pic.twitter.com/CvXn07uGOK
— David Nakamura (@DavidNakamura) August 8, 2020
Updated
Trump to sign executive order on coronavirus relief benefits
Donald Trump has signed an executive order and three memoranda intended to provide additional relief to address the coronavirus pandemic’s economic fallout after the White House failed to reach a deal with Congress.
Speaking at a news conference from his private golf club in the leafy New Jersey hamlet of Bedminster, the US president said the directives will extend federal unemployment benefits at $400-a-week (a $200 cut from the present amount), defer payroll tax through the end of 2020 (“most likely” retroactive to 1 July), defer and forgive interest on student loans and extend moratoriums on evictions, defer student loan payments and extend the federal moratorium on evictions.
Trump signed the order before the gathered press and several dozen club members, who watched from the back of the ballroom and applauded enthusiastically in spots.
The announcement came one day after Trump first signaled his willingness to take executive action on the lapsed economic relief measures amid congressional gridlock. Negotiations between the two sides, which have dragged on for two weeks with scant indications of progress, have collapsed with the two sides around $1tn apart in the amount of money they want to commit to extending support to millions faced with economic hardship as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The impasse meant that the $600-a-week bonus pandemic jobless federal benefit, which expired at the end of July, would be lost and potentially lead to a sharp rise in poverty rates and homelessness.
Trump preceded the signing with a campaign-style political speech, blending pre-written remarks and trademark ad-libs, which placed the blame for stalemate at the foot of the Democrats.
“What they really want is bailout money for states that are run by Democrat governors and mayors and that have been run very badly for many, many years and many decades in fact,” Trump said. “These people, I honestly don’t believe they love our country.”
Unlike Friday night’s presser, most of the club members who were permitted to observe the proceedings were wearing face masks when they entered.
Updated
A fourth coronavirus test for Ohio governor Mike DeWine came back negative on Saturday following conflicting positive and negative results on Thursday ahead of a planned meeting with Donald Trump.
DeWine was administered a rapid point-of-care antigen test at a mobile testing site on Thursday before he was scheduled to greet Trump at the airport upon his arrival in Cleveland, in keeping with White House protocol for anyone scheduled to come in contact with the president, who has downplayed the importance of testing.
But the initial positive test was followed by two negative results from a polymerase chain reaction test on Thursday, then a third on Saturday.
Today, Fran and I were tested again for #COVID19. @OSUWexMed administered the PCR tests, and the results for both tests were negative. Thank you to everyone who sent along good wishes for our family and staff! We're #InThisTogetherOhio!
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) August 8, 2020
The Associated Press describes the PCR test as “the most commonly used test in the country” and “considered the gold standard by medical professionals”, saying more than 1.3m Ohioans have been tested with it.
Updated
Health officials in Arizona reported 1,054 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 56 more deaths on Saturday.
The figures from the state’s department of health services raise the total number of confirmed cases to nearly 186,000 and the reported death toll to 4,137 since the start of the pandemic. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested and studies suggest people can be infected without feeling sick, authorities said.
The rolling seven-day average for newly reported cases was 1,577.7 on Friday, the lowest since 18 June, according to tracking by the Associated Press.
The father and son jailed on murder charges in the slaying of Ahmaud Arbery are asking a Georgia judge to grant them bond and to throw out two charges in their indictment.
Arbery, 25, was killed by Travis McMichael on 23 February after he and his father, Gregory McMichael, chased Arbery in their truck and shot him while he was jogging in his neighborhood in the town of Brunswick. They said they believed Arbery was a robbery suspect.
The men were arrested in May, months after the killing, along with a third man who filmed footage of the shooting that went viral. The delay in bringing charges sparked national outrage.
The AP reports:
Gregory McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, were jailed and arrested in May, more than two months after Arbery was slain. The 25-year-old Black man was chased and fatally shot after the McMichaels, who are white, spotted him running in their neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick.
Attorneys for both men filed legal motions Thursday asking Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley to set a bond that would allow the McMichaels to be freed pending trial. The judge denied bond last month for William “Roddie” Bryan Jr., a third man charged in Arbery’s killing.
Attorneys for 34-year-old Travis McMichael argued he has no prior criminal history and poses no risk of fleeing.
“He does not have passport, and most importantly, his family, including his parents and three-year-old son, are here in Georgia,” attorneys Robert Rubin and Jason Sheffield wrote.
Biden denies Fox News 'scoop' that he's chosen a running mate
Speaking of the veepstakes, the Biden campaign has shot down a Fox News “scoop” that a running mate has already been chosen. TJ Ducklo, the national press secretary for Biden 2020, has confirmed that a brief exchange between Biden and a reporter while the presumptive Democratic candidate was enjoying a bike ride with a small entourage on Saturday morning was “clearly a joke.”
A quick transcript of the back-and-forth between Biden as he rolled past Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy, the son of Fox & Friends stalwart Steve Doocy:
Peter Doocy: “Have you picked a running mate yet?”
Biden: “Yeah, I have.”
Doocy: You have? Who is it?
Biden: “You.”
NEW: @JoeBiden tells @pdoocy he has selected a running mate
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) August 8, 2020
The junior Doocy, whose network has breathlessly kept in lockstep with the Trump campaign’s messaging of Biden as a feeble, old man locked in his basement, played it straight and took the candidate for his word, prompting the Democrat’s campaign to step in.
“When Vice President Biden has made a decision on who his running mate will be, he will let the American people know,” Ducklo tweeted. “And can confirm, it’s not @pdoocy of @FoxNews.”
Updated
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer traveled to Delaware on Sunday to meet with Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee continues to weigh potential running mates ahead of the November election, the Associated Press reports, citing two high-ranking state Democrats who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The meeting, which Whitmer’s office declined to confirm or deny, is thought to be Biden’s first in-person sitdown with a potential vice president.
The 48-year-old Lansing native has been tipped as a rising figure in the party since delivering the Democrats’ response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February, but her national profile has soared amid the coronavirus pandemic. Whitmer’s strict stay-at-home order was implemented to lower one of the nation’s highest Covid-19 rates and drew strong criticism from some conservatives. However, it successfully flattened the curve of new cases and fatalities.
Continued aggressive steps to curb the outbreak and withering criticism of the federal response made her the target of attacks from the White House and placed her at the center of a storm of protest by armed groups, some of whom brought their weapons right into the state capitol.
Biden has pledged to select a woman and has conducted an expansive search, including US senators Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, California representative Karen Bass and former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice.
Trump expected to announce executive order to provide economic relief
Reuters reports that Donald Trump is almost certain to announce an executive order to provide economic relief for those who have suffered economically during the pandemic when he gives a press conference at 3.30pm ET today.
“Amid congressional inaction, POTUS will be taking action to help Americans in need,” the official told Reuters.
Republicans and Democrats have failed to reach agreement over a new package, with the sides around $1tn apart in the amount of money they want to spend (the Republicans want a lower outlay).
Updated
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control has announced a campaign called Fight the Spread, which encourages residents to wear masks, get tested for Covid-19 and practice social distancing. The state reported 67 new deaths from the virus on Saturday. South Carolina has a 15.9% positivity rate among those tested according to the state’s department of health, in comparison, New York’s is 0.93%.
The Kansas City Star reports that Covid-19 deaths in the city rose by 60% over two weeks in late July and early August (22 July to 5 August). The number of new cases and hospitalizations also rose steeply over the same time period.
“Our deaths have been very significantly increasing,” Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City Health Department, said on Friday.
My colleague Ed Helmore has news of the large gathering of bikers taking place in South Dakota, and how it has caused conflict with the Great Sioux Nation:
Thousands of bikers heading to South Dakota’s 10-day Sturgis Motorcycle Rally will not be allowed through Cheyenne River Sioux checkpoints, a spokesman for the Native American group said on Saturday.
The decision to prevent access across tribal lands to the annual rally, which could attract as many as 250,000 bikers amid fears it could lead to a massive, regional coronavirus outbreak, comes as part of larger Covid-19 prevention policy. The policy has pitted seven tribes that make up the Great Sioux Nation against federal and state authorities, which both claim the checkpoints are illegal.
A duty officer for the Cheyenne River Sioux told the Guardian Saturday that only commercial and emergency vehicles will be let through the checkpoints onto reservation land.
A number of bikers that had tried to enter but had been turned back, they said. Other reservations in the region, including the Oglala Sioux, were also turning away bikers that had attempted routes to Sturgis that pass through sovereign land.
Under Cheyenne River tribal guidelines non-residents driving non-commercial out-of-state vehicles are never allowed through the reservation. During the rally, non-commercial vehicles with South Dakota plates are also not allowed through.
You can read the full story below:
In a sign that the pandemic is easing in Florida, the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration says 6,836 people are currently in hospital due to Covid-19, down from 7,942 last Saturday.
A total of 30,251 people in Florida have been admitted to hospital due to Covid-19 since the pandemic started, according to the state’s department of health. According to the New York Times, 7,926 have died from the disease in Florida.
While professional sports have returned to the US with varying degrees of success in recent weeks, the picture for college sports looks murkier as the new school year comes into view. Students are, of course, not under contract for their sporting services and (most but certainly not all) college athletics departments do not have the resources of leagues such as the NBA and NFL to conduct widespread testing of their players.
Last week, UConn football team became the first major program to say it would not participate in the upcoming season due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On Saturday, the Mid-American Conference said it is postponing all fall sports – including football, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, field hockey and women’s volleyball. They will now be contested in spring 2021.
“The Council of Presidents unanimously voted to take this action with the health and safety of its student-athletes, coaches and communities as its top priority,” the MAC said in a statement. “It is the intention of the membership to provide competitive opportunities for the student-athletes in these sports during the spring semester of 2021.”
Updated
The New York Times has reported on rumours that South Dakota governor Kristi Noem was a possible replacement for Mike Pence as vice president. Although the Times reports that those rumours are most likely nonsense, the story does contain a great detail: Donald Trump had ambitions to have his image etched on South Dakota’s Mt Rushmore alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Last year, a White House aide reached out to the governor’s office with a question, according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation: What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?
That then led to a gift from Noem:
In private, the efforts to charm Mr. Trump were more pointed, according to a person familiar with the episode: Ms. Noem greeted him with a four-foot replica of Mount Rushmore that included a fifth presidential likeness: his.
My colleagues Daniel Strauss and Lauren Gambino have reported on the wave of progressive victories by people of color in recent months:
Progressive Democrats are enjoying a wave of victories in federal primaries across the country with some especially notable triumphs for Black activist candidates.
Those successes, candidates and strategists say, are due to a mixture of broad energy from the Black Lives Matter movement, failure of conventional policy remedies to meet the moment and a rock-solid infrastructure of progressive organizations.
The latest victory came in Missouri on the same night the state voted to expand Medicaid – a longtime liberal goal. Cori Bush, a liberal activist and registered nurse, defeated the 10-term congressman William Lacy Clay in the Democratic primary.
A few days later Marquita Bradshaw, an environmental justice activist, became the first Black woman to win the Democratic party’s nomination in Tennessee. In the process of Bradshaw’s surprise victory she defeated James Mackler, the preferred candidate of Senate Democrats’ national campaign arm.
Both candidates ran on positions familiar to the progressive community: racial justice, Medicare for All and environmental justice. The victories by the candidates, both Black women, are the latest in a strong of upsets liberals have enjoyed this year.
You can read the full story below:
A total of 74,857 people were tested for Covid-19 across New York state on Friday, and 0.93% of those, or 703, proved to be positive for the virus.
“Despite increasing infection rates across the country and in our region, we continue to see our numbers hold at low levels, all thanks to the hard work of New Yorkers to change their behavior and our data-driven, phased reopening,” New York governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on Saturday.
There were five reported deaths from Covid-19 in New York on Friday, and 25,195 people have died from the virus in the state since the pandemic began.
Susan Rice, the former national security adviser who is now a potential running mate for Joe Biden in November’s presidential election, has spoken to the Atlantic about how female politicians are judged differently to their male counterparts.
“I am accused of using profanity. I cop guilty to that. I do occasionally use profanity,” Rice said in an interview with Edward-Isaac Dovere. “Does anybody talk about Dick Cheney’s foul mouth? Or does that in any way define him as the vice president of the United States? I think it’s sexist; that’s what it is.”
Daniel Strass and Lauren Gambino looked at the sexism that has overshadowed Biden’s search for a female vice-presidential candidate.
“Even in this moment of women ascending to heights that we never have in our country’s history, it’s still really being talked about and debated through the lens of a man,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, the executive director at Care in Action, told the Guardian this week.
You can read that story in full here:
Edward Helmore has news on racial disparities among young Covid-19 patients:
Hispanic and black children are far more likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 than white children, a new study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found.
While the study acknowledged that most pediatric incidents of Covid-19 are asymptomatic or mild, and hospitalization rates among children of all ethnicities remain low, it found that rates of hospitalization among Hispanic children were around eight times higher than for white children. Black children were hospitalized at rates five times higher those for white children.
The report – which was released on Friday – focused on data from 14 states. It found that 42% of children studied had one or more underlying medical conditions. Of those, obesity was found to be the most prevalent, a condition that affects almost one in five US children and is more common in black and Hispanic populations.
“Reasons for disparities in Covid-19-associated hospitalization rates by race and ethnicity are not fully understood,” the authors of the study wrote, and called for greater understanding of social forces that affect health.
“Continued tracking of Sars-CoV-2 infections among children is important to characterize morbidity and mortality,” it added. “Reinforcement of prevention efforts is essential in congregate settings that serve children, including childcare centers and schools.”
But the report also noted that hospitalization rates related to Covid-19 for children across all ethnicities remains low (8 per 100,000 population) compared with that among adults (164.5 per 100,000). Those under age two had the highest pediatric hospitalization rate.
You can read the full report below:
Trump will hold a press conference this afternoon
The White House has announced Donald Trump will hold a press conference at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey at 3.30pm ET today.
The president will presumably follow up on his pledge to use executive orders to extend Covid-19 relief measures while Congress remains deadlocked on the measures. The president said on Friday that “if Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need.”
Trump is expected to defer payroll taxes and extend enhanced unemployment benefits through to the end of the year.
Updated
Here’s the Associated Press on how doctors are hoping to increase voter registration ahead of November’s elections:
An emergency room doctor in Boston is assembling thousands of voter registration kits for distribution at hospitals and doctor’s offices.
Later this month, students at Harvard and Yale’s medical schools are planning a contest to see which of the Ivy League rivals can register the most voters.
And a medical student in Rhode Island has launched an effort to get emergency ballots into the hands of patients who find themselves unexpectedly in the hospital around election day.
Amid the dual public health crises of Covid-19 and racism, some in the medical community are prescribing a somewhat nontraditional remedy: voting.
Hospitals, doctors and healthcare institutions across the country this month are committing to efforts to engage Americans in the election process as part of Civic Health Month, a nationwide campaign that kicked off 1 August.
Hospital networks in Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin and elsewhere are among more than 60 institutions participating, along with thousands of individual physicians.
You can read the full story below:
Updated
Fox News’s Chad Pergram reports Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order later today on unemployment benefits as Congress remains stalled in its efforts to agree on an economic relief package.
Pergram quotes a senior White House official as saying: “The unemployment insurance measure is one of several [executive orders] the President will sign to provide relief ... in the face of Democrat inaction”.
Trump to sign executive orders today since there is no deal on coronavirus bill. From colleague John Roberts. A sr admin official says “The unemployment insurance measure is one of several EOs The President will sign to provide relief..in the face of Democrat inaction”
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) August 8, 2020
Democrats want a sizable aid package to address the surge in Covid-19 across the US, mass unemployment and the poverty threatening the millions of Americans who now find themselves without jobs. They say the White House has rejected an offer from Democrats to reduce their demands by about a trillion dollars – from $3tn to $2tn.
While millions of Americans are suffering economic hardship during the pandemic, many of the wealthiest in the country have become richer. For example, in the 12 weeks between 18 March and 11 June, the combined wealth of all US billionaires increased by more than $637bn to a total of $3.581tn. Shares in their companies haven’t done badly either: Tesla’s share price is up 83% in the last three months and Amazon’s is up 33%.
Bernie Sanders tweeted on Saturday morning that this vast wealth should be used to help all Americans.
We are going to tax Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the other billionaires' outrageous pandemic wealth accumulation so we can provide health care to all our people. pic.twitter.com/wKe4zeb8fw
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) August 8, 2020
“We are going to tax Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and the other billionaires’ outrageous pandemic wealth accumulation so we can provide health care to all our people,” he wrote on Twitter.
That followed a video posted by the senator on Friday night, in which he outlined how he would tax billionaires.
At a time when so many are hurting, the very, very, very rich should not be getting much richer. By taxing the wealth gains made by just a few hundred billionaires during this pandemic, we can provide health care for all. pic.twitter.com/QTUhEovZ83
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) August 7, 2020
“At a time when so many are hurting, the very, very, very rich should not be getting much richer. By taxing the wealth gains made by just a few hundred billionaires during this pandemic, we can provide health care for all,” he said.
CNN has reported from Seagoville prison and camp in Texas. Covid-19 has spread rapidly through America’s prison system, and Seagoville, a federal correctional facility, is the hardest hit of them all. More than 1,300 of the 1,750 inmates at the prison, many with underlying conditions, have tested positive for Covid-19 and three have died.
“It came through here so fast that it’s out of control,” one inmate, Bobby Williams, told CNN. “We’re packed like sardines.”
Many have argued that ill and older patients should have been released from jails to ease outbreaks and protect vulnerable patients. However, CNN reports progress on that front has been slow.
“It’s been disappointing because most of these people were elderly and sick and now they’re the most at risk from this disease,” Kevin Ring, president of criminal justice reform group Families Against Mandatory Minimums, told CNN.
My colleague Ed Pilkington has had a wide-ranging look at the failure to contain Covid-19 in the US. Here’s an extract:
A letter landed on the desk of the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, this week that given the public health catastrophe swirling all around him might give him pause. His state is one of 21 across the US that have been placed by the White House coronavirus taskforce in the “red zone”, indicating the disease is now so prevalent that immediate restrictions must be imposed to avoid dire consequences.
Kemp, a Republican governor and Donald Trump ally, has adopted a controversial approach to Covid-19. Since early July the virus has roared across his state, with new infections rising sharply to top a devastating tally of 182,000.
Deaths too have ticked dramatically upwards, with new daily peaks pushing the toll close to 4,000. Yet Kemp continues to expend much of his political energy fighting local officials rather than the microbe.
For weeks he has been suing the Democratic mayor of the largest city, Atlanta, to stop her mandating masks. Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is African American, as is more than half of her city, has decried the move by Kemp, who is white, as an act of “personal retaliation”.
in packed dance floors. Yet Kemp continues to allow clubs, bars and indoor restaurants to carry on with abandon.
Social media images show high school corridors crammed with non-mask-wearing pupils on the first day of the new school year. Yet Kemp persists on passing the buck on whether to open classrooms to individual school districts. In Atlanta alone, 260 staff tested positive for the virus, or exposure to it, even before classes began.
It is against this backdrop that the letter dropped on Kemp’s desk. Signed by almost 2,400 doctors, nurses, physical therapists and other public health workers at the coalface of the pandemic response, it paints a devastating picture of mortally ill people stretching hospitals to breaking point right across the state under Kemp’s watch.
You can read the full article below:
Good morning. With Congress still apparently no closer to agreeing to a package to help those Americans whose finances have been hit by the economic impact of Covid-19, Donald Trump says he intends to step in. Here’s more from my colleague David Smith in Washington DC:
Donald Trump has promised unilateral action to provide economic relief for millions of Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic, but he offered few specific details and admitted the move is likely to face legal challenges.
The president’s pledge to rescue people from poverty and homelessness took place against the unlikely backdrop of his luxury golf club, where annual fees run to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, with members in T-shirts not physically distancing as they watched and applauded him.
Trump called the sudden press conference at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on Friday evening after the collapse of talks between White House and Democratic negotiators in Washington. “If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need,” the president said.
He vowed to suspend payroll tax and extend unemployment benefits until the end of the year, defer student loan payments indefinitely and forgive interest, and extend a moratorium on evictions.
Asked when the executive orders would be ready, Trump said it “could be by the end of the week. They’re being drawn by the lawyers right now.”
Meanwhile, my colleague Dominic Rushe tells the story of one American feeling the effects of the delay in agreeing a new package of benefits:
Karen L, who did not wish to give her last name, was furloughed by American Airlines in April. The resident of Miami has been struggling to get her unemployment checks ever since. Florida and other states have been overwhelmed by the number of claims.
“They owe me 15 weeks,” she said. “I just keep calling but it’s a futile effort. Every day, three or four hours, sending emails. I am losing hope.”
Her partner, who also lost his job, was receiving the extra $600 but is now qualified for just $125 a week. His payments have stopped and the couple have no idea why. “We have maxed out our credit cards,” she said. “I had to tell my landlord we couldn’t pay the rent.”
Rodgers said inaction from Congress was causing “unnecessary strain and stress” and that the money was needed for as long as the pandemic continued. His research shows that the states with higher coronavirus rates have the highest unemployment claims. “I would be more sympathetic to the Republican view if we had stronger job creation,” he said.
Without more aid to states and local government, a new wave of layoffs is likely for federal employees. Those losses would disproportionately affect women and people of color who have already been hit hardest by the recession, said Rodgers. “The public sector is where many women and minorities got their toehold in the middle class. If these jobs aren’t supported, we will see an expansion in gender and racial income inequality.”
