A $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit, approved by the U.S. Congress in March, expires today; leaving 20+ million jobless Americans in the lurch and the U.S. economy on the brink.
A $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit, approved by the U.S. Congress in March, expires today; leaving 20+ million jobless Americans in the lurch, and the U.S. economy on the brink. A meeting which included the White House, and both houses of Congress, ended yesterday with no agreement. The emergency unemployment benefit expires today.
Both parties remained unrelenting on expanding the $2 Trillion CARES ACT. Democrats stand by their wide-ranging $3 trillion proposal, while Republicans struggle to coalesce around a smaller $1 trillion allowance. While Democrats want to continue paying out an extra $600 per week to 20+ million Americans, Republicans now characterize the payments as “completely unhinged” and creating a “disincentive for people to actually return to the workforce.” Both have attached Riders: additional legislation having little connection with the subject matter of the bill.
Amidst the melee, Trump continues to demand nearly $1.8 billion for a new FBI building at its present site, near his hotel in downtown Washington. Even Republicans have said they oppose inclusion of the FBI headquarters to the current bill to which Trump replied, “Then Republicans should go back to school and learn. They need a new building, and we can do it very easily.”
President Donald Trump explicitly floated delaying November's presidential election on Thursday, lending extraordinary assertion to persistent concerns that he will seek to circumvent voting in a contest where he currently trails his opponent by double digits.