Tens of millions of jobless Americans (30 million from what I’ve read) are losing a benefit that helped keep them afloat.
A $600 weekly jobless benefit from the federal government that became a lifeline for tens of millions of unemployed Americans, while also helping prop up the coronavirus-ravaged economy, expired at midnight as officials in Washington failed to agree on a new relief bill.
The loss of the aid will leave millions struggling to make ends meet at a precarious moment when nearly 11 percent of Americans have said that they live in households where there is not enough to eat, according to a recent Census Bureau survey, and more than a quarter have missed a rent or mortgage payment.
And it comes as unemployment remains at record levels. More than 1.4 million Americans filed new for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the 19th straight week that the tally exceeded one million, an unheard-of figure before the pandemic. Some 30 million people are receiving unemployment benefits.
The benefit’s expiration will force Louise Francis, who worked as a banquet cook at the Sheraton Hotel in New Orleans for nearly two decades before being furloughed last spring, to get by on just state unemployment benefits, which for her come to $247 a week.
“With the $600, you could see your way a little bit,” said Ms. Francis, 59. “You could feel a little more comfortable. You could pay three or four bills and not feel so far behind.”
The aid lapsed as Republicans and Democrats in Washington remained far apart on what the next round of virus relief should look like.
The New York Times
Me: you can be sure, the politicians who were unable to agree to the next financial package and what it would be, won’t lose out on their homes, where they will sleep tonight, where they will eat, or anything else – so if you are behind on your rent and been notified of imminent eviction, onto the street, be happy in the thought that your plight does not apply to those politicians who should know better and who should have cared more about each and every one of you and irrespective of Coronavirus.
