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Millions of Americans Are Headed Into the Holidays on the Edge of the Abyss

Photo credit: SOPA Images - Getty Images
Photo credit: SOPA Images - Getty Images

From Esquire

On the day before Thanksgiving, we learned initial jobless claims rose again for the second straight week, to 778,000. Tens of millions have been struggling for months to pay rent or other bills. The lines at American food banks are growing ahead of a holiday where we all traditionally gorge ourselves on the bounty of life in this, the richest country in the history of the world. According to the Washington Post, more people are now going hungry than at any other point of the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, there may be more hunger now in the United States than at any point since 1998, when the Census Bureau started keeping track. 26 million Americans report they don't have enough to eat, including one out of every six households with children, and the situation is only likely to deteriorate further.

The virus is already surging across the country, as the federal government has abandoned whatever meager attempts it was making to contain the spread, and the holidays are likely to exacerbate things. This failure is at the root of the economic turmoil. The labor market improved more quickly than expected through the summer, but progress has stalled and long-term unemployment is growing as the lasting damage takes hold. Those outside the small segment of the population that controls more and more of the resources, where the professional class has enjoyed a V-shaped recovery while working from home and billionaires have exploded their wealth, are increasingly sliding into desperation. The gap is only likely to grow, as the pandemic spins out of control while the Dow hits 30,000. Meanwhile, the expanded unemployment infrastructure Congress created is set to crumble.

As part of the CARES Act, the federal legislature sent out stimulus checks worth $1,200, expanded benefits for unemployed Americans by an extra $600 per week, extended the window in which those who lost their jobs are eligible for payments by 13 weeks, and made part-time and gig workers—like, say, Uber drivers—eligible. But all of these initiatives will have expired by the end of this calendar year. The $600 is long gone, having expired at the end of July with catastrophic consequences for the lives of people like Matt Breen, a teacher who lost his job in Arkansas. There have been no additional stimulus checks. The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which got gig workers in on the benefits, will expire the day after Christmas. So, too, will the money for the 13 weeks of extended benefits. The Century Foundation estimates 12 million Americans currently depend on these federal programs. As many as 4 million had already lost their benefits under state programs by the end of October, and separate initiatives providing rent, food, and student-loan relief will in many cases face their own cliffs in the coming weeks.

This is a complete catastrophe for millions of Americans who have already endured month after month of misery due to factors completely beyond their control. It will also likely further inhibit any kind of sustained—much less broad-based—recovery for the American economy as a whole. And yet there is zero sign the federal government will act in any way.

Photo credit: Boston Globe                - Getty Images
Photo credit: Boston Globe - Getty Images

House Democrats, it should be noted, passed a benefits extension through the HEROES Act in May, and passed an updated version on October 1. Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans refused to take up either version, and the Senate has in fact passed nothing—not even the various "skinny bills" that no one thinks are enough. They have insisted throughout on including sweeping legal immunity for employers who get their employees sick, a deal-breaker for Democrats, particularly when Republicans also refuse to fork over enough money to actually do the job here. The Trump administration, represented in negotiations with Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, signaled more openness to the kind of $2 trillion package needed leading up to the election. But now that the president lost and is throwing a weeks-long hissy-fit, it is not going to happen. Not that the White House showed many signs of being able to corral Senate Republicans on this anyway.

There will be no deal, and no help. Congress has apparently decided to leave it to charitable organizations, already under such strain, to paper over the deep fissures emerging in our society. There is no reasonable expectation that they have the resources to do so. Millions and millions of Americans will head into the holiday season on the edge of the abyss.

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