Recession Claims 880K More Jobs as Trump’s Senate Allies Prepare Band-Aid Relief Bill

WASHINGTON, D.C. – More than 880,000 Americans joined the unemployment ranks in the last week, bringing the total number of workers drawing unemployment benefits to over 29 million.

But while the health crisis and recession continue to worsen, the president’s Senate enablers (still on vacation) are planning a vote next week on a “skinny” stimulus bill that does not adequately meet the needs of millions of unemployed workers, families behind on rent, and disappearing small businesses in communities of color. For over 100 days, the Senate has allowed a comprehensive aid bill passed in the U.S. House to collect dust that included $100 billion in emergency rent aid and a full extension of the $600 enhanced unemployment benefit that expired in July.

“After weeks on taxpayer-paid vacation, Trump’s Senate allies are returning to work to find a recession and health crisis in even worse shape than they left it,” said Accountable.US president Kyle Herrig. “The best they could come up with in that time amounts to a band-aid as the economy continues to hemorrhage jobs – including deep cuts to unemployment benefits, no stimulus checks or serious housing aid, and more of the same mismanaged PPP program that abandoned communities of color. Senators are under the mistaken impression that their ‘skinny’ bill will give them cover to continue shrugging off their responsibility. They need follow the House’s lead and pass an aid bill that gets help to communities other than the wealthy and well-connected and actually meets the magnitude of the crises we are in.”

It’s Clear More — Not Less — Needs to Be Done as The Trump Recession Continues for Millions of Americans:   

• Axios, 9/2: Here comes the real recession. Economists are warning that the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic is now creating another recession: mass job losses, business failures and declines in spending even in industries not directly impacted by the virus.
• CNBC, 9/1: Just 13% of Black people out of work are getting unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Roughly 27 million Americans are receiving jobless benefits, and nearly half of people out of work no longer expect to return to their previous jobs.
• New York Times, 9/1: Small-Business Failures Loom as Federal Aid Dries Up. As the pandemic drags on, it is threatening even well-established businesses that were financially healthy before the crisis. If they shut down or are severely weakened, it could accelerate corporate consolidation and the dominance of the biggest companies.
• Business Insider, 9/1: Half of out-of-work Americans were unable to cover basic expenses in August as the additional unemployment benefit dropped to $300, study finds. It’s also becoming less likely that furloughed or laid-off workers will be able to return to their previous jobs, according to the study.
• Wall Street Journal, 9/1: Retail Eviction Proceedings Pick Up as Economy Restarts. In other parts of the country, smaller retail landlords also have filed lease termination and eviction notices to restaurants, bridal shops, entertainment operators and co-working tenants that haven’t paid rent and weren’t able to come to mutually agreeable modifications to their leases.
• Washington Post, 8/25: As permanent economic damage piles up, the Covid Crisis is looking more like the Great Recession. There were 3.7 million U.S. unemployed who had permanently lost their previous job as of July, according to the Labor Department. That figure doubled from February to June, held steady in July, and is expected to hit between 6.2 million and 8.7 million by late this year.

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