Businesses need to be able to adjust? Please. GUBBERMINTS need to.
Plans for Extended Unemployment Benefits, Wage Subsidies Risk Creating a Zombie Economy
Businesses need to be able to adjust to a world where COVID-19 remains an ongoing concern.
House Democrats’ introduction of a fourth coronavirus relief bill has kicked off an intense debate between liberals and populists on both the left and right. At issue: how best to keep the country’s economy in suspended animation until we can return to pre-pandemic normality.
Meanwhile, local leaders’ decisions to constantly push back the dates for when they plan on phasing out their lockdown orders—not to mention the anemic effects of the phase-outs that have already happened—suggest that we may be a long way from anything approaching business as usual.
All the plans to keep the economy in stasis until then, whatever their details, run the risk of creating a zombie economy that is prevented from adjusting to the economic needs of a country where COVID-19 is an ongoing concern.
The current fight is over Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s introduction of the 1,800-page, $3.2 trillion Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act. The bill includes an extension of already-boosted federal unemployment benefits to January 2021. Those expanded benefits, which give recipients $600 on top of the money they’d already be entitled to, often mean people can make more money staying home than returning to work.
The HEROES Act also expands existing tax credit programs that cover fixed costs and payroll for businesses that have shut down, been forced to close, or seen significant revenue declines because of COVID-19.
“The hardship of losing a job or tragically losing a loved one doesn’t take a pause. This is an historic challenge and, therefore, a momentous opportunity for us to meet the needs of the American people,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as she introduced the bill on Tuesday.
These measures have not proven enough for Democrats like Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D–Wash.), co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, who slammed Pelosi’s extension of jobless benefits as essentially accepting mass unemployment.
“With more than 33 million people filing for unemployment in 7 weeks, workers are looking for certainty about how we end mass unemployment and how they’ll get their next paycheck,” tweeted Jayapal. The HEROES Act “doesn’t end mass unemployment and it doesn’t get paychecks back into their pockets.”