More Pressure for “Skinny” Stimulus Bills

This is my stimulus update for Thursday, August 20.

Will Pelosi Support “Skinny” Stimulus Bills?

To catch you up, the big question right now with respect to second stimulus is whether or not House Democrats, led by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, would support a “skinny” stimulus bill or bills, piecemeal legislation, a bill for unemployment, a bill maybe for PPP and stimulus checks and Post Office like Mark Meadows was talking about, maybe a bill for state and local funding and liability protection there, maybe another bill for school funding and COVID-19, the concept of these smaller, piecemeal bills that Republicans appear to support but Nancy Pelosi repeatedly stated in the course of July’s and August’s stimulus negotiations that she is not open to.

But Republicans appear to be open to piecemeal stimulus legislation.  In fact, they are reportedly as I told you earlier this week going to be publicizing the text of an even smaller stimulus relief bill than the HEALS Act this week, hopefully.

And like I told you yesterday, more and more rank-and-file Democrats appear to be open to piecemeal stimulus bills.

Yesterday I told you about a letter written by three Democratic members of the House of Representatives to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer saying, look, it’s great we’re voting on the Post Office on Saturday, but we need to do something on unemployment, let’s vote on a standalone unemployment bill.

I told you yesterday that reportedly some 50 other Democratic members of the House support this letter, now reports are that over 100 Democratic members of the House support it.

Pelosi’s seat in the House is secure, she won her district in a landslide in 2018, garnering a whopping 86.8% of the votes vs. her Republican opponent’s 13.2%, and it doesn’t look like Republicans taking over the House with the November elections is a realistic probability, so her position as Speaker of the House is secure.

But many Democrats in Congress, particularly in swing districts or districts in states that Trump carried in 2016, are becoming increasingly frustrated with Democratic leadership’s hard stance on a stimulus bill.

Cindy Axne’s Letter to Pelosi

Yesterday, Democratic Representative Cindy Axne of Iowa — a state Trump won in 2016 — wrote a letter to Nancy Pelosi communicating her frustration, I’m going to show you this letter in a second, but I think that similar sentiments to Representative Axne’s are being felt by other Democrats in the House whose seats are not as secure in November’s election as Democratic powerhouse Pelosi’s is, they want to be able to tell their constituents leading up to the election, yes, look what we did for you rather than going back to an angry voter base who can barely afford to put food on the table right now.

Let’s dig into the text of this letter.

Representative Axne’s letter to Pelosi, “As the House returns to Washington later this week, I urge you to bring up a simplified, straightforward COVID-19 relief package. I know that the House of Representatives has put forth proposal after proposal and that the Senate and Trump Administration have failed to adequately counteroffer or even pass legislation of their own, but my constituents and millions of others are relying on us to reach a deal that can deliver much-needed aid to those still under threat from COVID-19. That is why I implore you to show that the House is still committed to reaching a deal – and to allow us to lead once again – by passing a relief bill that will provide economic relief, protections against eviction and financial ruin, and funding for our schools, health centers, and critical industries.”

In this letter, Representative Axne calls for extended unemployment, a true eviction moratorium, a targeted second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans or a new loan program, state and local funding, COVID-19 measures, school and childcare funding, food stamps, and stimulus checks, which Axne calls “direct payments to all Americans.”

She then criticizes both the House Democrats’ HEROES Act and the Senate Republicans’ HEALS Act then concludes her letter stating, “This is not a time for political games. We cannot say take it or leave it because we know very well at this point the Senate has already left it. We should pass a new piece of legislation that reflects our continued commitment to reaching a deal that will help Americans.”

Here’s the link to this letter if you want to read the entire thing for yourself, and I want to know what you think about Representative Axne’s views.  Is she being too critical of her own party and the HEROES Act and Pelosi’s posturing with respect to the next stimulus bill?  Keep in mind that Pelosi did not necessarily say, “Take it or leave it,” she just wanted Republicans to increase their bid to something like $2 trillion.

Or do you find yourself agreeing with Representative Axne in this letter?  Do you think this is a common-sense position to take, let’s cut the crap and just focus on what the country really needs right now?  Let me know in the comments please.

Unemployment & Jobless Claims

Now let’s shift to talking about unemployment.

Of course, it being Thursday, the jobless claims report was released earlier today, and it showed an increase in jobless claims from the preceding report.

For the week ending August 15, 1.1 million new jobless claims were made, this is up from 971,000 for the week ending August 8, which was the lowest number since the beginning of the lockdowns.

Trump’s Unemployment Memorandum

Now, what of Trump’s memorandum on unemployment and the roll-out of that?

As of yesterday, FEMA has approved eleven states for the $300 weekly funding with it being up to the states to kick in the additional $100 weekly.

The eleven approved states are Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah.

And according to Brett Bezio, Arizona spokesman for the state Department of Economic Security, the state of Arizona is already sending out those additional payments to those eligible, namely, that those who would already be eligible for at least $100 weekly in unemployment compensation, including PUA compensation.

South Dakota, as I told you previously, has declined the assistance because the governor feels that the state doesn’t need it.

New York has also declined the assistance but for different reasons, with Governor Cuomo stating, “I don’t know what the feds most recent decision is, I don’t know that any of it is legal. I don’t believe the whole executive order mechanism is legal. So, I think this is all an artificial construction for political reasons.  State’s abilities to redesign their administration system (to offer the payments) is a virtual impossibility in a short period of time.”

I mean, Arizona did it, just saying, Governor.

In Mississippi, Governor Tate Reeves has stated that he will be making an announcement today, Thursday, about the status of Trump’s memorandum in Mississippi.

I am obviously not daily analyzing each state’s position here, these are just highlights that I saw in the headlines.