This is my stimulus update for Friday, August 28.
The Pelosi-Meadows Phone Call Yesterday
So it has now been three weeks since stimulus negotiations have failed, and like I mentioned yesterday, Nancy Pelosi and Mark Meadows had a phone call yesterday, but unfortunately it didn’t go well.
Pelosi issued a statement afterward stating, “This conversation made clear that the White House continues to disregard the needs of the American people as the coronavirus crisis devastates lives and livelihoods.”
She went on to say that she is now willing to go down from $2.2 trillion to meet in the middle. Incidentally, that is the same amount as the CARES Act that was passed in March.
And then she gives this scathing attack on Republicans and all the things that she has perceived them to have abandoned, including healthcare workers, teachers, children, families, hungry children, workers, small businesses, working families, voters, and the American democracy itself, concluding her statement with, “Democrats are willing to resume negotiations once Republicans start to take this process seriously. Lives, livelihoods and the life of our democracy are at stake.”
Like I brought up yesterday, this is very reminiscent of Pelosi’s statements about Mnuchin when they had their chat the week after stimulus negotiations failed.
And yet somehow some folks are drawing from this failed 25-minute phone call between Pelosi and Meadows that a new stimulus check bill is going to pass, and this is breaking news, this is actually fake news.
Now, maybe Pelosi is just really concerned about the American people right now to the tune of $2.2 trillion. But cynically speaking, maybe, just maybe, she knows that when times are tough, who’s the easiest person to blame? The President. And there are valid criticisms of how he and his administration have handled this crisis, I think there are also criticisms that are unwarranted, but that’s for a different day.
But a skinny bill this close to the election might hold some people over until then, maybe they would be less angry at Trump if they are no longer struggling to put food on the table because they have unemployment coming in, stimulus checks, and all that.
And let’s say that Biden is elected, which is probably Pelosi’s assumption. The provisions in that skinny bill would be running out right when he would be starting his term, that’s not a very strong way to start a presidency.
Or, maybe as Meadows is saying, she just wants to use the COVID-19 negotiations as leverage for the appropriations bills next month.
Now let’s talk Republicans. Why don’t Mnuchin and Meadows just agree to another trillion? Heck, we had Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade and manufacturing guy, throw that number out there, remember all that buzz when Navarro said Trump wants $2 trillion?
Well, they can’t, because, just like the Democrats, they’re already built a wall with their own statements, Mnuchin calling a $2 trillion + figure a “non-starter” and many in the administration distanced themselves from Navarro’s $2 trillion figure.
So at this point, all we can do is hope that one side caves, that’s it. But neither side wants to appear weak especially in a presidential election year, so both sides are carefully calculating their every move or lack thereof with an election in sixty-seven days with many voting by mail before that, and so we’re no better for stimulus negotiations than we were three weeks ago.
Unemployment Update
In terms of unemployment, yesterday West Virginia was approved by FEMA for the grant for $300 weekly, we know that West Virginia has said that it will kick in an additional $100 weekly.
Virginia was also approved this week, bringing the number of states approved by FEMA for the $300 weekly to thirty-five.
Of these thirty-five states, at least five have begun paying the retroactive $300 weekly for five weeks, and those states are Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee.
Yesterday Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced that the state would in fact be applying for the FEMA grant for the $300 weekly and that the state would kick in the extra $100 weekly, making it another state in addition to Montana, West Virginia, and Kentucky that have verbally committed to making sure their eligible claimants see $400 a week rather than the $300 a week that will be seen in most states.
My home state of California announced yesterday that the boosted payments will go out the week of September 7.
Also yesterday, Wisconsin said that it has applied for a FEMA grant, this brings the number of states that have not been approved but have stated that they have applied or will apply to twelve.
That now just leaves two states, Nebraska and Minnesota, in addition to the District of Columbia, that have not stated one way or the other whether they will be applying for a FEMA grant for the $300 weekly.
And of course South Dakota remains the only state to reject applying for a FEMA grant.
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