“I Blame Mitch McConnell the Most”: Americans “Won’t Forget” How Senate Republicans Left Town Without Renewing Emergency Unemployment Relief [Washington Post]

A new Washington Post report details how the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic are facing “increasingly desperate situations” as a result of Senate Republicans’ refusal to extend emergency unemployment relief after allowing benefits to expire at the end of July. 

The “anger” from jobless Americans “was directed at Republicans, who control the White House and the Senate” for failing to renew the expired emergency unemployment relief as millions of families face eviction, hunger, and uncertainty amid the ongoing public health and economic crisis.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans knew the $600 per week emergency unemployment lifeline would expire at the end of July, yet they wasted weeks bickering among themselves and insisting they didn’t see “a big need” to extend the unemployment boost. As another one million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week, McConnell and his caucus are entering the third week of their extended vacation and still refusing to renew desperately-needed relief for working families.

“As millions of Americans struggle to meet basic needs amid an ongoing crisis, it’s clear who they blame for failing them: Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Republicans abandoned working families when they allowed the emergency unemployment lifeline to lapse and refused to renew the relief Americans have relied on to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. Now, these Americans ‘say they won’t forget’ how Republican senators left them out to dry in the middle of a crisis.”

Washington Post: Congress left town and let jobless benefits lapse. Unemployed Americans say they won’t forget it.

Key Points:

• Shawn Gabriel, a single father of two in Parma, Ohio, has learned what it means to struggle since he lost his construction job in March. His landlord sent him an eviction notice after he was a few days late on August rent.

• Gabriel keeps looking for work, but for now his family is living off of $189 a week that he gets in unemployment benefits, which is not enough to cover his $950 rent, let alone food, electric, Internet and other expenses.

• But the bulk of his frustration has been reserved for one place: Congress, whose members left town in August after letting the $600-a-week unemployment bonus that millions of people like Gabriel have been relying on expire.

• Similar stories are playing out nationwide. Millions of desperate Americans, many of whom have never relied on emergency government assistance before, are flabbergasted and furious, believing they have been cut loose by a Washington political structure that doesn’t care about their predicament during the pandemic. The stock market has snapped back, but the labor market remains in really bad shape. On Thursday, the Labor Department said another 1 million Americans filed jobless claims last week. About 27 million Americans are now receiving some form of unemployment aid.

• The Washington Post spoke to 20 people who have lost their livelihoods in recent months, and all said they felt immense pressure to stay afloat without the extra $600, which expired at the end of July. Every person interviewed said they were furious at Washington policymakers for letting such a critical benefit lapse amid the nation’s worst economic crisis in a century. Often, the anger was directed at Republicans, who control the White House and the Senate[.]

• Many described increasingly desperate situations, as they cut back on basic expenses such as food, certain medicines and cable TV. This led many to stand in line at food banks, apply for food stamps or rely on unemployment insurance, many for the first time.

• “I blame [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell the most,” [Gabriel] said. “At least [Pelosi] was trying four months ago.”

• Democrats passed a bill in May to extend the $600-a-week payments, which expired in July, through the end of the year. But Republicans proposed reducing the amount to $200 out of concerns that some jobless people were receiving so much in government aid that it was dissuading them from working again, a claim that several studies have rebutted.

• In a sign of growing pain, serious mortgage delinquencies have surged to a 10-year high, and evictions are predicted to skyrocket in the coming weeks as people such as Gabriel struggle to pay September rent. Congress has not renewed the federal eviction moratorium that expired in late July, either.

• Gregg Pupecki, 48, of Middlesex County, Mass., was one of several people who used the word “disgusting” to describe how he felt about Congress leaving town as the unemployment benefits lapsed. He is another 2016 Trump voter who says he will probably go the other way this election after losing faith in the president during the pandemic.
• “His lack of leadership on the coronavirus was dismal,” said Pupecki, who lost his job as a manager of a marina in May. “He basically let the whole country down.”

• Pupecki was one of the many people The Post talked to who said they had little faith that the executive action that Trump signed earlier in the month would result in more benefits in their pockets. So far, five states — Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas — are paying out the money Trump promised.

• “When I figured out that executive order wasn’t going to mean squat for me, I cried,” said Stephanie Hightower, an out-of-work home caregiver in Indiana who is receiving $75 a week in unemployment.

• Many would like to return to work, but the nation has only about 5.9 million job openings for 27 million people receiving unemployment payments, Labor Department data show. Many parents are also having to make the gut-wrenching choice between work or caring for children, as many schools remain virtual this fall.

Read the full story here.

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