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How a Startup Tax Credit Can Spur Re-Employment
by Elliot Long, Senior Economic Policy Analyst at PPI
As federal and state governments outline plans for reopening the economy, lawmakers will have to grapple with the challenge of getting tens of millions of Americans back to work as quickly as possible. More than 47 million Americans have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began, with the unemployment rate at 13.3 percent in May.
The economic damage has been inflicted on both the employer and worker sides of the labor market. A mass of businesses have filed for bankruptcy as a result of the lockdown, with the American Bankruptcy Institute finding a 48 percent increase in commercial Chapter 11 filings in May compared to last year. And many laid off workers will not be able to return to their former jobs. As many as 25 percent of jobs may never come back, Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at consulting firm RSM, recently told Politico.
Part of the problem is that even businesses that survive the downturn are going to be wary about expanding to fill the market gaps left by their defunct peers. Small businesses, which are naturally less risk-tolerant than their large counterparts and have access to fewer resources, will be especially cautious about growth.
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Federal lawmakers, states, and private payers have expanded access to telehealth
by Arielle Kane, Director of Health Care
As Covid-19 cases surge across the country and local lawmakers delay re-openings, people can no longer delay their routine medical care. Care provided via telehealth allows patients to visit with providers without in-person contact. It can also help preserve resources (like personal protective equipment) for treating Covid-19 patients.
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The GOP's "Spread COVID" Tax Credit may be its dumbest proposal yet
by Ben Ritz, Director of the Center for Funding America's Future
As Congress prepares to pass another round of coronavirus relief, Republicans have once again fallen back to their failed cure-all solution: another tax cut.
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WEBINAR: What Works: Remote Instruction During COVID 19
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Moderator: Tress Pankovits, Reinventing America's Schools
PPI’s educator panelists described their fast pivot from the classroom to the cloud, and their shared strategies for ensuring distance learning was effective, including setting high expectations and relentless student engagement. During the moderated discussion with Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) and Public Impact analysts, they shared new data on how school systems performed, even under immense pressure.
A practitioner-in-residence at the CRPE explained how a vast majority of school districts have yet to release public information on how schools will operate in the fall. This leaves students without clarity on how their schools function, especially with the new ICE regulations.
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As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the globe, no country has been hit harder than the United States. America leads the world in Covid-19 deaths and confirmed cases. Unemployment has reached levels not seen since the Great Depression, and national output has cratered as lockdowns have put the formerly robust U.S. economy into a self-induced coma.
June 16, 2020 - In an op-ed, Vice President Mike Pence dismisses reports about a "second wave" of coronavirus infections and boasts that the Trump administration is "winning the fight against the invisible enemy.”
Despite ample early warnings that America would likely face a contagious disease at some point in its tenure, the Trump administration was utterly unprepared for the outbreak of coronavirus last December. Now, the Trump administration would rather blame the media for fear of a second wave of coronavirus, than provide ample leadership to fight this virus together. Only recently, Vice President Pence is seen wearing a mask in public for fear of public scrutiny at his White House briefings.
June 20, 2020 - Disregarding warnings from administration health officials against large public gatherings, President Trump resumes mass campaign rallies in Tulsa, with 6,200 people in attendance. He complains that more testing is giving a false impression that Covid-19 is spreading, and adds, "So I said to my people: Slow the testing down, please."
Even after President Trump grudgingly acknowledged the severity of the pandemic, he failed to mobilize the federal government’s resources to contain its spread, or even to provide the public reliable information about the disease. Instead, President Trump is more focused on bolstering his base and holding non-socially distant rallies. He also claims that this uptick in COVID-19 cases is due to the increase in testing across the United States. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci dismissed this point because of the "disturbing surge” of infections in some parts of the country, as Americans ignore social distancing guidelines.
June 23, 2020 - Texas tallied more than 5,000 new cases in a single day for the first time. “The coronavirus is serious. It’s spreading,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told a local television station, as he urged people to stay inside and wear face masks when venturing out.
Now, with an eye to the upcoming November election, President Trump and his party are trying to shift the blame to China, and to convince the public the debacle they have been witnessing is a mirage.
July 8, 2020 - The U.S. has reported more than 3 million coronavirus cases, with all but a handful of states struggling to control outbreaks of COVID-19.
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Opinion: Congress’s bipartisan national-service bill would be a powerful tonic for what’s ailing America
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"PPI has a long history with voluntary national service, including drawing up some of the original blueprints that inspired President Clinton's AmeriCorps initiative. That's why we're delighted to see Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss) leading a bipartisan charge for scaling up national service to help our country cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath.
At a time when some national leaders seek only to divide the country, we urgently need to create new opportunities for young Americans to join in a common civic enterprise aimed at building a more just and resilient society."
- PPI President Will Marshall
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