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By Mark Gruenberg
WASHINGTON — Unless Congress acts, acts fast, and acts the way the Democratic-run U.S. House wants it to act, millions of people will fall off a cliff—financially and otherwise—after Friday, July 31.
But Senate Republicans and GOP President Donald Trump are standing in the way.
July 31 is the date of the last $600 weekly federal unemployment check for the 13.18 million people—farm workers, household help, actors, musicians, freelancers, “gig economy” workers, and so-called “independent contractors” among them. After then, they get zip.
And since those workers aren’t part of the regular state-run jobless benefits system, that effectively means no income at all.
Those workers and their families “bought the groceries and paid the rent” with those checks, AFL-CIO Policy Director and chief economist Bill Spriggs said in a roundtable zoom discussion with reporters in early July. “Remove them, and it would be a catastrophe...
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