[ Progressive critics warn failure to bolster the unemployment
system during the pandemic "is a shocking dereliction of
responsibility."] [[link removed]]

ANGER MOUNTS OVER DEMOCRATS' REFUSAL TO ADDRESS JOBLESS AID CRISIS  
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Jake Johnson
September 8, 2021
Common Dreams
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_ Progressive critics warn failure to bolster the unemployment system
during the pandemic "is a shocking dereliction of responsibility." _

Local residents receive food during a food distribution event in New
York City on May 26, 2021., (Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for
Food Bank for New York City)

 

WORKER JUSTICE ADVOCATES ARE growing increasingly furious over the
national Democratic leadership's refusal to act after more than nine
million people across the U.S. were thrown off
[[link removed]] unemployment
insurance earlier this week, an unprecedented aid cut that took effect
in the middle of a surging pandemic and persistent economic crisis
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The Biden administration and congressional Democrats had been aware of
the massive benefit cliff
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months, but there was hardly any
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Capitol Hill for an extension of the trio of federal unemployment
insurance (UI) programs that lapsed on Labor Day—slashing benefits
for roughly 9.5 million unemployed workers.

In recent weeks, the Biden White House repeatedly made clear
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it supported the expiration of a $300-per-week federal boost to
state-level benefits and said it would do nothing
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stop the Republican-led states that ended the UI supplement
prematurely.

While administration officials said in a recent letter
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President Joe Biden believes the coronavirus pandemic "has exposed
serious problems in our UI system that require immediate reform," the
Democratic-controlled House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday left
UI reform out of a package of policy measures
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it hopes to include in the emerging budget reconciliation package.

"This is a shocking dereliction of responsibility and every committee
member should be ashamed," Rachel Deutsch of the Center for Popular
Democracy (CPD) tweeted
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"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) must step in."

Jennifer Epps-Addison, CPD Action's co-executive director, echoed that
message in a statement Tuesday night, declaring that "it's time for
Congress to step up and ensure that every person in this country gets
the support they need to not only survive this pandemic, but to thrive
long term."

"Congress has known for decades that our UI system does not adequately
support workers or stabilize our economy during recessions," said
Epps-Addison. "Just this week, 9.5 million working people lost their
lifeline when Congress allowed pandemic unemployment benefits to
expire—the largest benefit cliff in history—while unemployment
rates in communities of color remain shockingly high. To pretend that
we can 'build back better' without tackling this broken and racist
system is absurd."

"President Biden urged Chairman Neal to take up the issue of long-term
UI reform as part of the reconciliation process—but today, the Ways
and Means Committee ignored his call," Epps-Addison added. "Speaker
Pelosi and [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer must step up and
ensure meaningful UI reforms are included in this reconciliation
package."

The People's Policy Project (PPP), a left-wing think tank, estimated
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week that around 35 million people live in households that will be
impacted by the federal unemployment cuts, which are expected to leave
more than seven million jobless people with no UI benefits at all.
Nearly three million others will lose the $300-per-week federal boost,
forcing them to get by on state benefits that average less than $400 a
week.

"Due to severe shortcomings in state UI programs, Congress had to
create emergency pandemic unemployment programs in the CARES Act to
offset barriers to eligibility, too-short payment durations, and
inadequate benefit levels. These three pressing issues are priority UI
fixes that can be taken on in the reconciliation budget," Rebecca
Dixon, executive director of the National Employment Law Project
(NELP), said
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"It is a sad and avoidable policy choice to leave unemployed people
across the country without needed support."

"Failure to do anything at this critical juncture," Dixon added, "is a
betrayal of the workers who have suffered so badly over the course of
this crisis, and those who will need the program in the future."

Travis Curry, a 34-year-old freelance photographer who is set to lose
all of his UI benefits, told
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York Times_ that "to just cut people off, it's ridiculous and it's
unethical and it's evil."

In addition to the devastating effects the UI cuts could have on
millions of jobless workers who are already struggling to afford food
and other basic expenses, economists and commentators have also voiced
concerns about the broader economic consequences of lawmakers'
decision to let the emergency programs expire. Before they ended, the
federal UI programs were pumping billions of dollars
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the economy each week.

"We've got this fragile economic recovery and now we're going to cut
income from people who need it, and we are pulling back dollars out of
an economy that is still pretty unsteady," Elizabeth Ananat, an
economist at Barnard College, said
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an interview with the _Times_ earlier this week.

According to the latest figures
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the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. economy remains more than
five million jobs short of pre-pandemic levels, and the rapid spread
of the highly contagious Delta variant appears to be taking its toll
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hiring.

In a column
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Tuesday, _The Week_'s Ryan Cooper argued that "if I were the
Democratic Party, I would be reversing these [UI] cuts immediately."

"Rule of thumb: A program to address an emergency should last at least
as long as the emergency itself," Cooper wrote. "If it was necessary
to pass a pandemic rescue back on March 11 when there were about
55,000 coronavirus cases per day, it stands to reason that we should
still need those same rescue programs when cases are running about
160,000 per day."

"If Democrats had any sense," Cooper added, "they would add an
extension of pandemic benefits to the reconciliation package currently
under discussion, and pass it immediately."

Prior to the Labor Day expiration of the emergency UI programs, 26
states—each led by a Republican governor except Louisiana—cut off
the federal benefits early, arguing that the aid was dissuading people
from returning to the workforce.

But subsequent research showed that slashing the benefits did
virtually nothing
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boost hiring, vindicating experts who disputed Republican leaders'
talking points. The premature cuts did, however, dramatically reduce
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workers' incomes—a possible preview of what's to come now that the
federal programs have expired nationwide.

"You cannot say canceling unemployment benefits gets people back to
work when we have the data to prove it doesn't," Rep. Cori Bush
(D-Mo.) tweeted
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"What it will do is make life even harder for the single mom who's
barely making ends meet while trying to balance childcare and staying
healthy during a pandemic."

_Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams._

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