Stimulus Bill: Why It’s bigger Than The $600 For Unemployment
American’s are torn in 2020, yet again. First, it was political, then it was racial, and now, it’s about livelihood. Who do you believe and what side of the fence do you stand on when it comes to the new Stimulus Bill? To begin, I realize that I will have to break this article down as if we’re having a conversation in the living room. There will be no real political statements or number crunching here. Just a good ‘ole conversation between you and me.
The House is ready to pass a new bill titled The HEALS Act. In that, Mitch McConnell is proposing that the Government should NOT extend the $600-a-week unemployment package that has been in place since March. The reason for that is, many believe that that extra set of income has many Americans refusing to return back to work. While that may be true in some homes, the fact is, that money has also saved many families from starving and being homeless.
It doesn’t matter if it’s the Republicans or Democrats trying to take the income away. What’s being lost in all of this are the REAL families and people this pandemic has affected. Forget the numbers, let’s speak in terms we can all understand.
Let’s say you been working at a job for 8 years. The pandemic hits and you’re forced to sit at home. Ok, unemployment is now paying you a little over $800 a week. That’s more than enough to keep the lights on, the fridge stocked, your kids in clothes, and a roof over your head. Now, the deadline to extend has passed. The Government is saying it was too much money and you’re thinking about not going back to work because you’re making more sitting at home than you were going to work every day.
Those are the facts for some. And while it may be unfair to the “essential workers”, the truth is, no one asked for COVID-19 to take over the world. But it did. Now, let’s hit the nail on the head. Eight years you have been at this place of employment but thanks to the virus, your job is now closed or on a set schedule where you work only 1-2 days out the week. So, what do you do?
According to the masses, you get off your ass and find a job. But what if you can’t? What if you don’t want to lose the years you put in on your job when you know they will open back up? What if you get hired somewhere and that new job doesn’t work out and your old one refuses to hire you back because they gave your position to someone else? These are the small factors naysayers are not focusing on. It’s not about sitting home doing nothing, this is about surviving through a tough period we’ve never seen before.
The new bill will supposedly provide those out of work with an extra $200 per week. That’s a deep cut from the original $600 but it is what it is. This can be looked at a few ways but to take money away from those who really need it just because they believe people are collecting just to be collecting is nonsense.
Here’s another thing to consider–the economy. This has been the driving force behind everything. Many believe that the economy is down, when in fact, it’s pretty strong. What’s not strong is the bigger corporations the Government relies on. But think about where some of that extra income was going.
Any day of the week, you will see teens or parents out shopping. Be it for food or clothes, people were spending. Not because they were being lazy, but because they had the extra income to do so. Take that away and in a month or two’s time, we’ll start hearing that the economy is in pretty bad shape. Well, that’s because the disposable income is no longer there. Now, with the way the unemployment benefits may be set up, Americans may have to go back to penny-pinching.
The $600 is big but it’s not as big as the politicians are making it out to be. What we have lost track of is the ability to fight for the American people. Yes, there are those who have gone to work every day since the pandemic hit and there are those who could not go to work since the pandemic hit.
Remember, it was the Government who told everyone to stay home. It was the Government who said the economy needed to regroup and opened up faster than what they should have and now the cases are rising again. But because they made an error in judgment, they want everyone to look at themselves in the mirror and point the finger at the people who are not out there making the decisions.
What about the restaurant, theaters, and tourist attraction workers who can’t go back to work? These are the ones the $600 was really saving. What about the grocery and clothes stores in the neighborhood that was seeing an uptake in business thanks to the disposable income the community had. Now they want to take that away and give a sizeable influx of cash to build a new FBI building when that’s not really needed.
The politicians are saying get out and go to work while the virus is still spreading. Here in NYC, the foot traffic is increasing but the majority of the city is still closed down. We can’t eat like we used to. We can’t go to clubs and bars like we used to. And what about seeing a Broadway Play? Negative. And yet, we’re supposed to act normal as if everything is just fine.
The American people were just pawns in a game of power by those in charge. The HEALS Act, while not official, is a slap in the face to every American.
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
