Thread by @ChuckCBPP

New paper w/ @dashching makes 5 points:

CARES largely worked

Improvements needed to address hardship

Aggressive re-openings strategy is failing in real-time

Fiscal retreat would compound this failure

Robust fiscal package urgently needed

bit.ly/3gGUgac
Thread

The CARES Act largely worked. As the chart below highlights, policies such as the robust unemployment insurance helped offset the job-loss driven income reduction – a major policy success – providing a lifeline to millions of families across the country:

As the miles-long lines of people idling in cars in wait of food attest, however, the policy response to date has shortcomings and this hardship needs to be addressed when the Congress acts:

nyti.ms/3gHAwmJ

The President has repeatedly signaled that his preferred path forward starts with aggressive re-openings. This strategy is failing in real-time.

Before the re-openings across the Sunbelt caused infections to surge, hospitals to fill, & many of the re-hired to become re-fired, the President’s allies in Congress staked out a position of fiscal retreat, seeming to assume that the economy would snap back largely on its own.

For example, Senator McConnell in late May: “You could anticipate the decision being made on whether to go forward in about a month. And it will be narrowly crafted, designed to help us where we are a month from now, not where we were three months ago.”
cnb.cx/38L6jAG

About a month later – with the re-openings having failed – fiscal retreat would compound this failure – picture widespread evictions, increased desperation for food, and state and local budgets on job-cutting autopilot.

One advantage of the schedule, however, is that key players have seen how the re-openings have failed and have plenty of time before negotiations begin to adjust their position to fit the change in circumstances.

This should make it easier for bipartisan negotiators to agree on what is urgently needed – a strong fiscal package that builds on the success of the CARES act, addresses the hardships exposed, as we discuss here:

End

bit.ly/3gGUgac