Joe Biden's campaign website said he would "work with Congress to extend the boosted unemployment benefits (the extra $600) for however long this crisis lasts."
Several unemployed workers I've talked to are also looking for backdated benefits to make up for weeks with no federal supplement.
Congressional Dems had that in their plans last year but the idea appears to be completely off the table now.
The talk about $600 was apparently "HOLD ME BACK BRO" legislative strategery and the obstacle now is moderate Dems who are shy about big numbers
“When they start wobbling on their promises it kind of really annoys me because it makes me feel like a sucker for believing them in the first place," an unemployed bartender told me.
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The federal government would pay most parents of young children $350 per child every month under a groundbreaking new proposal from @MittRomney that would put a serious dent in child poverty. huffpost.com/entry/mitt-rom…
Romney's child benefit is actually BOLDER than what Democrats have proposed with the child tax credit.
He's pitching an actual child allowance rather than reverse engineering one through the tax code. Payments by SSA instead of IRS.
Both Romney's and the Democratic proposals would SLASH child poverty.
Romney's aides said he wants his idea in the mix as Dems get ready to do something like this as part of their next COVID relief bill.
Some state workforce agencies are only just beginning to resume payments after Congress stopped and restarted federal programs in December. Really inefficient to continually reauthorize these programs for short time periods.
@RonWyden says no: “The package outlined by 10 Senate Republicans is far too small to provide the relief the American people need. In particular, a three-month extension of jobless benefits is a non-starter.”
It appears that Mitch McConnell is filibustering a Senate organizing resolution so that he may later filibuster more things Senate Democrats might do huffpost.com/entry/filibust…
not even Joe Manchin is pleased with the filibuster filibuster, @igorbobic reports:
“Chuck has the right to do what he’s doing. He has the right to use that to leverage in whatever he wants to do. I’m not worried about that at all."
looks like Chuck Schumer is going to have to become a filibuster filibuster buster
Sherrod Brown (D-OH) asks Janet Yellen if Congress passed an advance monthly child tax credit, would she be on board with getting those monthly checks out ASAP.
"I'll try to get it implemented as fast as possible"
Michael Bennet (D-Col), co-sponsor of advance monthly CTC bill: "if this manages to make it thru Congress we will have cut child poverty by 45%," calls child poverty a "crisis" 👀
Senator John Thune (R-SD) tells Janet Yellen he is concerned about the "massive amount of debt that we continue to rack up" and says "we seem to have no concern" about it
🤔
James Lankford (R-OK) asks Yellen what metric signals debt it too high.
She says there's no single metric but one to watch is the interest burden of the debt as a share of GDP.
Lankford says we need an earlier warning sign than that. 🧐
Rob Portman (R-Ohio) warns against getting "too comfortable" with low interest rates, asks Yellen to be "voice of fiscal sanity within the administration."
That's a vote that basically says hey, those rioters had a point!
Pretty sick!
Mitch McConnell sized up the stakes of that vote pretty well:
"We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of elections on steroids. The voters, the courts, and the States have all spoken. They have all spoken. If we overrule them, it would damage our Republic forever."