Democrats and Republicans in Congress still won’t pass another so-called stimulus bill. Even though the first stimulus passed back in March went mostly to banks and corporations, it still provided some needed relief. But Congress has been nit-picking for months over the size of the crumbs that the next stimulus will provide to working people. And last week Trump abruptly said he was going to cancel all stimulus talks until after the election. Apparently, ramming through a new Supreme Court justice before the election is fine, but working families have to wait until after the election for any minor relief.
As these so-called leaders continue to delay, working people are struggling just to get by. Last week, 840,000 people filed new claims for unemployment insurance. And since March, more than 57 million people have filed. One-third of U.S. adults say they have difficulty meeting regular living expenses, with about 22.3 million adults reporting they did not have enough to eat in the previous week. About 40 million renters can’t afford their rent and could face eviction soon.
While workers try to make ends meet, the richest of the rich have been making record-shattering amounts of money. During the first six months of the pandemic, 643 of the richest billionaires in the U.S. increased their wealth by $845 billion. Clearly the priorities of this system couldn’t be more backwards.
