The Unemployment Dilemma
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Is another stimulus the answer?
COVID-19 has changed our way of life for better or worse. Seems to be the latter. The year 2020 rolled on in with great anticipation. It brought quite a wake up call for us. Along for the ride are death, disease, unemployment, misery and recession.
The government threw the beginnings of a life line at a failing economy but efforts could not prevent the economic decline as COVID raged, then terror and self-preservation took center stage.
The government released the CARES Act, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package. Part of this package aimed at providing bail out loans that would be forgivable if companies kept their employees on their payroll. There have been reports that many of the smaller businesses did not receive a dime of the stimulus package, not sure how that played out. Accusations of the funds being imparted to the larger companies swarmed the internet. Corruption is as old as the earth itself.
But, that meant many hard-working Americans were sent home without a means to earn a living.
Reportedly over 30 million Americans initially filed for unemployment, that number has increased to approximately 40+ million persons to date. You may note that these numbers do not include those workers who are self-employed and undocumented.
Other approved methods for the CARES Act included a stimulus of $1,200 to who qualified Americans and a supplemental $600 along with the unemployment benefits. The unemployment benefits had already expired but was extended for another 13 weeks. That boon is set to expire on July 31st, 2020.
Lawmakers are currently in talks regarding the creation of another stimulus package to the tune of 3 trillion dollars. This package will be the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act (HEROES Act) stimulus package. Among many other proposed benefits some 200 billion dollars in “hazard pay” for essential workers may be allocated. A proposed reduced state and federal tax of 75% is also on the table as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
This new round of proposed stimulus is set to be in the amount of $1,200 and would also be a one-time payment…
