WSJ Analysis Shows Why Congress Shouldn’t Keep Subsidizing Extra Unemployment; Trump calls on Dems to free up $300B in unspent stimulus for checks to Americans, and Other C-Virus Updates

WSJ Analysis Shows Why Congress Shouldn’t Keep Subsidizing Extra Unemployment:

Congress has just 11 days this month after it reconvenes to fund the government and move past partisan gridlock on the latest stalled mega-trillions spending package lawmakers failed to pass in August.

A primary sticking point in the previously failed negotiations was the extension of an extra $600 a week in federal unemployment payouts doled out on top of state unemployment subsidies from the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in March, which expired in July.

While Democrats have demanded a six-month extension in their $3 trillion bill that the House passed in May, congressional Republicans have offered a slightly slimmer proposal. The enormous, debt-funded unemployment benefits beefed up just several months ago de-incentivized work and created undue hurdles for businesses to bring back employees. The majority of employees were earning more on the government hand-out than by actually working in order for struggling enterprises to meet a key requirement for assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal published an article chronicling the financial health of several socioeconomic classes through the pandemic, finding predictably that while the public health crisis has been “devastating for many Americans,” “it has been a boon for others.” --->READ MORE HERE

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trump calls on Democrats to free up $300 billion in unspent stimulus money for checks to Americans:

President Trump called on congressional Democrats Friday to send $300 billion in unspent coronavirus stimulus money to Americans in need, saying it’s better than giving “checks to illegal aliens.”

“We have $300 billion in an account that we didn’t use,” Mr. Trump said in a press briefing at the White House. “I would be willing to release it, subject to Congress, and use that as stimulus money. It’s there. Just let that money be released to the American people.”

Negotiations on a new economic relief bill of more than $1 trillion have been stalled in Congress. And on Friday, the government reported that the unemployment rate plummeted to 8.4% in August from 10.2% a month earlier. --->READ MORE HERE

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