Thursday, June 4, 2020
'Should Be Bigger News': Analysis Finds Nearly One Third of Owed Unemployment Benefits Have Not Been Paid
Bloomberg found a $67 billion gap between the sum of benefits paid out by the Treasury Department and the amount that is owed to jobless Americans.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/03/should-be-bigger-news-analysis-finds-nearly-one-third-owed-unemployment-benefits
A Bloomberg analysis released Tuesday estimates that nearly a third of the unemployment benefits owed to jobless Americans have not yet been paid out, a finding critics described as a "scandal" deserving of more media attention as millions of people struggle to afford basic expenses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The Treasury disbursed $146 billion in unemployment benefits in the three months through May," Bloomberg reported. "But even that historic figure falls short of a total bill that should have reached about $214 billion for the period, according to Bloomberg calculations based on weekly unemployment filings and the average size of those claims."
That calculation likely understates the total amount of unpaid unemployment benefits, Bloomberg noted, because "it doesn't include the millions of workers around the country still waiting to have claims processed by overloaded systems, or the retroactive benefits owed to some of the 7.8 million people now claiming under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for independent contractors."
HuffPost reporter Arthur Delaney suggested that at least part of the estimated $67 billion in unpaid benefits may be the result of people "getting cut off according to the Trump administration's return-to-work policy."
More than 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The unprecedented wave of jobless claims in such a short period produced enormous backlogs of unpaid benefits as outdated state and federal systems struggled to cope with the surge in benefit applications.
Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute noted in a blog post last week that more than one in five U.S. workers are currently either receiving unemployment benefits or waiting for approval. Shierholz said "policymakers need to do more" to provide people with financial relief as the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic continues.
To that end, Shierholz urged Congress to extend the $600 weekly boost in unemployment benefits provided under the CARES Act, which is set to expire on July 31.
"We also must provide more funding to state [unemployment insurance] agencies to hire staff to speed up processing and to make improvements to websites and other administrative infrastructure," wrote Shierholz.
A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Monday showed that nearly 60% of Americans support extending the benefits, but President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have both said they support allowing them to expire at the end of next month.
'They're Afraid': GOP Ripped for Enabling Trump as McConnell Blocks Resolution Condemning Assault on Peaceful Protesters
"They're afraid of Donald Trump. And that leads to Donald Trump getting worse and worse and worse. It's appalling."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/03/theyre-afraid-gop-ripped-enabling-trump-mcconnell-blocks-resolution-condemning
As many Senate Republicans either refused to answer questions about the police assault on peaceful protesters in the nation's capital Monday or openly praised President Donald Trump for the brutal crackdown, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blocked the passage of a Democratic resolution condemning Trump for violating the constitutional rights of demonstrators by "ordering federal officers to use gas and rubber bullets" against them.
Senate Democrats attempted to pass the non-binding resolution by unanimous consent, but the Kentucky Republican objected and put forth his own measure that stripped out any mention of the president.
"It's very simple why the Republican leader objected to our resolution and offered this one instead," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a floor speech, referring to McConnell's alternative resolution. "It's because they do not want to condemn what the president did, though every fair-minded American of any political party would."
In an appearance on MSNBC Tuesday evening as mass protests over the police killing of George Floyd continued in the nation's capital and across the country, Schumer called the Senate GOP's enabling of Trump "appalling" and slammed the president's deployment of military vehicles and personnel to the streets of Washington, D.C. as "just like a dictatorship."
The Daily Beast reported that Trump personally instructed military helicopters to fly low over demonstrators in D.C. and "has pressed aides and Pentagon officials for graphic details on the kind of armored vehicles, military units, aircraft, and even 'tanks' that they could potentially send" to U.S. cities.
"They're afraid. They're afraid of Donald Trump," Schumer said of Senate Republicans. "And that leads to Donald Trump getting worse and worse and worse. It's appalling."
Schumer introduced the Democratic resolution hours before the Washington Post, citing anonymous federal officials, reported Tuesday that Attorney General William Barr personally ordered law enforcement officials to beat back the peaceful demonstrators gathered near the White House in order to clear the path for Trump's walk to St. John's Episcopal Church.
Soldiers from the D.C. National Guard and the U.S. Park Police moved on the peaceful protesters, beating them with batons and firing tear gas into crowds, as Trump delivered an incendiary and militaristic speech in the Rose Garden of the White House—remarks that Democratic lawmakers condemned as a fascistic "declaration of war" against the public.
The U.S. Park Police subsequently claimed that despite numerous witness accounts, tear gas was not used against the demonstrators—a denial that has been touted by the Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. But as Vox's Alex Ward reported Tuesday, the narrative does not stand up to scrutiny.
"Nathan Baca, a reporter for WUSA9 in Washington, D.C., picked up a canister used during the Monday assault. It's not a smoke canister, but it does launch 'OC' gas which 'Causes same tears, tight breath and comes out green,'" Ward wrote. "Other journalists who covered the protests in person that evening say without a doubt that law enforcement used tear gas, a chemical irritant that can cause those exposed to it to want to vomit."
'One Racist Down. Hundreds in Office to Go': Applause as Bigot Steve King Ousted in Iowa Primary
"Goodbye, Rep. Steve King. You are certainly not the only white supremacist in federal government, but you were among the most prominent," tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/03/one-racist-down-hundreds-office-go-applause-bigot-steve-king-ousted-iowa-primary
While acknowledging that the important work of ridding Congress of racist lawmakers is far from finished, progressives celebrated the ouster of white supremacist Rep. Steve King in Iowa's Republican primary Tuesday as a significant victory and a step in the right direction.
King's defeat at the hands of conservative Iowa state Sen. Randy Feenstra—which came amid a backdrop of a nationwide uprising against police brutality and racial injustice—brings to an end an 18-year congressional career during which King compiled a long record of bigoted remarks and policy proposals. But it wasn't until last year, when King openly questioned why white supremacy is considered offensive, that the House Republican leadership finally stripped him of his committee assignments.
"Goodbye, Rep. Steve King. You are certainly not the only white supremacist in federal government, but you were among the most prominent," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). "It's a shame Republicans held you up as long as they did."
Progressive radio host Benjamin Dixon echoed that sentiment, tweeting: "One racist down. Hundreds in office to go."
To complete the shift of Iowa's 4th congressional district away from racism and xenophobia, progressives stressed that Feenstra must also be defeated in November.
As Vox's Li Zhou noted, "Feenstra's policy platform isn't significantly different from King's: Much like Trump, he's anti-abortion and supports hardline immigration policies including building a border wall."
J.D. Scholten, the Democratic nominee who will face Feenstra in the general election, tweeted late Tuesday that "not-Steve King isn't good enough."
"Steve King set a low bar. And it was our campaign that defeated him," said Scholten. "We need leadership and vision and not another corporate-backed career politician."
Majority of Americans Believe Actions and Anger of George Floyd Protesters Justified, Polling Shows
"The current findings represent a marked change in public opinion from prior polls."
by
Eoin Higgins, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/03/majority-americans-believe-actions-and-anger-george-floyd-protesters-justified
A majority of Americans believe protesters taking to the streets of cities across the nation over the police killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers last week are justified in their anger and at least partially in their actions, according to new polling from around the country.
The polling also found a majority of Americans believe police use disproportionate force on blacks as opposed to whites, a jump from four years ago when only a third of the public held that view.
"It seems we have reached a turning point in public opinion where white Americans are realizing that black Americans face risks when dealing with police that they do not," Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement. "They may not agree with the violence of recent protests, but many whites say they understand where that anger is coming from."
Polls from Monmouth, Reuters/Ipsos, and CBS/YouGov all found U.S. attitudes on police treatment of minorities swinging against law enforcement.
Of particular note was Monmouth's finding that a majority of Americans believe the anger of demonstrators taking part in the uprising against police violence and brutality is justified and that their actions are fully or partially justified.
As Monmouth explained:
Only 17% of the public says that the actions of protestors, including the burning of a police precinct, sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police are fully justified, but another 37% say they are partially justified. On the other hand, 38% say these actions are not at all justified. At the same time, a majority of the American public (57%) says that the anger that led to these protests is fully justified. Another 21% say it is partially justified and only 18% say it is not at all justified.
The 17% number, tweeted Forum News Service columnist Rob Port, is larger than it may seem.
President Donald Trump's handling of the unrest, as well as his general racist views, are polling poorly as well.
As CNN explained:
Few are comfortable with the president's handling of the situation. Monmouth found that a majority of Americans (53%) say race relations in the U.S. have gotten worse since President Donald Trump took office four years ago, about the same share who felt that way after eight years of former President Barack Obama's tenure.
Trump's approval on the events and protests in Minneapolis is lower than his usual overall approval, almost half of Americans in the CBS/YouGov poll (49%) disapprove of how he's handling the situation, while 32% approve and 19% haven't heard enough.
Around three-quarters of registered voters reported Trump favors whites, compared to 23% who say the same of blacks, according to CBS/YouGov. Half of voters said the President actively works against black Americans.
Trump on Monday suggested he would turn to the U.S. military for help in quelling the demonstrations around the country before walking to a hastily thrown together photo-op at St. John's Episcopal Church through Lafayette Park—violently cleared of protesters just minutes before to accommodate the president.
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