Unsanitized: 1937 Revisited [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

America prematurely pulled back on federal relief then. We’re planning to do so again. This is The COVID-19 Daily Report for July 20, 2020.


Last year on this day we were marveling at the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, celebrating American ingenuity that can meet any challenge. Today we’re hoping that only 800 people die from this disease that we’ve largely given up on containing. We also begin a critical week for the future of the U.S. economy.

A boost to state jobless aid of $600 a week ends this week for most recipients. (The Journal manages to get two things wrong in its lede; the practical end to the benefit is July 25 or 26 depending on how a state calculates its work week, and it’s more like 32 million people receiving or set to receive benefits, not 25 million.) One-time checks were sent out long ago. The lack of state and local fiscal aid has already set in motion layoffs and triggered premature reopenings (as is clearly seen in, for example, California breaking its own guidelines to reopen). Small business failures have accelerated and states are headed back into lockdown, either formally or functionally. If you only look through June you see an economy bouncing back, but economic indicators are all looking bad this month.

With this backdrop, Congress is set to begin negotiations on the next bill. This is unfolding exactly the way the CARES Act unfolded; Republican leaders are huddling in the White House, preparing to write a bill without outside input, which they will then present to Democrats as if the House-passed Heroes Act never existed. Parts of that wish list like hazard pay for essential workers seem all but dead. Instead, Mitch McConnell is dictating terms.

Here’s what those terms look like: it starts with a broad release from liability for corporations whose workers and customers get sick. That’s priority number one; not stopping the virus, but stopping lawsuits about the virus. The “temporary” liability would last four years for businesses who make “reasonable” efforts to follow public health guidelines (of which there aren’t any at the federal level, so that’s not much of a hurdle), and adds damage caps just in case a couple cases sneak through. The measure would include hospitals and schools, so parents should know that the party pressuring schools to reopen also wants to give them immunity from sickening your child (and potentially you). Keep in mind that there are next to no lawsuits right now.

Read more: https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-1937-revisited/
(American Prospect)