After an ambitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and poverty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new studies have found.
The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic’s start as a result of a $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act.
The three independent oversight panels set up by Congress in the bipartisan CARES Act almost four months ago have all encountered serious obstacles — sometimes because of resistance from the White House, other times due to drafting oversights in the authorizing legislation.
As a result, lawmakers and the public may not have a full understanding of how coronavirus relief aid is being spent until after the election. In the meantime, Congress and the White House are moving toward another pandemic bill that’s expected to carry a price tag of at least $1 trillion.
The Treasury Department ordered that President Trump’s name be printed on stimulus checks being sent to millions of American workers impacted by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing senior IRS officials.
BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink may now be the most powerful man in the world, overseeing not just the Fed’s new (potentially $4.5 trillion) corporate slush-fund, but also managing $27 trillion of the global economy (even before the March appointment). As the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock already was managing $7 trillion for its global corporate investor-clients, along with another $20 trillion for clients through its financial risk-monitoring software (called Aladdin).
The Intercept has collected prominent public statements by individual members of Congress, but we also need readers to help us contact every lawmaker over phone, email, or social media. The chart below lists how each House member has indicated they would have voted, based on publicly reported information, along with those whose vote remains unclear. So far, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of the few critics of the bill, is the only known House Democrat to oppose it.
Glenn Fine, the acting Department of Defense inspector general, was set to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, the group of government watchdogs tasked with rooting out fraud and waste in coronavirus spending programs.
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RentStrike/MortgageStrike
Trump, by way of a signing statement, noted that his administration would quite simply override a provision in the nearly 900-page stimulus bill that would require the country’s newest inspector general–just created and tasked with overseeing the disbursement of the stimulus funds–to report to Congress any time the administration stonewalled about where or how those funds were being spent.
President Donald Trump has issued a signing statement declaring that he can block a watchdog from telling Congress when information is withheld about payouts to businesses in the massive new $2 trillion economic relief law.
Democrats fought hard for provisions in the measure to ensure …
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday for not allowing him to speak on the floor before the House approved a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
Massie had sought to force a roll-call vote on the measure, earning a condemnation from President Trump in the process and criticism from a number of members of Congress.
The passage did not come without drama: House lawmakers were forced to scramble back to Washington Friday over concerns a conservative lawmaker objecting to the legislation, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), would force a roll call vote.
“This is a 9/11 moment,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) said on the floor. “A time to put partisan differences aside, policy differences aside, and work together as Americans.”
(27.03.2020)
Tucked inside Congress‘ $2 trillion economic rescue package for America is sweeping authority for the government to come to the aid of the one industry that has insisted it doesn‘t need a bailout: the big banks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to approve the measure with a voice vote Friday that would not require all 430 current members of the House to travel to the Capitol, given that two lawmakers have contracted the disease and others are self-quarantining due to exposure to confirmed carriers.The leadership also is taking meticulous steps to change the protocol for debate and voting to ensure the safety of lawmakers.
One lawmaker, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is threatening to stymie swift passage of the stimulus bill, potentially delaying a vote until the weekend.
„Looks like a third rate grandstander named (Thomas Massie), a congressman from, unfortunately, a truly GREAT state, Kentucky, wants to vote against the new Save Our Workers Bill in Congress,“ Trump tweeted early Friday.
Massie‘s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the congressman signaled he was moving forward despite bipartisan calls to forgo calling for a roll call vote.
On March 25th, The Senate voted to pass the 3rd coronavirus relief package based on the proposal from Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans that features, among other provisions, a nearly $500 billion slush fund that would be controlled by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. Mnuchin, who is best known for making millions off running a notorious foreclosure mill, would be able to direct corporate bailouts with limited, after-the-fact oversight. This is absolutely unacceptable.
By a vote of 96-0, the United States Senate Wednesday night passed an enormous coronavirus stimulus package that would provide some desperately needed economic relief to struggling workers and the unemployed while establishing a $4.5 trillion fund to bail out large corporations—with little to no enforceable restrictions.
Progressives didn‘t mince words in response to the unanimous vote, which sends the largest bailout legislation in U.S. history to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, where it could pass as early as Friday before heading to President Donald Trump‘s desk for his signature.
Democrats control the House. They can pass any bill they like and dare Senate Republicans and the president to oppose a serious bill for a serious problem.
Or they can rubber-stamp the Senate bill and help Donald Trump foreclose on the next generation of American democracy.
The legislation would send direct payments of $1,200 to Americans earning up to $75,000 — which would gradually phase out for higher earners and end for those with incomes more than $99,000 — and an additional $500 per child. It would substantially expand jobless aid, providing an additional 13 weeks and a four-month enhancement of benefits, extending them for the first time to freelancers and gig workers and adding $600 per week on top of the usual payment.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has hired asset management giant BlackRock to help it execute the purchase of commercial mortgage-backed securities announced this week as part of the central bank’s aggressive efforts to shore up the U.S. economy.
Congress and the Trump administration on Tuesday closed in on a massive $2 trillion stimulus package to address economic fallout from the coronavirus, as lawmakers reviewed final language and the Senate aimed for a swift vote.
And there‘s a precedent.
In 2008, when Congress was on the brink of passing a $700 billion bailout to Wall Street, something astonishing happened. A motley bipartisan group of roughly a hundred members, as well as outside experts, formed what was called the „Skeptic‘s Caucus,“ and organized enough votes to take down the package. Congressional leaders then attached some minor tweaks, and forced the package through after the stock market crashed. Ultimately, the skeptics failed, and the bailouts ended up shifting power and wealth to an unaccountable elite class.
But for that brief moment, it became clear that opposition to Congressional leadership on corporate subsidies is possible. We will need another Skeptic‘s caucus, and quickly.