Means-Tested Neoliberal Social Programs Leave Millions of Poor & Working Class Americans with No State or Federal Assistance.
As of March, just before the pandemic, in most states, only about 10% to 20% of unemployed individuals qualified to receive unemployment benefits.
Since the start of the Coronavirus Pandemic more than 50 million Americans have filed for unemployment, but with the passing of the CARES Act at the end of March that included a temporary $600 per week unemployment check for Americans who have lost their jobs due to coronavirus you might’ve thought that those 50 million Americans have all been able to access those benefits. Well, if you thought that social programs in the United States were actually designed to help everyone who’s most in need, you’d be dead wrong.
Despite being the richest country on Earth the United States has an extremely dysfunctional and weak social safety net. Since the United States doesn’t have a single nationwide social safety net system designed to lift all people out of poverty and instead has 53 different systems run by states and territories, poor and working-class Americans are subject to a complicated assortment of state rules and regulations that govern the number of benefits they will receive, how long they will receive them for, and whether or not they will qualify to receive them at all.
As a result, a majority of states do a horrible job of getting assistance to those who need it most. As of March, just before the pandemic, only about 10% to 20% of unemployed individuals qualified to receive unemployment benefits. According to a report by the Pew Research Center:
“Overall, about 29% of unemployed Americans, or 2.1 million out of 7.37 million, received benefits in March,”
That means that even before state unemployment programs were bombarded with tens of millions of claims a week, 79% of unemployed individuals were excluded from receiving assistance. Currently, around 55 million Americans have filed for unemployment, so that would mean that around 41 million Americans have been excluded from receiving assistance. So I wouldn’t be so quick to think that those temporary means-tested $600 weekly unemployment payments that expired at the end of July actually made it into the hands of everyone who needed the assistance the most.
Unfortunately, now that the increased unemployment payments have expired even the people who did qualify are no longer receiving the income they need to survive, and both parties are allowing partisan squabbles and their corporate donors to get in the way of passing legislation to get money in the hands of poor and working-class Americans, protect them from eviction, and guarantee them healthcare.
Republicans in Congress derailed any attempt at serious negotiation when Lindsey Graham stated on Fox News that, “half of the Republicans are going to vote ‘no’ on any more aid. That’s just a fact.” and the few Republicans who believed in passing another stimulus wanted to cut temporarily increased unemployment benefits from $600 per week to between $400 and $800 per month, along with including liability protections for large corporations to prevent workers from suing them over unhealthy working conditions during the pandemic, and tieing $105 Billion in funding for education to opening schools in the middle of a pandemic.
Democrats in Congress refused to budge from their demands of continuing the $600 weekly unemployment benefits throughout the end of 2021. They’re mostly fine with caving to Republican demands of including liability protections for large corporations and tieing education funding to reopening schools as long as the $600 payments are continued, but Republicans aren’t budging on decreasing the payments.
That’s essentially been the story for the past two weeks, and as a result, tens of millions of unemployed Americans have seen their already meager incomes almost totally disappear. This has led President Trump to buck the establishments of both parties by signing an Executive Order unilaterally extending unemployment benefits at an amount of $400 per week for the next five weeks. According to the order, the Federal Government will only cover $300 of the payment, while already overburdened state unemployment systems will be forced to cover the remaining $100.
Democrats have promised to file a legal challenge because Congress has the constitutional authority to determine federal spending, but President Trump brushed aside those comments at a press conference, telling reporters:
“I guess maybe they’ll bring legal actions, maybe they won’t. But they won’t win.”
Democrats are in fact correct in stating that Congress has the constitutional authority to determine federal spending, so the legality of Trump’s executive order is dubious. It just seems a bit ridiculous for anyone in Congress within the establishments of either political party to pull the unconstitutional card while they’re perfectly fine with relinquishing their constitutional rights to commit acts of war.
It’s unconstitutional for the United States to deploy troops in any sovereign country for more than 60 days without Congress declaring an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) or an act of war. But the United States hasn’t declared war on another country since World War Two even though it has deployed troops to fight ‘wars’ in Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa throughout the last 75 years.
For example, a recent report published in South African Newspaper The Mail and Guardian exposed the fact that United States Special Operations Forces were active in 22 African countries even though the United States is not formally at war with any African nation. According to Mintpress News:
“Washington claims that the military’s primary role in the region is to combat the rise of extremist forces. In recent years, a number of Jihadist groups have arisen, including Al-Shabaab, Book Haram, and other al-Qaeda affiliated groups. However, much of the reason for their rise can be traced back to previous American actions including the destabilization of Yemen, Somalia, and the overthrow of Colonel Gaddafi in Libya.”
It’s ridiculous that both parties are perfectly fine with the President disregarding the constitution by unilaterally invading, sanctioning and drone striking foreign countries, but as soon as it comes to passing legislation to get money into the hands of poor and working-class Americans, that’s where they choose to start talking about executive overreach.
Our governments’ response to the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis has left millions of poor and working-class Americans out of the picture and neither political party is working on passing legislation to include them. It’s been almost two weeks since the temporary unemployment benefits have expired and Congress is nowhere near passing legislation to extend them at any amount. If our Government was serious about helping everyone who needs it most Congress would pass a Universal Basic Income of at least $2,000 per month, Medicare for All, and a Universal Homes Guarantee.