On the Hill
PANDEMIC PAINS: The federal pandemic unemployment benefits program expired yesterday, leaving more than 7 million people in the U.S. without any jobless benefits as the nation grapples with the coronavirus's delta variant.
Democrats have been relatively quiet on the issue — and not a single state appears likely to extend jobless benefits using leftover state aid from President Biden's earlier stimulus bill in March — despite growing concern about the benefits lapse while the delta variant continues to severely impact the country's economic recovery.
- “The cessation of this jobless aid, first put in place by Congress nearly 18 months ago, could upend the lives of millions of Americans still struggling to find work at a time when the pandemic’s delta variant is wreaking fresh havoc across a number of states. It could also lead to a sharp pullback in spending, particularly in certain areas of the country, impacting a wide range of restaurants and other businesses that rely on consumer dollars,” our colleagues Yeganeh Torbati, Andrew Van Dam, and Alyssa Fowers report.
Biden administration officials have been at odds over the consequences of allowing the benefits to expire, our colleague Jeff Stein reported last week. And there has so far been little traction to include these unemployment reforms in the $3.5 trillion budget bill that House Democrats are scrambling to write by the Sept. 27 deadline set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) last month.
The lack of public resistance from progressive Democrats who recently forced the administration's hand on the national eviction moratorium might provide them with additional leverage in making significant changes to the social safety net through the $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
A growing body of research has found only a small link between employment rates and expanded unemployment benefits, and experts fear a loss of benefits could potentially wipe out any of the job gains made during the recovery so far:
- “States that ended enhanced federal unemployment benefits early have so far seen about the same job growth as states that continued offering the pandemic-related extra aid, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis and economists,” the Wall Street Journal's Sarah Chaney Cambon and Danny Dougherty reported last week. “Economists who have conducted their own analyses of the government data say the rates of job growth in states that ended and states that maintained the benefits are, from a statistical perspective, about the same.”
- “Take Texas and California, two states with large populations and diversified economies. Texas, which reopened in March and terminated benefits at the end of June, saw 1.45% payroll growth in July from April. California, which lifted all restrictions in mid-June and has maintained enhanced benefits, saw a 1.73% gain.”
- “Economists generally agree the enhanced benefits caused some people to stay out of the labor market, but they also point to several other factors that have held back job growth this year, including family-care responsibilities, school closures, an imbalance of available jobs and worker location and skills, fear of Covid-19 and employee retirements.”
- "These are people that buy groceries and put gas in their car and frequent local businesses," LeBlanc added. "When that money is not there, it's not just going to be the person who's unemployed that's going to suffer. It's going to be the entire community that suffers."
By the numbers: “The Labor Department says there are still 5.7 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic. Yet the department also estimated, last month, that there were roughly 10 million job openings,” the Associated Press's Ken Sweet reports.
- “These benefits are also ending sooner than during the previous crisis, the Great Recession. In that downturn, jobless benefits in various forms were extended from the start of the recession in 2008-2009 all the way until 2013. When those benefits finally ended, just 1.3 million people were still receiving aid.”
The internal rift in the White House, as reported by Jeff last week, over the unemployment aid cutoff portends the bigger ideological fight the party will face this month over the reconciliation bill. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) called on the party to take a “strategic pause” in advance the $3.5 trillion spending package last week in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
- “….Manchin’s calls Thursday for additional time — and a smaller economic package — still created fresh headaches as lawmakers began their work this week to craft what they hope to be a significant overhaul of the country’s education, health-care and tax laws,” our colleague Tony Romm reported. “If Manchin ultimately withholds his vote in pursuit of changes, his party would not be able to proceed in the chamber, since all 50 Republicans have vowed to oppose the bill.”
Global power
BIDEN EYES A POST-LABOR DAY RESET: “President Biden is seeking to press his legislative agenda and redouble efforts to combat the covid-19 pandemic after Labor Day but the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan may cast a long shadow over the fall,” the Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey and Ken Thomas write.
- “Biden has sought to place the spotlight on domestic issues, including Friday’s underwhelming jobs report and recovery from Hurricane Ida, visiting New Orleans Friday and making plans to travel to the New York metropolitan area [today] to assess storm damage.”
- “He is expected to focus heavily on his infrastructure and antipoverty legislation in the coming weeks, as Congress returns to Washington, as well as travel to California to campaign for Gov. Gavin Newsom.”
- “It’s in part a reflection of an unspoken belief inside the White House that for all the scenes of chaos in Afghanistan, the public backs his decision and it will fade from memory by the midterm elections,” AP News’ Zeke Miller writes.
- What we’re watching: “The Taliban said at a Monday news conference that the announcement of a new Afghan government would come soon and that its shadowy supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, was slated to appear publicly in the near future.”
As school starts up again...: “Students across Afghanistan have started returning to university for the first time since the Taliban stormed to power, and in some cases females have been separated from their male peers by curtains or boards down the middle of the classroom,” Reuters reports.
- “What happens in universities and schools across the country is being closely watched by foreign powers, who want the Islamist militant movement to respect the rights of women in return for vital aid and diplomatic engagement. When it last ruled from 1996-2001, the group banned girls from school and women from university and work. Despite assurances in recent weeks that women's rights would be honored in accordance with Islamic law, it is unclear what that will mean in practice.”
- “Despite the threat of violent beatings and retaliation, hundreds of women marched in the streets of Kabul on Tuesday morning, calling for the Taliban to respect their rights and making it clear that they would not easily surrender the gains they have made over the past two decades,” the New York Times's Jim Huylebroek, Dan Bilefsky and Marc Santora report from Kabul. “But as the crowds grew, with the women joined by hundreds of men, protesters were met with blows from rifle butts and hit with sticks, according to witnesses. Then shots rang out. The crowd scattered and for the second time in less than a week, the Taliban used force to crush a peaceful demonstration.”
- “It was also a remarkable display by women, who suffered brutal subjugation the last time the Taliban were in charge. Those who took to the streets in recent days fear the group has not changed.”
In the media
📚 WHAT WE’RE READING: Sophie Brickman, author of Baby, Unplugged, spoke with Power Up about the intersection of parenting and technology, and about navigating parenthood and the digital landscape.
- In a highly surveilled, screen-filled world, “the time I spent researching what can go wrong if you post photos of your children online and they get hacked into and doctored by lunatics kept me up at night,” Brickman said. “But honestly I can’t say that’s something that is happening with any real frequency.”
- “One particularly alarming discovery I made was that the App Store is particularly liberal with letting developers self-identify as being in a certain category. This means preschool app developers can list their product as educational and it’ll end up in the educational bucket, despite there being no evidence that children can learn from a screen until they’re older, and even then, only under very particular circumstances.”
- “Developers can [also] build in advertising and manipulative in-app purchases — think, a character will start to cry unless you purchase some doodad — so children might unwittingly end up spending considerable money without their parents knowing.”
After writing her first book, Brickman decided to cut down her own screen time, spend “as much time snuggling with my children as possible [and] let them be bored without feeling guilty.” She also checked her impulse to calm each outburst with a toy or electronic device. “Ride it out, and help them learn how to handle unstructured time,” Brickman told Power Up.
- “When it comes to technology, we have to ask ourselves: what does it mean about us as a culture if we’re constantly trying to ‘hack’ parenting and make it easier? Parenting isn’t always easy!”
- “The time you spend with your children, whether that be by rocking them, or reading to them, or playing with them, helps to build a foundation of love and trust. Take the time to get to know your little human. And yes of course we all need breaks sometime. Utilize the screen if you need to, plug them into the SNOO if you so choose, just recognize why you’re doing it — almost always it’s for your benefit, not theirs.”
🚫A Brickman DON’T? @Instagram: “The idea of capturing a moment for posterity can be thrilling — particularly if it’s a life-changing one, like the birth of a child, or their first steps, or even something more every day, like hiccuping themselves to sleep in a particularly adorable way — but I believe there’s something to letting the power of experience live on in your memory, alone.”
- “Studying the work of legendary psychologist Daniel Kahneman about ‘the remembering self’ and ‘the experiencing self’ helped me further articulate my gut reaction that sometimes, perhaps in those most critical moments even more than others, your phone should stay in your pocket.”
- “He’s famous for many things, but one of them is determining that humans are made up of these two selves. The experiencing self-lives in the present. The remembering self, which maintains the story of our lives by revisiting memories of things past, does not. Fully engaging with one’s surroundings will optimize for the experiencing self, and taking a photo of that moment will optimize for the remembering.”
- “I came to understand while I may not have my daughter’s first step memorialized on my phone, that means I was fully present for that step. It’s a trade off I learned I was willing to take.”
At the White House
THE WEEK AHEAD:
Tuesday, Sept. 7
- President Biden will travel to Manville, N.J. and Queens, N.Y. to survey the damage from Hurricane Ida.
- First lady Jill Biden will return to teaching hybrid courses at Northern Virginia Community College.
Wednesday, Sept. 8
- Vice President Harris will campaign for California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) in the Bay Area, ahead of the state’s Sept. 14 recall election.
Thursday, Sept. 9
- The Biden administration will resume economic talks with Mexico about investments in the Northern Triangle and combating supply chain shortages.
- The House select committee is expected to receive a wide array of records and information from agencies about the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack, including communications by former president Donald Trump and his top officials.
Saturday, Sept. 11
- Biden and Jill Biden will travel to New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, sites of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking attacks.
- Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff will travel to Shanksville, Pa., for a separate event and then join Biden and Jill Biden in Virginia.
A GREAT LOSS: “Michael K. Williams, an Emmy-nominated actor who brought charming menace to HBO’s crime series ‘The Wire’ as Omar Little, a stickup man who robs drug dealers, and who also appeared in shows including ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and ‘Lovecraft Country,’ was found dead Sept. 6 in his Brooklyn apartment,” our colleague Harrison Smith writes. “He was 54.”
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Analysis | Power Up: Millions lose unemployment benefits as Democrats split over expansion of social safety net - The Washington Post
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