U.S. Needs a Bold Jobs Program, Not a Patchwork Bailout
Unemployed Americans don’t just require cash, they require work, and there’s plenty for them to do.
More vision required.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Millions are unemployed, public budgets are falling apart, the economy is struggling, and the Covid-19 epidemic is raging anew — and most of the $2.7 trillion floor Congress put beneath that misery will soon be gone.
So Congress and the White House are back at the drawing board. Formal bailout packages haven’t surfaced, but policy makers are saying the right things. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has promised that the focus will be “kids and jobs and vaccines.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said, “We need to stand up an educational system and an economy that works for workers and families.” And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called for resources to “fight this pandemic, get our children safely back to school and reopen our economy.”