Democratic Primaries

Gothmog

(154,040 posts) Thu Mar 26, 2020, 10:42 PM Mar 2020

Statement from Vice President Joe Biden on Record Unemployment Claims

Link to tweet

Last week saw the largest single-week jump in new unemployment claims in American history — 3.3 million people filed for unemployment, and likely many more than that are now out of work as people are staying home to slow the spread of COVID-19. These numbers reflect overwhelming job losses in service industries like accommodation and food service, which means lower-income workers are already feeling the impact of this crisis in a major way. Secretary Mnuchin may think these numbers “are not relevant,” but for those who were already struggling to make ends meet, this is a very real crisis.

That’s why we have to do whatever is necessary to get the relief the Senate just approved to these families fast — and to keep as many Americans on the payroll as possible.

The President is not responsible for the coronavirus, but he bears full responsibility for the slow and uncoordinated response that has exacerbated both the public health and economic impact on our country. The harsh reality is that at least 3 million people now don’t have jobs because our president didn’t do his job when it mattered.

Nearly every country is facing this pandemic — but not every country has responded the same way. South Korea, among other steps, deployed intensive testing and contact-tracing measures to slow and control the spread of the virus. Donald Trump didn’t do that. He didn’t get ahead of it when he had the chance. And in the absence of an early, aggressive response to flatten the curve, cities and states have been left with no option other than extreme social distancing measures, causing businesses to close and lay off workers. Now we are facing the economic fallout as well as a worsening public health crisis.

The White House’s mindset needs to shift. Effective planning, implementation, and execution are required to address this public health and economic crisis. The Congress is stepping up and doing its job by providing generous and timely unemployment insurance. But once the relief bill is signed into law, Trump will still have to do the hard work to execute it effectively: getting the funds out the door to make those who were laid off financially whole and the small business loans distributed to keep as many people on payroll as possible.

But none of that will ultimately matter if we can’t defeat the coronavirus. We won’t be able to revive the economy and get people back to work without a public health action plan that saves lives and halts the virus as quickly as possible.

If I were to vote in a presidential
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden