WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF MARK MEADOWS SAYS UNEMPLOYED HAVE ALREADY BEEN PAID ENOUGH

By George J. Pilibosian

Where do we start with this topic? Hard to know, but I will give it a shot.

First, the United States of America has so poorly handled the spread of COVID-19 that six months after the first case was reported we are seeing a spike in cases and deaths that is worse than the rest of the world. Take a look at how we compare to Europe:

So that is part one.

Then we must ask, how did the supposedly greatest and wealthiest country on the planet so screw this up compared to Europe? Enter Donald Trump, who is the most unqualified person to be called President of the United States.

Why does Trump not deserve his official title? That’s because he ignored the COVID-19 crisis, after six months of American suffering and death, until last week, when he realized he has almost zero chance of being re-elected. Then, like a miracle, he admitted that the crisis will only get worse before it could ever get better.

Meanwhile, during those six months of Trump’s negligence, millions of Americans have been out of work and small businesses have lost everything. Trump kept saying the whole problem will go away, like a miracle.

Thankfully, for those millions of Americans who want to go back to work but can’t pay their bills without assistance, Congress passed the PUA package, giving those who can’t pay their bills $600/week. We all thought those payments, which expire at the end of July, would be sufficient to get Americans back to work and to keep the economy going, and they were a major lifeline for not just the unemployed but for the state of the US economy.

Now we need to address part three.

Trump’s prediction in March that the virus will go away ‘like a miracle’ turned out to be wrong and it didn’t have to be. Had our federal government properly locked down and required social distancing and mask-wearing, we would be in a situation where we could all go back to work. But Trump’s ignorance and inability to handle the pandemic has now raised new alarm bells: 150 of America’s most trusted medical professionals are recommending that the US close down completely in order to get the virus under control, finally.

This means the country is likely to experience another six months of the misery we thought would end now. The unemployed and the small businesses that hoped things would be better now are facing a horror, the horror that this is not even close to being over.

Yet what do the Republicans in Congress want to do? They want to cut off the $600 per week that was the lifeline for millions of Americans. They say that to continue such a program would make people ‘lazy’ and not want to return to work. They say that we have already paid enough to ‘them.’ Talk about having no soul.

But ‘souls’ aside, let’s get down to business. Without this aid extended, not only will the unemployed suffer dire consequences, landlords, small and large businesses alike, will suffer from a lack of commerce. Just ask any company that sells to the masses, whether it be furniture, food, lodging, toys, and on and on. They cannot survive without a healthy economy, even if it must be propped up by an injection of capital from our very wealthy government.

Finally, enter Mark Meadows, Trump’s Chief of Staff, who has recently said that the government, the very same government that pays him out of our taxes to the tune of over $200k per year, needs to cut off the unemployed because it would be too expensive.

Remember the Boston Tea Party? Looks like we are heading for a modern version of that, one where Americans will finally say ‘enough is enough!’