In other news, the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote on Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, for next week. Her final confirmation is expected around the 29th, or literally 5 days before the election.
Meanwhile, almost 900,000 Americans filed new, initial claims for unemployment last week, the highest number in two months and more than economists predicted.
And in related news, an additional 8 million Americans now live in poverty because Republicans refused to pass additional stimulus.
The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic’s start as a result of an $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act. [...]
At its peak in May, the aid kept more than 18 million people from poverty, the Columbia researchers found. But by September, that number had fallen to about four million.
“The Cares Act was unusually successful, but now it’s gone, and a lot more people are poor,” said Zachary Parolin, an author of the Columbia analysis.
I feel like the nation is -this close- to finally getting it; that we would all benefit from universal basic income policy; that it wouldn't keep people from working but it would put money in the hands of more consumers who would immediately put it back into the economy through increased spending.
Having a higher poor population and less economic activity because of it was a policy decision made by the GOP.
Programming note... I am planning to be here tomorrow, but it's going to be a light posting day because I have some errands to run before cooking dinner for my father.