Pressure is mounting on Republicans in Congress to finalise a new aid package and spare millions of Americans who lost their jobs in the coronavirus pandemic from enduring dire hardship when $600-a-week additional unemployment benefits expire on Friday.
With the so-called “income cliff” just four days away, Republican leaders have indicated that on Monday they will unveil a $1tn aid package agreed with the White House. But bitter partisan negotiations still lie ahead, with a measure likely to pass only at the eleventh hour.
House Democrats, who passed a $3tn package in May, have accused Republicans of dithering and object to replacing the $600 weekly benefits, which they want to extend, with a more complicated formula based on 70% of wages. That calculation could in effect see support reduced to about $200 a week.
Democrats are also unhappy about liability protections likely to be included in the Republican package that insulate employers from being sued by workers who contract coronavirus.
The negotiations come at a febrile time. Last week 1.4 million Americans filed new unemployment claims, joining a pool of more than 30m out of work.
As the political crisis on Capitol Hill comes to a head, there is no sign of the public health crisis abating. According to the Covid Tracking project, 4.2m confirmed cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the US with the death toll close to 140,000. Johns Hopkins University puts the death toll closer to 150,000.
The death rate across the states has exceeded 1,000 people a day over the past week, although on Sunday a figure of 558 was recorded.
The infection rate is continuing to surge alarmingly, particularly in the south. Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are all showing steep upward trajectories and many states have been forced to rein back on reopening their economies after the virus caused havoc in health systems.
Florida now has more than 400,000 confirmed cases and has surpassed the tally in New York, a previous center of the contagion in the US. California, how struggling with a resurgence of its own, has recorded the most cases.
Despite the prevalence of disease in Florida the vice-president, Mike Pence, was scheduled to visit Miami on Monday, to highlight phase three trials for a vaccine.
The political fallout of the pandemic remains intense, both at state level and for the White House, where Donald Trump is dealing with the consequences of having presided over one of the worst impacts of the pandemic in the world. With fewer than 100 days to go before the presidential election, Joe Biden now holds a commanding lead in the polls.
A new NBC News/Marist poll released on Monday underlined the danger of the current moment for Trump. It gave Biden a seven-point lead in the vital swing state of North Carolina, increasingly seen as a bellwether in presidential elections. Among registered voters in the state, Biden was supported by 51% to Trump’s 44%.
Congressional horse trading over aid could have far-reaching implications for millions. Democrats have warned that any reduction in financial help to the unemployed could herald a wave of evictions as households struggle to meet rent.
On Sunday, Trump adviser Larry Kudlow pledged on CNN’s State of the Union that a moratorium on housing evictions, which has expired, will be extended.
