Friday, April 17, 2020
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Democrats need to stop holding small-business help hostage
It’s beyond tragic: The loan program to aid small businesses hit by lockdowns is almost out of cash, yet Democrats still refuse to OK new funds unless their unrelated demands are met.
If small-business closures spike, costing countless workers their jobs, Americans shouldn’t forget the Dems’ cynicism.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin offered ample warning more than a week ago that the $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program would soon run dry; now the fund may be just days from collapse.
Congress created the PPP in its rescue plan last month; the idea was to help small businesses that were ordered shut and seeing little income keep paying workers and creditors. Everyone agreed that was urgent, given these businesses’ economic importance and the threat of cascading collapses as the failure of some small companies pushes others under.
Yet as funds ran low, Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocked a GOP push for $250 billion to save the program. They demanded more aid at once for state and local governments, hospitals and “community-based” lenders serving minorities, women and others.
And Pelosi’s No. 2, Rep. Steny Hoyer, said Monday the House won’t reconvene until May 4, threatening to let the money run out.
The tragedy is both sides agree on the need for the $250 billion, and Republicans are even open to the Dems’ other asks but want to wait to better assess the...
Shutdown Could Kill More Americans Than COVID-19
Thursday's unemployment update confirms that over the last three weeks, nearly 17 million Americans have been laid off because of the shutdown. That's one-tenth of the nation's workforce. It's not just an economic fact. It's a public health disaster. If the shutdown is dragged on, as many public health experts recommend, it is almost certain to kill more Americans than coronavirus.
The academics and public health officials who have concocted models of the virus's spread are telling us that we have to continue the shutdown to save thousands of lives. But none of their models considers the deaths that will be caused by unemployment.
Before the virus hit, America's unemployment rate was 3.5%, the lowest in 50 years. Now Goldman Sachs predicts unemployment could spike to 15% by midyear. A St. Louis Federal Reserve economist grimly predicts 32% unemployment — worse than during the Great Depression.
No model or guesswork is required to foresee the deadly impact. Job losses cause extreme suffering. Every 1% hike in the unemployment rate will likely produce a 3.3% increase in drug overdose deaths and a 0.99% increase in suicides according to data provided by the National Bureau of Economic Research and the medical journal Lancet. These are facts based on experience, not models. If unemployment hits 32%, some 77,000 Americans are likely to die from suicide and drug overdoses as a result of layoffs. Scientists call these fatalities deaths of despair.
Then add the predictable deaths from alcohol abuse caused by unemployment. Health economist Michael French from the University of Miami and a co-author found a "significant association between job loss" and binge drinking and alcoholism.
The impact of layoffs goes beyond suicide, drug overdosing and drinking. Overall, the death rate for an unemployed person is 63% higher than for someone with a job, according to findings in Social Science & Medicine.
Layoff-related deaths are likely to far outnumber the 60,400 coronavirus deaths predicted through August.
This comparison is not meant to understate the horror of coronavirus for those who get it and their families.
But heavy-handed state edicts to close all "nonessential businesses" need to be reassessed in light of the predictable harm to the lives and health of the uninfected.
The shutdown was originally explained as a way to "flatten the curve," allowing time to expand health care capacity, so lives would not be...
Hey Joe, Where You Going?
Hey Joe, Where You Going?
To The Pool With His Hairy Blonde Legs, Where He Learned About Roaches...And He Learned About Kids Jumping On His Lap...
I think his dendrites have received too much electrochemical stimulation.
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