It’s the Stimulus, Stupid!
The swift passage of a second stimulus package is essential to American economic recovery.
During a year in which millions of Americans face food insecurity, evictions, and periods without health insurance during a global pandemic, Congress and the White House have portrayed the passage of another stimulus package (after March’s CARES Act) as an incredibly contentious and impossible endeavor. While people are suffering because of circumstances outside of their control, our leaders have been unable to compromise on a bill that would demonstrate that they put people’s well-being ahead of accumulating political leverage.
This stalemate might seem surprising if it wasn’t representative of several political and economic trends that have permeated American policymaking for the last four decades. Most social programs are stigmatized because America’s reigning political ideology (neoliberalism) holds that the state mustn’t interfere much in the economy. The government provided largely inadequate support to people in need before the pandemic and pushed more social support functions onto nonprofits and the private sector.
Coronavirus then exacerbated the existing wealth gap between those living paycheck-to-paycheck and the ultra-wealthy. People in the lower class lost their jobs or started working…
