No extra $300 jobless benefits, no $1,200 stimulus checks — at least any time soon
Millions of unemployed California residents will have to wait at least another month — and probably longer — before an extra $300 a week or more is available in supplemental jobless benefits from the federal government.
There will also be no new federal help for state government or local governments struggling with red ink in the recession induced by the coronavirus outbreak. Nor will there be any further $1,200 per taxpayer stimulus payments for awhile.
That’s because Washington talks aimed at reaching a trillion dollar-plus economic relief package are off. President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted that he’s no longer going to negotiate on a plan with Democrats until after the Nov. 3 election.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” he tweeted Tuesday.
House Democrats last week passed a $2.2 trillion plan that would have provided $600 a week to unemployed people through the end of January. In California, that would have boosted maximum weekly payments from $450 weekly to $1,050.
The latest Washington impasse is another blow to California’s unemployed workers. The state’s unemployment rate in August was 11.4%, the fifth highest in the country, The nationwide rate that month was 8.4%.
From late March until late July, jobless Californians could qualify for the additional $600 weekly under a previous economic stimulus package. After that ended, Trump in August took executive action to provide $300 a week temporarily.
California’s Employment Development Department has been providing that amount to people who qualified for the five weeks ending August 29.
Washington approved a sixth week, but so far there hasn’t been enough money to go ahead with those payments. State officials have been unable to provide an estimate of if or when that money will be available.
Prospects for any more money anytime soon were already dim. In Washington, the House has left until after the election, and the Senate plans no votes until at least Oct. 19.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had been talking about a compromise, but could not close the gap between what each party wanted to spend. Democrats wanted $2.2 trillion. Republicans had balked at spending more than $1.5 trillion, but were sympathetic to providing more unemployment benefits.
The Democrats’ latest plan would have provided a total of $238 million to state governments and $179 million to local governments. It also included $500 million to help boost election security, stimulus payments of $1,200 per taxpayer and $500 per child, and aid to restaurants, airlines, and other ailing businesses and industries.
But the two sides could not agree on state and local aid — Democrats were eager to provide it, the White House was not — and other provisions.
“Nancy Pelosi is asking for $2.4 Trillion Dollars to bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States, money that is in no way related to COVID-19. We made a very generous offer of $1.6 Trillion Dollars and, as usual, she is not negotiating in good faith,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
Pelosi quickly fired back.
“He shows his contempt for science, his disdain for our heroes — in health care, first responders, sanitation, transportation, food workers, teachers, teachers, teachers and others — and he refuses to put money in workers’ pockets, unless his name is printed on the check,” she said of Trump.
This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 2:23 PM.
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