On the recordAugust 6, 2020
I think we are all a little frustrated right now because the negotiations on the next COVID-19 package seem to be at a standstill. If you talk to the negotiators and you even read the press accounts, which are pretty open, what they say is that they are deadlocked. One of the main reasons they are deadlocked is over this issue of unemployment insurance. Now, recall, back in the CARES Act, there was an extension of a Federal supplement to unemployment insurance. So we put in place a $600 Federal benefit on top of the State benefits. At the time, there were concerns about whether that would lead to people on unemployment insurance getting more money than they would at work, and there was actually an amendment here on the Senate floor regarding that. Although it did not pass, I think pretty much every Republican supported it with that concern. In fact, that is what has happened. If you look at what has happened over the past couple of months, as the $600 has been put in place, it clearly has often led to people making more on unemployment insurance than they can make at work. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office, which is a nonpartisan group here in the U.S. Congress that analyzes some of these economic issues, has said that if someone is on unemployment insurance today, they are likely to be making substantially more than someone who is not on unemployment insurance. In other words, people are making more not to work than to work.…
