Why you should care about the CARES Act
Millions out of work, millions barely or unable to pay rent, millions struggling to get food on the table. Under normal circumstances, these are terrible issues. Add in a global pandemic, and you have the makings of a humanitarian crisis.
The CARES Act provided supplemental unemployment insurance benefits of $600 a week to all workers qualified for benefits. These benefits expired at the end of July. This supplement should be extended in the future. One of the most important ways for the United States to determine the benefit of supplemental income is how other developed nations reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canada has given its citizens over the age of 15 $2000 a month. For Americans to financially survive this pandemic, continued assistance is needed. Canadian citizens have received over $10000 in aid. Many do not have adequate access to jobs, services, and may have to quarantine. Americans, in the same situation, have received $1200 and a minimal amount of unemployment. The pandemic is not over, many are still out of work, and the only financial beneficiaries are multi-millionaires and billionaires. The rich are getting richer, and the poor can't even get by.
I was on unemployment while I finished up graduate school when my substitute teaching job disappeared. If I did not have access to the CARES Act's financial compensation, I would have been extremely in debt while I applied for a new job. From the outside, it may seem that the economy is recovering, but the recovery is skewed. Only those who have the ability to work from home, have significant savings, and work in industries that haven't been hit by restrictions are financially stable. This is a time of crisis, and the CARES act is a mitigator of it.
It's easy to cast blame on Republicans, as they currently hold the presidency. It's easy to cast blame on the rich for financially profiting off of the pandemic. In reality, the answer is much more complicated. Congresspeople on both sides of the aisle have failed to pass legislation giving people the money they need to take care of their families and bills. Economically, helping people now will reduce our need for financial support later. No one could have predicted the length and scale of what has come in 2020, but we can predict the American people's needs. Once states started shutting down their economies, we knew that assistance was going to be needed. When families are dependent on low-income jobs and single working parents, they can't get by. Minimum wage workers can't afford rent in any US state normally, let alone during a pandemic.
For the United States to set itself up for success for the coming decade and beyond, we must support people with the money they have been paying to the government in taxes. Supporting our communities through times of struggle helps everyone, now and in the long-term. We all thrive when we take care of the people who need it the most.