As the economy continues to crash under the stress of a global pandemic, lawmakers are debating how to stem the bleeding. Some propose a second round of economic stimulus payments to individuals.
Unemployment has risen to 14.7%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday — worst since the Great Depression. More than 20 million people were laid off in April, decimating a decade of job growth. The leisure and hospitality industry was hit hardest.
This recession has already impacted the U.S. economy around twice has hard as the 2007-2009 economic crisis, according to The Washington Post.
The numbers come after Congress has allocated nearly $3 trillion to bolstering the economy, bailing out industries, funding COVID-19 response and sending up to $1,200 to individuals since the coronavirus reached the United States,
Now lawmakers are at odds over how much more stimulus is needed, and what form it should take.
Democratic senators, like Illinois’ Dick Durbin, have said they would support a second round of individual economic relief. “That money reaches people that aren’t reached with workers unemployment insurance, and small-business loans, so I would be open to that,” Durbin told The Hill.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has requested reoccurring $2,000 monthly payments until the pandemic subsides, with the blessing of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Republicans argued instead for stimulating business and getting Americans back to work, despite the risk of additional casualties.
“The real stimulus that’s going to change the trajectory that we’re on is going to be the economy, not government checks,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, The Hill reported.
President Donald Trump — who has called himself a “wartime president” — recently called Americans “warriors” for fighting the pandemic, and suggested that some warriors would become casualties to allow the economy to open again, The Los Angeles Times reported.
“Will some people be affected badly? Yes. But we have to get our country open, and we have to get it open soon,” the president said while visiting a Honeywell mask production plant in Arizona this week.
As of Friday, the coronavirus had killed more than 75,000 people in America, according to Johns Hopkins.
NOTE: A previous version of this story included quotes from a senator, as reported by The Hill, which were removed after The Hill reported a misunderstanding during the interview.