October 2, 2020

The Americans are broke edition. Nearly 180 million Americans face the possibility of having their utilities cut off. More and more can’t make rent or put food on the table. Just yesterday, more airline workers lost their jobs than at any point in U.S. aviation history. And at Disney, once the “happiest place on Earth,” 28,000 just-laid-off workers aren’t so happy. State governments are facing a combined shortfall of $555 billion over the next few years. (Click here for a great and comprehensive report detailing how people in individual states are faring.) The state and local government shortfall is going to affect all of us in the years to come. As our friends at the Economic Policy Institute remind us, states that grow their public workforces during times of recession fare better than states that don’t — they experience fewer job losses overall, fewer private sector job cuts, less growth in unemployment and faster job growth. But states can’t do this, because the Senate and the White House won’t help them. All of the above can be avoided. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered the White House a compromise COVID-19 relief package, which the House passed 214-207, and negotiations with the White House haven’t ended. But Republicans in Congress balked. And balked. And balked. It is not too late to tell Senators to do the jobs they were elected to do – protect the American people. Senators particularly in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, and South Carolina need to hear from their constituents! Scroll down to see sample tweets that you can send to these senators. 

7.3 million/ 208,000  The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S.   34%  The percentage of Black women who have recovered jobs lost since the onset of the pandemic, compared with 61 percent of white women. The economic collapse has triggered the most unequal recession in modern U.S. history.   Half of states  The number of states that have run out of funds for President Trump’s $300/week unemployment benefits extension.   72%    The percentage of Americans who favor passage of a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. 23% were opposed.   23 million  The number of adults in the U.S. who reported that their households sometimes or often did not have enough to eat in the past seven days, according to the Household Pulse Survey for the week ending Sept. 14. That’s 10.5 percent of the adults in the country.   1 in 6  The number of adult renters who were behind in rent in early September. 25% of Black renters, 24% of Asian renters, and 22% of Latinx renters were behind, compared with 12% of white renters.   More than 1 in 3  The number of children living in rental housing live in a household that either isn’t getting enough to eat or is not caught up in rent.   179 million  The number of Americans in danger of having electricity, water, or gas utility shutoffs, as state and local moratoria on such shutoffs expire.   $950 million  The amount of money Georgia legislators cut from the state’s K-12 education budget last month. That’s 10% of the budget for FY 2021.   30%  The level of cuts Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon has called on state agencies to propose, due to the recession and falling revenue from natural resource extraction.

Tweet to key Senators: it’s very important that Senators hear our concern, click links below to tweet.

Example tweet message to Senator Collins of Maine:
.@SenatorCollins, #DoYourJob and pass a robust #COVIDRelief package before leaving DC. The people of Maine cannot wait any longer. 63,000 adults are not having enough to eat- that’s 7% of all ME adults.

Click the link below to send a similar tweet to:

AZ: Senator McSally

CO: Senator Gardner

GA: Senator Perdue, Senator Loeffler

IA: Senator Ernst, Senator Grassley

KE: Senator McConnell

ME: Senator Collins

MT: Senator Daines

MO: Senator Blunt, Senator Hawley

NC: Senator Tillis

SC: Senator Graham