Nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment in the past two weeks, basically encouraged to do so by the government, which through the CARES Act expanded unemployment insurance, and promised $1,200 checks to tide people over.
Problem #1: the unemployment thing. The Virginia Employment Commission tells us that it can’t just, you know, up and do things.
From a story that we posted on Tuesday:
In order to comply with the new coverage and benefits provisions in the CARES Act, all states, including Virginia, will have to implement significant changes to computer systems in order to get payments to individuals. States are working with the United States Department of Labor and will implement changes as quickly as possible.
The federal government is preparing to issue detailed guidance on how states should proceed in the near future.
Once the federal government issues guidance, it will take some time to develop and implement changes.
So, yeah, computers, systems, changes, guidance.
Gobbledygook, jargon, nonsense, government fails us, again.
Problem #2: the check is in the mail. Well, not yet.
From a report today on CNN.com:
Americans likely won’t begin to see direct payments from the coronavirus stimulus bill until at least April 13 and it could take 20 weeks for all the checks to be mailed, Trump administration officials told lawmakers, according to a House Democratic memo obtained by CNN.
The idea of a stimulus is to (checks notes) get money to people to then get spent back into the economy.
You know, to stimulate economic activity.
The CARES Act was passed last week. It’s going to be the end of next week before the first money is in people’s hands.
The checks will still be going out into August.
Maybe instead of preening for the cameras, President Trump, Gov. Northam, Gov. Cuomo, governors everywhere, should be back in the office seeing to it that what needs to get done is getting done.
We can’t fix the sorry state of affairs that our healthcare system is in now.
You fight the war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had.
Damn, now I’m quoting Donald Rumsfeld, and Donald Rumsfeld’s words are making sense to me.
I need a shower.
Fix it.
In addition to throwing up makeshift hospitals and fumbling around trying to get companies to produce masks and ventilators, we need to take care of people who, as of three weeks ago, were gainfully employed, paying their rent or mortgage, and are now being told that they have to stay home for their own good, and their country’s.
They don’t have time for the VEC and IRS to figure out their issues with scale.
If we need to engage the private sector, there are probably plenty of IT people sitting idle right now that would love to be re-engaged to do something big and get paid for their troubles.
This needs to be done yesterday.
Instead of preening before the cameras to let us in on how hard you’re working.
We can’t wait to pat these gloryhounds on the back for a job well done.
They’ve got to do the job first.
Story by Chris Graham
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