NWSOFA Indivisible Fiscal and Economic Issue Team Meeting

RSVP: https://act.indivisible.org/event/attend-local-actions/156199

NWSOFA Indivisible August Fiscal and Economic Issues Meeting

NWSOFA is having our next Fiscal and Economic Issues meeting on August 27th at 7 p.m.

After focusing on Illinois’ budget last month, we will switch back to federal issues in August. Thank you to State Senator Ann Gillespie and State Representative Mark Walker for sharing your expertise.

The U.S. went into in a deep recession in February. We lost over 22 million jobs in March and April. Real GDP declined over 10% in the first half of 2020. Our current fiscal year (FY) 2020 deficit is forecast to be more than twice our previous record deficit. Our inability to control Covid-19, the novel coronavirus, is causing these bleak results.

In March Congress passed and President Trump signed multiple relief bills, which included extra unemployment benefits through July in the CARES Act, checks to individuals, and loans to businesses.. Jobs have started to recover, but we still have a long way to go.

The House passed a follow on HEROES Act in May, but it was ignored in the Senate for over two months. In late July Senate Republicans started debating their own legislation. Since late July there have been negotiations on what to do next, but nothing has passed Congress. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has prepared a pretty good comparison of the HEROES Act and a proposal that was made in the Republican Senate. You can watch it at http://www.crfb.org/events/where-does-next-phase-covid-relief-stand

President Trump issued some Executive Orders over the weekend of August 8-9, but people are still trying to figure out the legality of those orders and what they mean in terms of policy on the ground. Negotiations continue. Hopefully there will be an agreement between Congress and the White House before our meeting on the 27th. We will let you know.

Come join us virtually on the 27th at 7 p.m. and share your thoughts.

PS – Videos of our prior meetings are posted at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nwsofa

A draft of our PowerPoint presentation for August can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fmr-BXSZ2LI22LbWjM5EEznVDvpcJBq4/view?usp=sharing

July’s presentation can be found at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AjhKVr4t3AeMhEKDhMvakfv9qFl9Waje/view?usp=sharing