Dear friends,
Political leaders at every level of government continue to bungle the pandemic. The least surprising but most damning examples come from the federal government, of course. The CDC will need a long time to rebuild its credibility from the Trump era; a new article details the silencing of scientists by the president’s team. Case numbers are rising around the nation and ICUs in eight of NYC’s hospitals are at or above 90% capacity. The Mayor has already begun to talk about closing non-essential businesses, but has indicated that a shut-down would come after Christmas. The Governor said today, “We are on an unsustainable trajectory and if we don't act now, hospitals could become overwhelmed come January." It isn’t clear what it means to ‘act now’. My tendency is to think about children, so I think we must make remote education more viable.
Urge your State Senator to support S9057, a bill to provide free internet service in households with students who live at or below the poverty level.
The Cares Act passed in March provided one-time Covid-relief payments of $1,200 to individuals and $2,400 to couples filing jointly, plus additional money for each dependent child. But the $2 trillion relief legislation had an insidious exception tucked inside it:
If any family member had filed a return using a taxpayer identification number, a legally valid alternative for people who do not have a social security number, the whole family was disqualified from payments.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates that over 5 million Americans — including citizens and green card holders — have missed out on the relief payments because of the exclusion. Among these are those who are married to undocumented immigrants who work in front line jobs in home-care and health care jobs.
It looks as though Congress made some progress on new relief measures and that they have committed to staying in DC until legislation is passed (aka doing their jobs).
Contact your Congressional Representative and demand that new legislation include relief for all Americans.
Try to enjoy the snow that’s coming, even though schools will remain ‘open’. Take your children to play in the snow anyway.
with love,
L