Congress can do basic income – COVID proves.
Naomi Zewde et al., 21, Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy at the City University of New York, with Kyle Strickland, Kelly Capatosto, Ari Glogower, and Darrick Hamilton, May 2021, “A Guaranteed Income for the 21st Century.”, https://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/sites/default/files/Guaranteed%20Income%20for%20the%2021st%20Century.pdf
In order to stem the economic calamity of the pandemic, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March 2020, a $2.2. trillion economic emergency stimulus package which included a one-time guaranteed income payment of $1,200 to most adults (U.S. Department of Treasury, 2020). The CARES Act also temporarily expanded unemployment benefits to include gig workers, who, with the fissuring of work, have become an increasing portion of our workforce; along with a $600 universal increase for recipients of unemployment compensation. These key provisions, even despite their shortcomings, illustrate our government’s potential to address poverty rates and growing economic insecurity. As Congress deliberates future interventions of COVID-19 relief, we should be wary of policies aiming to return to pre-COVID-19 rates of poverty and economic insecurity. Millions of Americans were struggling well before the pandemic hit. Instead, we should recognize the government’s capabilities of rapidly responding to and protecting against economic hardships with guaranteed income supports and carry this understanding with us far after the threat of COVID-19 ends.