Navigating Coronavirus — July 23

4 min readJul 23, 2020

Today’s email offers a spotlight on the economy, with new polling on Trump’s economic standing and rhetoric, support for economic measures like extending UI and arguments around it, and general sentiment about the state of the economy.

Read on for today’s Navigating Coronavirus…

It’s been 148 days since President Trump said we’d soon have zero cases in the U.S. We now have 4.1 million cases and more than 146,000 deaths.

SPOTLIGHT ON THE ECONOMY

Trump and his allies are feeling the heat for their deeply unpopular and economically disastrous plan to cut the incomes of 30 million Americans during a pandemic and are starting to cave — but their proposal to slash benefits would still be devastating for workers and the economy and even a short-term extension would needlessly continue the uncertainty.

This morning, with just one week left before benefits expire unless Congress acts, we are going to learn how many more workers filed for unemployment last week in Trump’s economy.
While Republicans are divided and squabbling with each other, Democrats and progressives are united and pushing hard for Congress to extend the emergency expanded benefits or risk “economic calamity.”
READ >> The full statement from leaders of progressive research, policy, grassroots, and advocacy groups urging Congress to extend the additional $600 in unemployment benefits.
The economics of this issue are clear: Cutting or eliminating the expanded unemployment benefits while coronavirus is surging is the absolute last thing you’d do if you wanted to help the economy recover.
The latest GOP proposal to slash benefits from $600 to $100 wouldn’t change that — it would still cost millions of jobs and make this economic crisis longer and more painful than it needs to be.

MUST READ >> New York Times: “If Congress Cuts Jobless Benefits, ‘It Would Be a Disaster’”

TOP TREND

NEW NAVIGATOR POLL >> Support for extending unemployment insurance continues to be really high. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans want Congress and Trump to provide the $600-a-week expanded unemployment income through at least January 2021.
MORE >> The argument for extending UI beats the argument against it by almost 20 points. Americans don’t buy the Trump/GOP argument that unemployment aid disincentivizes work, and the top reasons for supporting extension include helping people pay bills and taking care of those who lost their job because of a pandemic.

NEW NAVIGATOR TRACKING NUMBERS . . .

TODAY’S POLLING DECK >> HERE

FULL TOPLINES >> HERE

Public sentiment on the economy is souring, as more Americans worry about their own financial situation. Since June 8, there’s been a net 11 point shift in how people feel about their personal financial situation — with a majority now feeling uneasy.

Majorities of Americans think Trump’s approach to the pandemic has hurt the economy and disapprove of his handling of the economic recovery. By double digits, Americans now trust congressional Democrats more than Trump on the economic response to coronavirus, as Trump’s overall approval on handling the economy has also hit an all-time low in our tracking, at -9 (44% approve / 53% disapprove), and is even worse when it comes to his handling the economic recovery from the pandemic, at -16 (40% approve / 56% disapprove).

Americans aren’t buying Trump’s economic pitch. A majority doesn’t find his argument of restoring a strong economy to be convincing, and their top concern with Trump’s economic approach is that his rush to reopen against experts’ warnings will hurt the economy even more and cause more job loss.