Like, I think everyone could agree $600 flat a week addition is probably more than necessary, but also not necessarily by that much nor was it entirely cost prohibitive for the government in the short term through July. At the time, needing to get a bill out immediately to avoid, well, people going broke, I think most agreed it wasn't a number worth fighting over(Better to be too much than too little).
They should have used the time this bought to figure out a system(perhaps state by state) where this addition is proportional with cost of living and the minimum unemployment benefit for that specific state. Or something similar along those lines. I imagine you could settle on a range of like $300 to $450 and agree it would be enough(While also extending standard state unemployment benefits again).
Unfortunately, I'm assuming several hedged their bets on COVID being over in a month or two and they squandered a whole bunch of time. Now you figure they have 2, 2 and a half weeks since these programs and stimulus take time to actually implement.
They've got plenty of time. The current unemployment bill doesn't end until July 31. They already extended the small business loan/grant program by 16 more weeks. It's easy enough to just wave a wand on July 31 and extend it until election day.
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September 1, 2003; November 4, 2007; September 2, 2013 Congratulations to DP Oblivion in the Guru Contest!