Day 152…
I had a dream last night that I was working.
That sentence sounds like I am channeling Mama Rose, but it wasn’t nearly that dramatic. In my dream, I was just talking to an actor about a moment in a show. Utterly ordinary in every way except that when I woke up it sank in all over again that it’s been five months since I’ve had any such conversation with anyone.
The Senate and the House are still deadlocked over what to do about continuing aid to the unemployed.
Bored with this, the man who is currently occupying the White House grandly stepped in and signed four executive orders on Saturday that he swears will fix it all. He rose above the petty squabbling of Congress and took action himself in regard to the stimulus package seemingly thinking that it was constitutional that he could. The measures not only fall outside of the purview of his office, but even were they enacted would do little or nothing to help lessen our current economic crisis.
The first order provides an additional $400 a week unemployment aid. He doesn’t actually have the power to do that, that power lies in Congress. He can say yea or nay, but he can’t authorize the expenditure of anything.
He stipulates that the individual states will provide 25% of that funding. He does not, however, suggest where any of the already cash-strapped states will get that money. He says that, in addition, states will need to enter into some sort of financial agreement with the federal government for each person who claims benefits. There is no such mechanism in place that would allow that to happen.
Were offices created and staffed for that purpose it is possible, with a concentrated effort, that such a mechanism would maybe be able to start operating in October at the very earliest. Similar offices would need to be set up and staffed in the federal government to process all of this. There is no discussion about where the funding for any of this would come from.
In order for the states to administer the distribution of this benefit they would need Congressional authorization. Nobody who needs the payments would be able to get the $300 from the federal government before the $100 from the state was approved. In point of fact, states have already asked Congress for $500 billion in aid to cover the budget shortfalls they already have which the Republicans are unwilling to provide.
The second order says that “the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the CDC shall consider whether any measures temporarily halting residential evictions of any tenants for failure to pay rent are reasonably necessary to prevent the further spread of COVID-19”. There is no money stipulated for this either but suggests that those two departments have a good look around to see where some might be found. It’s sure to be hiding somewhere.
His third order defers the payment of payroll taxes until the end of the year. Payroll taxes are what employees pay into Social Security and Medicare. There are currently 31 million unemployed Americans who have no jobs and no income who are, therefore, already paying no payroll taxes whatsoever. For the people who are employed and paying these taxes, these payments aren’t being forgiven, they are just being delayed. All payments between now and the end of the year would be still be due on December 31. All that this would do would be to temporarily cut off all funding to Medicare and Social Security at a time when their income is already severely diminished.
It is this issue more than any other that is a real head-scratcher for me in terms of why people support this President and the GOP. These people are desperate to stop Medicare and Social Security completely, something countless numbers of their supporters desperately need and rely on. To be fair, at this moment, the President’s fixation on eliminating payroll taxes has little support from either side of the aisle. And again, the President has no power to levy or control taxes.
The fourth order extends the student loan relief granted in the CARES Act until the end of the year. Currently, loan payments are paused, and interest accrual frozen until the end of September. This order, which actually is doable, would extend that deadline by three months until the end of the year. The Democrats have been pushing to extend it for a full year.
So, with all of the grandstanding and hoopla around these Executive orders, they amount to no immediate help for the nation’s unemployed at all. Anybody who thinks that the President’s promised $400 a week in assistance is going to magically appear in their bank accounts this week is going to be sadly disappointed.
The New York Department of Labor sent out an alert yesterday basically saying, just keep certifying weekly as usual and please don’t ask us any questions about it because we have no idea.
A second round of stimulus checks is not going to accomplish a blessed thing either. It’s all nonsensical. Hopefully the two Houses will get it together soon and actually find a workable solution.
We are heading back to New York tomorrow. It’s hard to believe that a week has already gone by.
There’s no real reason to go home, it’s not like we have to get back to work, we just feel ready. Of course, it would cost us much more to stay out here in Provincetown, but we could probably figure something out.
When I am traveling, I always try to get as close to my destination as I can with each step. I always go through security at the airport and get close to the gate before I stop and eat. Some people are fine to sit and have coffee outside and head through security later, but I want to get everything accomplished that I can before I sit and chill. I can’t relax otherwise.
Part of wanting to go home tomorrow, I think, is the same thing. I know in my head that there is absolutely nothing that I need to do in New York, that I can’t do here. Nothing is actually happening in either place. IF something happens, though, I’d rather be there than here.
I also miss the cat.
The cat, I am sure, does not miss us at all. I have no doubt that our friend who is staying with him is paying him far more attention than we ever do. He is more than happy to give all of his love and affection to whomever is in front of him at that moment in time. You feed him and he loves you unconditionally. Until the next person comes along.
We had a great day yesterday hanging out at the beach with my junior year college roommate and his boyfriend. It was completely unplanned. We just happened to be going to the same beach, so we all spent the day together.
It has been thirty-eight years since he and I first met and roomed together which seems as inconceivable as not working for five months does. We are a little older, perhaps, but nothing else has really changed. We just picked back up where we left off.
Thirty-eight years, five months, a week, it’s all just time.
The person I consider one of my professional mentors once said something to me that changed the way I looked at going through difficult things. I was working on a show that was very complicated and I was fretting that we wouldn’t have enough time to get it all done.
My friend said that whatever happened, good or bad, that at some point it would be the day after opening night. In other words, no matter how difficult or complicated it was that there would eventually reach a point when it was all in the past.
What we are going through now is no different. At some future time, this will be something that we are all looking back on rather than worrying about getting through. We will get through this and it will be something that we all share in our collective pasts and tell stories about.
So, it makes much more sense to choose to be interested rather than scared. We’re going to get through it either way.
Just think how you are going to feel ages from now when you work with somebody who hasn’t been born yet or who was just born now. You’ll talk about this and they’ll think you are crazy and just smile and nod until they can get away.
You think that won’t happen?
Just wait.
Yes, we will get through this
just wait and see
Funny I had a dream I was working last tonight as well
I realized
I had
no clue
what I was doing
so I went to the
“ people in charge”
proclaiming
I had no idea what I was doing
or how to do it
they replied
exhaling....
Thank you for being so honest
what a relief!
We don’t either!
xx