PRESS EDITORIAL: Only the federal government can prevent the looming ‘tragedy’

Sad stories of suddenly jobless airline workers and interviews with bereft flight attendants, mechanics and office workers were regular fare from news outlets last week after U.S. airline companies announced the layoffs of more than 30,000 employees.

Millions of viewers and readers could empathize.

They know all about the manifold miseries of being unemployed.

They’ve been living without paychecks for months.

More than 11 million Americans laid off when the pandemic crash set in have not been rehired, including many in Ozaukee County.

Some have learned their former jobs will never return.

Most are near the end of unemployment benefits.

The focus on airline jobs was not just in the news media.

Congress debated a stimulus bill heavily weighted with a bailout for airline companies.

After reversing his alarming declaration that there should be no further economic stimulus until after the election, President Trump promoted financial aid targeted at airlines.

Emergency financial aid is needed now—not just to save the airline industry and bolster large employers, but to help families buy food and pay rent and support small businesses that need a lifeline to survive so they can once again contribute their vigor to the economy, across the country and here in our own small towns.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell put it plainly last week: Failure by the federal government to provide more financial support for households and businesses would have “tragic” economic consequences.

Powell’s is the one voice that should resonate above the political babble generated by the pandemic.

In contrast to the incompetence of other responses to the coronavirus onslaught, his leadership of the Fed is credited with saving the crucial corporate credit market, a key move in keeping the economy afloat.

His strong support of the $2 trillion rescue package approved by Congress in March contributed to instant economic stimulus that staved off a full-on depression.

Now, with the economic recovery having slowed to a painful crawl, Powell warns that without more government support, further hardship will be unavoidable and “household insolvencies and business bankruptcies would rise, harming the productive capacity of the economy and holding back wage growth.”

Congress has no excuse to not heed Powell’s warning.

The federal government has the wherewithal to infuse the economy with trillions of dollars, regardless of the effect on the national debt.

The debt-worry ship sailed over the horizon when the 2017 tax cut exploded the nation’s budget deficit and debt, and Powell counsels that the debt can be addressed after tax revenue increases in a healthy economy, saying, “this is not the time to give priority to those concerns.”

The first stimulus, which included direct cash payments to citizens and generous federal unemployment benefits, was so successful that a second round would not have been necessary if the coronavirus had been controlled.

But thanks to waffling leadership and the refusal of many Americans to take personal responsibility for safe behavior, the now resurging virus is standing in the way of economic recovery.

In Wisconsin, legislators still can’t understand that simple fact of pandemic life.

They persist in thwarting the governor’s Covid control measures with claims that limits on the numbers of people in bars, restaurants and stores and the requirement for mask wearing are crippling businesses.

They have it backwards. It’s the virus, not the virus control measures, that is hurting the economy.

Control the virus and businesses will heal.

In the meantime, with the debilitating and deadly virus showing no signs of moderating, Congress should stop arguing about the size of the stimulus package, as the two parties have been doing, and provide whatever amount of aid it takes to prevent the tragedy the federal reserve chairman sees looming for families and businesses.