'They simplest care about votes': As hundreds of thousands slip into ...

Shannon O'Brien's daughter turns 15 years old on Wednesday, an early milestone for any teenage girl. however this birthday can be unlike some other the young lady has skilled before. 

For O'Brien, forty eight, this year has been clouded via uncertainty due to the fact that he lost his job as a bartender in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now O'Brien, who is from upstate long island, doesn't understand if he can be in a position to get his daughter a birthday existing this yr as a result of he receives so little from unemployment and he's drowning in unpaid household bills.

"I've had to promote household heirlooms," he told Yahoo information in a video interview. "I've needed to bum money from pals just to get by means of, and it's humiliating."

O'Brien, like tens of millions of americans across the country, is now based on the executive to aid make ends meet with a 2nd stimulus bill. earlier this month President Trump referred to as on Congress to pass further coronavirus relief measures, hours after at the beginning saying that he changed into calling off negotiations unless after the November election.

"The residence & Senate may still immediately Approve 25 Billion greenbacks for Airline Payroll guide, & 135 Billion greenbacks for Paycheck insurance plan software for Small company," Trump tweeted on Oct. 6. "both of those should be wholly paid for with unused dollars from the Cares Act. Have this mon ey. i'll sign now!"

On Tuesday, Trump doubled down, making a further attraction for Republican lawmakers to aid an economic aid package bigger than the $2.2 trillion proposed through condominium Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "It's very fundamental. I want to do it even larger than the Democrats," Trump observed on "Fox & chums."

President Trump and condo Speaker Nancy Pelosi are at odds over a 2d stimulus deal. ( picture Illustration: Yahoo! news; photos: Getty images (2)

but accurate Democrats, led by means of Pelosi, have largely rejected efforts to move piecemeal law. On Sunday, Pelosi referred to she and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin obligatory to attain an agreement within forty eight hours if they are looking to flow a coronavirus stimulus reduction b ill before Election Day.

"The 48 best pertains to if we wish to get it completed before the election, which we do," Pelosi referred to in an interview on ABC's "This Week."

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but that forty eight-hour deadline came and passed Tuesday without a deal. 

Pelosi is putting drive on the Trump administration to reduce a deal quickly since the legislative procedure within the house and Senate will take time ahead of the election. Democrats and Republicans commonly agree the country needs a stimulus invoice for the economy, but the two facets range on the scope and size of the invoice. 

Democratic house management insists that any law needs to contain $500 billion in support for states. but Senate Majority chief Mitch McConnell brushed aside the concept of enabling states to use federal dollars to support them make up for price range shortfalls.

On Saturday, McConnell introduced there can be voting on stimulus measures, including a stand-alone Paycheck coverage application bill to aid small corporations, on Tuesday and Wednesday. but Democrats are anticipated to dam his effort.

In a call with newshounds on Sunday, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer assailed McConnell's plan.

"That is only a sham," Schumer talked about on the call. "It's a stunt through Sen. McConnell when he's blocked every thing that's took place to this point. And in terms of getting an contract, he's even noted he wouldn't go along with what Donald Trump desired."

Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty pictures)

As Congress goes back and forth about whether a 2d stimulus will circulate, essentially the most inclined americans are hurting. 

As a bartender, O'Brien made most of his funds from guidance. The unemployment checks he now gets are handiest about 15 to 20 % of the funds he used to usher in. And he wants to get lower back to work however can't take just any job because he also cares for his seventy eight-year-ancient mother, who has fitness considerations. 

"I'm back right down to $106 per week, which is long past away before it even receives here," observed O'Brien. "basically, the next 4 weeks of it are already gone. … I didn't simply quit my job because I'm lazy. My trade evaporated."

while O'Brien continues to be undecided on who will get his vote for president, he says his vote for Congress is utterly based on who is capable of get a stimulus invoice signed first.

"My vote for Congress can be 100 percent dependent on no matter if or now not a stimulus deal is at the least achieved, if not signed, by the day of the election," he noted. "I live in a swing district … that went for Trump w ith the aid of 7 elements four years ago. ... i can't reward Nancy Pelosi if she received't convey this throughout the finish line."

O'Brien brought that he feels voting is the only leverage american citizens have within the battle against elected leaders.

A employee on the Utah County election workplace places mail-in ballots into a container. (George Frey/Getty photographs)

"That's all these people be mindful," he talked about. "They handiest care about votes. They don't care about voters. And as soon as the election is done, we've received two years before they truly pay consideration to us again. So our leverage as voters is now. They focus on their leverage over Republicans, or Republicans have leverage over Democrats. Our leverage is not in blind, partisan loyalty or ideological loyalty. That isn't going to cut it for the American americans. They should be worried about their jobs." 

As extra time passes, americans don't care how it gets finished, they just want some thing accomplished. Two-thirds of voters say Congress should still focal point on passing extra COVID-19 reduction for struggling worker's and corporations before in view that Supreme courtroom nominee Amy Coney Barrett, in keeping with a contemporary Yahoo news/YouGov poll. 

The survey, which become conducted from Oct. 9 to 11, found that large majorities of the public suppose Congress has its priorities backward. no longer best do greater than three-quarters (77 percent) of registered voters want legislators to approve a further primary pandemic aid equipment; 66 % need the Senate to vote on it before voting on Barrett's nomination. A full third of Republicans (33 %) agree.

however to this point, there's nevertheless no second stimulus invoice. meanwhile, thousands and thousands of americans nationwide are falling under the poverty line without executive aid. The number of americans living in poverty grew by eight million since might also, in response to a Columbia institution look at. The look at discovered there became an increase in poverty charges after early coronavirus reduction ended without extra to follow. 

in the first stimulus bill, the federal CARES Act, americans obtained a one-time stimulus investigate of $1,200 and unemployed workers obtained an additional $600 each week. This circulate became successful at offsetting turning out to be poverty quotes within the spring, however the consequences were brief-lived, researchers found. 

For Kim Lema of East windfall, R.I., a second stimulus verify is barely as much of a precedence as keeping herself from exposure to COVID-19. As a disabled woman who suffers from leukemia and emphysema, Lema, 50, has already misplaced her boyfriend's father and close pals to the virus. She's scared to leave the residence apart from getting the essentials for her own safety, however she also needs govt aid.

President Trump at a signing ceremony for the CARES Act within the Oval office of the White house. (Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty photos)

"[The government] needs to aid us, and that they need to assist us all now," Lema told Yahoo information. "I canceled my vacations. There's no longer going to be Thanksgiving at my condominium. I'm scared, however we want the money because the can charge of resi ding is [growing] at this time. And we will't do it by using ourselves."

Lema believes each Democrats and Republicans should still shoulder some accountability for the failure to circulate a 2d stimulus to this point, but she feels the GOP deserves extra of the blame.

"Republicans are helping the large agencies with the aid of giving them tax breaks and giving them money," she pointed out. "I don't consider the millionaires deserve any cash at this time. it should be for the individuals that need it. We need it. They don't want it."

other than the partisan issues, Lema says a deal needs to get executed.

"Republicans and Democrats at this time should put all their politics aside and signal the stimulus equipment for the American people," she spoke of.

The uncertainty over a second stimulus bill is also a concern for some indigenous communities, the place COVID has hit principally difficult. statistics from the centers for ailment mana ge and Prevention shows that Native americans are three.5 times as possible to contract the virus as white american citizens. The shutdown shuttered many Native americans' companies, together with casinos, and entire tribes were unable to generate ample cash to reside off of. 

because the tribal elder of the Narragansett Indian tribe in Rhode Island, Bella Noka takes on lots of the responsibilities of the individuals within her neighborhood. at the same time as she's hampered by her own fitness considerations and having been out of work, Noka, her husband and her college-age son have had to depend on only one earnings to get with the aid of. For Noka, getting a 2nd stimulus would advantage her for my part and could be the change between life and death for one of the crucial older indiv iduals in her tribe.

Native American men at a tribal ceremony. (Visions of america/customary photos neighborhood by way of Getty images)

"It's no longer basically me, but those around me who're suffering and being extra affected than i'm," Noka, 55, advised Yahoo information. "in the Narragansett tradition we need our family. We need our people and we honor our elders. It looks like this administration has no respect for these with preexisting health circumstances or our aged."

The full impact on the Native American population remains doubtful because of the everyday exclusion of indigenous communities from facts utilized in fitness policymaking, crippling what's ordinary about population.

"Native American tribes are having a disproportionate fitness impact it truly is highly frustrating, and that they're having a disproportionate influence to the revenues that can also be used to take on the health disaster," observed Harvard public policy professor Eric Henson. "lots of tribes are having the worst of each worlds on the equal time."

Noka believes that the Trump administration has yet to exhibit it cares about her community. instead, she has had to in my opinion shoulder a greater accountability for her tribe when it comes to finding out a method to make ends meet.

"as the matriarch of our tribal nation and an elder, I have an outstanding accountability of retaining our people," noted Noka, who pointed obtainable are fewer than 3,500 memb ers in her tribe.

"If I get infected, if I get ill, i will be able to wipe out a whole nation," she pointed out. "you have got eagles, Bengal tigers and whales which are protected if there's lower than a specific amount. we've three,500. If I get infected and i infect others, there are not any greater Narragansett."

a brief health facility install to handle COVID-19 instances. (Apu Gomes/AFP by the use of Getty photographs)

As an impartial, Noka says she has voted Republican during the past, however this year she believes that the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ticket is what's top-quality for the nation. 

"I voted for Reagan when i was 18 years historical," she noted. "I follow what's most efficient and that i take heed to the gold standard argument that works for the individuals, now not just for myself."

in the meantime, the negotiations over the 2nd stimulus continue. during a Bloomberg tv interview Tuesday afternoon, Pelosi looked as i f it would stroll again the forty eight-hour deadline, announcing she turned into "optimistic" about progress in discussions with Mnuchin, who serves because the White condominium's main negotiator.

"It isn't that this present day is the day we would have a deal," she said. "it be a day when we'd have our terms on the desk to be capable of go to the next step. law takes a long time."

however O'Brien, the former bartender from upstate manhattan, believes it's past time for existing executive management to step up within the most advantageous interest of all americans now and flow a 2d stimulus bill.

"they are saying store cash for a wet day, but here is the rainy day," he referred to. "You deserve to support the American individuals. You've always been bailing out every different, lining each other's pockets. ... Now abruptly when it involves us, you want to pinch pennies? No."

cowl Thumbnail picture: photograph Illustration: Yahoo! information; photos: Getty photos (2)

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