“Despite oft-repeated claims of large-scale job losses, a national program that would guarantee health insurance for every American would not profoundly affect the total number of jobs in the U.S. economy,” said economist Josh Bivens, who conducted the study. “In fact, such reform could boost wages and jobs and lead to more efficient labor markets that better match jobs and workers.”
Public News Service
March 30, 2020
“I think there’s a serious 50/50 chance at least that there will be a recession in the next year driven by the coronavirus and the response,” said Josh Bivens, with the Economic Policy Institute.
KOCO 5 News
March 30, 2020
There’s a self-reinforcing scenario in the U.S. given (1) our lack of universal health care and (2) the lack of a social safety net for people in the gig economy and those earning lower incomes in jobs lacking health insurance coverage. According to this report released yesterday from the Economic Policy Institute, people in the U.S. who need sick days the most are least able to get them.
Health Populi
March 30, 2020
Josh Bivens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, states in a recent blog that “short-run” ways Congress can blunt the potential economic pain of COVID-19 would be to enact temporary payroll tax cuts (both to workers and to employers) and mandate temporary paid sick leave.
“Payroll tax cuts could provide demand stimulus generally but also give firms affected by the temporary cutback in spending some breathing room to pay bills during the demand slowdown,” Bivens explained. “The employer-side payroll tax cut would help firms finance the week of mandated paid sick leave. As always, any temporary cut to payroll taxes must be accompanied by provisions to hold harmless the trust funds (Social Security and Medicare, most importantly) that these taxes finance.”
ThinkAdvisor
March 30, 2020
With the stock market plummeting and hysteria around COVID-19 (commonly known as the coronavirus) escalating, it is time to get serious about the economic policy response. Policy makers and the public will need help in distinguishing between smart responses and those that are just ideological opportunism, such as calls for cuts in taxes and regulations, for example.
MarketWatch
March 30, 2020
Pelosi and Schumer’s statement came a week after reports revealed the White House is weighing possible new tax cuts in response to COVID-19 and the plummeting of stock markets—an example of “ideological opportunism,” the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) said in a report released Monday.
Common Dreams
March 30, 2020
“Any economic relief package should come online quickly, it should be even more targeted to help lower-wage workers than usual, and it should rapidly boost state and local government capacity on both the public health and economic fronts,” said Josh Bivens, director of research for the Economic Policy Institute.
The Wall Street Journal
March 30, 2020
Warning that the economic hit from the outbreak “will come fast” when it arrives and “hit lower-wage workers first and hardest,” Josh Biven of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute said it will be crucial for the government to introduce a swift and targeted response.
Biven called on the government to make a plan for “rapid direct payments to individuals” just as was done by President George W. Bush in 2008—when one-time checks of $600 for individual tax-filers and $1,200 for joint tax filers were issued—in order to stem the bleeding from the financial crash that year.
“We could use this model but do even better this time,” said Biven, suggesting $1,000 for each individual and $500 per child.
“Besides needing money to tide them over when they can’t work,” he explained, “low-wage workers could also use protection against being let go by employers when they can’t show up to work due to their sickness (or the sickness of family members).”
Common Dreams
March 30, 2020
“[R]apid direct payments to individuals,” recommended Josh Bivens, director of research at the liberal Economic Policy Institute.
CBS News
March 30, 2020