The African American community is dealing with two crises: the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and systemic racism that has been, once again, laid bare in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.
But exacerbating both of those crises is a third, more insidious problem, according to Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League: persistent income inequality that means "when people even get back to work, that paycheck doesn't go far enough to help them make ends meet."
Morial spoke to Cheddar on Monday and called for the Senate to immediately take up the HEROES Act, the stimulus bill passed by the House last month that would extend enhanced unemployment benefits for those who lost their jobs amid the pandemic. Those enhanced benefits are currently scheduled to lapse on July 1.
"It's a fantasy to believe that without continued fiscal intervention by the Congress, and continued monetary intervention by the Fed, that we can get back on our feet economically," he said.
Even if the Senate were to move on the HEROES Act (and it's a big if — the GOP-controlled upper chamber has not been in a rush to take up the bill, with some members calling it "dead on arrival"), lawmakers still need to take action to address the underlying issues that made income inequality a problem long before the coronavirus reached our shores, Morial said.
He called on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to a "living wage" of $15, and expand the child tax credit. Those two actions would go a long way toward helping to get us out of the "40-year ditch" we've dug ourselves, he said.
"It's going to take a commitment by the public and private sectors to move us beyond it."
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
