Kudlow: $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits won't 'survive the next round of talks'
By Naomi Jagoda - 05/26/20 01:44 PM EDT
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Tuesday that he doesn't think that the $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits will be extended in subsequent coronavirus relief legislation, suggesting that a future package would instead include alternatives to encourage people to go back to work.
"I frankly do not believe the $600 plus up will survive the next round of talks, but I think we’ll have substitutes to deal with that issue," Kudlow, the director of President Trump's National Economic Council, said in an interview on Fox News.
The $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package Trump signed on March 27 provides a $600 per week increase to unemployment benefits through the end of July to help the millions of Americans who abruptly lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. The benefits were increased by a flat amount so that states could quickly administer the change.
Democrats are largely supportive of the increased benefits, with House Democrats passing a bill earlier this month that would extend the $600 weekly boost through January 2021. But Republicans argue that the increase is creating a disincentive for people to go back to work, since some people are receiving more in unemployment benefits than they were in wages before they lost their jobs.
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https://thehill.com/policy/finance/499549-kudlow-600-per-week-boost-to-unemployment-benefits-wont-survive-the-next-round
