Confronted with horrendous jobs report, White House and congressional Democrats aren't even talking

Confronted with the worst jobs report since the Great Depression, the White House and congressional Democrats aren’t even talking to each other about what — if anything — to do about it.

President Trump says he’s “in no rush” to take action given that nearly $3 trillion already has been approved in response to the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus. House Democrats are taking the opposite tack, pressing forward to vote as soon as this coming week on a massive new relief bill that’s unlikely to win GOP support.

The disconnect shows how the bipartisan consensus that emerged in the early days of the pandemic, allowing Congress to produce four relief bills in rapid succession, has largely disappeared. In its place there is partisan finger-pointing and blame-shifting. Trump on Friday dismissed Democrats as “stone cold crazy” and said he couldn’t work with them. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Republicans who failed to act would be “taking the same misguided path as Herbert Hoover,” who failed to pull the nation out of the Great Depression.

The absence of bipartisan discussions means Congress and the White House are unlikely to act anytime soon to offer additional relief to failing businesses, battered state budgets and the newly unemployed despite the devastating news from Friday’s jobs report, which found that more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent. Instead, more pressure will build on the Federal Reserve to act on its own.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/05/09/confronted-with-horrendous-jobs-report-white-house-congressional-democrats-arent-even-talking/