Let's talk about the grim reality of this morning's unemployment numbers, because there's a time bomb here and it's ticking down to December 26, 2020. 1/ https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/19/economy/unemployment-benefits-coronavirus/index.html

Nearly 750,000 people filed first-time unemployment claims last week. That's about 3 TIMES the number who were filing before the pandemic. As #COVID19 spreads freely across the country and shutdowns loom, this number will likely grow. 2/

But you're more likely to hear the @GOP crowing about how the "total unemployment number" has gone down. And that's true--though creative bookkeeping is more to thank for the decline than any economic resurgence. 3/

. @ExtendPUA notes that we’re seeing a shift as people move from their exhausted state unemployment to federal extension programs like Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC). So what, right? 4/

The numbers tell the story: over a third of the "decline" in unemployment claims comes from nearly 400K people moving from state programs to PEUC. That program alone now supports 4.4 million long-term unemployed Americans. 5/

PEUC is set to expire on 12/26/2020--the day after Christmas. And when that happens, millions of families will face dwindling, bad options. With most if not all of their unemployment gone, the threat of acute poverty becomes all too real. 6/

"So what?" the @GOP says. "Let them go back to work and the problem is solved!" Except it isn't: by following President Trump's decision to let #COVID19 spread freely, we've made it unsafe and unrealistic to fully reopen most sectors of the American economy. 7/

The worst part is we all see this coming in the data.

The share of Americans moving to emergency benefits or extended UI has grown every single week since early September. The Senate @GOP has known since March that those folks faced a looming 12/26 deadline. 8/

Knowing this, the @GOP didn't just choose to do nothing. They actively chose to obstruct any progress toward a sustainable benefits extension or a second CARES Act. They assumed the crisis would pass. They were wrong. 9/ https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/covid-19-cases-surge-congress-sounds-pessimistic-about-new-relief-n1248030

20.38 million Americans were out of work per our most recent numbers.

That's 13 times as many as before the pandemic. And a growing number of those 20 million people are dependent on an unsustainable UI extension to keep them housed and fed. 10/

For every American who manages to find a job, many others simply exhaust their benefits or struggle to transition into another part of the Trump administration’s patchwork economic stimulus. @GOP inaction hurts those"invisible unemployed" the most. 11/

This problem will not disappear. Its solutions rest with a @GOP unwilling to summon the leadership necessary to protect American families. Make your anger heard.

Visit @ExtendPUA and find out how YOU can take action. Time is running out. 12/12 https://www.extendpua.org/ 

If you're interested in learning more, I expanded on this thread for my new column in @Independent! Check it out: https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1329510584635842564