Press Release
July 16, 2020
New Podcast Episode: Assessing Policy Responses to COVID-19
It’s The AAF Exchange — your source for clear, data-driven insight into today’s economic and domestic policy issues.
In our latest episode, AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin discusses the negotiations over the next COVID-19 legislative package. He explains the potential challenges Congress faces for extending the federal unemployment insurance benefit, as well as his concerns with the federal debt and the economic obstacles posed by closed schools. He also describes his recent proposals for tax credits for businesses to reopen safely and for research and development for infectious disease research.
AAF products mentioned in today’s podcast:
- Holtz-Eakin recently proposed in the Daily Dish “Safely Opening the Economy” a tax credit that would encourage businesses to reopen safely. Subscribe to the Daily Dish here.
- Holtz-Eakin recently proposed in the Daily Dish “Targeted Pro-Growth, Public-Health Tax Policy” to change the incentives in pharmaceutical development.
- AAF’s Labor Market Policy Data Analyst Isabel Soto finds that the maximum unemployment benefit is now greater than the median wage in the majority of states in “Unemployment Benefits and Returning to Work.“
- Soto finds that 63 percent of all workers make more on UI than when working, and reducing the federal supplement to $100 still leaves 25 percent of workers making more on unemployment in “State Unemployment Benefits and Returning to Work.“
- The same incentives that the federal unemployment supplement has created in the private sector exist for state and local governments, Soto finds in “Parsing the Reasons for Layoffs in State and Local Governments.”
Make sure to follow AAF’s dashboard, COVID-19: Impact and Response, where you can find AAF experts’ up-to-date analysis of the government’s proposals and actions on the pandemic.
Whether you’re working from home or taking a walk, The AAF Exchange will keep you up to speed on today’s most pressing policy issues.