At 8 45, the Washington Examiners Joseph Simonson talks about joe bidens relationship with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Good morning, it is friday, september 18, 2020. The house is set to meet in a pro forma session at noon today. The senate will convene on monday. We are with you for the next three hours on washington journal. Hearing from you on how the coronavirus pandemic has impacted your job. Newly released data show that nearly one million americans file for firsttime jobless benefits last week. Our phone lines split up a bit differently this morning. If you are unemployed, 202 7488000. If you have senior hours reduced, 202 7488001. If you have recently returned to work, 202 7488002. The phone line for business owners, that number 202 7488003. You can also send us a text this morning. That number also 202 7488003. If you do, please include your name and where you are from, otherwise catch up with us on social media, on twitter, c spanwj. Very good friday morning. You can go ahead and start calling in now. We take you through the latest numbers. This from todays wall street journal, weekly initial claims for jobless benefits were a seasonally adjusted 860,000 in the week that ended september 12. According to the labor department, that is down 33,000 from the week before. Early spring and summer, new applications have held steady since early august. Market has partially recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns. Employers through august have replaced about 11 million jobs of the 22 million shed at the beginning of the pandemic. The pace of hiring slowed later in the summer and layoffs have remained persistent. There are still nearly 30 million americans receiving some form of unemployment aid. When it comes to the Unemployment Rate in this country, this chart from todays Washington Times showing the race from the beginning of the year rates from the beginning 3. 5 in thefrom beginning of the year two 14. 7 . Tohas been trickling down 11. 1 june, 10. 2 july, 8. 4 august. That is where we are now. Situation innomic the country, we are asking you letting us know how the coronavirus has impacted your life, your job. 202 7488000 if you are unemployed. 202 7488001 if you have senior hours reduced. 202 7488002 if you have recently returned to work. The line for business owners, 202 7488003. We will start on that line for business owners. Jonathan, arlington, virginia. What kind of business do you run . Caller i am in private host how is your business doing . Did you apply for a ppp loan . Caller i did not need to. I tell you what, you are going in and out a bit. Give us a call back. We will try to get that line cleared up as we go to carol from new jersey on that line for those who are unemployed. How long have you been unemployed . Caller carol. I mean i have been unemployed since march 13. I applied on the 16th from new jersey. I have not received my first unemployment check. I am not happy about it. I just wanted host what did they tell you . What is the reason . Caller no. I have called. Telephone, in my have about five numbers. I have called the governors office, the senators office. They have a form you can fill out online, but i just dont get anywhere. They kind of send you back a form. It is like a big circle. They did give me a profile. I am a substitute teacher. They did say i would get something, but i have not received a debit card in the mail yet. Strange. T very i have not gotten anything. Host how are you getting by right now . Caller i am a senior. I am retired. I had something to live on. College girls getting it after one day of work for the whole year. They got full benefits,. Employment, everything after just working one day. The teacher trainees would get the whole thing. It just seems very uneven to me. I just wanted to vent my feelings. Host thank you for doing that. We want to talk to you and hear your stories, setting aside the first hour of washington journal today. How the pandemic has impacted your job. Rock hill, south carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host i am doing well. How are you . Caller i am disgusted with the whole situation with the pandemic and unemployment. I cannot believe america has turned into this. Host what do you need right now . How long have you been unemployed . Caller i have been unemployed since march. , i do not recall the exact date. I did go out during the first part of the epidemic, and i took a job as a security representative for allied. It did not last long because they failed to disclose that the job i took, it was the outbreak of covid, and i wanted up having an bad sore throat. I had to quarantine for 14 days, which put me back in unemployment. During that time, i lost my motherinlaw, who died as a frontline responder, who was a nurse for 30 something years. Host what was her name . Caller mildred jean green. Host sorry for your loss. Caller i am, too. She was the backbone of our family. I have been going back and forth for unemployment in south carolina. Appeal after appeal. I did receive my unemployment, was getting it weekly, and then my last job that i worked in North Carolina as a Mental Health qualified professional, was going into homes behind the froml Health Therapies a day by day service center. I had a caseload of 12. I am going in and out of peoples homes. I contracted the flu. I did not know covid was out. I really think it was probably covid. The flu several times in life. I could not get out of my bed for 14 days. I was crawling to the bathroom. I was given tamiflu twice. It did not work for the whole 14 days. A vaporizer,sing putting vaporizer stuff inside of the vaporizer and just a bunch of Home Remedies to make it through those 14 days. I contracted it from going back and forth to the clients homes. One of my clients went to the Dominican Republic for christmas break. Come back, and she told me babies was over there dying. I believe that was the spread of covid at that time. Host before you go, he started by saying youre disgusted by watching this. What has disgusted you . The u. S. Response to the pandemic or what is happening right now on capitol hill for relief . Caller all of it. I look around. We are facing eviction because of all of this. I cannot hear your last part could not hear your last part. Host i will let you continue. How long do you have before eviction . Caller i go to the court on the 23rd. Really, we should have been out on the 14th. I decided to fight it because we would not have been facing eviction had both of us in this home been working. This is a twoparty home. Both of us come to the table, and we split bills down the middle. If i am not working, and i am not receiving unemployment, it puts part of that income out of the way. Host that is christina. Taking your phone calls. Hearing from you, how the pandemic has impacted your job and your life. Phone lines split up for those who are unemployed, those who have had their hours reduced, those who have recently returned to work, and business owners. Let us know your stories as we let you know what is going on here on capitol hill. As cspan viewers know, the ongoing negotiation continues over the next Coronavirus Relief legislation. This headline this morning from the Washington Post, President Trump forces nancy pelosi to consider her. This was nancy pelosi her next move. This was nancy pelosi talking about what democrats will accept. [video clip] we have three arenas. One want to bring the 3. 4 trillion to the floor again. Others say we cannot bring anything to the floor unless we have an agreement because we want it to work for the american people. That is what we are striving for. Others will say lets put our own proposal on the floor. You hear different things. The fact is we want to have an agreement. We will stay until we have an agreement. Ask thet you go republicans why they dont want to see the 14 million hungry children who are food insecure or the families who are on the verge of eviction or why they have a disdain for state and local governments, who are our heroes, healthcare workers, teachers, first responders, police and fire, transportation, sanitation . We could not function as a country without the work they do. They say, they are blue states. We are not sending any money there. Host nancy pelosi yesterday on capitol hill. From politicos playbook this morning, trying to let you know about the contours of a potential deal. They note the biggest Sticking Point right now has been state and local money. Democrats are at 900 billion over two years. Republicans are at Something Like 100 billion and 100 billion in repurposed money over two years. Democrats want 300 billion for schools. Republicans at 105 billion. This would be immediate money. The two sides were relatively close on other issues before the talks broke down this summer. Be loaded upld like a christmas tree. Everybody will want their priorities on. The leadership and the white house will have to manage that process and the expectations that surround it. Back to your phone calls, asking you how the pandemic has impacted your job. Ryan has seen his hours reduced in michigan. What kind of work do you do . I would like to say that Nancy Pelosis hair looks really nice. I would like to comment on her hair. Host lets talk about your job. What is happening with you in michigan . Caller lets look at the big picture. All, i look at your narrative on how jobs have been reduced and hours have been reduced and things like that, but you guys are really missing the big picture. The big picture is that anywhere you drive in michigan, you cannot drive by a business that says hiring. We need people. We need workers. Ok. The fact of the matter is democrats have shut this country down. They are keeping kids out of school. Efore parents cannot go to work. We have people working in Grocery Stores, gas stations, things like that. They are working double shifts because they cannot find people to work. Really, we do not have a jobs problem. We have a government problem. It all starts with the democrats. They need to open this country back up, and this problem will go away. Host what is your employer telling you as far as your hours being reduced . Caller to be honest, my hours have not been reduced. That is why there is a double narrative here. There are people you go to walmart, you go to home depot, you go to the big box stores, their hours have been increased. I am one of those people. They have been increased through the pandemic. We are not getting sick. We are not getting sick. The problem is we need to get america back to work and quit paying people to sit at home. Andour kids back in school, these are all democratic policies to ruin the economy so that they can try to make it look bad on our present. Host that is ryan in michigan. This is terry also in michigan on that line for people who have returned to work. How long have you been out of work and what is it like to be back . Caller thank you for having me. Workedbeen working i through the pandemic. Since we started back to work, we opened our business back in august. It has been pretty well. I noticed a lot of traffic. Host what kind of business . Caller i work at the casino. They are doing well. Nobody is allowed to smoke. Everybody is wearing masks. Everybody is social distancing. I have been here going on 19 years. I think everybody is pretty satisfied. We just want to reopen our state again and get back to some normalcy. Host is the casino operating at half capacity . Are there any restrictions . Caller it is at half capacity right now. We started out at 15 . I think a couple of the other places, because they are big, they are at 18 . They are doing pretty well. The first figures came out, and they were quite well. They are making a comeback. We are pretty happy with returning back to work and being able to keep our insurance. We are doing well. I am very excited. Host we played that clip from nancy pelosi. We are talking about the state of the next relief bill. Do you think this country needs another relief bill to the tune of 1. 5 trillion or 2 trillion . Caller sure, people are still not back to work. We still have not called the majority of our people back yet. I think we do need that, but like i said, there is a majority of us that are working now. I agree. They still need to come out. I have friends that need that extra money. I agree with that. Host thanks for the call from michigan. We showed nancy pelosi. This was senator roy blunt with reporters on capitol hill talking about the state of negotiations. [video clip] i think we have always understood we were likely to go up a number. Is the starting number 2 trillion in the house ealtage that actually d with covid or the other 1 trillion that dealt with Everything Else they could think of . 1we are dealing with trillion to 2 trillion, that is legitimate negotiation. Whether state and local government should get money to replace money they dont have. That is part of getting a deal. We dont have much time to get this done. The president clearly eager to sign a bill. Lots of things like the Airline Layoffs occur october 1. We need to get this done between now and the end of the fiscal year. I still think that we can. I still believe we will. The work that the House Democrats and republicans did yesterday to come up with a compromise idea may have been as helpful as anything that has happened this week. Add to that the president says he is willing to sign a bigger bill than the republican bill should help us get headed in the right direction. Host that was senator roy blunt yesterday on capitol hill, referring twice to the present being eager to sign a bigger bill. He is referring to the statements the president made earlier this week. Just want to show you the statements from the president at the white house. [video clip] i have said that. I think some of the republicans disagree. I think i can convince them. I like the larger number. I want to see people get money. It was not their fault this happened. It was chinas fall. People say you should not say that. It was chinas fault. I would like to see the larger number. I would like to see it. There are some things i disagree. I heard nancy pelosi said she does not want to leave until we have an agreement. She has come a long way. I agree with her. We should have an agreement. People should be helped. They should be helped as rapidly as possible. I think it is going to happen. I think it is very important. The problem solvers, a group of people, you know them all. They are very good people. I guess you would consider them dead center. In many cases, they are not. They are left. They are right. They are well on their way to suggesting some good things. I agree with a lot of it. In terms of things you dont agree, are you comfortable the things i dont agree, we can probably negotiate. I think we made some progress last week. Would you endorsed that proposal . Not that proposal, but we are getting closer. We are getting closer. Host that was President Trump from the white house earlier this week. Those negotiations continue, as we found out, yesterday as 680,000 americans file for unemployment claims last week. Here is another way to look at the unemployment situation in the United States. This map from Yahoo Finance showing the ratio of people on Unemployment Benefits divided by the labor force in each state. The National Average is 9. 3 . Isaii it is the. 3 . 20. 3 . New york 15 . In puerto rico 15. 1 . That is where the impacts are being felt by the most people, but it is happening around the country. Callersearing from around the country about your job situation. On that line for those who are unemployed. What kind of work did you do . Cller due to the covid19, i had thework because i underlying diseases. I had sarcoidosis. I had sickle cell. At that time, my sugar level was 10. My doctor thought it was time for me to leave the job for a while. I was a health care worker. After working this job for 33 years, i tried unemployment. At this point, i dont even have insurance to take care of myself. I lived in my house for 25 years. I dont even have the money to take care of myself. I am a single parent. Children, and my now i feel like i have to go ask my kids. My job, i think i was sabotaged, keep directing unemployment. Asked me to work. I got the papers back from the doctor stating i could go back to work. They told me they had no hours for me. Im just in a rut. This morning, i am getting up. I been looking for jobs. For some reason, i cannot get one in my field. I have been a cna working in a nursing home in south carolina. For some reason, i cannot get no help whatsoever. I got foreclosure on my house. I just paid off my car. Couplelike in the next of months, i will be living in my car. Nobody want to depend on because i have taken care of myself for years, forever, in my children. I think this is so awful because i cannot get my medicine. Said thatnce, they mr. Donald trump said he was going to have insurance until the end of the year. I cannot even go to the doctor. At that time, my diabetes was 10. He wanted to put me in the hospital. I told him i did not want to go. He talked to me over my phone because he did that want me to come into the office. He asked me, did you have covid on your job . I told him, we had two people who died. He told me, you cannot go to that job. You have illnesses that will kill you. I think they got upset with me. They just throwing me away. I just needed somebody to hear me, to listen to me because this is wrong. I am 57 years old. How am i going to make it . I feel like i am going to be homeless. That is where i am at. Host thank you for sharing your story. We hear your call. Thank you for calling in. Appreciate it. Steve is next, dayton, ohio. On that line for those unemployed. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I have been unemployed since april. The people that still work at my work, their hours have been cut down to three or four days a week. This is a major corporation. I have underlying conditions. That lady that was just on brought tears coming down my face. My heart goes out for her. I have underlying conditions. I have had two heart attacks. I have copd. Governor mike dewine in ohio, people still have not received and it is a week, only going to be for six weeks that they are going to pay, and now they are going on the eighth week, and we still have not