Your Daily Roundup for August 10th

What do you think?

Good morning. As the COVID-19 pandemic takes a toll on life in America, our team at Future Majority is tracking the latest updates: 

President Trump signed executive orders on economic relief:

Despite the House passing the comprehensive HEROES Act nearly three months ago, negotiations stalled between the White House and lawmakers on a bill that could make it through the Senate. This led President Trump to sign a series of executive orders to provide economic relief. The problem? Congress has spending powers, not the executive branch. The administration’s orders included action on extending supplemental unemployment benefits, ceasing some payroll taxes, pausing evictions, and extending student loan relief. 

The unemployment benefits are particularly complicated: The order provides that those eligible would receive an additional $400 per week (down from the $600 per week in the CARES Act that recently expired) but the federal government would only provide $300 and states would have to match the other $100. Moreover, the $44 billions allocated to this program would likely run out in six weeks or less.

Hundreds of thousands of children have tested positive for COVID-19:

As schools in some states are set to reopen in the coming weeks (or already have), a new national study shows that nearly 100,000 children contracted COVID-19 in the last two weeks of July alone. Overall, 338,000 positive cases have been confirmed since the end of last month, which means that over 25% of those cases were in the last two weeks of July.

Not much has changed in the battleground state landscape:

Despite the chaos of this summer, with a growing pandemic and economic suffering, the race for President has remained relatively stable.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has held a lead over President Trump in most battleground states for several weeks. New polling from CBS News/YouGov in two key states shows that this trend continues.

In Pennsylvania, the poll finds that Biden is up six points against Trump:

  • Biden: 49%
  • Trump: 43%

And in Wisconsin, the same margin is found, although Biden’s vote share drops a point:

  • Biden: 48%
  • Trump: 42%