#COVID relief

[reasonsforhope]

India was able to save more than 3.4 million lives by undertaking a nationwide Covid-19 vaccination campaign at an unprecedented scale, according to a Stanford University report.

The campaign also yielded a positive economic impact by preventing a loss of $18.3 billion, the working paper by Stanford University and Institute for Competitiveness titled 'Healing the Economy: Estimating the Economic Impact on India's Vaccination and Related Issues' released by Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday suggested.

According to the Stanford report, the direct and total impact of vaccination varied from about $ 1.03 billion to $ 2.58 billion if minimum wages are considered within the age distribution category.

“The same, however, varied from about $3.49 billion to $ 8.7 billion if GDP per person employed (constant) is considered. The cumulative lifetime earnings of the lives saved through vaccination (in the working age group) rolled up to $ 21.5 billion. Moreover, since vaccination also saved the lives of the elderly, this indirectly helped prevent the health infrastructure from getting overwhelmed and thereby allowing for a more judicious use of the existing health infrastructure,” the report suggested.

Mandaviya said much before Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in January 2020, processes and structures to focus dedicatedly on various facets of the pandemic management were put in place...

The Stanford working paper refers to a Lancet modelling study which estimated that in India around 3.4 million deaths were prevented by vaccination in the year 2021, an estimate based on officially reported deaths in India.

The paper also highlighted the impact of the lockdown and referred to the health ministry’s statistical analysis that the Covid-19 tally could have reached about two lakh (0.2 million) without lockdown by April 11, 2020.

Due to lockdown measures, the actual cases only went up to about 7,500 by April 11, 2020, making a case for the lockdown stronger."

-via Times of India, 2/25/23

#india #covid #covid 19 #vaccination #pandemic #covid relief #science and technology #public health #lockdown #good news #hope

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Biden administration announced a series of measures Thursday to track down and punish fraudsters who scammed billions of taxpayer dollars that were supposed to provide relief to Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden is pledging $1.6 billion to bolster law enforcement manpower and new programs that will be used to prosecute scammers, prevent fraud, and provide assistance to victims of identity theft.

“We want to not only capture them and get their funds, we want to send a signal to them that you can run, but you cannot hide,” said Gene Sperling, a Biden senior adviser who is overseeing the implementation of the COVID-relief plan.

THE LATEST

• The administration’s plans call for creating 10 Department of Justice “strike forces” that will include U.S. attorneys and other law enforcement officials to investigate COVID-relief fraud and help recover stolen tax dollars. The teams will target criminal syndicates and other major fraudsters. Three strike forces already are in place and have recovered millions of dollars in stolen relief funds, officials said.

• The administration also will propose increasing the statute of limitations to 10 years for fraud involving the pandemic Unemployment Insurance program, which has been hit especially hard by scammers.

• Some $300 million will be distributed to inspectors general at the Small Business Administration, the Department of Labor and the staff of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, a government watchdog over pandemic spending. The money would be used to hire investigators and make sure they have the resources needed to pursue specialized cases of pandemic fraud.

• In his proposed budget to be released next week, Biden will offer a package of legislative reforms to prevent, detect and recover payments made improperly through the Unemployment Insurance program.

• Federal grants would be made to states to help modernize their information technology systems to enable them to respond more quickly to fraud, decrease erroneous payments and provide more efficient claims processing.

• New initiatives also would be put in place to identify victims of identity theft, including an early warning system to stop potentially fraudulent transactions before they occur and a one-stop shop to report identity crimes.

WHY IT MATTERS

The federal government distributed more than $5 trillion in pandemic relief under programs approved by Biden and former President Donald Trump. The money was distributed quickly, leading to an increase in fraud and other improper payments, such as those that shouldn’t have been made or were made in the wrong amount.

The Government Accountability Office reported last month that the extent of fraud in COVID-relief programs is not yet known but that the Unemployment Insurance program alone was believed to have made more than $60 billion in fraudulent payments.

From March 2020 to last January, at least 1,044 people pleaded guilty or were convicted of defrauding COVID relief programs, the GAO report said. Federal charges were pending against another 609 individuals or entities for attempting to defraud COVID-relief programs.

Also, the federal government gave $5.4 billion in COVID aid to small businesses with “questionable” Social Security numbers, the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee reported in January. The watchdog identified nearly 70,000 questionable Social Security numbers used to obtain pandemic aid from two programs run by the Small Business Administration.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Republican-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee has opened an investigation into fraud in COVID-relief programs. The committee held its first hearing on the subject last month.

Sperling, however, said the administration’s anti-fraud package isn’t a direct response to the GOP investigations. Most of the proposals were being prepared before last November’s election, he said.

#us politics #news #usa today #2023 #president joe biden #biden administration #ppp loans #stimulus checks #pandemic response #covid relief #fraud #Gene Sperling #identity theft #Department of Justice #Unemployment Insurance #Small Business Administration #Department of Labor #Pandemic Response Accountability Committee #Government Accountability Office

[thundergrace]

#acab #defund the police #.... PLEASE #joe biden #covid relief

[gwydionmisha]

Thanks to Republicans and Joe Manchin ho refused to renew the programs that cut child poverty in half.

#Joe Biden #Child Poverty #Social Safety Net #COVID Relief #News

[thenib]

Niccolo Pizarro.

#niccolo pizarro #covid-19 #covid relief

[uboat53]

Anyone else notice that all of the MAGA people who are constantly accusing everyone else of breaking the law… are always breaking the law?

Just me?

#politics #us politics #covid relief #fraud #covid fraud #florida #florida politics #joseph harding #maga #don't say gay

[crying-cinderella]

We made our first payment on this today! $550. (The OT office, who basically has their hands tied, but hasn’t been horrible to me, is trying to work with me in paying this off. As of right now; I’ve got six more months before they are “required” to add late fees/consider sending it to collections.) But I’m really happy. It seems like such a small drop in the bucket- making a payment of $550, but I look at it as 7% complete. And I’m eternally grateful for everyone’s assistance.  One day, one step at a time. 

#gofundme #gfm #help #support #charity #medical expenses #medical bills #thank you #gratitude #life saver #fanfiction #HP #Covid #Covid relief #thanks

[wack-ashimself]

*on small businesses getting fucked out of covid relief money because the government outsourced the job to BANKS. BECAUSE WHY WOULDN'T THEY!?

"During the SBA's Covid-19 loan program, banks were actually allowed to make a percentage off each loan, and a loophole in the bill allowed even big businesses, like restaurant chains, to qualify."

**when asked why, banks basically replied:

'Oh, we just realized we could make more money by giving a few big loans to big businesses as opposed to many smaller loans to smaller businesses.'

-the g word

#adam conover #covid #covid relief #bank #banks #banking #government #loan #sba #small business association #business #small business

[daughterofdessalines]

THEY GOT MONEY FOR WARS BUT CAN’T FEED THE POOR.

#they got money for wars & police but refuse to feed the poor. #Tupac lyrics #biden administration #ukraine war #covid relief #twitter

[shreygoyal]

View on Twitter

Since the pandemic began, the US govt has spent 214 times more money on the military than on global vaccine donations

💉💉💉

For context, the US has the best-funded military on Earth, larger than the combined military spending of the next 11 countries.

(Source)

#Late Stage Capitalism #military industrial complex #covid relief #My Tweets

[reasonsforhope]

“With pressure mounting and the clock ticking, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to dramatically expand protections for renters, heading off what advocates had feared could become a wave of evictions.

The vote comes just 11 days before the city’s long-standing COVID-19 anti-eviction rules were set to expire. The new policy is expected to go into effect before the Jan. 31 deadline.

Friday’s vote underscores the growing political might of the council’s progressive bloc, which successfully championed a more aggressive set of policies. The new legislation is also widely viewed as a victory for tenant rights advocates.

The COVID-19 emergency rules were passed amid unprecedented disruption at the start of the pandemic, along with similar measures at other levels of government. But Los Angeles’ anti-eviction protections remained in place even as other measures expired, with local leaders wary of exacerbating homelessness and overcrowding problems that had already reached crisis proportions.

The council’s action was preceded by more than two hours of public comment, with dozens of renters elucidating fears and making impassioned pleas to the council to pass a muscular policy before the emergency order sunsets.

“I’m in a wheelchair. I’m 67 years old. And as soon as you guys lift the protections, I’ll be out on the street. ... We are human beings and we deserve to live with dignity,” Maria Briones told the council, imploring members  to pass the legislation...

The new policy will establish a minimum threshold for eviction for tenants who fall behind on rent, and require landlords to pay relocation fees in some situations in which a large rent increase would result in the tenant’s displacement.

Landlords will no longer be allowed to evict tenants in any rental property, including single-family homes, unless there was unpaid rent, documented lease violations, owner move-ins or other specific reasons. That provision will go into effect after six months or when a lease expires, whichever comes first.

Some renters, including those in rent-stabilized units, already have “just cause” eviction protections, but making them universal expands the protections to about 400,000 additional units, according to the city’s Housing Department, [which in the densely packed city will likely protect well over 1 million people].

The new policy will also block evictions until February 2024 for tenants who have unauthorized pets or who added residents who aren’t listed on leases, and create a new timeline for paying rent owed from the emergency period. Tenants would have until Aug. 1 to pay back-rent accumulated between March 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, and until Feb. 1, 2024, to pay back-rent accumulated between Oct. 1, 2021, and Jan. 31, 2023...

Mayor Karen Bass plans to sign the ordinance in the coming days.

“I want to congratulate our City Council — especially the Chair of the Housing and Homelessness Committee Councilmember Nithya Raman — on passing these important protections, which are crucial to combatting a potential spike in homelessness in our city,” Bass said in a statement. “In order to confront this crisis, we must continue [to] get people housed but we also must stop people from becoming homeless in the first place.”” -via Los Angeles Times, 1/20/23

#los angeles #la #california #us politics #landlords #fuck landlords #rent #eviction #housing #housing crisis #apartments #tenant rights #lease agreement #karen bass #democrats #progressive politics #covid relief #good news #hope

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

House Republicans are trying to exact a price from Democrats for agreeing to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and prevent the government from defaulting on the obligations it has accrued over decades. They’re arguing for their priorities and going after President Joe Biden’s in a separate bill that passed the chamber on Wednesday.

The legislation in question has virtually no chance of becoming law. But Republicans hope the bill’s passage will force Biden to the negotiating table, where they could seek concessions in return for lifting the nation’s borrowing authority and ensuring that the U.S. Treasury can fully pay its bills.

“He either has to negotiate now or we’re the only ones that have raised the debt limit,” McCarthy said after the vote.

A look at key aspects of the legislation that the House approved by a vote of 217-215.

LIMIT FEDERAL SPENDING

The bill would set federal discretionary spending at $1.47 trillion during the next fiscal year and allow it to increase only 1% annually from there, far below the rate of inflation in most years.

The cap on spending is the big-ticket item in the bill, accounting for about two-thirds of the $4.8 trillion in deficit reduction that the Congressional Budget Office says would occur over 10 years if the bill is enacted.

Discretionary spending includes things like weapons programs, servicemember pay, grants for schools that serve large shares of low-income students, rental assistance to house millions of poor and disabled, and money to fund research on cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It’s the spending that Congress approves through appropriations bills.

The House GOP bill doesn’t affect spending on Social Security and Medicare. Such spending, referred to as mandatory, accounts for about two-thirds of all federal spending.

CLAW BACK COVID MONEY

The bill would rescind all unobligated COVID relief money from six bills enacted from 2020-2022. The changes would reduce spending by about $30 billion over the next decade, according to the CBO. That’s less than 1% of the total cost of the six bills.

TARGET THE IRS

House Republicans began their tenure in the majority by passing a bill that would rescind nearly $71 billion that Congress is providing the IRS to upgrade its technology and boost hiring. They have included the same proposal in their debt limit bill.

Democrats approved the higher IRS funding on top of what Congress normally provides the agency annually through the appropriations process. The boost immediately became a magnet for GOP campaign ads in the fall claiming it would lead to an army of IRS agents harassing Americans.

The CBO has said that rescinding the IRS money actually would increase deficits by more about $120 billion over the coming decade due to the impact on the agency’s work. But McCarthy said the step is needed to “protect families and businesses from a weaponized IRS.”

BLOCK STUDENT LOAN RELIEF

The Republican bill would repeal actions taken by President Biden to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers who took out student loans. The bill would also prohibit the administration’s efforts to cut monthly payments in half for undergraduate loans. The CBO projects that the student loan changes House Republicans seek would save about $460 billion over 10 years.

Republicans argue that Biden is unfairly transferring the obligations of people who incurred student loan debts onto millions of American taxpayers who did not go to college or who already paid off their student loans. And the say the policy will do nothing to curb the soaring tuition rates at colleges and universities.

Biden has said the student loan forgiveness would give millions of younger Americans a little breathing room financially. It would improve their ability to plow their resources into a house, car or just basic essentials, which helps power the economy. Nearly 90% of the debt cancellation would go to borrowers who earn less than $75,000.

GOING AFTER RENEWABLES

Republicans are seeking to repeal most of the tax breaks that Democrats passed in party-line votes last year as they sought to boost the production and consumption of clean energy.

McCarthy argues that the tax breaks “distort the market and waste taxpayer money.” The White House says the tax credits are leading to hundreds of billions of dollars in private-sector investments, creating thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Republicans dropped their efforts to strip out some biofuel tax breaks, however, after the proposed changes threatened to tank the bill. The restoration of those credits was a top priority of Republicans from Iowa and other Midwestern states where the production of alternative fuels such as ethanol play a major role in the rural economy.

Citing estimates from the Joint Committee on Taxation, the CBO projected that repealing the clean energy tax breaks would save about $570 billion over 10 years, though that amount will shrink with the decision to keep some of the biofuel breaks.

WORK REQUIREMENTS

One of the key elements of the GOP bill is expanded work requirements for recipients of federal cash and food assistance.

Under current law, able-bodied adults under 50 and without dependents risk losing their food stamp, or SNAP benefits, if they don’t spend 20 hours a week in work-related activities. The bill would apply the requirement to those ages 50-55.

In addition, the bill would apply work requirements to able-bodied adults without dependents in Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health insurance coverage for low-income Americans. Job training and performing community service count toward fulfilling the work requirement.

McCarthy said changes would help those affected learn new job skills and earn a paycheck while helping to fill some of the millions of job openings throughout the country. The White House said millions of people, many already working, would lose their health insurance coverage.

A Congressional Budget Office review last year of work requirements for Medicaid recipients said Arkansas was the only state where a work requirement was imposed for more than a few months. It found many of the targeted adults lost their health insurance and employment did not appear to increase. It said that while evidence was scant, research indicated that many were unaware of the work requirement or found it too onerous to demonstrate compliance.

The CBO estimates that about 15 million people could be subject to the new Medicaid work requirements each year, although many would qualify for an exemption. About 1.5 million, on average, would lose federal funding for their Medicaid coverage, and of that group, about 600,000 would become uninsured.

FOSSIL FUEL BOOST

The debt limit package includes legislation the House passed earlier this year that aims to increase domestic production of oil, natural gas and coal, and to ease permitting restrictions that delay pipelines, refineries and other projects.

Known as HR 1 to signify its importance to House Republicans, the energy bill also seeks to boost production of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt that are used in electric vehicles, computers, cellphones and other products. Biden has described the House GOP’s legislation as a “thinly veiled license to pollute.”

INCREASE THE DEBT LIMIT

The Republican would suspend the debt limit through March 31, or by $1.5 trillion, whichever comes first. That would tee up another debt ceiling fight for early next year, just months before the November election when control of the White House and Congress will be decided.

#us politics #news #pbs newshour #2023 #republicans #conservatives #gop policy #gop platform #gop #house republicans #us house of representatives #rep. kevin mccarthy #president joe biden #biden administration #Congressional Budget Office #department of treasury #social security cuts #medicare cuts #covid relief #internal revenue service #student loan forgiveness #student loan debt #renewable energy #clean energy #Joint Committee on Taxation #snap benefits #food stamps #work requirements #fossil fuel industry #national debt

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[knowledgevariabledarcy]

#covid restrictions #covid relief #covid era #covid enquiry #covid safety #Youtube

[gwydionmisha]

#Joe Biden #Fraud #Covid Relief #News

[saltypiss]

I know it's democrats in office but I straight up just find the covid relief fraud investigation just empty.

Oh, you're going after little ceaser owners or somethin'? Like, good go after the bads, but MTG ain't getting investigated, all major corporations and rich people aren't going to be investigated, it's just empty.

I want to be vitriolic but the reality is it shouldn't even be that, it should just be standard to not let anyone scam the country. But here we are. Where only people like you and me, but only the severely morally compromised and idiotic, are the targets, yet again. Who knows how many innocents due to incompetance either.

Like...yay. Weee. Us again right? Just us again? No one else maybe worth pouring the same amount of effort into? Just us...aight...cool.

Maybe if Biden came out swinging his dick naming names I'd start caring but as is I'm not just bored, I'm frustrated. Little fucking late huh?

Most boring fucking admin in a time when we needed energy more than ever. The hype of the elections were always going to go away like they did with Dump, but nah, take it slow and ban the sale of vape online, that's what people wanted immedietely as you got in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$!!!!!!!;:!:$:$#$"!

#biden #covid relief