The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

by Lawrence Wright

With the Democrats fully on board, Congress soon approved the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It included $260 billion in increased unemployment benefits, $300 billion in one-time cash payments to citizens, and $350 billion in forgivable loans to small business, a figure that would be substantially increased in subsequent legislation. “We went from ‘We don’t know what to do,’ to nine hundred pages and $2.2 trillion in about ten days,” Delaware senator Chris Coons marveled. “I’ve never seen anything like it. This will be the biggest bill in our lifetime.” It passed the Senate on March 25, with a vote of 96–0. The president signed it into law two days later. “Nothing like a big shock to help people become more bipartisan,” Glenn Hubbard observed.