 One of the most crucial provisions of the last coronavirus relief package was to provide a $600 increase in weekly unemployment benefits to the tens of millions of U.S. workers who are currently out of work as a result of the coronavirus. Now the White House and many Republican policymakers want to let it expire. It would be a terrible mistake. Here's why. Today, roughly 30 million workers in this country are either receiving unemployment insurance or have applied and are waiting for benefits. That's on the order of one in five workers. These levels are unprecedented. Every single week for the last four months, initial unemployment insurance claims have been more than twice as high as the worst week of the Great Recession. One thing these workers depend on right now is that across the board, $600 increase in weekly benefits. That $600 is essential for millions of people to be able to put food on the table, to pay rent, and to afford other basic necessities. If this $600 is cut off, it will mean a sharp decline in their living standards, an increase in poverty, and completely unnecessary suffering. It will also make racial inequality worse, because black and brown communities are suffering more from this pandemic, both physically and economically, as a result of historic and continuing systemic racism. And letting the $600 expire won't just hurt UI recipients and their families, it will hurt millions more, because the spending generated by that $600 is supporting over five million jobs. In other words, kill the $600 and you will kill five million jobs, jobs in every single state. Last thing, we need to bust a bad argument about the economics of this. The White House and Republican policymakers have criticized the $600 as being a disincentive to work, because with the $600, many workers have higher income on unemployment insurance than they did in their prior job. But this concern is massively overblown. Right now, there are 14 million more unemployed workers than there are job openings, so millions will remain jobless no matter what they do. You cannot incentivize people to get jobs that aren't there. Further, many people can't go to work right now, no matter how much benefits are cut, because it's not safe, because of their health or the health of someone they live with, or because they need to stay home due to care responsibilities as a result of the virus. Cutting off the $600 will not incentivize them to get jobs, it will just cause hardship. If policymakers are really worried about a work disincentive, they can address it by letting people keep part of their unemployment insurance when they go back to work. This would solve any potential disincentive effect without inflicting needless pain. This pain is preventable. Policymakers need to take this seriously, they need to take the data seriously, and extend the $600 weekly unemployment insurance benefit.