In early August, President Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at providing economic relief to people struggling with lost earnings during the coronavirus pandemic. These allowed him to briefly play the hero, doing for struggling Americans what Congress couldn’t or wouldn’t do.

But as the pandemic drags on, it’s clear that Trump’s interventions were grossly inadequate to the scale of the crisis. If Congress doesn’t act boldly and quickly on behalf of the tens of millions of Americans now experiencing acute financial distress, the economy is headed off a cliff and huge numbers of people will needlessly suffer.

Trump’s executive actions included student loan deferral and an eviction moratorium that basically amounted to rent deferral. Both are better than nothing, though they both also fall short: deferral is not forgiveness, and these measures essentially kick penalties down the road.