On Tuesday, after months of political paralysis, a bipartisan group of Senators put forward a new coronavirus relief proposal. Priced at $908 billion, $560 billion of which is apparently already accounted for by the previously passed CARES Act, the proposal is pitifully inadequate. The Senate’s stinginess will not suffice to lift the nation out of the pandemic-induced economic crisis, which has delivered a serious direct blow to tens of millions of workers with guaranteed knock-on effects, the worst of which may be yet to come.

The new proposal stipulates only $300 a week in expanded federal unemployment insurance, just half of what the CARES Act allocated eight months ago, despite the fact that unemployment claims are rising. It also contains stricter unemployment insurance requirements, which are supposedly intended to prevent “fraud” but will end up boxing out people who need the already diminished benefits.

The proposal also features a liability shield immunizing corporations against lawsuits over exposure to COVID-19, including from employees who were insufficiently protected on the job. For some absurd reason, it also stipulates a 100 percent tax deduction on business meals. And perhaps most galling, it earmarks no money for direct cash assistance, meaning that if the proposal goes forward as is, the $1,200 people received at the start of the pandemic may be the only check many of them see throughout the whole economic crisis.