The Western Word is coming to you, STILL coronavirus free, from deep inside an underground bunker in Montana. The bunker also serves as the worldwide headquarters for The Western Word blog!

Quote of the day…

When all of this is over, please continue to stay six feet away from me. –Anonymous

Welcome to “Thursday Numbers!” In case you’re a first-time visitor, this is the weekly column where I take a look at the numbers that are in the news (in descending order) and provide commentary sometimes sprinkled with sarcasm and humor.

This week’s topics include the coronavirus economic rescue package, Montana’s piece of the big pie, positive tests in the USA, unemployment claims, pages in the economic rescue package, coronavirus relief checks, USA deaths from the coronavirus, rating the responses, Montana coronavirus cases, WalletHub’s response ratings, and much more!

2,200,000,000,000

The Senate passed an unparalleled $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers, and health care systems engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

It passed the Senate unanimously. The House will vote on it today or Friday.

1,250,000,000

In a press release, U.S. Senator Jon Tester announced that the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package includes $1.25 billion for Montana’s state coronavirus relief fund—money that he fought over the last 72 hours to get into this bill, after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s original bill, which failed on Sunday and Monday, had zero dollars for Montana’s fund. This money is a part of the Senate’s overall $150 billion for the state, Tribal and local Coronavirus relief fund.

It’s good to see someone in the senate putting Montana first…

3,283,000

In the week ending March 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 3,283,000, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This marks the highest level of seasonally adjusted initial claims in the history of the seasonally adjusted series. The previous high was 695,000 in October of 1982. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 281,000 to 282,000. The 4-week moving average was 998,250, an increase of 765,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 232,250 to 232,500. (DOL.gov)

Wow! 

68,508

As of early this morning (Thursday) that is how many people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus. (NY Times)

Wash your hands and stay six feet away from people…

1,200

Concerning the coronavirus relief checks, the maximum amount you can receive is $1,200, or if married filing jointly, $2,400 per couple. That amount phases out for single filers with an AGI between $75,000 and $99,000, joint filers with an AGI between $150,000 and $198,000 and heads of household with an AGI between $112,500 and $146,500. (Yahoo)

There are rumors the government will fly over cities and just drop money from planes so people can get relief faster. (Just kidding)

990

As of early this morning (Thursday) that is how many people in the United States have died from the coronavirus. (NY Times)

USA Today us reporting that there are over 1,000 deaths.

880

That’s how many pages there are in the $2.2 trillion economic rescue package. (AP)

I bet very few senators and representatives have read the bill.

88

Americans are generally positive in their evaluations of how each of nine leaders and institutions has handled the response to the coronavirus situation. Eight of the nine receive majority positive ratings — led by U.S. hospitals, at 88% approval. Only the news media gets a more negative than positive review, coming in at 44%. (Gallup)

President Trump gets a 60% approval rating for his work and Vice President Pence gets 61%.

If Trump and Pence would shut up and leave it to the experts their ratings would be higher.

65

That’s how many coronavirus cases there are in Montana as of Thursday morning. (Montana.gov)

Montana is usually behind in things and I imagine this is the case with the coronavirus.

45

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 46 unique metrics for their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Montana came in at 45, which ranks it as one of the least aggressive states in fighting the virus. (WalletHub)

I have been very pleased with Montana’s response, so I disagree with WalletHub.

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