Congress puts aside its habitual dysfunction and responds to covid-19

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EVEN TO THE housebound and socially distanced, the signs of a contraction are apparent. The 18th Street corridor of Adams Morgan, a typically bustling stretch of restaurants and shops in Washington, DC, is shuttered—closed as part of the nationwide effort to contain the epidemic of covid-19 that had, as of March 25th, infected 65,778 Americans and killed 942, according to Johns Hopkins University. One fledgling business—a new bar called Death Punch—never managed to open its doors. Down the road, an established whiskey bar called Jack Rose has been selling off its gargantuan collection at discount to support its staff. The queue for it snaked several blocks—a long dotted line of aficionados standing a careful six feet apart.

These are just the premonitions of the pain to come. Unemployment will rocket as much of the economy is put into a sort of medically induced coma. So many unemployment claims are being filed in Ohio that the state website...