They will definitely do this

Even if they find later that they can't get away with it entirely, congress is definitely willing to try letting unemployment benefits lapse. Just to see what happens if for no other reason.

Congress returned from recess this week to consider a new relief package, which could include at least a partial extension of the extra unemployment benefits. Senate Republicans and the White House are considering a roughly $1 trillion package that would retain the program but scale it back. Democrats are pressing to continue paying the full $600 a week.

But Congress seems unlikely to act before benefits lapse. And because of the antiquated computer systems in many state unemployment offices, which do the processing, it could take weeks to restart payments. That means that millions are likely to see their income drop at least temporarily.

If something gets thrown together later to replace the $600 a week, it will certainly be less.  Neither party can be held accountable.  It's just another round of Republicans accusing the American worker of being a lazy freeloader and Democrats apologizing for it while tacitly agreeing. This is the most natural set of motions our national body politic can make. It reaffirms everything we already know and expect of ourselves.

There are few things more central to the American political creed than the belief that people are poor because they are losers or unemployed because they don't want to work. It's more deeply embedded now than it's ever been.   There is no crisis or calamity that can shake us of that notion.  Individual Americans will suffer tremendous personal deprivation just to demonstrate their own commitment to "self-sufficiency." Likely the isolation and paranoia brought on by the pandemic has only exacerbated this quality. People are much more afraid of losing their job ... of "failing at life" than they are of dying of a disease.  This is incredibly easy for an elite political class to exploit. They're about to do just that with this next shock.  

Maybe at the end of this round, there will still be unemployment checks.  They won't be as much. And we will pay for them either with cuts to our retirement, or by sacrificing basic worker safety protections to some legal immunity scheme. In any case, we're going to be worse off. The bosses won the pandemic. This is how they reap the spoils now.  And once they see how much they get from this pass, they'll be back again for more.