As soon as the growing economic damage caused by coronavirus has become increasingly evident, the White house has said it supports the idea of sending cash payments directly to Americans in the context of the wider proposals to stimulate the economy in the amount of $ 850 billion, which Finance Minister Steven Mnuchin discussed on Tuesday with Republicans on Capitol hill.
Mr. Mnuchin said at a briefing that the administration will discuss with Congress the question of sending Americans checks for the next two weeks to cushion the economic shock from a pandemic. “The President instructed me to do it now,” he said at a briefing.
It was a change of priorities for the administration, which has advocated for a reduction of the payroll tax, and this has happened due to a coronavirus that led to a halt of major sectors of the economy, cost the growing number of people their jobs and caused the markets to falter. Marriott International, the giant hotel chain, said Tuesday that it begins to reduce, as expected, tens of thousands of employees, since closing the hotels around the world.
Mr. Mnuchin said that the administration trump prefers to make direct payments quickly, noting that the effects of the reduction of the payroll tax will require months to get to people.
Mnuchin later told the senators that about 250 billion dollars from the stimulus plan will cover the cost of sending checks to Americans to replace lost wages, according to people familiar with his proposal.
Over lunch in the office building opposite the state Capitol, the Finance Minister privately told Republicans that he foresees direct payments covering two weeks of payment and facing the end of April, with possible additional checks, if the national emergency continues.
After the meeting, Mr. Mnuchin refused to publicly describe the figure in dollars, telling reporters only that “it’s a big number.” Earlier, the White house, he said that the proposal would be designed so that it does not spread to the highest-earning people who earn $ 1 million or more.
Mr. trump, who spent his morning, interrupting individual state governors on Twitter, has set the tone for coordination and cooperation in the briefing room. Donald trump, who fixate on fluctuating markets behind closed doors, said that many of the measures his administration had taken to strengthen the economy.
“The best thing we can do is to get rid of the virus,” said trump.
Mr. Mnuchin also said that Mr. trump has instructed him to allow deferral of tax payments, interest-free and without penalty on 90 days, which, according to him, will contribute $ 300 billion to the economy.
The administration of the tramp also supports the request for economic relief for the airline industry to $ 50 billion within a broader package.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo said that several employees of the State Department — “you could count them with one hand” — he said, — around the world tested positive for the coronavirus. But he did not say where these people work.
The President reiterated an earlier request to the Americans not to hoard food stocks and re-outlined the guidelines imposed by its administration on Monday, which include not to gather in groups older than 10 years and working at home.
Mr. trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the transmissibility and lethality of the virus, also claimed that “he felt that it was pandemic long before it.”
On Tuesday, the White house announced that the Federal reserve announced on Tuesday that they would try to keep loans to households and businesses, buying commercial paper, short-term promissory note which the company used for its funding.
“This mechanism, the fed ensures that the company can obtain financing at once, which they need to fulfil short-term obligations such as payroll,” said Ernie Tedeschi, economist Evercore ISI, calling it “clearly a positive step, obviously necessary.”
In Congress there were signs of support for the idea of sending direct payments. A group of democratic senators led by Michael Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker of new Jersey and Sherrod brown of Ohio has previously proposed to adopt a law on that in this year almost 4,500 U.S. dollars was sent for almost every adult and child in the United States in the framework of sustainable public income support programme to address economic decline from the coronavirus.
