A shot in the arm

Having woken up to the magnitude of the collapse caused by the coronavirus crisis, President Trump is prescribing economic medicine that matches the economic disease. Good. After previously pushing for a payroll tax cut as the heart of a fiscal stimulus bill, Trump now acknowledges that direct cash payments to working Americans make far more sense for those most harmed by the paralysis caused by widespread cancellations and social distancing. Pushed by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, he even hinted the payments could be significantly larger than the $1,000 figure bounced around in recent days.

This will cost the treasury a boatload. But a failure to act risks sinking the wider private economy.

Across the country, but concentrated most intensely in New York, hundreds of thousands of lower-paid workers in the restaurant, hospitality and service industries, plus cab and Uber drivers, have seen livelihoods upended virtually overnight. Small businesses with thin margins risk going under.

The shockwaves are rippling outward by the day and hour.

Industries critically damaged by the global pandemic also need relief — like airlines and hotels — but after decades of industry bailouts, if ever a crisis warranted swift and direct aid to ordinary Americans, this is it.

Tuesday evening, the House and Senate were working separately on stimulus packages. Legislative leaders and the president should be in the same room now —orona conference call, what with meetings of 10 or more widely discouraged — hammering out a deal.

Get it to the president’s desk this week.