White House seeks immediate cash payments as part of huge stimulus package
Stocks rise 5% on news
Washington — The Trump administration wants to send direct cash payments to Americans in the next two weeks to help them cope with the economic ravages of the coronavirus, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday, part of a massive economic stimulus package taking shape between Congress and the White House.
The overall price tag of the package could be around $1 trillion, Mnuchin told reporters on Capitol Hill after meeting with GOP senators, making it one of the largest federal emergency fiscal packages ever assembled. News of the stimulus planning on Tuesday sent the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 1,000 points, more than 5%.
The scramble for an agreement comes while the coronavirus pandemic has ended everyday life for ma
ny Americans. Many schools and workplaces have closed, and federal officials have urged people to stay in their homes as much as possible.
Parts of the economy appear to be in free-fall, layoffs are rising daily and industries like hotels, airlines, and restaurants are begging for relief. More than 1,000 new infections were reported in the U.S. on Tuesday alone and the nation recorded its 100th death from the virus.
To try to stem the fallout, the White House has quickly embraced a congressional proposal that would send checks directly to millions of Americans as a way to try to inject cash into the economy.
“We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately,” Mnuchin said Tuesday. “And I mean now, in the next two weeks.”
The cash payment idea is part of an enormous stimulus plan that the White House is trying to push into law as soon as possible. The economy appeared to be growing at a steady pace in early February, but that all changed as more coronavirus cases were detected in the United States and the disruptions began.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed Tuesday that the Senate would not recess before reaching bipartisan agreement on the stimulus bill, which would be the third coronavirus relief bill advanced on Capitol Hill in recent weeks.
“We’re going to move here in warp speed for the Senate, which almost never does anything quickly,” McConnell said. “I think everyone on both sides of the aisle is seized with the urgency of moving on yet another bill, and we intend to do that.”
McConnell also said the Senate would move as swiftly as possible to approve a $100-billion-plus House passed bill from last week that boosts paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and free coronavirus testing. That’s despite concerns a number of Senate Republicans have about how the sick leave provisions in the House bill are crafted.
“My counsel to them is to gag and vote for it anyway, even if they think it has some shortcomings, and to address those shortcomings in the bill that we’re in the process of crafting,” McConnell said.
In addition to direct cash payments, the White House wants the forthcoming legislation to include support for businesses, aid for the airline industry, and a range of other measures. To try to stabilize the economy further, the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve took a step Tuesday to make it easier for companies to borrow money, while the White House gave more flexibility to taxpayers to delay payments they owe next month for an additional 90 days.
But the White House’s support of the cash payment idea, which has won backing from Democrats and some Republicans in Congress, shows how fast talks are evolving.
President Donald Trump had initially demanded that Congress temporarily eliminate the payroll tax to give households access to more money, but he said Tuesday that such a move would take too long to implement and that action needed to be taken more quickly.
“Payroll tax is one way, but it does come over a period of months, many months,” Trump said Tuesday, speaking at a briefing of the administration’s coronavirus task force. “And we want to do something much faster than that. So I think we have ways of getting money out pretty quickly and very accurately.”
Some lawmakers, including Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, have discussed direct cash payments of $1,000 to Americans, something the lawmaker discussed with Mnuchin Monday night.
“That’s one of the ideas we like,” Mnuchin said Tuesday, without endorsing a specific dollar amount. He suggested there should be an income cutoff on the cash payments and that high-income households might not be eligible.
“I think it’s clear we don’t need to send people who make a million dollars a year checks,” Mnuchin said.
Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., with the support of several other Democratic senators, are also pushing a measure to disburse $2,000 checks to everyone under a certain income threshold. Their plan would require the government to disburse checks of $1,500 if the health and economic emergencies continue, followed by quarterly payments of $1,000 after that.