President Trump’s top economic adviser said he does not know whether the $2.2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package will be able to help all Americans.
Larry Kudlow said Sunday that he was optimistic about the loans being given to small businesses but admitted that he wasn’t sure if every lost job could be salvaged. He told ABC News that it is “hard to know” whether the trillions spent to keep the economy afloat will deliver the results he’s hoping to see.
“I think it will be enough. I mean, you know, the whole package, when you take the $2.2 trillion of direct federal assistance, which, by the way, goes to states and goes to hospitals and goes to medical equipment covering the waterfront. You know, you’re really talking about one-third of GDP, one-third of the whole economy is being covered by this package. That’s really quite remarkable,” he explained.
He continued, “It’s the largest mainstream financial assistance package in the history of the United States. So it’s hard to know if we can get everything, help everybody, but I think I’m an optimist. I think the sheer resources we’re putting in, whatever it takes, we’re using every federal power lever possible to help folks.”
Kudlow also said he cannot guarantee that the economic downfall U.S. citizens are facing won’t turn into a long-term recession. He explained, “I say that weeks, it could be four weeks, it could be eight weeks. I say that hopefully and I say that prayerfully. That’s what some of the science experts are telling us. I don’t know if they’ll be right.”
He added, “But let me just say this, you can’t have a good job unless you have a healthy business. And what we tried to do is to provide tremendous, tremendous assistance to the individual men and women and, therefore, on the other side, tremendous assistance to the small businesses for which they work. We’re trying to balance this out, and I think that’s really the first time this kind of package has ever been put forward. I can’t guarantee it. I can’t wave a magic wand. I wish I could.”
While Kudlow couldn’t make any guarantees about the long-term effect of the economic relief package, he could make some short-term promises about when the public can expect to see the $1,200 to $3,000 most families were allocated in the legislation.
“The direct checks will come out probably in two weeks I believe Secretary Mnuchin is saying. The loans to the small businesses will be ready for processing this coming week. Okay, this coming Friday. So we’ll have rapid speed, much faster than has been done in the past with these things,” Kudlow said. “And so we will get it into people’s hands right away.”
