Conservative advisers to President Trump are urging a halt to new coronavirus spending by Congress amid suggestions that the White House is considering a further $2 trillion package.
A letter addressed to Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signed by 25 prominent conservatives, including former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Grover Norquist, Stephen Moore, and Art Laffer, says further relief measures would put the country on a “road to financial ruin.” Trump awarded Laffer the Medal of Freedom and considered Moore for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board.
The letter applies pressure to the White House and lawmakers as they prepare to negotiate further spending, but it aligns with the administration on issues such as replacing the additional unemployment benefit with a back-to-work bonus.
Moore, an economist and outside adviser to Trump who is a columnist for the Washington Examiner, said at a Tuesday event that for the White House “to agree to anything” in the new $3 trillion coronavirus legislation that Democrats passed in the House “would be devastatingly bad for the economy.” Moore spoke alongside DeMint and others at a briefing hosted by FreedomWorks, a think tank advocating for “lower taxes, less government, and more freedom.”
“We are hearing, by the way, that a deal might be hatched that the White House might agree to about a $2 trillion package,” Moore said, adding that any deal should feature a payroll tax cut, which he called “by far the best way” to bring people back to work.
Trump signed a $2.2 trillion stimulus package into law in March, and talks on the next round of funding are set to resume next month.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News on Monday that the administration had not made any decisions on a new spending package, while on Sunday, White House Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Peter Navarro told CNN that Trump is pushing for a “phase four” stimulus package focused on domestic manufacturing of “at least $2 trillion.”
DeMint said Trump was under pressure from “both sides,” as well as from business executives. “It’s not just political pressure. I’ve been on phone calls with the [White House] Economic Task Force and heard CEOs from all over the country suggesting an infrastructure project would be good.”
He added: “I think the best thing the president could do right now is say there will be no more stimulus bill other than a payroll tax holiday, and you will not sign it. That would force states to make positive decisions to get back to work to open things up if they know there’s no more bailout money coming … What I’m trying to communicate to the president right now, is it’s not possible to get a bill that’s good for the country through the current makeup in the Congress.”
DeMint said that if Democrats would not agree to a payroll tax cut, the president should instead campaign on it. He said he has advised Trump, “Don’t put any big bill through Congress. Talk about infrastructure, but don’t try to get it before the election, because nothing good is going to come out of Congress before November.”
