Optimism that the coronavirus pandemic is beginning to stabilize in the United States is accelerating pressure on President Trump from inside the Republican Party to reopen the economy, even amid lingering public health risks.
Trump is heeding medical experts and congressional Republicans who are urging the administration to continue the strategy of extreme social distancing to stop the spread of the coronavirus, necessitating a broad shutdown of the $20 trillion national economy. But a growing drumbeat on the Right — lawmakers, businessmen, campaign contributors, media personalities, and economists — are imploring Trump to change course, arguing the deepening recession is poised to wreak more havoc on the U.S than the pandemic.
“Yes, the virus is going to continue to exist. But we have to get our economy going,” Rep. Chip Roy told the Washington Examiner on Thursday. The Texas Republican, an early proponent of limiting the economic shutdown, estimates based on conversations with business owners that “we probably have two or three weeks at most” to begin transitioning back to normal if the country is to have any chance for quick rebound.
On Thursday, the Republican-friendly group Committee to Unleash Prosperity held a private conference call with GOP insiders to advocate that policymakers start giving the economic challenges posed by the coronavirus the same level of attention as health concerns. The call was led by conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, who is a Washington Examiner columnist, plus Republican businessman and donor John Catsimatidis and one-time GOP presidential candidate Steve Forbes, according to a copy of the invitation.
“People want the economy to reopen soon. That’s the bottom line,” said a Republican executive who joined the conference call. Trump has heard directly from many who share this view. This week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump’s chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, floated the possibility of reopening the economy in May, with the White House announcing the creation of a working group that will focus exclusively on that task.
On the advice of Anthony Fauci and other government medical advisers, Trump has encouraged the public to practice aggressive social distancing through the end of April to reduce coronavirus infections. “Thirty days to slow the spread” is the slogan the White House uses to promote this approach. That has resulted in the extended closure of all but essential businesses and services required to keep groceries and other necessary products flowing.
Staggering layoffs across most industries have ensued, with about 17 million people filing for unemployment insurance over the past three weeks. Millions more are expected to join them. The federal government has responded with unprecedented stimulus, including $500 billion for distressed corporations and $350 billion for teetering small businesses as part of the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
But as the downturn worsens, threatening to close thousands of businesses permanently regardless of government action, some Republicans are questioning whether the “cure” for the pandemic is “worse than the disease.” After Vice President Mike Pence said earlier this week that statistics show the rate of COVID-19 diagnoses stabilizing, an assessment shared by Deborah Birx, Republican demands for the Trump administration to rethink its strategy are growing louder.
“The economic damage far exceeds the healthcare benefits of the current virus containment strategy. There are sectors of the economy that are just being devastated,” said Peter Leidel, a Republican donor and energy executive who has been making this case to every GOP lawmaker with whom he has a relationship. “Many businesses will never reopen despite all of the money coming from the CARES Act.”
“All of the politicians, mostly state and local but also in Washington, have made decisions without knowing anything,” said a Republican donor who owns a manufacturing firm headquartered in the Midwest. “Nobody thought this through.”
More than 475,000 people in the U.S. have been afflicted by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Nearly 18,000 of them have died.
But influential conservative media figures, some who have Trump’s ear, are skeptical that the measures his administration has taken to arrest the pandemic are necessary. Some, like talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, have expressed this view from the beginning. Others are questioning White House policy after the most dire models for predicted coronavirus infections, and deaths, failed to pan out.
“No thoughtful person wants to reopen baseball stadiums tomorrow or book a cruise to Shanghai. But there has to be a more balanced course than the one we’re on now,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said this week during his daily prime-time program.
