The White House is reportedly drafting measures to combat the economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak and prevent a slowdown, including help for companies facing the most disruption from the outbreak and a temporary expansion of paid sick leave.
White House officials are expected to present President Trump with a number of potential fiscal policy responses when he returns to Washington from Florida on Monday afternoon, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The response comes amid growing fears that the virus could create a global downturn, a development that would imperil Trump’s reelection. U.S. stocks plummeted Monday as the coronavirus outbreak tests the global economy, with the disease now having spread to 30 states and taken more than 20 lives in the United States.
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White House officials are most worried about the possibility that people may not get paid if they are quarantined in their homes during the virus outbreak, the Wall Street Journal reported, saying that the White House is trying to find the most efficient way to assist such people.
The $8.3 billion emergency spending bill that Trump signed on Friday last week includes a provision to unleash as much as $7 billion in low-interest loans to small businesses affected by the outbreak.
Thus far, Trump and his chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow have dismissed the possibility of a large-scale fiscal intervention in response to the virus, citing the strong February jobs growth reported Friday. On Friday, Kudlow said the administration was considering “timely and targeted” measures to try and helps workers and industries most affected by the virus.
“The airlines industry and cruise industry, you know travel and hospitality are some of the industries hit hard by virus — maybe there will be some tax relief for those companies,” said Stephen Moore, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a confidant of Trump’s White House, who has helped formulate a number of economic proposals for the administration.
“There’s been a lot of chatter in the White House about that recently,” said Moore.
He said, though, that “there’s a consensus among economists within the White House that a big stimulus plan wouldn’t help. There’s been a real resistance to a big spending plan. They feel that would be counterproductive.”
