Trump administration plans up to USD 1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package

By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Mar 17 (PTI) The Trump administration is looking at a massive stimulus package of up to USD 1 trillion to stabilise the US economy shaken by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

The package include direct money transfer to every deserving Americans, financial assistance to small and medium businesses, and funds for some of the worst-hit industries like travel and tourism, airlines, cruise and restaurants.

It also include a tax break of the salaried class and businesses.

"By making shared sacrifices and temporary changes, we can protect the health of our people and can protect our economy. I think our economy will come back very rapidly," US President Donald Trump told reporters at a White House news conference where Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Vice President Mike Pence jointly briefed on the stimulus package.

Mnuchin soon left the White House for the US Capitol to brief Senators on the stimulus package. The Senate was scheduled to take up coronavirus legislation that includes free testing for those who need it as well as paid sick leave and family medical leave for workers affected by the virus.

"We are also committed to getting small businesses the support that they need... getting small businesses the support and flexibility that they need for their workers is being worked on right now," Trump said.

The president said he is giving relief to affected industries and small businesses.

"We are ensuring that we emerge from this challenge with a prosperous and growing economy, because that is what is going to happen. It is going to pop. One day we will standing possibly up here, we will say well, we won...I think we are going to win faster than people think," he said.

Mnuchin told reporters that he has approved a request of the Federal Reserve Board, which will be setting up a special purpose vehicle in which the Treasury will invest USD 10 billion from one of its funds.

This, he said, will enable the Fed to guarantee the purchase of A1P1 commercial paper going forward. That is a USD 1 trillion market and it is critical to American workers, it's critical to American business, he said.

"This is very significant...I don't think we'll need to use at all, but we have the ability to have the Fed purchase up to USD 1 trillion of commercial paper as needed," Mnuchin said.

Trump, he said, has authorised to defer IRS payments of up to USD 300 billion.

"That's also an enormous amount of liquidity in the system," Mnuchin said.

Responding to a question, he said the Trump administration is looking at sending checks to Americans immediately.

"What we have heard from hard-working Americans, many companies have now shut down, whether it's bars or restaurants. Americans need cash now and the President wants to give cash now and I mean now, in the next two weeks," Mnuchin said.

He said the government want to make sure that Americans get money in their pockets quickly. The government, Mnuchin said, want to make sure that small business owners have access to funds.

Trump also said, "We are going to do something that gets money to them as quickly as possible. That may not be an accurate way of doing it because obviously some people shouldn't be getting checks for USD 1000 and we will have a pretty good idea by the end of the day what we are going to be doing.