WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2020) There is no real need for another US coronavirus relief bill thanks to executive orders signed by President Donald Trump last week that will help workers and reopen schools, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said on Thursday.
"I frankly don't think a so-called second stimulus is needed. You've had about five stimulus back-to-back, totaling around $3 trillion," Kudlow said at a live-streamed event.
Trump signed last week a raft of executive orders including one that jobless Americans be paid a weekly benefit of $400.
"My understanding is the president's executive orders filled the need on the payroll tax and the unemployment assistance," Kudlow said. "Now, there are other things that we would like if there could be a bipartisan deal. One of them is $500 billion for school openings. Another is additional assistance for extending assistance to the PPP, or payroll protection program."
Kudlow also said the Federal Reserve has allocated about $3 trillion on its own to pump into financial markets and to lend to businesses affected by the pandemic.
"There's huge liquidity from that... so, I don't think a pending deal or future deal is something like life or death," he said. "If we could reach an agreement and make it sensible, moderate, well-targeted and well-crafted... [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin would take a good hard look at it. So far the conditions on the other side are not acceptable to us."
Kudlow's comments came as the Labor Department reported that new weekly claims for unemployment fell under the 1 million mark last week, the first time since March, when COVID-19 infections began ramping up in the United States. Continuous weekly claims also fell to 15.5 million last week, versus the previous week's 16.1 million.� The weekly unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 10.6 percent from a previous 11 percent.
Trump's Democratic rivals say his executive orders are unconstitutional and want a $600 payout restored that was in the previous relief package. The president, standing for reelection in November, is looking to revive the economy from a record decline of nearly 33 percent in the second quarter, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
