WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) The Trump administration has rolled out $38 billion in loans to small US businesses from its $2 trillion coronavirus (COVID-19) stimulus package, just over 10 percent of what was allocated to the group under the pandemic relief, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday.
"$38 billion in 230,000 loans, from 2,400 lenders," Kudlow told reporters when asked how the assistance program to small businesses was going.
The $2 trillion stimulus, passed on March 25, had allocated $350 billion in help for small businesses to face the greatest challenge ever to the US economy in modern history.
Asked if the administration was planning another stimulus round, since many economists said the current measures were inadequate, Kudlow said he was working on executing the current package to its completion.
"If we need more, we will ask for more of it," he said. "Let's see what date and time we can assign that to. We'll see how this works. I like to think of it [the current aid] as assistance and stabilization, for we want to keep people going here, until we see signs that the virus is abating. There are no clever things. We just want to execute this."
Earlier on Monday, Kudlow told CNBC the administration was considering a coronavirus bond issue to help the US economy in its "war" against the COVID-19 pandemic. He said this in response to a suggestion from the network that the government issue an $8-trillion, 30-year bond with a coupon rate of 1.5 percent.
