Getty Democratic presidential candidate former tech executive Andrew Yang speaks during the Democratic Presidential Debate at Texas Southern University's Health and PE Center on September 12, 2019 in Houston, Texas.
Steven Mnuchin, the United States secretary of treasury, announced today that the White House is working on a plan to send checks to Americans within the next two weeks. During the Coronavirus Task Force press briefing, Mnuchin said, “The President and I worked on a very significant economic stimulus plan. I will be presenting that to the Republicans in the Senate this morning, and also discussing that with the House.”
He continued, “We look forward to having bipartisan support. We are now working with the Senate to pass this legislation very quickly, and these will be payments to small businesses; we’ve talked about loan guarantees to critical industries such as airlines and hotels. We have also talked about a stimulus package to the American worker. You can think of this as something like business interruption payments for the American workers.”
When asked if the stimulus package would result in direct payments to Americans, or a payroll tax holiday, Mnuchin said, “Although the President likes the idea of the payroll tax holiday, I will tell you what we’ve heard from many people and the President has said we can consider this. The payroll tax holiday, we’d get people money over the next 6 to 8 months. We’re look at sending checks to Americans immediately. And what we’ve heard from hardworking Americans, many companies have now shut down, whether it’s bars or restaurants, Americans need cash now and the President wants to get cash now.”
In terms of a timeline to get these proposed checks, Mnuchin said, “I mean now [as] in the next two weeks.”
Mnuchin did not reveal how much money the check would be, and he confirmed that he will be reviewing it with the Republicans.
Andrew Yang Has Revealed That He Is in Contact With the White House
American entrepreneur Andrew Yang ran to be the 2020 Democratic nominee on a hallmark campaign promise of introducing the “Freedom Dividend.” Americans 18 and older would receive $1,000 a month in perpetuity. Yang dropped out of the race in mid-February after determining that he could not win the race.
After Mnuchin’s announcement, Yang appeared on CNN to say that he is in contact with the White House.
Yang said, “Our team reached out and said ‘hey, would love to be able to help.’ And they said, ‘well we would love any resources you have.'” Resources that the White House are interested in from Yang’s team are studies as to “what cash in people’s hands can do.”
The American entrepreneur continued, “I will say that the studies are uniformly positive that it makes us not just able to pay our bills, but it makes stronger, healthier, mentally healthier, improves our public trust and our trust in each other. That’s exactly what we need in this time.”
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