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Predictions by the White House on how the United States economy could recover from the coronavirus crisis and how quickly a vaccine could be implemented were questioned on Sunday.
The United States will need more testing before schools can reopen later in the year, said Lamar Alexander, Republican chairman of the Senate health committee.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Tennessee senator seemed to question the White House’s ability to meet the goal of having 100 million doses of vaccines by fall and 300 million by the end of 2020.
Alexander called it “an incredibly ambitious goal” and added: “I have no idea if we can achieve it.”
No vaccines have been approved, although several are being developed.
Neal Kashkari, president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, told ABC This Week that he would appreciate a sound economic recovery.
“But that would require a breakthrough in vaccines,” he said, “a breakthrough in widespread testing, a breakthrough in therapies, to give us all confidence that it is safe to return. I don’t know when we will have that confidence.”
White House aides said they had begun informal talks with Congress about what to include in another round of coronavirus relief legislation. But they also predicted further job losses.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Larry Kudlow said they were holding talks with lawmakers on issues including aid to states whose finances have been devastated by the pandemic. Another economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, said the legislation could include food aid and access to broadband.
Since March, Congress passed bills allocating $ 3 trillion to combat the pandemic, including taxpayer money for individuals and businesses to mitigate an economic impact that includes an unemployment rate of 14.7% in April, after the loss of jobs not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Democrats who control the The House of Representatives is moving to introduce new aid legislation as early as this week. But the White House is not in a hurry.
“Let’s take the next few weeks,” Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday.
“We just want to make sure that before we go back and spend another trillion of taxpayers’ money, we do it carefully,” he said. “We have been very clear that we are not going to do things just to rescue states that were mismanaged.”
The pressure may increase as the economic outlook worsens. On CBS’s Face the Nation, Hassett said unemployment could rise “north of 20%” in May or June earlier than government officials insist it will be a solid recovery.
April’s unemployment rate underestimates some Americans without jobs, economists say. When asked if the country could be facing a “real” rate of around 25%, Mnuchin said: “We could be.” This rate also includes people who have lost jobs and are not actively seeking employment and people considered underemployed.
Democrats are pushing for another massive bill that would include more money for state and local governments, coronavirus testing, and the US Postal Service. USA Aides say the White House will not consider new stimulus legislation in May.
“It’s not that we’re not talking. We are. It’s informal at this stage,” Kudlow told ABC. “We are collecting ideas for the next steps, which will certainly be data-driven.”
Kudlow said he participated in a call on Friday with House lawmakers from both parties, and plans to do the same on Monday with members of the Senate, which is held by the Republicans
“If we go to a phase four deal, I think President Trump has signaled that while he doesn’t want to bail out the states, he’s willing to help cover some of Covid’s unexpected expenses that might have come their way, Hassett told the state from CNN Union.
The White House is pressing “absolutely” for a payroll tax cut, Mnuchin said. Trump has called for a cut in the tax, which is paid by employers and workers and funds from Social Security and Medicare. The proposal has little support from Congress.
Trump has also threatened to withhold funds from states that limit cooperation with the federal immigration police, a stance critics say would exploit a public health crisis to advance political goals.
