Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Defends Republicans’ Delay in New Coronavirus Stimulus Bill

Following Senate Republicans’ delay in crafting a new coronavirus stimulus package on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came to their defense.

Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Mnuchin said Republicans wanted to see how people used the money already spent in previous packages before they pour in more money.

“We’ve authorized over $3 trillion into the U.S. economy,” Mnuchin said. He added that no one has done this before, “in the history of time”

"Mnuchin defends GOP delay in coronavirus bill"
I agree in part on his reasoning, in that, we needed to see how the money already out there has been spent.https://t.co/ygKKj8fzqj

— Gray Wolf (@graywolf442) August 3, 2020

“We wanted to wait and see how the money was going to work, and we have to balance,” he said. “There’s obviously a need to support workers, support the economy, people who through no fault of their own are shut down because of this terrible disease. On the other hand, we have to be careful about not piling on enormous amounts of debt for future generations. So the president’s determined to spend what we need to spend, and we’re acting very quickly now.”

Fox News reported that the secretary also addressed the issue of enhanced unemployment benefits. Democrats want the next package to continue weekly payments of $600. However, “Republicans are concerned that in some cases this results in people collecting more money than they earned from their jobs. the report said. This removes people’s incentives for returning to work when they can.

Republicans made an offer to continue the $600 payments for one more week, but Democrats rejected this.

According to Mnuchin, President Trump is “very concerned” about the expiration of unemployment benefits. He also that the Democrats’ denial “surprised” him.

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