White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t need more stimulus.
“I don’t think the V-shaped recovery depends on the package, but I do think a targeted package could be a great help,” the veteran financial guru and former Ronald Reagan adviser told CNBC.
“Even though I think the economy is improving nicely, it could use some help in some key, targeted places,” said Kudlow, who worked as Reagan’s budget deputy between 1981 and 1985.
He said there are still industries that are suffering as a result of the virus and efforts to contain its spread.
“We also wanted to extend the assistance plan, the PPP plan, to small business. I mean, we actually had money – it’s over $100 billion – that could be repurposed to go back in through that plan,” Kudlow said. “I think that plan was very effective. I think it did save, perhaps, 50 million jobs,” said Kudlow, who served as the Trump campaign's senior economic adviser.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t reach agreement with the other side. And that was before the judicial issues came up,” he added. “I wish we could break the stalemate.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is urging U.S. lawmakers to pass separate bills to aid airlines and other sectors, given failure to reach agreement on a broader package of stimulus funding, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday.
The U.S. Congress has been deadlocked over another round of economic stimulus aimed at blunting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed over 200,000 people in the United States, Reuters reported.
U.S. airlines, facing a huge drop in demand due to virus-related lockdowns, on Tuesday mounted a last-ditch bid to persuade Congress to approve a new $25 billion bailout to help avert thousands of furloughs set to begin Oct. 1.
Delta Air Lines has agreed to delay a decision on pilot furloughs until Nov. 1, the pilots union said on Tuesday.
Two key Republican senators this week introduced a bill that would authorize $28.8 billion in payroll aid for the airlines. But congressional aides say a stand-alone measure is unlikely to win passage given aid requests from so many other struggling industries.
McEnany said talks about a broader stimulus measure were continuing with House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and said the White House's agreement to accept a measure valued at $1.5 trillion could still lead to some progress.
In the absence of a bigger bill, she urged Pelosi to work on separate legislation to address the needs of airlines, which have warned that they will be forced to carry out mass layoffs unless they receive additional assistance.
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