Business
Kudlow: Confident In Economic Recovery, ‘Still Plenty Of Work Left To Do’
Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow appeared on Fox Business yesterday. There, gave his outlook on the recovery, the status of another stimulus bill, and unemployment rates.
When asked about the worries over a second spike in coronavirus cases and if that puts the v-shaped recovery in danger, Kudlow said the jump in new cases is primarily in college towns. Additionally, he said he is still confident in the v-shaped recovery.
“I’m still confident about the v-shaped recovery. On the case rate, there’s been some increases in the college towns, but they are all quarantined, we’re targeting it, working with the local communities on that. There’s been no increase in fatalities, no increase in hospitalizations. So it’s really quite well contained at this point.”
Recovery in California
Despite an increase in new jobless claims, Kudlow said much of that increase is coming from California. In that Democratic-run state, fraud is rampant. He said the economy has added 14 million new jobs in the last four months. However, there is plenty of work left to do.
“On the jobless claims, your report is quite true, but I will say this. The weekly claims is subject to a lot of difficulty coming out of California where their own people are reporting a good deal of fraud. The continuing claims, that is the actual payments for unemployed, continue to come down significantly, so I still take that as a big plus. We’ve created 14 million new jobs in the last 4 months. There’s more work to be done, don’t get me wrong, much more work to be done, and more people to get back to work, but I still think we’re making great progress.”
Kudlow on the Need for Stimulus
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin testified this week that the White House is working on another round of stimulus. Kudlow was asked if he thinks the country needs another round of stimulus. To this, he said the U.S. needs targeted relief, not another massive $3 trillion package.
“I agree with Secretary Mnuchin about the targets. We’ve had a smart, targeted package all along. Just parenthetically, I don’t think the v-shaped recovery requires some massive new stimulus package. But, Congress could help us, say, extending aid to small businesses through the PPP program, where, by the way, there’s unused funds from the last round. Putting money into schools, K-12 for example, with respect to COVID alignments, we need education, they need it socially, the parents need it economically, the President said he would favor, if it comes back, some kind of direct check program,” said Kudlow.
He added, “In other words, there’s some targeted areas that could be a big help. I’d like to see some unemployment assistance legislated by the Congress. We don’t want some massive $3 trillion package, that’s not going to work, that’s not what we need, the economy doesn’t need it either, but they’re talking, I’ve spoken to Secretary Mnuchin this morning, they’re talking, they’re no progress yet, but we’ll see what happens.”
A New Stimulus Bill?
Regarding a new stimulus bill, which Democratic leaders are expected to put forward this week with a $ 2.4 trillion price tag, Kudlow said he simply can’t talk about it yet. But he did say the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown should be voted on this week.
“I can’t yet go there, I can’t. It’s just not there. I’d like to go there, but I don’t want to get ahead of that curve, it’s just not there. Now the continuing resolution is there. There will be no government shutdown, it’s a clean bill, the Senate will vote on Wednesday I believe, to get that passed. So we don’t have to worry about any government shutdowns. On another phase 4 CARES package, etc., that one I don’t know, honestly, I don’t know.”
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