Mnuchin Pushes for More Stimulus to Help Businesses Amid Pandemic

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is joining President Donald Trump in calling for more stimulus for businesses as they struggle to strike a deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

During his appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Bret Baier asked Mnuchin where the next iteration of the coronavirus relief bill stands as well as negotiations.

“The president and I couldn’t be more pleased with the way the economic plan is working. We’ve injected $3 trillion into the economy. People thought we’d get 25% unemployment, fortunately it never came close to that. We’re down to 8.4,” Mnuchin said.

He added, “But, the president and I believe we should do more stimulus. We have about 7.5 million jobs that we need to get back until we’re back to where we were, and we want to help small businesses. We want to help businesses that are particularly impacted by this.”

Watch his comments below:

According to Mnuchin, negotiations are “stuck” on “certain policy issues, but more importantly on the top line.”

“The speaker has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a $2.5 trillion deal in advance,” Mnuchin said.

He noted the federal government pumped “$3 trillion into the economy” when it was “completely shut down.”

“Let’s do a more targeted bill now, and if we need to do more in 30 days, we’ll continue to do more. But let’s not hold up the American workers and American businesses that need more support,” Mnuchin said.

Baier asked Mnuchin if Republicans will move a “skinny bill” next week.

Mnuchin stressed he would like to call it a “more targeted bill” rather than a “skinny bill.”

He told Baier they will move forward with a relief bill next week.

Mnuchin and Pelosi reached an informal deal on Thursday to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, as IJR previously reported.

During an interview on Sunday on MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” Pelosi slammed Republicans for stalled negotiations.

“Since we passed the HEROES Act, the number of people who have died has doubled because Mitch McConnell pressed pause. We’re not doing anything. Now, could we have saved all of those people? Not all, but many. The number of people who have been infected has grown by the millions,” Pelosi said.

She added, “We have to make sure the public knows how we can solve this, and why the administration is standing in the way of crushing the virus.”