WASHINGTON — An emergency stimulus package to bail out the US economy amid the coronavirus pandemic will total $6 trillion — a quarter of the entire country’s GDP, the White House said Tuesday.
Trump administration economist Larry Kudlow said the package would include $4 trillion in lending power for the Federal Reserve as well as a $2 trillion aid package
currently being hammered out by Congress.
“This package will be the single largest Main Street assistance program in the history of the United States,” Kudlow said at the White House coronavirus task force briefing Tuesday evening.
Included in the package is Congress’ almost
$2 trillion emergency bill, which, when passed, will issue direct checks for American families, bailouts for the airline industry and a $350 billion loan program for struggling small businesses.
The other $4 trillion will allow the Federal Reserve to make huge emergency bailouts of whatever entity it chooses — a measure that was used to prop up Wall Street firms from collapse during the 2008 financial crisis.
“This legislation is urgently needed to bolster the economy,” Kudlow added, warning the economy had tough times ahead.
“We’re heading for a rough period but it’s only going to weeks, we think. Weeks and months. It’s not going to be years, that’s for sure,” he said, echoing comments from President Trump that the economy will
bounce back to its pre-pandemic high.
Kudlow, a former Reagan administration adviser and media personality, said the huge bailout would “position us for what I think can be an economic rebound later this year.”
A tidal wave of US workers is facing unemployment in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak — with White House officials warning of a
20 percent unemployment rate.
