Trump Administration Calls For ‘Big’ Stimulus Package, Including $1,000 Checks To Every American

The New York Times: Trump Pitches $850 Billion Stimulus Package Over Coronavirus
The Trump administration called on Tuesday for urgent action to speed $1 trillion into the economy, including sending $250 billion worth of checks to millions of Americans, as the government prepared its most powerful tools to fight the coronavirus pandemic and an almost certain recession. The Federal Reserve took the rare step of unleashing its emergency lending powers and President Trump called on Congress to quickly approve the sweeping economic stimulus package. Mr. Trump dispatched his Treasury secretary to Capitol Hill to begin hammering it out as large sections of the economy shut down and companies began laying off workers. (Rappeport, Cochrane and Fandos, 3/17)

Reuters: Explainer: How The White House Can Get $1,000 Into The Hands Of Every American
President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday proposed mailing out checks of up to $1,000 to American adults to quickly pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the U.S. economy at a time when airlines are slashing flights and officials are shuttering restaurants, sports arenas and other public venues. Though details remained unclear, Washington could turn to the playbook it deployed in February 2008, when the Great Recession was just taking hold. The Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 provided payments averaging $600 per person, injecting more than $100 billion into the economy within a matter of months. (Sullivan, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Americans Are Likely To Get $1,000 (Or More) Checks. Here’s What You Need To Know.
The idea took off Monday when Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called for every American adult to receive a $1,000 check “immediately” to help tide people over until other government aid can arrive. By Tuesday, there was bipartisan support for the idea, including from President Trump. The White House even suggested the amount could be over $1,000, an acknowledgment of how big the economic crisis is becoming. (Long, 3/17)

Politico: Mnuchin: 'We Are Looking At Sending Checks To Americans Immediately'
Mnuchin indicated that the president’s preference for a payroll tax holiday — a six- to eight-month process — would take too long to put money into Americans’ pockets. “The president has instructed me we have to do this now. So this is now,” Mnuchin said. “This is stuff that needs to be done now. The president has instructed me that this is no fault to American workers. For medical reasons, we are shutting down parts of this economy, and we are going to use all the tools we have.” (McCaskill, 3/17)

NBC News: White House Eyes Giving Americans Checks To Combat Economic Impact Of Outbreak
"We have put a proposal on the table that would inject 1 trillion dollars into the economy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Capitol Hill after meeting with Senate Republicans to discuss the White House's plan. "This is a combination of loans. This is a combination of direct checks to individuals. This is a combination of liquidity for small businesses," Mnuchin continued. (Egan, 3/17)

The Associated Press: Trump's Economic Rescue Package Could Approach $1 Trillion
After a savage drop at the start of the week, the stock market rose as Trump and aides sketched out elements of the economic rescue package at a briefing. Economists doubted that would be enough to stop millions of jobs losses, even if in the short term. Bigger than the $700 billion 2008 bank bailout or the nearly $800 billion 2009 recovery act, the White House proposal aims to provide a massive tax cut for wage-earners, $50 billion for the airline industry and $250 billion for small businesses. Two people familiar with he package described it to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The amount that would be sent out in checks Americans is not yet disclosed. (Mascaro and Miller, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Seeks To Send Checks To Americans As Part Of Stimulus Package
The details of the administration’s $1 trillion proposal are still being finalized and the top-line figure could change, officials said. The administration anticipates spending as much as $500 billion on direct cash payments across two $250 billion tranches, the first of which officials hope to deliver quickly. The package also includes roughly $50 billion in assistance for the airline industry, which has been hit hard by the outbreak, and up to $500 billion to boost small businesses and for other needs. (Restuccia, Duehren and Wise, 3/17)

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Seeks Roughly $850 Billion Stimulus Package For Coronavirus Economic Fallout
News of the stimulus planning sent the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 1,000 points Tuesday as it recovered some of its losses from Monday. However, reservations expressed by Democrats on Tuesday over various aspects of the package suggested that it could take some time to arrive at a bipartisan agreement that could pass both chambers of Congress. The scramble for a deal comes while the coronavirus pandemic has upended everyday life for many Americans. (Werner, Stein and DeBonis, 3/17)

Bloomberg: Mnuchin Warns Virus Could Yield 20% Jobless Rate Without Action
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised the possibility with Republican senators that U.S. unemployment could rise to 20% without government intervention because of the impact of the coronavirus, according to people familiar with the matter. (Wingrove, Mohsin and Jacobs, 3/18)

CNN: Mnuchin Warns Senators Lack Of Action Could Result In 20% Unemployment Rate, Source Says 
A Treasury Department official added that Mnuchin "used some mathematical examples to illustrate potential risk if there were no intervention, but because they are doing the right things and proposing additional action, that would not be the case." (Diamond, 3/17)

Reuters: Trump Presses For $1 Trillion Stimulus As U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Cross 100
President Donald Trump said progress was being made against the fast-spreading pathogen and predicted the U.S. economy would “come roaring back” when it slows. “It’s going to pop,” said Trump, who is seeking re-election on Nov. 3. The Republican president’s tone on the pandemic has changed sharply over the past few days. After initially playing down the threat and focusing on the stock market, his administration has begun pushing for urgent action to stem the disease’s economic and human toll. The White House on Tuesday urged Americans to avoid groups larger than 10. (Chiacu and Allen, 3/17)

CNN: White House Requests $45.8 Billion In Emergency Funding Due To Coronavirus 
The White House Office of Management and Budget submitted an emergency funding request to Congress late Tuesday for an additional $45.8 billion -- a sweeping request for new funds and statutory authority across the federal government to address the growing coronavirus pandemic. The request came on the same day the Trump administration presented a $1 trillion stimulus proposal on Capitol Hill. (Mattingly and LeBlanc, 3/18)

Reuters: Fed Moves To Backstop Funding For U.S. Companies As Coronavirus Fallout Spreads
The Fed in the morning announced it would reopen the so-called Commercial Paper Funding Facility to underwrite the short-term loans that companies often use to pay for their operations, a key financial market backstop first set up 2007 to 2009. At day’s end it extended its reach as the economy’s lender of last resort to the two dozen Wall Street primary dealers who are critical to the functioning of bond and other financial markets. By letting those companies pledge municipal bonds, corporate debt and equity securities as collateral for 90-day Fed loans, the Fed aimed to keep credit flowing to parts the economy that may face an unfolding nationwide cash crunch. (Schenider and Dunsmuir, 3/17)

Politico: Washington Learns To Love ‘Money For Everyone’
Suddenly, it seems like everyone wants Uncle Sam to send Americans checks. In just the last two days, the idea that the federal government should simply give people money to help them through the coronavirus pandemic has been endorsed throughout the political spectrum—by Democratic senators like Sherrod Brown and Michael Bennet, Republican senators like Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton, just about every economist who worked for President Barack Obama, and finally, this afternoon, by President Donald Trump. There’s a #ChecksChecksChecks hashtag on Twitter. The concept of Money For All has gone, well, viral, and legislation is surely coming soon. (Grunwald, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: Behind Washington’s Stimulus Frenzy: The Prospect Of Billions Of Unpaid Bills
Behind a flurry of activity in Washington Tuesday was an increasingly urgent problem for a nation grappling with the novel coronavirus pandemic: the growing risk that millions of businesses and households won’t be able to pay their everyday bills—rent, payroll, utilities—as business activity grinds to an unprecedented halt. The Federal Reserve launched a program to provide short-term loans to businesses in commercial paper markets, while White House officials and lawmakers scrambled for ideas to get funds into the private sector, and the Treasury postponed one of the biggest bills coming due for anyone: individual income taxes. (Hilsenrath and Timiraos, 3/17)

Politico: Why Republicans Are Embracing Bailouts
For Republicans, this time is different. Senior GOP lawmakers are moving quickly to inject as much as $1 trillion into the economy to save a slew of industries and millions of jobs from the devastation of the fast-spreading coronavirus. They’re even talking about handing out $1,000 checks to Americans — an idea first pushed by a Democratic presidential candidate. (Zanona and Levine, 3/18)

The Associated Press: Administration Announces 90-Day Delay For Many Tax Payments
The Trump administration says individuals and businesses will be allowed to delay paying their 2019 tax bills for 90 days past the usual April 15 deadline. The extension announced Tuesday is an effort to inject up to $300 billion into the economy at a time when the coronavirus appears on the verge of causing a recession. (Crutsinger, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Postpones April 15 Tax Payments For 90 Days For Most Americans
The IRS, using authority under President Trump’s national-emergency declaration, will waive interest and penalties as well, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at the White House on Tuesday. The delay is available to people who owe $1 million or less and corporations that owe $10 million or less, he said. (Rubin, Saunders and Restuccia, 3/17)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Futures And Global Stocks Resume Falls
U.S. stock futures fell by the maximum allowed and international indexes tumbled, as the financial turmoil sparked by the novel coronavirus continued to roil markets. Shortly after European markets opened Wednesday, futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 3.9% and those tied to the S&P 500 were 3.7% lower. The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 3.3%, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 slid 3.6% and Germany’s DAX index dropped 4.2%. (Yu and Isaac, 3/18)