'We're going big': Americans to get stimulus payments

FPI / March 17, 2020

Amid the coronavirus crisis, the Trump administration said Tuesday it is looking to send direct payments to Americans within two weeks.

"We’re looking at sending checks to Americans immediately," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said at a White House Press briefing. "Americans need cash now and the president wants" to get cash to them "now."

Mnuchin said that Americans could expect an individual stimulus within two weeks.

“We’re going big,” Trump said, adding, “We want to go big, go solid,” President Donald Trump said.

Trump said there were four different ways to get funding directly to Americans, and said that although he supported a payroll tax cut, he was looking at a better way to get funding to Americans faster.

“We want to do something much faster than that,” Trump said.

There has been growing support among Republican senators for direct payments to the American people, Breitbart News reported.

“You can think of this as something like business interruption payments for the American workers,” Mnuchin said.

Mnuchin left the press conference early to meet with members of Congress on Capitol Hill for a big economic rescue package to help businesses and workers.

Trump said that there was support from Congress to do something dramatic.

“It’s going to be big, it’s going to be bold,” Trump said. “And the level of enthusiasm to get something done, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it.”

Mnuchin added that wealthy Americans would not get direct payments as they did not need it.

"I think it’s clear, we don’t need to send people who make millions of dollars a year checks, OK?" Mnuchin said to reporters. Trump agreed. "Obviously some people shouldn’t be getting checks for $1,000."

Free Press International