Mnuchin Backs $1,000 Coronavirus Payment: “We’re Looking At Sending Checks To Americans Immediately”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchn explains why the Trump administration is in favor of sending out immediate stimulus checks to most of the U.S. population to help them deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

In recent days, several Republican senators including Mitt Romney and Tom Cotton have endorsed the idea of a $1,000 per month universal payment to help Americans deal with the crisis.

Mnuchin, who has been working closely with Congress to pass new legislation to provide coronavirus relief, announced a series of economic stimulus efforts designed to provide relief to small businesses and individuals at Tuesday’s coronavirus task force press conference.

“We don’t need to send people who make a million dollars a year checks,” Mnuchin said. “Americans need cash now, and the president wants to get cash now – and I mean now in the next two weeks.”

“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.”

“This is worse than 9/11” for the airline industry, he also said.

“We’ll have a pretty good idea by the end of the day what we’re gonna be doing,” he said.