“Battleground states that handed Donald Trump the presidency four years ago are seeing higher-than-average layoffs amid an economic downturn wreaking havoc across the country — a dynamic that could hold major implications for November’s election,” Politico reports.
Deborah Birx Convinced Trump to Denounce Kemp
“Members of the coronavirus task force had to convince President Trump to change his view on Georgia’s Republican governor’s decision to reopen businesses in his state later this week,” CNN reports.
Said Dr. Anthony Fauci: “I cannot defend this publicly.”
“They then asked Dr. Deborah Birx, the panel’s coordinator, to try to convince Trump to oppose Kemp’s move. She had a private meeting with the president just prior to the news conference and successfully convinced him to denounce Kemp’s decision.”
Trump Adviser Suggests Putting Workers In Spacesuits
Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore spoke to the New York Times about what it would take to reopen the economy during a pandemic.
Said Moore: “We can use really good public safety measures, social distancing the work force, disinfectants everywhere, masks. I was thinking this morning, and this is just kind of a thought experiment because I was thinking about this — why don’t we just put everybody in a space outfit or something like that? No. Seriously.”
He added: “You have to make 200 million of these, but it wouldn’t have cost $3 trillion to do that. And you can have for months people just walking around in these kind of — I mean, I was looking online, and there are all these kinds of suits that they’re building now that you’re not exposed and you’re breath — kind of ventilator.”
Quote of the Day
“It’s amazing how much people want to get to work, they just — they’re dying to get back to work.”
— Sean Hannity, on his radio show.
Another 4.4 Million File for Unemployment
“Another 4.4 million workers filed for jobless benefits last week, the U.S. government reported Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to ravage the nation’s economy,” the New York Times reports.
“Over five weeks, more than 26 million people have now joined the ranks of the unemployed.”
CNBC: “It took only five weeks for the U.S. economy to wipe out all the job gains it added over the last 11 years.”
Mnuchin Says We Must Spend What It Takes
“Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he is sensitive to concerns about rising federal debt but emphasized that low interest rates and the urgency of helping the economy during the coronavirus outbreak cut in the other direction,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Mnuchin: “This is a war, and we need to win this war and we need to spend what it takes to win the war. We are sensitive to the economic impacts of putting on debt and that’s something that the president is reviewing with us very carefully.”
The Cold Calculations of Deciding to Reopen
New York Times: “How many deaths are acceptable to reopen the country before the coronavirus is completely eradicated? ‘One is too many,’ President Trump insists, a politically safe formulation that any leader would instinctively articulate.”
“But that is not the reality of Mr. Trump’s reopen-soon approach. Nor for that matter will it be the bottom line for even those governors who want to go slower. Until there is a vaccine or a cure for the coronavirus, the macabre truth is that any plan to begin restoring public life invariably means trading away some lives. The question is how far will leaders go to keep it to a minimum.”
Banks Gave Rich Clients ‘Concierge Treatment’ for Aid
“The federal government’s $349 billion aid program for small businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic was advertised as first-come, first-served. As many business owners found out, it was anything but,” the New York Times reports.
“That’s because some of the nation’s biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and U.S. Bank, prioritized the applications of their wealthiest clients before turning to other loan seekers.”
U.S. Reels Toward a Meat Shortage
Bloomberg: “Tyson Foods said it’s idling its largest pork plant, making it at least the sixth major U.S. meat facility to shutter in the last few weeks. Currently, about 15% of hog-slaughtering capacity is completely off line, and there are also additional slowdowns at pork, beef and poultry companies across the nation.”
A Growing Possibility of a W-Shaped Economy Recovery
Washington Post: “Hopes of a quick bounce back for the economy — dubbed a V-shaped recovery — have faded. Even as parts of the nation reopen, many Americans will be afraid to venture out, and it looks increasingly likely that restaurants, stadiums and yoga classes are going to be operating at partial capacity, at best, for a while.”
“What isn’t getting as much attention is the possibility of a W-shaped recovery, the scary scenario when the economy starts looking better and then there’s a second downturn later this year or next. The ‘W’ could be triggered by reopening the economy too quickly and seeing a second spike in deaths from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Businesses would have to shutter again, and people would be even more afraid to venture out until a vaccine is found.”
Opening the Economy Won’t Save the Economy
Matthew Yglesias: “This will be an experiment, of course, but the best available evidence casts doubt on the idea that enough customers will return to make it possible for small businesses to stay viable without additional government assistance.”
“For example, we know customers began abandoning America’s restaurants before they were ordered closed, that the handful of states that have avoided broad lockdown orders are still feeling economic pain, and that huge swaths of the economy that have not been shut down are nonetheless experiencing a precipitous decline in sales.”
“The online reservation booking service OpenTable has thoughtfully provided the public with data on reservation volume in every city where they operate. The conclusion: There are some reckless people, but the typical human being is not that interested in risking her life for a dinner out.”
Few Americans Support Easing Virus Restrictions
A new AP-NORC poll finds that only 12% of Americans say the stay-at-home measures implement to control the coronavirus go too far.
About twice as many people, 26%, believe the limits don’t go far enough. The majority of Americans — 61% — feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of COVID-19 in their area are about right.
Record-High 25% of U.S. Workers Say Job Loss Is Likely
Gallup: “As the unemployment rate continues to rise sharply in the wake of the novel coronavirus, a record-high 25% of employed U.S. adults think they are likely to be laid off in the next year.”
Mnuchin Says Most of Economy Will Open by Late Summer
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said most, if not all, of the U.S. economy should be reopened by later in the summer after a devastating shutdown to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Said Mnuchin: “We’re looking forward to by the time we get later in the summer having most of the economy if not all of the economy open.”
Inside the Conservative Networks Backing Protests
Washington Post: “A network of right-leaning individuals and groups, aided by nimble online outfits, has helped incubate the fervor erupting in state capitals across the country. The activism is often organic and the frustration deeply felt, but it is also being amplified, and in some cases coordinated, by longtime conservative activists, whose robust operations were initially set up with help from Republican megadonors.”
McConnell Slams Brakes on Next Round of Aid
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is drawing a line: There will be no more attempts at long-distance legislating on the coronavirus,” Politico reports.
“In a telephone interview Tuesday after passage of a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill, the Senate majority leader made clear that the full Senate must be in session before Congress begins its fifth installment of responding to the pandemic. And he signaled he was growing weary of quickly shoveling billions of dollars out the door even as the economy continues to crater.”
Congress, White House Strike Deal on Small Business Aid
“Congressional leaders struck an agreement with the White House to deliver more than $480 billion in aid to small businesses and hospitals, the federal government’s latest effort to blunt the economic and health-care crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
43% Have Lost Jobs or Wages
A new Pew Research Center survey found 28% of Americans had lost their jobs or been laid off because of the coronavirus outbreak. A third have had to take pay cuts. A combined 43% said one or both applied to them.
The cuts are especially troubling if the threat of the coronavirus extends for months: 53% said they did not have enough in savings to cover their expenses for three months in case of an emergency like a pandemic-related shutdown.
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