![]() masks), ventilator equipment, IV saline, and other medically critical supplies” making sure that Medicaid covers all of the costs of testing and treatment related to Covid-19 and setting up a 9/11-style fund for health-care workers who suffer medical and financial harm as a result of being exposed to the virus. It also provides a list of other useful ideas, including immediately ordering an increase in the production of “personal protective equipment (e.g. The expert working group suggests further incentivizing these states to do so now. Unfortunately, fourteen states, including two huge ones-Florida and Texas-have refused to expand Medicaid, despite the financial incentives contained in the A.C.A. If people under eighteen were included, which perhaps they should be, to reflect the higher outgoings of families with children, the cost would be about nine hundred and ninety billion dollars. Giving three thousand dollars to two hundred and ten million adult Americans would cost six hundred and thirty billion dollars. Obviously, this proposal would be expensive, but not as expensive as Trump’s idea to suspend the payroll tax for the rest of the year, which would cost, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, about nine hundred and fifty billion dollars. The size of the payments, and their staggered nature, would reflect the fact that the U.S.’s coronavirus crisis seems likely to extend for longer than it did in some Asian countries, which took early and Draconian actions in order to tackle it. The same thing should be done in the United States on an even bigger scale. Pointing to “unprecedented times,” Carrie Lam, the city’s chief executive, said that the payments “will provide effective and targeted support to help the Hong Kong community withstand the current difficulties and gear up for a brighter tomorrow.” dollars, to all of its permanent residents aged eighteen and older. Last month, the government of Hong Kong, which was dealing with a sharp rise in the number of Covid-19 cases, announced that it would issue ten-thousand Hong Kong dollars, which is about thirteen hundred U.S. resident and five hundred dollars to each child. Harvard’s Jason Furman, who was a chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama Administration, has proposed making a one-time payment of a thousand dollars to every taxpaying U.S. This might sound like a crazy idea, but it isn’t. Treasury should mail checks, or issue electronic transfers, of a thousand dollars to everybody in the country. In this spirit, here is a three-part stimulus proposal, which is largely based on ideas that various economists, public-health experts, and foreign countries have already put forward.Īt the beginnings of April, May, and June, the U.S. The challenge is to get the country through the short-term hit-the next few months-without a wholesale economic and financial crisis. If lower spending reflects the fact that the government, at the federal and state levels, is finally taking serious measures to slow the spread of the virus, that is a positive development for the economy over the medium and long term. ![]() In China, in mid-February, the purchase of cars fell by ninety per cent.Ī significant downturn to the economy is inevitable-and, in some ways, desirable. (On Tuesday, the president of United Airlines said that total domestic flight bookings had fallen by seventy per cent.) Other industries could soon face similar problems, especially if big population centers are locked down. The travel and leisure industries are already facing a shocking slump in demand. ![]() ![]() With schools closed, many parents will have to stay at home to look after their children. As the number of cases rises, medical systems could easily become overwhelmed. The other problem with the Trump Administration’s thinking about the stimulus is that it doesn’t directly address the immense task of dealing with the virus itself, which continues to spread through the population. Read The New Yorker’s complete news coverage and analysis of the coronavirus pandemic.
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