Two top U.S. economic advisers on Sunday defended the need for an expeditious reopening of the economy even as COVID-19 reached into the White House despite the extraordinary precautions taken there.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and economic adviser Larry Kudlow also again expressed optimism that the U.S. economy would register a sharp recovery in the second half of the year, with Mr. Kudlow predicting “a tremendous snapback” in 2021. But their comments on Sunday talk shows came just two days after the country recorded its steepest job losses in history, for an overall unemployment rate of a historic 14.7%.
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Mr. Kudlow was asked on ABC’s “This Week” how U.S. businesses could reopen with confidence when the White House — where virus protections are far more rigorous than most Americans enjoy — has recently seen at least two staff members infected.
Those cases, Mr. Kudlow said, represented a “small fraction” of the 500 or so staff members working in the White House complex.
He added that the combination of federal and State guidelines, coupled with private-sector innovation, should allow relatively safe reopening.
Call to businesses
But he emphasised that the bottom-line responsibility would be not on government but on individual businesses. “I think that businesses, large and small, are probably going to wind up leading this charge as we attempt to reopen the economy,” he said.
Both Mr. Kudlow and Mr. Mnuchin stressed that undue delay in reopening would also come at a cost.
“I think there’s a considerable risk of NOT reopening,” the Treasury secretary said on Fox.
“You’re talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public, and we’re going to reopen in a very thoughtful way that gets people back to work safely.”
Mr. Kudlow, pushing back on reports of growing partisan tensions over another tranche of emergency relief, said informal talks with Democrats were under way.
But both he and Mr. Mnuchin emphasised the need to move with caution.
“We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers’ money, that we do it carefully,” Mr. Mnuchin said.
