Booker: We Should Approach Coronavirus Economic Downturn ‘with Humility’ — ‘Tranches of Cash Payments’ If Economy Hasn’t Recovered

Friday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) offered his alternative take on the proper path to recovery from the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the New Jersey Democrat, President Donald Trump’s plan was “reckless” and “divisive.”

“I’m going to be honest,” he said. “I think the first thing we should do is approach it with humility. We don’t know. Let’s just say that. And so, if we don’t know what we should be doing is not just hoping for the best. Hope is not a plan. We — and I learned early in my life, as a mayor, it is better to be prepared for a crisis and not have one than have a crisis and not be prepared. And so, you know what, we should have approved the first bill. Tranches of cash payments that are triggered if the economy hasn’t recovered. We should have approved for the first bill longer terms for the PPP payment, so, if the economy doesn’t recover, it triggers different loan terms or grant terms.”

“There are things we could do to be preparing for the resiliency if this is bad, or the worst-case scenario is, we start getting back to normal, which it seems people are eager to do, God bless us, but then if we have a second wave which is even worse than the first one like we did in 1918,” Booker continued. “So, this is a time to have strategic planning, but I — but we have got this president … who doesn’t authority, who doesn’t want to lead, doesn’t want to give comprehensive guidance, tells the CDC to go jump in a river. The only time he wants to give guidance is when it’s impulsive, where he’s trying to rescue his poll numbers, declining poll numbers, and appeal to those of us of faith.”

“And that — this — what he’s doing right now is reckless, it is divisive,” he added. “It’s not calling us to a national sense of common purpose. I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat. I have seen leaders from both parties in times of crisis find a way to call — to lead, first of all, and call to our common spirit. And this guy has been — I mean, literally, every day, to me, he’s tearing our country apart, undermining what is in our — our health interests, not to mention he doesn’t have a plan for economic recovery. He doesn’t have a plan for resiliency. He doesn’t have a plan for the future, except for not to care about the people suffering, but only cares about himself.”

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