On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued that, given the current economic crisis, now is not the time for fiscal discipline and that the federal government should be sending out direct payments quickly, because earlier direct payments were effective in providing a temporary fix to the economic crisis before. Brooks also stated that Republicans should support this because it is not just good for the country, it is good for them politically.
Brooks stated, “The economic crisis is still ongoing. And the way we solved it temporarily was to give people $600 checks. And now the Republicans either want to cut it to $200, which is an insult in a time of crisis, or Steve Mnuchin seems to want to reform the process of distributing the money in the middle of a crisis, for bureaucracies that are barely keeping it together right now.”
He continued, “And so, it seems just like, when Republicans have to have a complicated thought, they revert back to fiscal discipline. But this is not the time for that. They should be shoveling it out the door, in the nation’s interest, and, frankly, in their own political interest.”
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