Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) revealed they have big plans for the upcoming coronavirus relief package.
Schumer described the relief package as “Rooseveltian.”
On Thursday, He told Stephanie Rhule of MSNBC, “We need Franklin Rooseveltian-type action and we hope to take that in the House and Senate in a very big and bold way.”
Schumer said he and Pelosi “are working very closely together on putting together a very strong plan, which you will hear shortly.”
He pointed to Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression as an example of how the United States should be responding to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a crisis. This is not simply you take out a page out of a conservative playbook, conservative economics handbook of 2017,” Schumer said Wednesday.
He continued, “This is new, adopt to the times. Let me say something, when we had the Great Depression, there were people who said let’s sit and do nothing. They didn’t go down in history very well. Franklin Roosevelt did.”
Watch his comments below:
Sen. Schumer: "When we had the Great Depression, there were people who said let's sit and do nothing. They didn't go down in history very well. Franklin Roosevelt did." pic.twitter.com/0zWuk1mNnw
— The Hill (@thehill) May 7, 2020
Schumer is certain if little to no action is taken, the United States could see another Great Depression.
“We don’t have the kind of situation where we can sit back and say let things unfold as they are without actually possibly moving into a depression,” Schumer said. “Some of the biggest economists, smartest economists say if we do nothing, nothing, we’ll have a depression.”
Check out his comments below:
Sen. Schumer: "Some of the biggest economists, smartest economists say if we do nothing — nothing — we'll have a depression. Yet that's what Trump, McCarthy, and McConnell seem to be saying." pic.twitter.com/rsIWEtaOBF
— The Hill (@thehill) May 7, 2020
During her press conference on Thursday, Pelosi listed the things they would be prioritizing in the next relief package.
Some of these things include issuing more tests, conducting more tracing, developing treatments, reopening the government, and putting more money into the pockets of the American people.
Watch part of her press conference below:
WATCH NOW: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi holds weekly press briefing https://t.co/vE9U6OlM15 pic.twitter.com/WqDksu9weJ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 7, 2020
The $2.2 trillion CARES act, passed in March, provided assistance for small businesses, expanded unemployment benefits, payments to families, and additional aid for hospitals.
