Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is warning of lasting damage to the U.S. economy if the country does not reopen.
“I think there’s a considerable risk of not reopening. You’re talking about what would be permanent economic damage to the American public,” Mnuchin said during an interview on Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday.”
He continued, “We’re going to reopen in a very thoughtful way that gets people back to work safely, that has them social distance.”
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Mnuchin’s comments come as the debate over when to lift the restrictions has become a central issue in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several states have already announced plans to reopen their economies.
But public health experts have warned that lifting the restrictions on public life too early could “backfire” and lead to another surge in the number of new coronavirus infections.
His comments come as the latest jobs report found that the unemployment rate soared to 14.7% in April as more than 20 million Americans lost their jobs because of shutdowns aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
Additionally, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett predicted that the unemployment rate could hit 20% in May due to the economic shut down, as IJR reported.
President Donald Trump has regularly argued that the country must reopen. In an interview on ABC News last week, Trump said, “We have to get our country back, you know people are dying the other way too. When you look at what’s happening with drugs — it goes up. When you look at suicides, I mean, take a look at what’s going on.”
“People are losing their jobs. We have to bring it back, and that’s what we’re doing,” he added.
