WEBVTT - Congress Working on $2 Trillion Financial Aid Package 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.240 It's Monday, March. I'm Oscar Ramiras from the Daily Dive 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:08.000 podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.039 Rand Paul has become the first Senator to test positive 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:16.000 for COVID nineteen. He is asymptomatic and now in quarantine. 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.280 This is happening as Congress is working on another financial 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.680 aid package that could be worth nearly two trillion dollars. 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.480 This would provide help for small businesses, checks for Americans 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.520 about three thousand for a family of four, and enhanced 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:32.720 unemployment insurance. And while states try to grapple with the 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:36.080 influx of patients, they're still desperately short on masks and 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:40.040 protective equipment for medical workers. Some governors are calling for 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.720 a coordinated national response to the shortage. Ginger Gibson, political 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.080 reporter for Reuters, joins US for more. Thanks for joining US, Ginger. 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:53.880 Continuing on with all of the coronavirus coverage, the US 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:57.800 is now reporting the fourth most coronavirus cases in the world, 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.200 were over twenty seven thousand in in the country, almost 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:05.080 four hundred deaths. New York has become kind of this 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:10.000 epicenter of COVID nineteen with about of the country's total cases. There. 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.120 Governor Andrew Cuomo has been on a lot of the 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.440 talk shows just talking about how much his state and 0:01:16.680 --> 0:01:18.319 just kind of in general. I think it's a general 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:21.759 feeling around the country that the states and the governors 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:24.080 need help there. But I wanted to start off with 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.320 the new news that we've just got. Kentucky Senator Ran 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:30.200 Paul has just tested if positive for coronavirus. I think 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:32.680 he's the fourth member of Congress overall that has it. Now, 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:37.120 that's right, we now have several members of Congress. Additionally, 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:39.760 I know some reporters who cover the Hill that have 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.800 been tested for it, haven't seen their results yet, but 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.880 are showing the symptoms that have pursumed cases. These folks 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:49.080 have been walking around the building with each other for 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:52.280 the past week and what can sometimes be very close quarters. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.480 So an example of what happens when you're not putting 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.800 that distance between yourself. Congress, the halls of the United 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.840 States Capital are full of people who can transmit diseases 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:05.640 to one another. So we've seen that play out. We've 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:08.880 seen reports said at least the sick members of Congress 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.679 who have contracted this disease say they are doing well. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.440 They don't have any of the critical symptoms or conditions 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.080 that have hit other people. But again, as we know, 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.280 this disease progresses and they'll all be watching their health 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:23.919 very closely in the coming days and weeks. Yeah, Senator 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:25.639 ran Paul, they put out a tweet. They said he's 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.440 asymptomatic and he was tested out of an abundance of 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.760 caution due to his travel and everything, and they said 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:33.880 they closed their office down about ten days ago. They've 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.040 been working remotely, so they don't think that any staffers 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.560 have been exposed to him while he's had coronavirus, so 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.120 hopefully the spread is limited there. Let's move on to 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.360 this financial aid package that Congress is working on. They're 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:50.920 saying now it could be up to two trillion dollars. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:53.560 That is a lot of money. But they're still going 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:55.359 back and forth. I think the last thing I heard 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.680 was that Nancy Pelosi said they're not just there yet, 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:00.880 so everybody's kind of go back and forth. They're still 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:03.560 trying to figure it out. But everybody does maintain that 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:07.480 this is very bipartisan right now. They've worked negotiating over 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.400 the weekend. Everyone has priorities there are priorities coming from 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.280 the White House, coming from the Republican controlled Senate and 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:16.839 the Democratic controlled House. I think it's fair to say 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.639 we're going to see something past in the coming days, 0:03:19.760 --> 0:03:21.680 and I would expect that to be sort of a 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.000 dual focus piece of legislation here, and dual focus might 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:27.560 be a little too simple fuckation of it. This is 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:30.200 going to be a very large piece of legislation, and 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.360 that it appropriates a lot of money, as you suggested, 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.640 could be to trillion dollars. But I think we're going 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.960 to see something focused on business and something focused on people. 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:40.920 So they have been negotiating how to get cash into 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.840 people's hands, people who are facing real economic hardships, that 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.880 have lost their jobs, that are struggling, or that the 0:03:48.960 --> 0:03:52.000 prospect of an illness means they couldn't work and it 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.520 would be bankrupt in the process. And then we're going 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.160 to see aid to business. We're going to see help 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.760 to the airlines and the rest of the track evel industry, 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:04.320 some type of assistance to small businesses that are having 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.040 to close down all across the country. So it's going 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.000 to be very large and very sweeping. And what is 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:14.160 the most unprecedented shutdown of economic activity and trying to 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.120 stave off what would be a really devastating economic fallout 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:20.560 because of it. They said that they're trying to make 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:22.839 this one last about ten and twelve weeks. It would 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.919 tie the economy over for about ten and twelve weeks. 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:28.760 They said, direct payments to Americans about a thousand and 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.000 twelve hundred dollars. Families of four would be getting about 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.440 three thousand dollars, and as you said, just a bunch 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.599 of other things, enhanced unemployment, insurance, things for small businesses. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:41.000 You mentioned the number again, two trillion dollars. Where does 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:43.919 this money come from? Is this stuff from the taxpayers? 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.880 Are they just reapportioning money that we have? How do 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:49.520 we get all this money? This money would be coming 0:04:49.800 --> 0:04:53.080 onto the United States debt. It would be increasing the 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:56.480 US debt. It would be basically borrowing money from the 0:04:56.480 --> 0:05:00.360 future that the federal government would be responsible for paying back. 0:05:00.600 --> 0:05:04.400 The argument being that better off to have the federal government, 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:06.960 which is capable of taking on this kind of dead 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.160 do it now and try to save the economy before 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.240 it's in a free fall, then wait and then have 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:15.880 to deal with it afterwards. There was efforts to try 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:18.960 to keep and stave off in two thousand eight, during 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.680 the financial crisis that led to a recession. There was 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.279 a lot of pushback that it would increase debt, not 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.839 as much money was spent as some people would have liked. 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.560 There was criticism then that the government didn't do enough 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.240 to get the economy to recover fast enough. And this 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:35.400 is an attempt to try to not repeat that, to say, 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:37.360 all right, well, let's put as much money into this 0:05:37.400 --> 0:05:40.240 as we need to stop this from being another catastrophe. 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.200 So that's on the financial front. On the health front, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.440 it's still very critical. States across the country are just 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.320 kind of desperate and angry. They need more and more 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:55.880 medical supplies. Hospitals are experienced a big shortage of masks 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.559 and other equipment that they need. I mentioned earlier Governor 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:01.720 Andrew Cole from New York. He said that states are 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.599 starting to compete with each other for some of these materials, 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.360 and he's calling for some type of coordinated national response 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.880 on all of this. Get people to start manufacturing these 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.520 things more, distribute them to hospitals and states so they 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.760 have it. So the administration is facing a lot of 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.880 pressure from the states individually on this. That's right. We 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.560 have seen a response to this epidemic that's really been 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:29.279 on a state level, more often state governors putting out 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.320 responses telling people what they should and shouldn't be doing. 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.840 Before we see it coming at a federal level, and 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.360 a little bit of a back and forth between governors 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.320 and the president over who should be sort of helming 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:44.240 some of these things. So, yes, we're seeing states trying 0:06:44.240 --> 0:06:47.479 to get the resources their states need at the expense 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:51.400 at times of the other states that might be needing them. 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:55.240 And as you mentioned earlier, this is not uniform. We're 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:59.280 not seeing this epidemic evenly across the country. There are 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:03.359 pecular areas that are much more hard hit than others. 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.160 New York City, very hard hit, parts of Florida, very 0:07:07.200 --> 0:07:10.520 hard hit. Other places along the East Coast also hard 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.840 hit Seattle, Washington. Those are the places that would appear 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.160 to need these resources more and they say it shouldn't 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.320 be left to just who can bid the highest or 0:07:19.320 --> 0:07:22.800 who can buy the vast the fastest gets these resources. 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.920 Ginger Gibson, political reporter for Reuters. Thank you very much 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:31.880 for joining us. Thanks for having me. I'm Oscar Ramirez, 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.120 and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that. 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:37.440 For today's big news stories, you can check me out 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.400 on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:42.800 follow us on I Heart Radio or wherever you get 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:43.600 your podcasts.