The next coronavirus stimulus bill needs to be at least four times larger than Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) $500 billion proposal, economists told Salon.
Congress remains deadlocked on a bill after McConnell repeatedly rejected the $3.4 trillion HEROES Act passed by the House back in May, and the $2.2 trillion compromise offer House Democrats approved last month.
McConnell said this week that a bill “dramatically larger” than his $500 billion proposal is “not a place I think we’re willing to go.” Yet economists say the country needs at least $2 trillion to help the economy recover back to where it was before the pandemic, just as the US enters the worst wave of the coronavirus pandemic yet. Continue reading.