ICYMI: McHenry Joins Bloomberg Surveillance to Discuss Next Steps Toward Economic Recovery
Washington,
July 8, 2020 -
Today, the Republican Leader of the House Financial Services Committee, Patrick McHenry (NC-10), joined Bloomberg’s Surveillance to discuss the path forward to ensure America’s strong economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Watch the full interview here, or by clicking the image above.
On key provisions in the next coronavirus response bill:
“What we have is a major house fire here. So, we have to get that righted and get back on a solid footing here. For me, I think the approach is how do you get people back in employment in a safe and effective way. So, the first piece of that is health safety. Without health safety nothing else matters. So, we have to have substantial funds so that we can have a pipeline of treatment options that have been borne out by the scientific proof, as well as potentially a vaccine. So, to get that right, that of course requires a substantial sum of government money with private sector innovation. And then you get to the question of a rehiring bonus and tax policy that incentivize businesses to get back in the risk business, to safely reopen, to take the proper risks, and to know that they have a foundation from which to take that risk. … So rehiring bonuses would be substantial and helpful and a tapering down or elimination of these overly generous, in major parts of the country, federal benefits for unemployment. I think the combination of a bonus for rehiring and tapering down that unemployment benefit would be smart policy.”
On getting back to the booming economy we experienced before the pandemic:
“Look we had a great result from the CARES Act. We saw Pelosi and House Democrats produce a partisan bill that got no Republican votes, they even lost Democrat votes it was so far to the left. So, that’s not a serious point of discussion. What we want to hear is that agenda set so we can have Trump economy 2. We just came off the best economy in most of our lifetimes. The policy set that we implemented there gave support to what was happening in the private sector and lifted us to new heights. Let’s put that agenda out, let’s be bold about it, let’s hear from the White House about those details, so that we can go iron out the policy on the Hill.”
On the role the Federal Reserve and Congress play in our economic recovery:
“When we have the Secretary of the Treasury before my Committee and the Chair of the Federal Reserve, I always remind them that there is this wall between monetary policy and fiscal policy. The Hill should not get into the weeds of monetary policy and the Fed Chair should not direct fiscal policy. I have to tell you, Jay Powell gets high marks for his fast action and being very foresighted. I mean his foresight is just absolutely amazing in this environment. When they laid out Main Street Lending, it took a long time to get that ramped up, but it was a very clear sign to policy makers on the Hill that ‘we’ve got the lending piece. You guys get the stimulus piece, you guys get people connected with their employment, and you get people off the unemployment rolls or give them support so they can get back into the economy.’ And that’s something that we hear clearly. So, I think they’ve picked their lane smartly. I think they’ve stayed in their lane smartly, however really aggressively. And over the long term we’re going to have to have these Fed programs pulled back from the economy, but at this stage we’re just still trying to put this house fire out.”
Click here to watch Republican Leader McHenry’s full interview with Bloomberg Surveillance.
