The Treasury Secretary has said the U.S. could reopen as early as May. Steve Mnuchin told CNBC that the economy will open for business when the President feels the time is right.
Mnuchin spoke to CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday about the much vaunted effort to get Americans back to work.
“Do you think there’s a possibility, if the doctors let us, that we could be open for business in the month of May?” Cramer asked.
“I do, Jim,” Mnuchin replied before framing the question in terms of President Trump.
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“I think as soon as the president feels comfortable with the medical issues, we are making everything necessary that American companies and American workers can be open for business and that they have the liquidity they need to operate their business in the interim.”
Trump is anxious to get people back to work because of the serious toll Coronavirus has taken on the economy. He has repeatedly suggested easing restrictions for economic reasons.
The President said on Wednesday that “it would be nice to open with a big bang” but agreed that the disease should be in decline before that decision could be taken.
“We have to be on the down side of the slope,” Trump said.
However, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned on Thursday that getting the country back to normal wouldn’t be easy.
“When you’re talking about getting back to normal, we know now that we can get hit by a catastrophic outbreak like this,” Fauci told NBC.
“It can happen again, so we really need to be prepared to respond in a much more vigorous way.”
The economic impact of Coronavirus has been severe. Unemployment claims rose by 6.6 million in the past week.
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
