Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears on Fox News to discuss the latest developments in the battle against COVID-19 and how the coronavirus economic relief package will roll out. Unfortunately the always insufferable Wallace wants to waste time discussing the politics of the administration effort and not communicate important details to American businesses/individuals about what financial relief efforts are available.

Smartly Secretary Mnuchin outlines the process. The Treasury Department has stood up a system inside the Small Business Administration that cuts through much of the bureaucracy. By using FDIC lenders (local banks) as the point of contact for small businesses and S-corps Treasury can backstop the process. [SEE BELOW]

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The local business (or S-corp) takes their payroll and yearly expense documents to their local bank where they already have a relationship. As long as the bank is in the FDIC network; and because the emergency funds are distributed based on a good faith relationship; the bank gives the business or individual immediate access to funds; the bank deposits in the business account. The FDIC guarantees the lender against any risk.

If the business does not continue payroll for the employees, the funds are considered a loan that must be repaid. However, if the business retains their employees (continues to keep current payroll); or -if needed- rehires any recent lay-offs using the funds provided; then the emergency loan becomes a grant the business will not have to repay. The system should be in place by this Friday.

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Earlier today President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) in the oval office.  [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much. This is a very important day. I’ll sign the single-biggest economic relief package in American history and, I must say, or any other package, by the way. It’s twice as large as any relief ever signed. It’s $2.2 billion, but it actually goes up to 6.2 — potentially — billion dollars — trillion dollars. So you’re talking about 6.2 trillion-dollar bill. Nothing like that. And this will deliver urgently needed relief to our nation’s families, workers, and businesses. And that’s what this is all about.

And it got a 96 to nothing. And, I don’t know, what was the number in Congress?

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On the heels of more than three million new unemployment claims, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin calls in to CNBC for a phone interview to discuss the coronavirus relief bill that passed last night.

Mnuchin was asked about his reaction to seeing the 3.28 million new unemployment claims reported for the past week during the interview. Mnuchin said, “To be honest, I think these numbers right now aren’t relevant whether they’re bigger or shorter in the short term.”  WATCH:

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Yikes, the text of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) has been released (full pdf below).  The Senate took H.R.748 stripped it out, and replaced the text with this bill.   The full 50 page senate record of the activity is available here.

Digging in now.  However, at first blush the size of the spending seems to be a considerable state budget deficit bailout [similar to how Obamacare removed the healthcare pension liabilities from unions].  Here’s the BILL:

[scribd id=453273118 key=key-drggn4Vhb6WkXv99UjQv mode=scroll]

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Share your thoughts in the comment section….

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discusses the steps the White House is taking to mitigate economic pain and suffering being felt by businesses and workers.  The U.S. economy has essentially been shut down In an effort to deal with the spread of the Chinese coronavirus; there are worries that parts of the economy will never recover if a rescue package doesn’t quickly reach businesses and workers. [Important Conversation]

Mnuchin helped design a relief bill to protect the economy and U.S. workers, and ensure the economy is able to restart quickly. Democrats are blocking proactive the emergency bill to take advantage of the crisis with demands unrelated to economic needs.

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Democrats are blocking Senate Bill S.3548, The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act.   House Speaker Pelosi is instructing Senator Schumer not to support any relief bill unless it includes: cancellation of college student debt, union protections, tax subsidies for windmills/solar, and new airline emission standards.

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Man-o-man, this is some high-stakes poker playing, and it’s the United States economy on the table.   Mitch McConnell is going to put S.3548 The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, back on the senate floor at 9:45am ET tomorrow, 15 minutes after the stock market starts collapsing.

[Read Bill Here]

[Link To Tweet]

Sweet Baby Jesus… I can’t remember ever seeing anything like this.  A $20 trillion U.S. economy, and tens-of-millions of American jobs and businesses on the line….  And McConnell is calling Pelosi’s bluff.    P.U.B.L.I.C.L.Y!

Talk about seriously high stakes politics.   Yikes.  McConnell is going to make every democrat senator vote again to close debate and advance the bill; putting them on record for negotiating a deal and then walking away from the deal they assembled.

I would imagine Senator McConnell has talked to President Trump about this….

Over the past three days a bipartisan group of senators, not leadership, constructed a $1.6 Trillion emergency aid package to rescue the U.S. economy and American workers.  The package had the support of Mitch McConnell. It is called The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or “CARE Act“. [READ BILL S.548 HERE]

However, at the last minute House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, having returned from her House recess vacation sipping cocktails poolside, instructed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to crush the senate effort.

Power hungry Pelosi sees an opportunity to use the looming economic crisis as leverage for selecting winners & losers amid the K-Street lobbying community.  Donors for Democrats will be rewarded; supporters of Republicans, not-so-much.  This is DC at it’s worst and Pelosi isn’t going to lose another opportunity.  It’s the same process she used in ’08/’09.

“Twice in one lifetime… How blessed am I?”

Senator Schumer did as he was instructed.  The relief bill did not pass cloture (60 votes needed), and the three-day effort collapsed.  Immediately the DOW futures dropped 5%.

WASHINGTON DC – “I want everybody to fully understand if we aren’t able to act tomorrow, it will be because of our colleagues on the other side continuing to dicker when the country expects us to come together and address the problem,” McConnell said on the floor. He added that over the last 48 hours there were bipartisan discussions among “regular members of the Senate, not in the Leadership office, not in the speaker’s office for goodness sakes.”

“She’s the Speaker of the House, not the Speaker of the Senate,” McConnell added. “We were doing just fine until that intervention.”  (more)

There are two main points Pelosi is targeting.  First, because COVID-19 creates a MASSIVE SPENDING opportunity, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to include the elimination of college debt, literally wipe out student loans – which ironically and intentionally were created under Obamacare, in the coronavirus bill.

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Steve Bannon appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the U.S. response to the coronavirus.   Bannon advocates for a military style shut-down of the U.S. to shut down everything now and get through the crisis as quickly as possible.

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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called-in to Maria Bartiromo earlier today to discuss the overall financial approach of the Trump administration to the COVID-19 impacts.

Mnuchin has been working closely with House and Senate political leadership to structure the financial flow needed for particular sectors and workers inside the Main St economy.  The target date for legislation directing the financial relief is early next week.

The underlying economy is strong. The treasury response is targeted to those who need short-term relief. Short-term economic indicators are no longer valid.

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