How the $2 Trillion Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Helps You

It will include direct payments to Americans, help for small businesses, and help for hospitals and healthcare workers. Elena Trine, White House reporter at Axios, joins us for how the stimulus bill could help you. Thanks for joining us, Elena, Yes, thanks for having Congress is working on this two trillion dollar coronavirus stimulus package. It's one of these rare bipartisan

agreements that is being pushed through. And also people have been calling with the biggest bailout in history, this is something that's going to impact ordinary citizens the country, businesses both large and small pretty quickly too. So Alena, tell us a little bit about the bill, and then let's talk about how it's going to help people individually. So, uh, massive, massive rescue package around two trillion dollars, so beyond that of what Congress had delivered and the government had delivered

following the two thousand eight financial crisis. And its impact is really a lot of money. Billions towards small businesses, billions toward large corporations like airlines and hotels and industries that are being very hard by this direct payment to Americans to help them through these economic hard times as we face a recession, as my business editors telling ahead. And it really it's just, you know, it's a ton

of money. I've spoken with a lot of people on the Hill and mind you, you you know, this was originally a Republican bill. It's really interesting to me that they haven't really thought that much about how to pay for this, or worried about the national debt or deficity here. The focus so far has been very much so on trying to get much needed aid into hospitals, into communities, and much needed money into Americans hands. That's an important distinction.

We really don't know how we'll pay for all this. This is going to be added to the national debt. The debt limit is actually suspended until so right now, it's not really a big concern. I mean, it's of course Republicans national debt, the deficit is always key on their minds. But from a lot of Republicans I've spoken with, they look at this as a much longer term problem, and they look at the deal that they're dealing with

now is something that's emergency. It's emergency something, and they're worried about helping Americans doing in the comedy and keeping people slow during this hard time. First and foremost, the country needs to remain viable. People need help throughout all of this. People aren't working, people are getting reduced hours, just tons of stuff is going on. So first and foremost, yeah,

we need to take care of that. But obviously we know this is very important for the president because the economy needs to be doing good for him to be also doing good on that front. So let's get into some of the details that we know. There's gonna be direct payments made to a lot of Americans. Most Americans will be received know one time direct deposit of up to twelve hundred dollars. Couples will get hundred, and those

will be phased out based on income levels. So if you make seventy five thousand a year or less, you will receive this full twelve hundred dollar payments that will phase out up until those who received annually. If you receive ninety nine annually or more, you will not get that direct payment. Families will receive an additional five hundred

dollars per child. And this is true. One question I know that a lot of axios aders are begetting is what about those who receive Social Security or other means tested benefit programs that that's your sole source of income. This does apply to those people. If you rely on Social Security, rely on other benefits, you will still receive these direct payments. How about small businesses? I've seen that over three hundred billion dollars are gonna be sent to

small businesses. What do we know about that? And then is this something that they have to apply for? And all that they're in the loan guarantees and so people who want to get alone, there's a hundred and fifty seven billion and low guarantee for small businesses. And those are four these businesses that are keeping their workers on the payroll even though they're still at home. And so they look at this as small businesses. Companies five hundred employees or less, and you can get up to ten

million dollars in forgivable for almost business loans. And that is a very key being there to say forgivable. So the way that they've structured distimiest package is small businesses will these loans will be forgiven, whereas for some of the larger corporations like the airline industries and others, they

will have to pay these back over time. About of people that are unemployed losing jobs because of this, uh, I know that there's been a lot made about everybody just kind of cutting back, so they're having to start furlow workers, all sorts of stuff like that. What about unemployment the programs extended Unemployment Insurance program Chuck Schumer and set up Minority Leader has actually called it unemployment on steroids.

It expands eligibility and offers workers in additional six hundred dollars per week on top of what they would already be getting from the state, and that will extend for four months. It also extenses benefits through December of thirty one through the end of this year, and for load workers can stay on as employees so that when this

crisis ends, you can quickly go back to work. We've been talking a lot about hospitals and healthcare workers and the shortages that they face with masks and other protective equipment. We know ventilators are a big issue for the most severe cases of COVID nineteen. What does this bill do

for them? So big thing that a lot of Democrats had pushed for in these negotiations was to give more money direct the hospitals, provide more money to some of those supplies and resources that hospitals and communities across the country are shortage of. So this will inject a hundred billion dollars into hospitals and the country's health systems and provide billions in some of those resources like PPE, as people call it, the personal protective equipment for health care workers.

More money for testing supplies, more training, and of force development. And these are just a few things. I mean, if if you go through the bill, you'll see there's a lot more an aid and defining exactly what different if you're you know, if you're a nurse or your doctor, there's a lot more there for you. But these are the kind of broad scope of what they're giving to the health community. And what about the big industries, airlines,

cruise lines. They're getting hit especially hard throughout all of this. But this is also kind of a sticking point when they make tons of money also, and this time they're really getting hit hard. What about them? Five billion is a lotted in loans to these large corporations, and twenty five billion of that five hundred billions it cuts out directly for airlines. It's really twenty nine billion if you include cargo air carriers, so billion will be giving to

passenger air carriers. For billion is going for some of these cargo air carriers, and then five hundred billion in total for some of these other industries, large corporations, hotels, cruise lines. All of that will be wrapped into this. And this is something that a lot of Democrats had criticized initially and that they had called it the treasuries corporate slush funds. But they have succeeded in creating an oversight panel, including a Treasury Inspector General, that will oversee

the dedications of these funds and these loans. And again these loans, unlike those of small businesses and the loans that they're getting, these loans will have to be paid back and they cannot exceed five years. Elena Train, White House reporter at Axios, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you and thanks for sticking with me. I'm Oscar Ramiers and this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't

forget that. For today's big news stories, you can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday. So follow us and I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts