The Trump administration and the United States senate have reached a deal on a $2 trillion stimulus package to help relieve the economic impact of COVID-19. The deal was announced after 5 days of heated negotiations between the two parties.
The announcement was made by White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland, who said,”Ladies and gentlemen, we are done. We have a deal.”
Over this past week of discussions and negotiations, the care package grew from the earlier $850 billion that the White House promised, to the $2 trillion that we have right now.
While the deal is yet to be approved by the Senate and House of Representatives, an agreement is anything but assured. The deal will soon be discussed by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who negotiated with Ueland, Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and other officials.
The announcement brought life back to a stock market that saw some of its worst days in the past week. Market rose on Tuesday, even before the deal was approved by the aforementioned authorities, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining more than 2,100 points, or 11.4%, the most that it has gained since 1933. The impact was also evident on private companies as Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Alphabet all posted gains in the morning, along with Tesla, which jumped more than 16% in early morning trading.
The deal includes an increase in unemployment insurance, $130 billion earmarked for hospitals, $1,200 checks to many Americans and a $367 billion loan program for small businesses, among other provisions.
President Trump is keen on getting American people back to work, as is evident by the series of tweets he has written through his account, from saying, “American people want to get back to work”, to “This is not about the ridiculous Green New Deal. It is about putting our great workers and companies BACK TO WORK!” Trump wants the nation to be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter, amid experts suggestions of putting off the policy, as the virus will take longer to completely eradicate. With this care package, he plans on getting the average american back to work as soon as possible.
