Mnuchin on further stimulus: ‘We’re willing to spend whatever it takes,’ but it needs to be done ‘carefully’

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday that the White House is willing to do “whatever it takes” to provide economic stimulus but said the Trump administration wants to wait before providing any further aid to states.

“What the president and I are now saying is, we spent a lot of money. A lot of money is not even into the economy yet,” Mnuchin told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Let’s take the next few weeks” to allow the aid to take hold, he added.

“We just want to make sure that before we jump back in and spend another few trillion of taxpayers’ money that we want to do it carefully,” Mnuchin said. “We’re willing to spend whatever it takes. but whatever it takes needs to be done carefully.”

Mnuchin said the White House remains committed to including a payroll tax cut in a later relief bill, despite criticism that such a cut would be of limited use to Americans out of work.

While President Trump has said a payroll tax cut must be part of any further stimulus, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said Senate Republicans will insist on liability protections for businesses that reopen against lawsuits from customers or workers who contract the coronavirus.

The Treasury secretary on Sunday also echoed Trump on state aid, saying, “We’ve been very clear that we’re not going to do this just to bail out states that are poorly managed.”