Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner credited former President Trump for his handling of economic stimulus after the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020.
“The market is still saying this is an underlying strong economy. So the Fed’s biggest tool is raising interest rates,” Warner said on Thursday during a press call with reporters.
“But the other tool that the Fed could use is they have been buying,” Warner said, referring to actions the Fed can use to help deal with record inflation. “It’s called quantitative easing to keep interest rates remarkably low by buying up debt on a regular basis. [Fed Chairman] Jay Powell has said they will tail that off. I hope they would tail that off earlier. He’s talking about the first quarter now.”
Powell “was all hands on deck at the beginning of COVID when the whole economy froze,” Warner added, explaining his support for the Fed chair.
“And you know, this is one of the areas I’ll give President Trump credit for … we put a bunch of money, about $5 trillion into the economy,” Warner continued, also crediting Trump Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
Warner said the stimulus packages Trump signed helped Americans with low to moderate incomes.
“Support programs for small businesses, PPP, those checks that were written to individual Americans, Americans have got a lot more money in their pocket today, frankly, on average, particularly low and moderate income Americans, than they had even pre-COVID,” he said. “That’s long-term good, short-term, it keeps price pressures on.”
Trump signed the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020 followed by another $900 billion stimulus package in December 2020.
