Mr.

Cutler Kudlow.

You heard that plea from a single mom to make sure everyone will be okay.

What do you say to her?

To reassure her and millions of other Americans they will be okay.

Well, it's gonna be the biggest assistance package in history, Martha.

I mean, I hope she does.

Well, a lot of the people you talked to had a sense of optimism.

I love that.

We gotta fight together to get through the effects of the virus.

In economic terms, safety comes first, but we're doing the best we can.

We've got a $6.2 trillion assistance package and just some of the quick factoids We're basically gonna be providing significant assistance to 175 million people.

Ah, 175 million people.

Roughly $600 billion is allocated to that and to the small business and the small business, which will go up next week.

There's another 350 billion.

And know when you count the payroll tax holiday, you're gonna be moving towards five or 600 billion.

We're trying to keep folks working.

We're trying to let him have enough assistance to get through daily family needs with the kids, some of maybe home.

We are going to cover their sick bay leaves.

I think, you know, and we're also protecting payrolls.

All the loans and loan guarantees will be forgivable.

Well, first they'll be made, and then they'll be forgivable, provided the small business people hang on to their payrolls.

So it may not be perfect, but I think it's going to give tremendous amount of resource is to get us through.

What we still believe is gonna be a question of weeks and months.

Hopefully weeks.

Maybe I should say a prayer for Lee Weeks, but we think we can get through this period.

We we know about those eye popping numbers this week, the $2 trillion stimulus package, with checks going out to millions and millions of Americans, as you say.

But will that be enough?

Given those soaring unemployment numbers more than three million people?

Well, I think it will be enough.

I mean, you know the whole package when you take the 2.2 trillion of direct federal assistance, which, by the way, goes to states and goes to hospitals and ghosts and medical equipment covering the waterfront.

You know, you're really talking about 1/3 of GDP.

1/3 of the whole economy is being covered by this package.

That's really quite remarkable.

It's the largest mainstream financial assistance package in the history of the United States.

So it's hard to know if we can get everything.

Help everybody.

But I think I'm not to miss.

I think the sheer resource is here we're putting in whatever it takes.

We're using every federal power lever possible to help folks.

It's going right into the middle, lower middle class people.

And, by the way, Martha, other things student loans are gonna be deferred.

Payment on student loans.

Gonna be deferred.

Income tax payments gonna be deferred for several months.

As I said, there's a small business, Mr Carlo, you say weeks, you say weeks, not months, but half months.

But how can you be sure that this economic tragedy won't be long term if there's no guarantee that people will have jobs to return to?

Because getting those businesses reopened, we've heard from them with changes necessary to ensure people stay healthy will take time.

Coffee shops are not gonna look the way they did before theaters.

So what is waiting for unemployed people on the other side of this?

I don't see how it could be just weeks.

Well, listen, I say that weeks, it could be four weeks.

It could be eight weeks.

I say that hopefully and I say that prayerfully.

That's what some of the science experts health of telling us.

I don't know if they'll be right, but let me just say this.

You can't have a good job unless you have a healthy business.

And what we've tried to d'oh is true.

Provide tremendous tremendous assistance to the individual men and women and therefore on the other side, tremendous assistance to the small businesses for which they work.

We're trying to bounce this out, and I think that's really the first time this kind of package has ever been put forward.

I can't guarantee it.

I can't wave a magic wand.

I wish it could.

I spent all my career being an optimist and trying to promote economic growth.

This virus, nobody expected this thing to come down as far and hard and widespread as it did, but it did.

And we got Mr Carter, I want I want to stop you there just for a second.

Including you.

It was It was also just a month ago, you told CNBC that you thought the virus was contained in the country even though doctors were warning others otherwise.

You also downplayed the threat of a long lasting economic tragedy.

You have since said that was based on facts at the time.

But why should people trust you this morning with a prediction, Guaymas, Good as the facts are.

And at the time I made that statement, the facts were contained.

The president had just put the travel restrictions on China and a lot of people agree with me.

In fact, at the time, a lot of people felt that the flu was worse than this virus, but assumes the facts changed.

We changed our whole posture and our whole strategy, and we've gone full bores.

I said, No package like this has ever been passed Congress before.

And look at President has said we will doom or if need be.

Let's just try to get this done now.

Ah, how quickly Can you get those checks out?

A couple of weeks.

The direct.

Given the infrastructure that match money, those that number of checks, the direct checks will come out probably in a couple two weeks.

I believe Secretary Mission is saying this loans to the small businesses will be ready for processing this coming week.

Okay, this coming Friday.

So we will have rapid speed much faster than has been done in the past with these things.

And so we will get it in the people's hands right away.

And don't forget also, please, regarding things like rent payments or rental home loans.

All that will evictions on the ad that all that will be put on hold.

There will be no evictions during this period.

Ah, principal and interest on loans, their federal loans can be suspended.

There's a moratorium on student loans.

We've tried to cover every single base as we realized the scope and spread of this thing.

So it's not really as much as anybody has ever done.

And by the way, we have provided temporary emergency financing from the Treasury Department toe unlock.

Massive massive resource is from the Federal Reserve.

That resource is will help stabilize financial markets will also stabilize credit card payments, student loan payments, money market.

I just, if you would quickly please.

Even in the most optimistic scenarios, how can you spend that kind of money and not raise taxes?

Well, we're not raising taxes were cutting taxes.

Right now, the whole package is essentially direct assistance on the spending side and large scale tax cuts.

Is that said, 100 eighty's 108 175 million?

I put that number 175 million mark.

They're going to get tax rebates and massive a massive small business.

Probably half of the companies in the US are going to get rebates or deferred payroll tax holidays, and we will cover their expenses.

And we will forgive the loans as long as they keep the payroll going.

So we've tried to hit both sides.

We helping individuals were helping the small business, those of the major components of the American economy.

I hope that the machinery works.

Secretary Mnuchin is working hard.

Our National Economic Council is working hard.

I'm gonna have to stop you there, Mr Kudlow.

I know that you're all working hard and we really appreciate you appearing this morning on the program.

Thank you.

Appreciate it very much.

Thanks very much.

So let's get some analysis now from ABC Chief Business and economics correspondent Rebecca Jarvis.

Rebecca.

First, your reaction to what you just heard from Larry Kudlow.

Well, Martha, first of all, I think the key question is, how long does this last and what does the world look like on the other side?

And Larry Kudlow talked about that $2.2 trillion stimulus, an eye popping number.

That stimulus is, frankly, to plug a gigantic hole, the $0 coming into most American businesses right now $0 in the pockets of more than three million Americans who were laid off last week.

So when you think about thes stimulus programs plus the $4 trillion backstop from the Federal Reserve, it is to plug a gigantic void in the system.

And the question is, as we go through this, the longer we last in this void.

What does the world look like on the other side?

And I spoke earlier this week with the CEO of Starbucks, who's now been through this already in China, where they closed a number of stores.

95% of those stores Martha have reopened, and I asked him about traffic in those stores because we know the world.

When when things start to reopen, how are people going to respond?

And he said that traffic picks up a little more each week.

But there are still social distancing measures inside of the stores.

And for many American businesses, this will be a new reality of the future.

Fewer tables, for example.

If you're a restaurant in your shop, maybe fewer people coming in if you're a hairdresser, all these different types of American business are going to have a different amount of foot traffic in the future.

And the question is, how long can they really hold on for even with this gigantic stimulus?

And Rebecca just in these coming weeks, do you think things could get much worse?

Well, if we continue to see the type of layoffs that we saw, that more than three million number that we saw last week and we very likely will continue to see the layoffs continue, We know, for example, that there were technical issues with websites, the unemployment insurance websites crashing, so we know that there will be more layoffs, especially with lockdowns.

We know that unemployment that unemployment rate, which was 3.5% in February, is very likely to climb much higher in the coming weeks.

If it were to climb to the worst case scenario, we would be looking Martha at 20% unemployment.

That is what we saw in the Great Depression.

In the great recession, it was 10%.

So we know these numbers are going to continue to climb.

But here's something we also know the American people are resilient.

And you heard this in your package.

The number of unemployed workers out there who are doing everything I hear from small businesses every single day.

They're doing everything in their power to keep their employees on board.

They're running, Go fund me is people in neighborhoods and communities on websites like Next door are showing up for their neighborhoods.

So we know that people are going to do everything in their power to help.

But that fundamental question is for how long?

How long can this last?

Thanks so much.

Rebecca and the American people are indeed inspiring.

Thanks for joining us.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

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