Steven Mnuchin Says This Is What Rescued The Economy From Sure Destruction

Former United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin gave full credit to the COVID relief bills passed by former President Donald Trump’s administration for saving the economy from a “great recession” as he called for more during an interview on FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow.

In his first televised interview since leaving the White House Mnuchin claimed that traditional ways of thinking about spending money and the economy are irrelevant because the current recession isn’t “economically driven.”

“I think traditional economic models don’t really work here and that’s why we’ve done this [relief] in stages,” Mnuchin explained. “So I’ve felt all along we need to spend what we need to spend.”

Mnuchin did caution, however, that at “some point” ballooning government debt does become problematic, so his preference would be to see a fifth bill and a sixth bill, if necessary, in addition to the four passed during his tenure.

The former treasury secretary noted that two of the bills passed under his watch sailed through the Senate with nearly unanimous support, whereas Democrats and the Biden administration are considering bypassing Republican resistance by using the reconciliation process.

“My preference would be that the president continues to do something on a bipartisan basis as opposed to using reconciliation,” Mnuchin said on Tuesday.

He also warned against using reconciliation, which is intended to address certain budgetary measures, as a general spending tool.

Lawmakers have been attempting to iron out details for another substantive package, though they remain caught up on several critical issues, including overall cost and aid to state and local governments.

Democrats have legally paved the way to use the reconciliation process to potentially pass their coveted relief measures, which would require a simple majority.

Democrats are aiming to have a bill to present to the president by next month but it is unclear whether they will move forward at that time with reconciliation or whether all Democrats would be on board with that process at all.