President Donald Trump discusses coronavirus
Daily briefing included call for possible payroll tax cut
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KYMA, KECY) - President Donald Trump suggested a possible cut to the payroll tax during Monday afternoon's coronavirus briefing.
The talk of a tax cut comes on the heels of the worst day on Wall Street since 2008. President Trump says he wants financial relief fast.
"We are going to be asking tomorrow, we're seeing the Senate, we're going to be meeting with House Republicans, Mitch McConnell, everybody and discussing a possible payroll tax cut, or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief, it's a big number. We're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not ever going to miss a paycheck. We're going to be working with companies, small companies, large companies, a lot of companies so that they don't get penalized for something that's not their fault. It's not their fault, it's not our country's fault. This is something that we were thrown into and we're going to handle it and we have been handling it very well." Trump told reporters during the briefing.
Vice-President Mike Pence has been overseeing the handling of the outbreak for a little over a week now. Monday Pence confirmed more than a million test kits have been distributed all across the country with more on the way.
"Testing is now available in all state labs, in every state in the country. Over a million tests have been distributed before the end of this week, another 4 million tests will be distributed, but as I said before, with the deployment of the commercial labs we literally are going to see a dramatic increase in the availability of testing." said Pence.
The Vice-President also said the President's quick actions at the beginning of the outbreak has protected the majority of Americans.
"Because of the unprecedented action that President Trump took in January, suspending all travel from China, establishing travel advisories for portions of South Korea and Italy, establishing screening of all direct flights, all passengers from all airports in Italy and South Korea, we have bought a considerable amount of time, according to all the health experts, to deal with the Coronavirus here in the United States. In fact as I stand before you today, the risk of contracting the Coronavirus to the American public remains low and the risk of serious disease among the American public also remains low." said Pence.
When asked if he personally had been tested for the virus, Pence told reporters he had not. He said he did not know if the President had been tested.
