Washington week. Funding is provided by ife isnt a Straight Line and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here top h you work through the unexpected with fancial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. [laughter] announcer additional funding is provided by the ttate of adam adams and koo and patricia yueough the yuen foundation. Committed to bridging corporate communities. And contributions to your pbs thank you. Om viewers like you. Ce again from washington, model rator robert costa. Robert ood evening. We begin with the latest on the painful economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic with many america struggling to pay rent, buynd food cover their health care costs. This week the weekly jobless claims jumped to 6. Million a Staggering Number with losses in nearly every corner the economy. And earlier friday the department reported a loss of more than 700,000 jobs in march. This all comes as state and federal authorities prere for new hot spots and warn that difficult times arehe. President trump continues to face fierce criticism from democrats and some republicans for his handling of the outbreak. He has defended himself at t evern and expressed optimism. President trump this is gng to be rough twoweek period. As a nation, we face aul diff few weeks as we approach that really important day when were going to see things get better, all of a sudden. And l its going to e a burst of light. Robert joining me tonight yamiche alcindor, White House Correspondent for the pbs newshour. Peter peter, chief wte house correspondent for the new york times. And jerry seib, executive washington editor for the wall street journal. Peter, well begin with you. What do these economic numbers signal about the economy . Peter this is about as bad a number anybody could have homed for at this point. 11. 7 million americans at this point are seeking or on unemployment. That is about 50 higher than the peak of the 2008 financial crisis and this is really the beginning. Were not anywhere near the peak that people expect. So many businesses are shutting doors, so many people are out of work. Were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. This suggests this is not going to be a shortterm thing. The president wou like it to be. Come summer or fall, things will snap backinto place. Maybe they will but thats not the way the congressional economists are looking at it. Its projected the unemployment will reach 10 and stay asas hi 9 through 2021, which, of course, is after the president iallection that matters some to predent trump. Robert what ds this all mean for lowincome americans, and tie they g the money they need as soon as they can . Yamiche low income communities, experts sayre more susceptible in some cases dont have the same e ty protections. Theyre living inlose quarters oftentimes and also dont have access to the best health care. Can they go to the hospitals and doctors to getreepted and desked . Among people who work with e those populations of whether or not theyll be protected from the virus. Then add to that the fact that democrats say these are people that rely on a lot of federal programs that right now havent the pandemic. In the fai of one example would be food tamps. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said demoats pushed hard tory to get an increase from the amount of food stamps people have and get people more help and she said that republicans purked pushed b on that. So theres a question of whether or not lowincome communities a getting the resources they need to stay at home to be able to field and house themselves. Robert the wall street journal had interesting ting ing, revealing rep about the new Small Business loan program, 350 become in scope. Its struggling to get off the friday. Why is that and what have you learned . Jerry there were probably 10,000 loans made today. 3 billion plus. Thats a drop in the bucket. Our reporters found ttost of the big banks werent ready this morning to startin m loans because of the delayal fr the Business Administration in washington. Some of those banks wegire only ng loans to existing customers, not through people walking through the door. We had an interesting example of a report of a Small Business guy in los angeles whoised fouranks today. Two of them said we dont know anything about pthgram. One of them said we dont do Small Business administration loans and one was shut because of the so this is a slow start. Quhiche does that matter . It matterst because just one day but speed is absolutely of the essence here. Ds this money no get out the door quickly to get to small e businesses bef they simultaneous down entirely, while theyre still alive and whil they can still people keep people on the payroll. This is inevitable with 2k3w069 programs to some extent, but this is a really importane robert what is the debate inside the west wing about when the economy should reopen . Peter thats a great question and one of the things you take away from that briefing his week with those hellacious death projections. 100,000 to 142,000 if people do what theyre supposed to do and we know theyre not. As long as that curve is going up, the economy has to be basically shutered, according to the experts. E more you c flat than curve the better it isthor the he institutions and hospitals and it also could mean that it keeps the economy closed for aittle longer. The thing that actually might be good might also be bad at the same time. Here in washington, d. C. , the maybe suggested that the pea might not with be until the end of june. Still three months away. The idea were going to sy indoors and keep businesses closed for three months goals even beyond the capacity of this 3 trillionillo keep the economy afloat. Its a real conunl drum. Within the white house, you hear the need for social restrictions. Heard deborah birx breaching diverging from the president on thatnd thenou heard the economic advisors saying you have to be wary or for all these people out. Of work. Tense of thousands of sinesses at stake. These conflicting yet come belk compelling interes are at the heart of this detective. Robert as americans everywhere struggle, the spotlight turns to congress. Heres what speaker polesly told consider incomes earlier i think right now we need too a fouh bipartisan bill and i think it could be very much like the bill we just passed. Imery much in favor of doing some of the things we do to moment the needs. Clean m water,e broad banled and the rest of that. That may have to b for a bill beyond this. Robert in recent days, the speaker had tked up infrom structure,ed a as had President Trump but Senate Republicans swatted away the idea. In an interview earlier this week, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell told me it was have it would take a lot of convincing for him to pursue infrastructure at this time. When you talk to your colleagues on capitol hill about this fourth round of negotiations, is this going to be partisan is bipartisan and focused on health care or not . Yamiche what im hearing from white house and capitol hill sources is that ey both are ally interested in doing an infrastructure bl. Nancy pelosi was talking about going a bill focused on a broad band internet internet because so many are needing at as a limeline for work and speak to loved ones. And also talking about clean Water Systems becau so many people are washing their hands and so many communities in this country that still dont have act tells to Running Water or President Trump was talking withoads and bridges bullitt sounded like there might be some overlap and there might be inhave point where structure bill could materialize. O President Trump has bee in taabout a bill like this ever since he got into office buthen a. . Mcconnell pourpped cold water only that. It sounded like ne was as interested in doing that. So its an interesting thing to ar whether or no it might be House Democrats and the white house that start working together. As we knowPresident Trump and speaker employees si still are not speaking to pelosi still are not peek intoing to each other. But we did get phase flee without the speaking together so its possible that white house officials work with nancy pelosi to get a bill done. Robert nancy pelosi, the house speaker, has announced an Oversight Committee to look at phase three. Whe is your reporting looking . I interviewed Speaker Pelosi earlier in the week and she was talking about a big phase fou bill. It seemed she wanted to take mcconnell ha 4r58d the lead on the last one. President trump, as she well knew, is interested in insfra structures well. We were talking then about the possibility of a very big infra ture infrastructure bill, including funds for hospitals and fixes in roa and other things and thing it switched a little bit when speaker mcconnell spoke up against that idea. We now may be looking at two more bills. One, to plug some of theol in medical supplies and hospitals and then maybe one to follow later in the year f infrastructure. I think its important to keep in mind the sheer magnitu of what were tooking about. The stimulus bill already passed plus the tw earlier pouring into the economy. D is you have more than 6 million from t federal government going ouch out into in very troubled economy. The overall economy is only 21 million or 22 trillion. Were talking about them putting out art q of the nations output to keep it afloat. Thats probably the reason the financial maets havent been worse than theyve been. Robert its just aeebout ago we were talking about President Trump talking about maybe the economy could be reopen by easter. Now heeems to be facing the grim reality. He says now it could go until april 30. All the stay at home,di ancing and guidelines. What has this revealed to you abt pmpsident t peter i think this is a week when the starkdr numbers tha birx and dr. Fauci presented bega to really sink in. That, in fact, this is not going to go away. E th no anybody here. This is going to be a locker term problem than he had hoped and the message he ge on that briefing, i think on tuesday, he said americans have to bepr ared far very, very tough couple of week. Itay be longer for a couple of week. I think you saw today the disapartment between the president s jew and his Health Advisors vw when he announce it would c. D. C. s new guidelin when he said that most amerins whe in public should wear a mask then said im not gng to do that. He yet to this day is fully t acceptin viewpoints of the medical advisors around him but seems there has been a little bit more acceptance of just hm this can be. Among other things, he locked looked at the hospital in his own borough of queens, em herself hospital and saw the pictures o them being overalled. Hes mentioned several timesen a. Comer f of his who may have the virus. Another thing, he was shown polling by his political sors saying, hey, the public doesnt want a return to business as usual too soon, prematurely fit mea tt the virus really wont be contained. I think that also convinced convinced him ton pivot whe it came do this easter idea of returning back toouily. Robert yamiche, how com tted is tpresident based on your reporting to this current reporting . Weve seen him zig and zag. What are the people around him, from Jared Kushner and others, saying . How do your sources see it all . Yamiche the feel i get from my sources and from just watching the p tsident ist he is still reluctant to tell the american peoplthat this could be something that could upend their livers all theaynto theummer and could be complete druptive to the economy all the way into the. Summ he said repeatedly the mask is voluntary. He said at up with point, maybe itsbe good, m its not. Maybe it will help, maybe it wont. Im certainly not going to wear it because i dont want to be seen at the oval office with a maskn. You already see there the president backtracking or hedging more thanealth officials. I think the other thing that reallyou move it president was the fact that the emcenter right now is new york. Ths where hes from, prosecute where he grew up. Hes watching it on television and the pictures of body bags would ptive. Really mufle it he brought it up three or four times this week and its something that really stuck with him and it was something happening in queenses, where he grew it. He said hes watching all of this on tv, admitting that he spends a lot of time watching to see whats going on on the ground so i think when we see journalivesings bringing those images to america, theyre also bringing them right to the president and its moving him. Robert jerry, any final what youre seeing . Sidents and jerry it seemed this week it all came to home o the whi house. And there was no pretending it was going to be short or could be dismissed in any waif. 46 million American People may have already been laiff or had their hours at work cut. At this point everybody in the untry knows whats going on and how serious this is in both dical and economic terms and this felt like the week wheregr everybodyd and theres no denying that. We must leave our political discussion there. Thank you again to yamiche, peter, and jerry for your insights and reporting. Lets dig deeper on that health care front and get the big picture on where things stand. This week, the new york times, sarer kliff and colleagues wrote the coronavirus is ravaging Americas Health care system and the scarcity of ventilators has become an emergency. Forcing doctors to make life or death decisions about who gets brothe and breathe and who does not. Mo york governor andrew cuo sounded the alarm on thursday. At the currents burn rate, we have about six days. Robert and this week, dr. Anltnitch fauci, advising the president , said the nationsh ld brace for more than 100,000 people to die in the coming mention s sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it. Is it going to be that much . I hope not and i any the more weon pus the mitigation, the less likelihood it would be that number but as being realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that that is a possibility. Robert joining me is sarah kliff, an Investigative Reporter for the times focusing on health care. In terms of ventilators, whats the reality on thed gro in many states . Sarah the reality is hospitals are getting quite close to ventilators are expensive. S. They can cost 20,000, 30,000 so you deefpblet see hospitals keeping a lot of extra onings around. Theyly usu keep keep on hand only what they need to get influe a rough flu season. Were hearing things about hospitals getting very close to running out. Statements are making requests to the ne. Ational stockp hospitals are thinking about different techniqs, such as using one machine to treat multiple patients. Bum doctorsre having to make hard decisions about which one gets a ventilator and which one doesnt. Robert take me inside the crunch the Health Care System is facingli nationale. Sarah this is becoming a crunch nationwide. It started as sething that new york and Seattle Seattle hospitals were struggling will has grown to places likeau mie, detroit, and new orleans. They are reporting really big increases in the number of coronavirus parents they treating. Theyre change surgery rooms into intensive care units and theyre really starting to see what weve seen in new york city py out where they live and it is a crunch. It is hard to see a those parents. Hard to make sure that the h stafve enough protective equipment. When i talk to doctors who are treated those patients. Theyre tired. Still going in but really, really concerned about whats ea of them. Robert has the testing system improved at all in recent days . Sarah its definitelyro impved from a few wks ago. Private industry is getting invoed. Rapid testing rolled outs but at the same time there are still lags. The private Companies Helping out hav backlogs. I talked to one hospital in idaho w was still waiting about a week to get test results back. Ta there cly is improvement but not the case that hospitals are able to get res ts immediate limb and knack challenge how they treat patients and who they isolate and who they dont. Robert we hear so much about medil supplies but youve spent years covering access in the Health Care System. What is thete of access for many lowincome americans who are dealing with the virus . Sarah there has been some work done to make a access better, to provideree testing without copamplete for nos without health since insurance but we a live country where millions of people are uninsuranc and theyve kind of become accustomed to not go to the doctor whether theyre sick because theyre worried about such large medical bills. We dont really noel how someone who is uninsuranced, no. Used to seeing the doctor, what theyre to do when they have coronavirus symptoms. I think there pretty open question of whether americans who are used teo n high medical bills are even going to to the fortable going doctor in the first place to seek treatment. Robert are we seeing any adjustments when it comes to medicine cailed or medicare . Sarah we are seeing generally e coverage for t programs. They want people to come in and one of the big things this week was on the part of the trump administrati who decided not to openn a Enrollment Period the Trump Administration is not going to be doing that for the country so there are some people outs there missouri who mifpbletse have bought insurance in the fall andth re going to be lacking coverage going into the coronavirusandemic. Robert the times had some reportinthis week a that into new york harbor yet it om only has few parents up on board. Whatre the challenges in places like new york . Shoim or sarah lot of people who need treatment. Theres a hospital set up in a major conference center, the park. Alhem need beds and ventilators all at the same time and the Health Care System in ameri is generally a forprofit business. These companies that are hospitals, doctors offices are not stockpiling these supplies so when you need all of these at once, its a huge scramble. Er so the f government, the states, the hospitals are all biveding against each other for the same set of supplies. Its also driving up the price of really key pieces of equipment. Everybody scrambling for the same supplies makes it really marmed hard to get the suppl actuallyin place. Robert sarah, finally, as this week ends and you look atour notebook and the whole health care beat, what are you looking ahead to next week . What matters in terms of health care right now . Sarah what im looking at is the facts were seeing more and more stills have their own outbreaks. Its not new york and seattle anymore. Also detroit, milwaukee, and new orleans and thats going to be a bigger struggle. The desire for beds, vents lators. Thats going to grow and grow. Were going to watch next week how major citlls battle the coronavirus at the same time and try to get the fact same set of supplies. Robert sarah, thank you very r much for youorting and your time. And thank you for joining us. Well kee taking you as close to theews as we can. Are on the front lines of this crisis. Your tirelessen and o quiet work is what sustains us and binds us. Im robert costa. Good night from washington. Announce announcer Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by ife isnt a Straight Lineet and ses you can find yourselfne heading in a w direction. Fidelity is hereo help you work through the unexpected with Financial Planning and advice for today and tomorrow. Announcer additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and Patricia Yuen yuen through they foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our comnities. The corporation for public broadcasting and bys contributio your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Youre watching pbs. T n masters when you visit yosemite, the idea of the place seems to loom as large as its. Towering granite cliffuto feel the urge invest yosemite with meaning, to finan idea that makes sense of the profound scenery. Like many angelinos, i relish my annual trip to city behind for a while and the recharge among the black oak, monolithic granite, and tumbling waterfalls, and yet im also aware of the irony, given just how urban Yosemite Valley can feel when crowds swarm in. When the federal government first set the federal government first set it aside as a park in 1864,
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.