On Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin went on Fox News Sunday, and, although one might hope that he’d stick to taking the pressing economic issues of the American people seriously, he had a lot of political mud to sling instead. He claimed, for instance, that if elected, Democratic presidential pick Joe Biden would “have socialist economic policies.” Does Mnuchin want Americans to forget how taxes already work? Communally-funded support of services like schools and public transit routes already exists — fearmongering about “socialism” is pointless. Biden doesn’t even want to get rid of the private health insurance market, unlike proponents of so-called Medicare-for-all.
.@stevenmnuchin1 says if Joe Biden were elected president "he would have socialist economic policies." #FoxNewsSunday
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 6, 2020
.@stevenmnuchin1 denies reports that President Trump disrespected deceased service men and women. #FoxNewsSunday
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 6, 2020
Mnuchin also denied the core allegations of a recent report in The Atlantic that claimed that President Donald Trump had referred to American service members killed in action as “losers” and “suckers.” That same report also claims, among other things, that Trump was enraged when flags were lowered to half-staff at federal buildings after the death of John McCain. That particular allegation has been confirmed, on the record, by Miles Taylor, who served in the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security for awhile in roles including chief of staff for the Trump-appointed department chief, Kirstjen Nielsen.
On Fox, Mnuchin also addressed the looming issue of the current absence of any additional Coronavirus-connected economic relief. Mnuchin claimed that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “has refused to sit down and negotiate unless we agree to something like a $2.5 trillion-dollar deal in advance.” Although her specific private demands are unclear, Pelosi isn’t asking for out-of-this-world funding — she’s been advocating for steps like comprehensive financial assistance for nutrition assistance programs around the country.
The Democrat-led House passed the HEROES Act, including trillions in relief funding, three and a half months ago. Mnuchin said that the White House may get around to finally moving forward with their own proposal — in the GOP-led Senate presumably — next week. He insisted:
‘The president and I believe we should do more stimulus. We have about 7 and a half million jobs we need to get back until we’re back to where we were and we want to help small businesses, we want to help businesses that are particularly impacted by this and we’ll continue to work on proposed new legislation.’
If they’re so dedicated to helping Americans, why did they wait so long to even start working on a new relief bill?
