Steven Mnuchin: We’ll do whatever we need to do to win ‘war’

Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin on Sunday said that while an escalating national debt is a concern, the administration plans to work with Congress to spend whatever it takes to win the “war” against the coronavirus virus.

“This is a war. We’ll win this war. If we need to spend more money we will, and we’ll only do it with [bipartisan] support,” Mr. Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”

He pointed out that interest rates are low right now, reducing the cost of taking on additional debt. He said over time they’ll have to take a closer look at spending.

“But right now, we’re in a war and we have to protect American workers and American business and we’re going to do whatever we need to [do] to do that,” he said.

President Trump last week signed a nearly $500 billion economic rescue package, which came on top of a $2.2 trillion package and other legislation in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

There are more than 900,000 coronavirus cases in the U.S. and more than 53,000 deaths, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Mnuchin predicted that the U.S. economy will bounce back in July, August, and September, after there were more than 26 million jobless claims across the country over the last five weeks or so.

The new legislation includes more than $300 billion for a small business lending program in the $2.2 trillion package that quickly ran dry.

The Small Business Administration will start accepting new applications for those funds on Monday morning.

Mr. Mnuchin vowed that the money will be distributed “fairly,” after many small businesses were left out in the cold in the first round of funding.

He did say that more than 1 million companies that received money in the last round had 10 employees or less, and that the faster the money goes out the more quickly it can help American workers.

The money provides loans for small businesses that are forgiven if the funds are used to make payroll and retain employees.