The United States had an "incredibly dynamic economy" until the beginning of March, and while the Paycheck Protection Program and other measures that were put in place through coronavirus relief efforts have helped tide the nation over, people are now eager to get back to work, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said Friday.
"Policies of tax cuts, eliminating unnecessary regulatory burdens which the [previous] president had put in place, resulted in a much stronger economy than anyone had projected before [President Donald Trump] came into office," Scalia said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Those principles are going to be important."
Meanwhile, it takes a vibrant private sector to create jobs, said Scalia, and "too much government doesn't get us there."
"We've had some valuable measures the president put in place with the CARES Act to help with unemployment and help keep people on the payroll," said Scalia. "That has been helpful in tiding us over and I think now people are eager to get back to work and to do that in a safe way."
Meanwhile, the Paycheck Protection Program has been extremely helpful, but refinements were needed to further help the nation's businesses, as there is still a great deal of uncertainty as the nation pulls out of its coronavirus shutdowns, Scalia said.
"This past week we passed a sad milestone as we had 100,000 deaths," said Scalia. "We were also seeing states now reopen and we are seeing optimism and enthusiasm and so far the states are doing it safely. We would like to have the schools open, and that's a provision in the Family First Act, they are continuing to have protections in place even as we help these schools reopen safely. The CDC [Centers of Disease Control and Prevention] has been open safely as well."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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