Hassett: Things are going back to normal faster than expected
Trump signs executive order cutting federal regulations; White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett weighs in on U.S. economy amid coronavirus crisis.
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White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told "Your World" Tuesday the U.S. economy could bounce back from the coronavirus pandemic quicker than previously anticipated.
"One of the things that I'm seeing in the real time data, Neil, is that things are going back faster than I expected," Hassett told host Neil Cavuto. "As an example, we have a measure of how many businesses in the U.S. are open. It was 50 percent on April 11. It's just a count of businesses, so it's not the same as GDP, but it [was] 50 percent on April 11. It was 62 percent the day before yesterday and 67 percent today.
"So we're very, very rapidly opening up. And so I think what it means is that the stimulus that we passed really did build the bridge to the other side ... so that people can hit the ground running when they get there."
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Hassett also predicted that other parts of the economy would perform strongly during the 3rd and 4th quarters.
"For GDP growth, what's going to happen is that we're looking at about a 40 percent decline in the second quarter and then a pretty strong third and fourth quarter," Hassett said. "And so I think at the end of the year, you might be a little bit below where we were in January [of this year]. But ... I think the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] is calling for a really quick comeback."
Hassett added that he expected that the May jobs report would show an unemployment number "in the 20 percent range right now."
"But then again, after that, Americans are getting back to work."
President Trump on Monday announced nearly $2 billion in federal aid to public transit systems in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. The president also announced an executive order aiming to make permanent the removal of many regulations that were scrapped due to the pandemic.
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Hassett also told Cavuto that Trump's proposal that a payroll tax cut be part of the next coronavirus relief bill is still a possibility.
"I think if we go to that next phase of negotiations, the president has a way of getting what he wants on these things," he said. "And, of course, you know, he's got to make a deal. He wrote 'The Art of the Deal,' but he believes strongly, as I do economically, that the payroll tax on the employee side is a really big positive stimulus."
Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
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