by Randy DeSoto featuring IWF’s Hadley Heath Manning

Multiple economic experts have cautioned Washington against overreacting in its attempts to lessen the impact of the coronavirus on the U.S. economy.

Over the weekend, the House of Representatives passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act with broad, bi-partisan support in a final vote tally of 363-40.

The bill calls for free nationwide testing for the coronavirus, paid family sick leave, emergency food assistance, and enhanced unemployment benefits.

The bill will go to the Senate where it is expected to pass early in the week.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — who negotiated the deal with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in consultation with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — said at a news briefing Saturday that the federal government is still in the “second inning” of its response to the coronavirus, indicating economic stimulus measures may follow including cutting the payroll tax.

“We have a lot more we need to do with Congress,” Mnuchin said. “The speaker and I have acknowledged it.”

Hadley Heath Manning, policy director for the Independent Women’s Forum, hopes Congress does not open the federal coffers too far in its desire to “do something.”

“[L]awmakers shouldn’t blindly throw money and mandates at the problems they see without thinking strategically about the secondary or tertiary effects of their actions,” Manning said in a statement to The Western Journal. “Relief should be targeted to those who need it most.”

“My greatest hope is that we will all, as individuals, rise to the occasion by reaching out in our neighborhoods to help one another,” she added. “This type of local, voluntary, private response will ultimately be more effective and more powerful than any government program.”