Dems Politicize Coronavirus Outbreak By Proposing $8.5 Billion Rescue Package: Live Updates
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Wed, 02/26/2020
Summary:
Iran deaths hit 19
Brazil confirms first case in South America
France confirms 2nd death
Tokyo pushes back against Tokyo Games cancellation talk
Greece confirms first case
Germany unleashes fiscal stimulus after confirming new cases
Dems one-up Trump with $8.5 billion package.
Kuwait, Bahrain confirm new cases
Italy confirms 12th death
South Korea cases soar above 1,200 as gov’t begins testing of 200k patients
Brazil confirms infected patient came on plane from Paris
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Update (0940ET): The Brazilian health ministry said the coronavirus patient arrived in Brazil on a plane from Paris. Exactly when isn’t known.
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Update (0855ET): In the US, Dems are officially doubling-down on their push to politicize the coronavirus outbreak and use it as a cudgel against President Trump by proposing a plan calling for even more money to be spent.
According to Fox’s Chad Pergram, Chuck Schumer is planning a $8.5 billion package that he plans to hand over to the appropriations committee later on Wednesday.
Schumer preparing emergency spending pkg for coronavirus funding totaling $8.5 Billion.
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) February 26, 2020
President Trump is holding a press conference later today to discuss the outbreak. Yesterday, he said he would be handing off his administration’s $2.5 billion rescue package to Congress. President Trump has repeatedly insisted that the outbreak is under control, so we suspect that he fears a large number might spur panic.
Of course, in a situation like this, money can only go so far. As the CDC has demonstrated, containing an outbreak is more about decision-making and hard choices.
In other news, as we mentioned earlier, Germany is moving to implement some fiscal stimulus of its own.
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Update (0750ET): While the Germans oppose closing borders in response to the outbreak in Italy, it appears Berlin has stepped up to rescue the market and placate economists begging them to roll out a fiscal stimulus program to stop the European economy from sliding into the gutter.
GERMANY PLANS TO TEMPORARILY SUSPEND LIMIT ON PUBLIC BORROWING
Futures soared on the headline, which is hardly surprising, as the market has already been primed for German stimulus, even if Berlin has always held the idea at a distance. Back in September, there was all that talk about a “shadow budget”.
As sentiment plunges, WHO’s Dr. Tedros has stepped in to try and soothe rattled investors, warning that government officials, economists, infectious disease researchers and any self-styled ‘experts’ should avoid using the word ‘pandemic’ to describe the outbreak.
Yes, while it does technically meet the definition of a pandemic, that word has some seriously negative connotations which Tedros feels isn’t really appropriate here.
Italy, meanwhile, has reported its 12th death after confirmed cases soared above 300 earlier.
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The Rest…HERE
