Trump Foments Protests Against Governors; Experts Warn of Testing Shortages

April 19, 2020
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Gov. Gavin Newsom of California announced a bipartisan economic advisory committee on Friday that includes all four of the state’s living former governors and some of the nation’s leading corporate executives including the chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, and the chairman of Disney, Robert A. Iger, as well as the former head of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen.

The former governors are two Republicans, Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and two Democrats, Gray Davis and Jerry Brown. The committee will be led by Tom Steyer, the billionaire businessman and former presidential candidate.

Mr. Steyer said the committee’s aim would be “to develop a strategy to help California recover as fast as safely possible from the Covid-19 induced recession.”

“Health and safety remain the most important points here,” Mr. Steyer said.

Mr. Newsom’s initiative to call on his predecessors is in contrast to President Trump who was asked in March whether he would consult with previous presidents for guidance on how to navigate the crisis. “I don’t think I’m going to learn much,” Mr. Trump said at the time.

Money from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, which ran out of funds on Thursday, flowed heavily to California and Texas, with construction companies and manufacturers getting the largest number of loans, rather than harder-hit retailers and restaurants, according to new data.

The nearly $350 billion in the Paycheck Protection Program also disproportionately flowed to states that have suffered fewer infections and deaths under the virus, like Kansas, than to harder-hit states like New York and New Jersey, when adjusting for the size of the small-business economy in each state.

The new data, which include loan approvals through Thursday, show accommodation and food service firms have received less than 9 percent of the money from the program, about $30.5 billion, though they have suffered the largest job losses of any industry during this recession. Construction firms received the largest share, at just over 13 percent or about $45 billion worth.



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