The Treasury secretary said that would temporarily inject $300 billion into the economy, cushioning the blow of lost wages and customers. The death toll from the novel coronavirus rose to 100 in the United States, with 5,600 cases confirmed and, with the first case reported in West Virginia, the disease present in all 50 states. While Mr. Trump had signaled that he wanted the payroll tax to be the centerpiece of that effort, it faced bipartisan opposition in Congress, and Mr. Mnuchin said time was of the essence. “This is a very unique situation in this economy,” Mr. Mnuchin said after the meeting, where he faced questions from more than a dozen individual senators. “We have put a proposal on the table that would inject a trillion into the economy.”

Source: New York Times March 17, 2020 13:40 UTC