Hillary Clinton Says Covid-19 Stimulus ‘Not Sufficient’
Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump’s Covid-19 stimulus had not reached those in the greatest need.
(Bloomberg) -- Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump’s Covid-19 stimulus had not reached those in the greatest need and that she hoped for an agreement on new relief before the new U.S. Congress takes over in early January.
“The original stimulus post-Covid was not sufficient,” Clinton, the former Democratic presidential nominee and Secretary of State said on the Bloomberg New Economy Forum’s “Financing the ‘Real’ Economy” panel. “It really did not reach those people -- either the employees or the small businesses -- that were in the greatest need.”
“I’m hoping that there can be some agreement in the lame duck. Joe Biden called for that,” she said. “But if nothing happens in the lame duck session then I expect to see President Biden come forward with a comprehensive package of relief for workers, for small businesses in particular.”
Clinton, who spoke alongside Mastercard Inc. Chief Executive Ajay Banga and Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati, also said she believed “strongly” that the incoming Biden administration needed to make a “renewed effort” to try to rebuild multilateralism.
‘Global Standards’
“The lack of global standards in a globalized economy makes it very difficult for not just governments but businesses and consumers to know what the rules are,” she said. “How are we supposed to understand what to expect from a global economy and from multinational corporations that can more easily cross borders if we don’t know what the standards are?”
Clinton also said there had been “quite a disturbing action by the Chinese government with respect to Alibaba and Ant,” without elaborating. Beijing in recent weeks has sought to curb the influence of major corporations like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., and suspended Ant Group Co.’s $35 billion initial public offering.
Ultimately, Clinton said, “even China is going to have to sell into and work within a global economy and we need to reestablish new standards to replace the standards of the past.”
The former New York senator, who lost to Trump in the 2016 U.S. election, also weighed in on Covid-19 as the country sees record-high cases and mounting criticism of the president’s virus policies.
Inequality “has been made worse by the impact of the pandemic,” she said. “Unless we get a return of real confidence, and that depends upon the vaccine and the vaccine’s availability and its delivery, then we’re going to have a very long tail to the consequences from the pandemic,” she said.
The New Economy Forum is organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
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