Mitt Romney Calls For Giving Every Adult $1,000 During Coronavirus Pandemic

George Frey/Getty Images
Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) called for “urgent” measures to fight against the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, including an eye-popping proposal: distribute a one-time payment of $1,000 to every American adult.
“Every American adult should immediately receive $1,000 to help ensure families and workers can meet their short-term obligations and increase spending in the economy,” Romney said in a statement Monday morning.
Among @MittRomney’s Coronavirus response proposals: “immediately send $1,000 checks to each American” adult pic.twitter.com/ZvITKmdQfs
— Phil Mattingly (@Phil_Mattingly) March 16, 2020
Some estimated the cost of Romney’s policy proposal at more than $200 billion.
A $200+ billion proposal. The payroll tax holiday being discussed would cost $800 billion. https://t.co/sOUOjPLCGz
— John McCormack (@McCormackJohn) March 16, 2020
Harvard professor and former Council of Economic Advisers member under President Obama, Jason Furman, first proposed the idea in an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, which outlined the implementation of such a plan.
Furman in the piece lays out a plan for a “one-time payment of $1,000 to every adult who is a U.S. citizen or a taxpaying U.S. resident, and $500 to every child who meets the same criteria.”