Acting swiftly to respond to Monday's stock market dip amid coronavirus fears, President Donald Trump is seeking possible payroll tax relief – "very substantial relief that's a big number."
Trump announced a meeting with House Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and "discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief – substantial relief, very substantial relief that's a big number.
"We're also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they're not going to ever miss a paycheck – whether it be working with companies and small companies, large companies, a lot of companies, so that they don't get penalized for something that's not their fault," Trump told reporters at a news conference Monday.
"It's not their fault, it's not our country's fault. This was something that we were thrown into and we're going to handle it and we have been handling it very well."
Trump added there will be a White House news conference Tuesday to announce the GOP economic stimulus package to respond to the coronavirus and the large stock market dip, which was the largest since December 2008, the start of what had been called a Great Recession.
"So, the president is 100% committed that we will provide whatever tools we need," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters. "The economy will be in very good shape a year from now.
"This is not like the financial crisis where we don't know the end in sight. This is about providing proper tools and liquidity to get through the next few months."
Trump said the actions to be discussed Tuesday include subsidies for travel-related industries and small business loans.
"We're going to be seeing small business administration and creating loans for small businesses," Trump added. "We're also working with the industries, including the airline industry, the cruise ship industry which obviously will be hit.
"We're working with them very, very strongly. We want them to travel. We want people to travel to certain locations and not to other locations at this moment."
Trump added the travel industry is going to be a potential target for government assistance to try to curb the economic downturn caused by the global coronavirus outbreak.
"The main thing is that we're taking care of the American public," Trump concluded.