Shutting down the country over coronavirus fears was a "very severe mistake," Stephen Moore, Heritage Foundation's chief economist, told Newsmax TV.
"This has been a vast overreaction of shutting down this great American engine," Moore told Thursday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "Our society depends on a functioning economy, and to shut 40 to 50% of it down around the country has been a huge overreaction to this."
"Obviously you've got to put human life first, and safety first, and public health first," Moore said. "But you can do that and also keep the economy up and running, especially in places around the country outside of say New York, and New Orleans, and Detroit and Chicago."
According to Thursday's job numbers, 6.6 million more people were added to the unemployment rolls. That's in addition to 10 million people who had already signed up for jobless benefits in the past weeks.
"The good news is, if the president starts to do the right thing here, and starts to do what I think in his heart he wants to do, which is get the economy up and running by the end of April, or May 1st, then I think there's time for the economy to make a recovery by - the let's say late summer, early fall," Moore said.
He added: "If we don't get this economy up by early May, I think 2020 is a wash-out. We're going to see a very, very severe recession until the end of the year."
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