GOP Stimulus Bill to Include $1,200 Checks, No Payroll Tax Cut: Mnuchin

The previous direct payments "worked before," Mnuchin continued, as "retail sales was up year over year 1%; people went out and spent that money in small businesses, and that's having a big impact in the economy. So as I said, it's all about getting money now for kids and jobs."

The new GOP bill is reported to include direct payments of $1,200.

A payroll tax cut, Mnuchin said, "won't be in the base bill," which will be CARES 4.0. "there could be CARES 5.0."

Unemployment Benefits

As to unemployment benefits, the enhanced unemployment insurance expires next week, "so that's a priority we need to respond to that," Mnuchin said. "As we've said before, we're not gonna continue within its current form because we're not going to pay people more money to stay at home than work, but we want to make sure that the people that are out there that can't find jobs do get a reasonable wage replacement, so it will be based on approximately 70% wage replacement."

Republicans said Wednesday afternoon that they were considering extending the enhanced unemployment insurance benefit "at a dramatically reduced level of $400 per month, or $100 a week, through the rest of the year," CNBC reported.

The current federal benefit of $600 per week is set to expire at the end of July. The payment is in addition to state jobless benefits.

A lot of tax credits will also be provided, he continued, "to incentivize companies to hire people."

As to the Paycheck Protection Program, Mnuchin stated that "there's a lot of bipartisan support for extending the PPP. I've had conversations with [Sens.] Cardin and Rubio, and we want to have second checks for companies whose revenues are down, 50% or more and need more money small businesses to get people back to work."