The threat of a COVID-19 pandemic demands not only an aggressive public health response to contain and treat the virus’s health impacts, but also an aggressive fiscal policy response to try to avert a major recession, which is now a distinct possibility.

The Trump Administration has suggested trying to shore up the economy through a payroll tax cut, but direct, immediate stimulus payments would do far more to reduce immediate hardship and buttress an economy that faces serious risk.

Such measures – along with strengthening Medicaid coverage, unemployment insurance, nutrition assistance, and paid sick leave – would deliver assistance quickly to people struggling to get by, who will spend virtually all of the additional resources they receive and thereby help keep consumer purchases from declining too sharply and sending the economy downhill.

A payroll tax, such as the Trump Administration has suggested, would be too slow, not well targeted, and too narrow.