‘I think that you are going to see some give at the end of the day on both sides’: Michael Isikoff

Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent at Yahoo News, joins the On The Move panel to discuss the reaction of the government and the public to the spread of the coronavirus.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: As we await action in the US Senate for a $1.6 trillion stimulus package, joining us to discuss where we go with that is Michael Isikoff, Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent. And we saw them take a step back last night, Michael. Are they going to get this through today?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, there's certainly a lot of pressure to do so, but what we are witnessing is the normal dysfunction of our democracy here. The gap between Republicans and Democrats on virtually everything is so vast these days that even operating under a extreme national emergency, as this one is, is difficult for the two parties to come together.

But I suspect, given the stakes here and just how much the economy has cratered, they will get something. Whether it's going to have the desired impact or not is another question, but I can't imagine that there will not be an agreement at the end of the day.

AKIKO FUJITA: Michael, one of the sticking points seems to be on the Democratic side, at least, that the disclosures or transparency with which how this is used, especially among some of the corporates. I'm wondering what you're hearing from the Republican side in terms of how much room they're willing to give on that front as well as benefits for workers.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, look, they all know just how much the country is on edge here, and the optics of not reaching an agreement on these matters would be so horrendous and the consequences so great that I think that you're going to see some give at the end of the day on both sides.

But, you know, for the Democrats, the core issue here is trust. Can they trust the Trump administration to administer that $500 billion loan program for corporations? How much transparency will there be? How much public accountability will there be for who gets the money and why? And I think that's-- I think that's a real sticking point. But, you know, like I say, I think at the end of the day we're going to see something.

JULIE HYMAN: Mike, it's Julie here. I want to ask you as well about some of these reports that are now emerging about a potential administration pivot. That is this perhaps growing line of thought in the Trump administration that the economic pain is perhaps too great and that at the end of 15 days we will start to see things reopen. I'm curious what you're hearing in Washington and what your take on that is.

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: Well, look, I mean, these are-- these are really tough questions. We've never seen a contraction in the economy like this as sudden, as severe as we're seeing now. And I think it is entirely legitimate to think about the human costs of what's happening here. Play this out for another few weeks or months where unemployment skyrockets, businesses are shut down, people are suffering.

Bernie Sanders talked about even before all of this started how many people out there were living from paycheck to paycheck. You put this on top of it, and it's going to have a devastating toll in terms of the human health costs of people unable to feed their families and go to work. Suicide rates, crime rates, drug addiction, alcoholism-- you know, the effects of a prolonged contraction like this with people cut off from their jobs, their social networks is just staggering when you think about it.

And at some point, the health consequences of the economic contraction are going to exceed the health consequences of the virus itself. And I think that makes this a really difficult, challenging situation.

And then on the other hand, you know, resuming lifting the social-distancing restrictions-- you know, our risk tolerance is very low and getting lower. As the numbers of infected people go up, as the numbers of deaths go up, which they inevitably will. It's hard to see how, in one week or two weeks, anybody is going to feel comfortable with lifting these restrictions. So we're in a place we've never been before.

DAN HOWLEY: Hey, Mike, Dan Howley here. You know, we talk about how there might not be the appetite for these kinds of lockdowns and how the impact on the economy is beginning to really show more so than ever before, but I guess we're still seeing these outbreaks. We're still seeing a growth in the number of people getting infected, and we are seeing people on the beach or going to parks in large groups. And it seems the only way that to get that under control is some form of federally mandated lockdown period.

Do you think Washington has the, I guess, backbone to do something like that? And if they did, what would the political consequences be for the administration at that point?

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: No, I don't think that the Trump administration can do that. They can urge. They can prod. I think the governors have been quite forceful on this. Anybody who's listened to Andrew Cuomo in the last few days, you hear him berating the people who are still going out playing basketball in parks and congregating in various places. But I think if there's going to be a real severe, you know, de facto martial law along those lines in which people will be forbidden from congregating, I think that's going to come at the state and local level and not from Washington.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Michael Isikoff is Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent joining us from Washington. Thank you very much for being here on Yahoo Finance.