It's Brian Lehrer, and this is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday,

March 25th. Maybe you've already heard coming out of the Senate this morning. They call it the

biggest economic stimulus bill in U.S. history. Maybe we should

really call it an emergency grant to many Americans so we can afford to stay home and stop the

virus bill. It includes four months of full pay, unemployment insurance of that type,

for many people, from what I've read, tries to cover many freelancers

and gig workers in that, as well as staff people, a half trillion in loans to businesses, which they

cannot use for stock buybacks, by the way, and more, at least this is the way it's being reported

before it actually gets voted on.

That's one big coronavirus and money story, but the other one remains the life and death question

that New York and President Trump have been fighting each other on for the last week.

Can the private sector on its own produce the ventilators, the masks, and other supplies that are so desperately

needed here more than anywhere else, as we have a majority of the cases in the nation in

greater New York. Or does the president need to invoke the Defense Production Act to direct

companies to make more and make them now? We'll talk about both these things and more now

with Catherine Rampel, syndicated opinion columnist at The Washington Post, political economics

commentator at CNN, and special correspondent for the PBS News Hour. Catherine, we always appreciate

your time and insights. Thanks for coming on. Of course, anytime. Let's start with the spending

bill. I know this is still emerging. Can you tell yet if this is really four months of full pay for

a lot of laid off workers? So if you look at the letter that Chuck Schumer, the senator from

New York and minority leader for the Democrats had sent to his colleagues.

What it actually says is that it is going to basically top up existing unemployment benefits by $600 a week for four months,

...