GOP nominee wants to pause before seeking more federal stimulus

By Scott Benjamin

DANBURY -- No hand-shaking. No assigned seats for each delegation. No arms held aloft waving placards. No confetti. No balloon drop.

A small number of lawn signs are posted outside a hotel and a campaign banner is hung on a wall as the candidate and his wife sit in front of a computer and a handful of campaign staffers huddle in a conference room and a nominating convention is conducted via the Internet.

Social distancing and masks are utilized.

The world has changed.

David X. Sullivan formally entered the fray for the Republican nomination in Connecticut's sprawling Fifth Congressional District on July 1 and when asked on May 14 - convention night - about how his campaign had progressed, he said, "I think quite frankly it has exceeded my expectations."

Just two weeks earlier, there had been three opponents. Now he is being nominated by Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and state Sen. Kevin Witkos (R-8) of Canton through remote speeches and he captures the nomination by acclimation since the other contenders have withdrawn.

His rise had a lot to do with retail politicking. Attend the county fairs, canvass neighborhoods with the municipal candidates and speak to the GOP town committees in his quest to capture the seat now held by first-term Democrat Jahana Hayes of Wolcott. Democrats have annexed the last seven elections in the district, which stretches from Newtown to Salisbury.

"I enjoy going through the 41 towns," said Sullivan, a retired Assistant U.S. Attorney. "I've made a lot of friends."

But since mid-March he's been running up his AT&T bill.

Sullivan, who lives in New Fairfield, said since the onset of the pandemic he has been spending "eight to 11 hours a day" speaking with delegates and campaign operatives by phone.

He says he has a potent social media outreach, but hopes to be physically interacting in limited fashion with voters soon - such as in maintaining social distancing guidelines but still speaking to voters outside "shopping malls and take-out restaurants."

As of May 15, there had been 3,285 Coronavirus-related deaths in Connecticut.

The economic news is grim: Nationally, 14.7 percent unemployment, the highest since the Great Depression; a Wall Street Journal survey of economists indicates it will reach 17 percent in June; a projection of more than 200,000 jobs lost in Connecticut during April.

The headlines:

The New York Times: "Fed Chair Warns Of Lasting Harm Without New Aid."

CNBC: "Retail sales fall a record 16.4 percent in April, far worse than predicted."

The Wall Street Journal: "Mortgage Firms Show Strain"

There doesn't appear to be an immediate formula for ending the economic free-fall as there was during the end of the Great Inflation in the early 1980s when former Republican President Ronald Reagan gave political support to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker's policy of increasing interest rates; or to the subprime mortgage/financial crisis of 2007-2008, which led to the Great Recession of 2009, when former Republican President George W. Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program for the big banks and months later his immediate successor, Democrat Barack Obama, approved a $787 billion stimulus package, provided financial support to keep the domestic auto industry solvent and put the banks through a stress test.

Between the $2.2 trillion CARES Act that was approved on March 27 and subsequent legislation to further address the Paycheck Protection Program the ledger now stands at nearly $3 trillion, and the economic hysteria continues despite the rapid bipartisan action in Congress.

Over recent days, there have been divisions over the U.S. House Democrats $3 trillion Heroes program, which would among other things, provide relief to states, direct payments to taxpayers and a fund for essential workers.

At an online news conference on May 13 - two days before the proposal was narrowly approved in the House with only one Republican supporter - U.S. Rep. Jim Himes (D-4) of Greenwich said the package would not "eliminate the [economic] anxiety" from the pandemic but "we need that money to get to the place where people are going to be hired again."

At that same news conference, Hayes said among the many constituents that she has spoken with, "Not one has said, 'You need to slow this down,' " in reference to Republican criticism that Congress should wait until at least early June before considering further stimulus as the funding already approved will cause the federal budget deficit to soar.

"To do nothing is no longer an option," exclaimed Hayes.

In a news release distributed after the vote on the Heroes Act, Hayes stated, "This legislation will support our first responders, our frontline workers, local school districts and the people who do not know how they will be pay their bills next month."

However, in an interview, Sullivan said, "[Democratic House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi suggesting an additional $3 trillion without making it a bipartisan legislative initiative troubles me. It's more money that the CARES Act and it has a wish list for progressive Democrats."

He said the initial stimulus included "$650 million of pork, and that was after it was trimmed."

Republican President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have expressed opposition to the Heroes Act.

"I think we need that to take root for a moment," said Sullivan, indicating that he agreed with Larry Kudlow of Redding, the director of the National Economic Council, who, told ABC News' "This Week" on May 10 that the White House is "collecting ideas" and will probably not consider further action until at least early June.

Remarked Sullivan, "I think there is much to be done. However, we need to see the figures for the public health and safety."

Regarding concerns of record federal budget deficits, The New York Times reported that Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell said during his talk to the Peterson Institute on May 13 that, "Now, when we are facing the biggest shock that the economy has had in modern times is, for me, not the time to prioritize considerations like that"

However, U.S. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) told The New York Times that Powell's comments represent "one person's voice - a smart person that I tend to agree with a lot - but it's just one person. I think we have to be targeted about the next few weeks."

USA Today reported that Kudlow told reporters: "I don't think we can spend ourselves into prosperity."

Reports indicate that the White House is considering a tax cut to create further economic stimulus.

"I am inclined to go that route," Sullivan explained. "I don't know who can pay more taxes at this time."

USA Today has reported that the president is considering a payroll tax cut.

On the monetary front, The Wall Street Journal reported that Powell "wasn't considering plans to cut [the Federal Reserve Board's] benchmark federal-funds rate below zero. Futures markets have implied investors see rising prospects of negative interest rates next year, even though the tool has had limited success in Europe and Japan.'

The New York Times reported that Trump supports negative interest rates.

Said Sullivan, "I haven't given a lot of thought to negative interest rates."