Betty Liu Explains: What is the CARES Act?

What is the CARES Act? So, you've been hearing a lot about this, the CARES Act, that's basically relief that is aimed at helping American individuals, families, small businesses that have been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. It entails a $2 trillion aid package that does many things, including offering loans to small businesses, extending the unemployment insurance program and even direct payments to American taxpayers, among other things.

If it works as expected, how will the stimulus package impact the economy?

So, the package, as you imagine, is designed to inject trillions of dollars into the economy. That's to the benefit of the American worker, the families that have been affected. And also, as I mentioned, the small businesses, a detailed analysis is not yet available on the impact. It's hard to quantify whether this is going to work. The Congressional Budget Office should be doing some analysis, but we have yet to have any details on that.