Kudlow calls $600 unemployment checks a ‘disincentive,’ expects them to stop in July

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday that the $600 checks being sent to Americans on unemployment as part of coronavirus relief efforts are expected to end in July and called them a “disincentive” for people to get back to work. 

“The $600 plus-up that’s above the state unemployment benefits they will continue to receive is in effect a disincentive. I mean, we’re paying people not to work. It’s better than their salaries would get,” Kudlow said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” 

“That might have worked for the first of couple months. It will end in late July,” he added. 

Current unemployment benefits stemming from the coronavirus stimulus package are “a disincentive” says White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow. “We’re paying people not to work. It’s better than their salaries would get.” #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/9iZB5Pe6bC

— State of the Union (@CNNSotu) June 14, 2020

Kudlow suggested the additional checks are no longer needed as businesses reopen and unemployment rates fall. 

He said the Trump administration is looking at other incentives, including smaller checks that “still provide some kind of business for returning to work.” 

“I think we are on our way. We are reopening, businesses are coming back and therefore jobs are coming back,” Kudlow added. “We don’t want to interfere with that process.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed Kudlow on his description of the checks as a disincentive, adding that many Americans want to get back to work but a lot of jobs are not coming back.  

“I think that’s a fair point. I personally agree with you. I think people want to go back to work. I think they welcome the reopening of the economy. I think they’re anxious to get out and about,” Kudlow said. 

He added that he has “heard from business after business” that there is “evidence this effect is taking place.”