robert: the pandemic tests t nation's resolve. president trump: it's not the flu. it's vicious. robert: the president confronts the gravity of the pandemic. esident trump: talki about deaths. even at the low end, 100,000, 200,000 people. robert: but as the death toll and unemployment clas rise, governors in both parties worry about supplies. >> i going to n believe we'll have those masks until i see them delivered off a truck. robert: and health systems on the brink of clams. >> we're preparing for the patient surge we knows coming. robert: in washington, talks and another round of stimulus are stalled as the speaker and majority leader clash. next. ou ♪ aer: this is

"washington week." funding is provided by -- >> ife isn't a straight line and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here top h you work through the unexpected with fancial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. [laughter] ♪ announcer: additional funding is provided by the ttate of adam adams and koo and patricia yueough the yuen foundation. committed to bridging corporate communities. and contributions to your pbs

thank you.om viewers like you. ce again from washington, model rator robert costa. robert:ood evening. we begin with the latest on the painful economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic with many america struggling to pay rent, buynd food cover their health care costs. this week the weekly jobless claims jumped to 6. million a staggering number with losses in nearly every corner the economy. and earlier friday the department reported a loss of more than 700,000 jobs in march. this all comes as state and federal authorities prere for new hot spots and warn that difficult times arehe. president trump continues to face fierce criticism from democrats and some republicans for his handling of the outbreak. he has defended himself at t evern and expressed optimism. president trump: this is gng

to be rough two-week period. as a nation, we face aul diff few weeks as we approach that really important day when we're going to see things get better, all of a sudden. and l it's going to e a burst of light. robert: joining me tonight yamiche alcindor, white house correspondent for the pbs newshour. peter peter, chief wte house correspondent for "the new york times." and jerry seib, executive washington editor for the "wall street journal." peter, we'll begin with you. what do these economic numbers signal about the economy? peter: this is about as bad a number anybody could have homed for at this point. 11.7 million americans at this point are seeking or on unemployment. that is about 50% higher than the peak of the 2008 financial crisis and this is really the

beginning. we're not anywhere near the peak that people expect. so many businesses are shutting doors, so many people are out of work. we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg. this suggests this is not going to be a short-term thing. the president wou like it to be. come summer or fall, things will snap backinto place. maybe they will but that's not the way the congressional economists are looking at it. it's projected the unemployment will reach 10% and stay asas hi 9% through 2021, which, of course, is after the presidentiallection that matters some to predent trump. robert: what ds this all mean for low-income americans, and tie they g the money they need as soon as they can? yamiche: low income communities, experts sayre more susceptible in some cases don't have the same e ty

protections. they're living inlose quarters oftentimes and also don't have access to the best health care. can they go to the hospitals and doctors to getreepted and desked? among people who work with e those populations of whether or not they'll be protected from the virus. then add to that the fact that democrats say these are people that rely on a lot of federal programs that right now haven't the pandemic. in the fai of one example would be food tamps. house speaker nancy pelosi said demoats pushed hard tory to get an increase from the amount of food stamps people have and get people more help and she said that republicans purked -- pushed b on that. so there's a question of whether or not low-income communities a getting the resources they need to stay at home to be able to field and house themselves. robert: "the wall street journal" had interesting ting ing, revealing rep

about the new small business loan program, $350 become in scope. it's struggling to get off the friday. why is that and what have you learned? jerry: there were probably 10,000 loans made today. $3 billion plus. that's a drop in the bucket. our reporters found ttost of the big banks weren't ready this morning to startin m loans because of the delayal fr the business administration in washington. some of those banks wegire only ng loans to existing customers, not through people walking through the door. we had an interesting example of a report of a small business guy in los angeles whoised fouranks today. two of them said we don't know anything about pthgram. one of them said we don't do small business administration loans and one was shut because of the so this is a slow start. quhiche does that matter? it matterst' because just

one day but speed is absolutely of the essence here.ds this money no get out the door quickly to get to small e businesses bef they simultaneous down entirely, while they're still alive and whil they can still people -- keep people on the payroll. this is inevitable with 2k3w069 programs to some extent, but this is a really importane robert: what is the debate inside the west wing about when the economy should reopen? peter: that's a great question and one of the things you take away from that briefing his week with those hellacious death projections. 100,000 to 142,000 if people do what they're supposed to do and we know they're not. as long as that curve is going up, the economy has to be basically shutered, according to the experts. e more you c flat than curve the better it isthor the he institutions and hospitals and it also could

mean that it keeps the economy closed for aittle longer. the thing that actually might be good might also be bad at the same time. here in washington, d.c., the maybe suggested that the pea might not with -- be until the end of june. still three months away. the idea we're going to sy indoors and keep businesses closed for three months goals even beyond the capacity of this $3 trillionillo keep the economy afloat. it's a real co-nunl drum. within the white house, you hear the need for social restrictions. heard deborah birx breaching diverging from the president on thatnd thenou heard the economic advisors saying you have to be wary or for all these people out. of work. tense of thousands of sinesses at stake. these conflicting yet come belk compelling interes are at the heart of this detective.

robert: as americans everywhere struggle, the spotlight turns to congress. here's what speaker polesly told consider incomes earlier >> i think right now we need too a fouh bipartisan bill and i think it could be very much like the bill we just passed. i'mery much in favor of doing some of the things we do to moment the needs. clean m water,e broad banled and the rest of that. that may have to b for a bill beyond this. robert: in recent days, the speaker had tked up infrom structure,ed a -- as had president trump but senate republicans swatted away the idea. in an interview earlier this week, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell told me it was have -- it would take a lot of convincing for him to pursue infrastructure at this time. when you talk to your colleagues on capitol hill about this fourth round of negotiations, is this going to

be partisan is -- bipartisan and focused on health care or not? yamiche: what i'm hearing from white house and capitol hill sources is that ey both are ally interested in doing an infrastructure bl. nancy pelosi was talking about going a bill focused on a broad band internet -- internet because so many are needing at as a limeline for work and speak to loved ones. and also talking about clean water systems becau so many people are washing their hands and so many communities in this country that still don't have act tells to running water or president trump was talking withoads and bridges bullitt sounded like there might be some overlap and there might be inhave point where structure bill could materialize. o president trump has bee in taabout a bill like this ever since he got into office buthen a.? mcconnell pourpped cold water only that.

it sounded like ne was as interested in doing that. so it's an interesting thing to ar whether or no it might be house democrats and the white house that start working together. as we knowpresident trump and speaker employees si still are not speaking to -- pelosi still are not peek intoing to each other. but we did get phase flee without the speaking together so it's possible that white house officials work with nancy pelosi to get a bill done. robert: nancy pelosi, the house speaker, has announced an oversight committee to look at phase three. whe is your reporting looking? >> i interviewed speaker pelosi earlier in the week and she was talking about a big phase fou bill. it seemed she wanted to take mcconnell ha 4r58d the lead on the last one. president trump, as she well knew, is interested in insfra

structures well. we were talking then about the possibility of a very big infra ture - infrastructure bill, including funds for hospitals and fixes in roa and other things and thing it switched a little bit when speaker mcconnell spoke up against that idea. we now may be looking at two more bills. one, to plug some of theol in medical supplies and hospitals and then maybe one to follow later in the year f infrastructure. i think it's important to keep in mind the sheer magnitu of what we're tooking about. the stimulus bill already passed plus the tw earlier pouring into the economy. d is you have more than $6 million from t federal government going ouch out into in very troubled economy. the overall economy is only 21 million or 22 trillion.

we're talking about them putting out art q of the nation's output to keep it afloat. that's probably the reason the financial maets haven't been worse than they've been. robert: it's just aeebout ago we were talking about president trump talking about maybe the economy could be reopen by easter. now heeems to be facing the grim reality. he says now it could go until april 30. all the stay at home,di ancing and guidelines. what has this revealed to you abt pmpsident t peter: i think this is a week when the starkdr numbers tha birx and dr. fauci presented bega to really sink in. that, in fact, this is not going to go away.e' th no anybody here. this is going to be a locker term problem than he had hoped and the message he ge on that briefing, i think on tuesday, he said americans have to bepr

ared far very, very tough couple of week. itay be longer for a couple of week. i think you saw today the disapartment between the president's jew and his health advisors' vw when he announce it would c.d.c.'s new guidelin when he said that most amerins whe in public should wear a mask then said i'm not gng to do that. he yet to this day is fully t acceptin viewpoints of the medical advisors around him but seems there has been a little bit more acceptance of just hm this can be. among other things, he locked -- looked at the hospital in his own borough of queens, 'em herself hospital and saw the pictures o them being overalled. he's mentioned several timesen a.comer f of his who may have the virus. another thing, he was shown polling by his political sors saying, hey, the

public doesn't want a return to business as usual too soon, prematurely fit mea tt the virus really won't be contained. i think that also convinced -- convinced him ton pivot whe it came do this easter idea of returning back toouily. robert: yamiche, how com tted is tpresident based on your reporting to this current reporting? we've seen him zig and zag. what are the people around him, from jared kushner and others, saying? how do your sources see it all? yamiche: the feel i get from my sources and from just watching the p tsident ist he is still reluctant to tell the american peoplthat this could be something that could upend their livers all theaynto theummer and could be complete druptive to the economy all the way into the. summ he said repeatedly the mask is voluntary.

he said at up with point, maybe it'sbe good, m it's not. maybe it will help, maybe it won't. i'm certainly not going to wear it because i don't want to be seen at the oval office with a maskn. you already see there the president backtracking or hedging more thanealth officials. i think the other thing that reallyou move it president was the fact that the emcenter right now is new york. th's where he's from, prosecute where he grew up. he's watching it on television and the pictures of body bags would ptive. really mufle it he brought it up three or four times this week and it's something that really stuck with him and it was something happening in queenses, where he grew it. he said he's watching all of this on tv, admitting that he spends a lot of time watching to see what's going on on the ground so i think when we see journalivesings bringing those images to america, they're also

bringing them right to the president and it's moving him. robert: jerry, any final what you're seeing? sidents and jerry: it seemed this week it all came to home o the whi house. and there was no pretending it was going to be short or could be dismissed in any waif. 46 million american people may have already been laiff or had their hours at work cut. at this point everybody in the untry knows what's going on and how serious this is in both dical and economic terms and this felt like the week wheregr everybodyd and there's no denying that. we must leave our political discussion there. thank you again to yamiche, peter, and jerry for your insights and reporting. let's dig deeper on that health care front and get the big picture on where things stand. this week, "the new york times," sarer kliff and colleagues wrote the coronavirus is ravaging america's health care system and the scarcity of ventilators

has become an emergency. forcing doctors to make life or death decisions about who gets brothe and -- breathe and who does not. mo york governor andrew cuo sounded the alarm on thursday. >> at the currents burn rate, we have about six days. robert: and this week, dr. anltnitch fauci, advising the president, said the nationsh ld brace for more than 100,000 people to die in the coming mention>> s sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it. is it going to be that much? i hope not and i any the more weon pus the mitigation, the less likelihood it would be that number but as being realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that that is a possibility. robert: joining me is sarah kliff, an investigative reporter for the times focusing on health care.

in terms of ventilators, what's the reality on thed gro in many states? sarah: the reality is hospitals are getting quite close to ventilators are expensive.s. they can cost $20,000, $30,000 so you deefpblet see hospitals keeping a lot of extra onings around. theyly usu keep -- keep on hand only what they need to get influe a rough flu season. we're hearing things about hospitals getting very close to running out. statements are making requests to the ne.ational stockp hospitals are thinking about different techniqs, such as using one machine to treat multiple patients. bum doctorsre having to make hard decisions about which one gets a ventilator and which one doesn't. robert: take me inside the crunch the health care system is facingli nationale. sarah: this is becoming a

crunch nationwide. it started as sething that new york and seattle -- seattle hospitals were struggling will has grown to places likeau mie, detroit, and new orleans. they are reporting really big increases in the number of coronavirus parents they' treating. they're change surgery rooms into intensive care units and they're really starting to see what we've seen in new york city py out where they live and it is a crunch. it is hard to see a those parents. hard to make sure that the h stafve enough protective equipment. when i talk to doctors who are treated those patients. they're tired. still going in but really, really concerned about what's ea of them. robert: has the testing system improved at all in recent days? sarah: it's definitelyro impved from a few wks ago. private industry is getting invoed. rapid testing rolled outs but at the same time there are

still lags. the private companies helping out hav backlogs. i talked to one hospital in idaho w was still waiting about a week to get test results back.ta there cly is improvement but not the case that hospitals are able to get res ts immediate limb and knack challenge how they treat patients and who they isolate and who they don't. robert: we hear so much about medil supplies but you've spent years covering access in the health care system. what is thete of access for many low-income americans who are dealing with the virus? sarah: there has been some work done to make a-- access better, to provideree testing without co-pamplete for nos without health since -- insurance but we a live country where millions of people are uninsuranc and they've kind of become accustomed to not go to the doctor whether they're

sick because they're worried about such large medical bills. we don't really noel how someone who is uninsuranced, no. used to seeing the doctor, what they're to do when they have coronavirus symptoms. i think there pretty open question of whether americans who are used teo n high medical bills are even going to to the fortable going doctor in the first place to seek treatment. robert: are we seeing any adjustments when it comes to medicine cailed or medicare? sarah: we are seeing generally e coverage for t programs. they want people to come in and one of the big things this week was on the part of the trump administrati who decided not to openn a enrollment period the trump administration is not going to be doing that for the country so there are some people outs there missouri who

mifpbletse have bought insurance in the fall andth 're going to be lacking coverage going into the coronavirusandemic. robert: the times had some reportinthis week a that into new york harbor yet it om only has few parents up on board. whatre the challenges in places like new york? shoim -- or sarah: lot of people who need treatment. there's a hospital set up in a major conference center, the park. alhem need beds and ventilators all at the same time and the health care system in ameri is generally a for-profit business. these companies that are hospitals, doctor's offices are not stockpiling these supplies so when you need all of these at once, it's a huge scramble.er so the f government, the states, the hospitals are all

biveding against each other for the same set of supplies. it's also driving up the price of really key pieces of equipment. everybody scrambling for the same supplies makes it really marmed hard to get the suppl actuallyin place. robert: sarah, finally, as this week ends and you look atour notebook and the whole health care beat, what are you looking ahead to next week? what matters in terms of health care right now? sarah: what i'm looking at is the facts we're seeing more and more stills have their own outbreaks. it's not new york and seattle anymore. also detroit, milwaukee, and new orleans and that's going to be a bigger struggle. the desire for beds, vents lators. that's going to grow and grow. we're going to watch next week how major citlls battle the coronavirus at the same time and try to get the fact same set of supplies. robert: sarah, thank you very r

much for youorting and your time. and thank you for joining us. we'll kee taking you as close to theews as we can. are on the front lines of this crisis. your tirelessen and o quiet work is what sustains us and binds us. i'm robert costa. good night from washington. ♪ announce -- announcer:

corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -->> ife isn't a straight lineet and ses you can find yourselfne heading in a w direction. fidelity is hereo help you work through the unexpected with financial planning and advice for today and tomorrow. announcer: additional funding is provided by -- the estate of arnold adams and koo and patricia yuen yuen through they foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our comnities. the corporation for public broadcasting and bys contributio your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> you're watching pbs.

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