Bernie Sanders Tells CNN Coronavirus Crisis is ‘Worse Than the Great Depression’

Independent Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders sounded the alarm about the need for further economic stimulus during the coronavirus crisis, and said “This is worse than the Great Depression.”

CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed Sanders on Friday afternoon, and asked if there should be a national stay-at-home order.

“The answer is I agree, it is incomprehensible to me that we have governors who continue to think, who continue to do business as usual rather the issue stay at home orders,” Sanders said. “And if they are not able to do that, then the federal government should do it.”

“But I think most importantly, Anderson, what we as a nation have to come to grips with right now is that, not only in our lifetimes but in the modern history of this country, there has never ever been a moment like this,” he continued. “We’re dealing with two simultaneous crises. That is the coronavirus pandemic and the economic meltdown.”

Sanders cited the recent monumental job losses, and said “what I’m working on right now… is to develop new legislation, unprecedented in its scope, to address the health crisis that we’re facing,and to address the economic crisis that we are now facing.”

“We were talking about a new stimulus bill, and you’ve said that you want to guarantee paychecks for every American worker who has lost their jobs, I know Mitch McConnell and other Republicans are saying well you know what let’s wait a couple of weeks, let’s wait 30 days just days to see how the other stimulus thing, how that plays out which is slow to actually be felt by people and then let’s talk about more stimulus,” Cooper interrupted. “You say the time is now.”

Sanders compared that attitude with that of governors waiting to issue lockdowns, and said “We cannot wait and see. What we are looking at is a loss of jobs that is unprecedented in the United States of America. Never happened before. This is worse than the Great Depression.”

He said that he voted for the last stimulus, and he hopes it is enacted quickly, “But it is not enough.”

Sanders said the next stimulus bill should “say to every worker in America ‘You know what? You’re not getting paid now, but you are going to remain on the payroll of your company because the federal government, at least for the next 6 months, is going to be covering the cost.”

Sanders’ sobering declaration is not outside the realm of reality. Unemployment spiked at an estimated 25 percent during the Great Depression, and just yesterday, an analysis from Marketwatch said that “The soaring U.S. unemployment rate might not match the peak of 25% seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but it could come uncomfortably close in the next few months.”

How high can it go?

If 20 million to 25 million people lost their jobs in the next two months, the unemployment rate could climb to around 16%, some economists estimate, but others think that figure would be too low.

“We can expect the nadir for unemployment will be a jobless rate of 20% or more,” said a pessimistic Robert Frick, corporate economist at Navy Federal Credit Union.

In just the past two weeks, 9.9 million people filed new unemployment claims.

Watch the clip above via CNN.