President Trump<\/a> is facing a growing rift with Senate Republicans who are siding with Democrats on the need to provide hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency aid for states and cities that have lost tax revenue during the coronavirus pandemic to pay for first responders and other basic expenses.<\/p>\n Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida said they are inclined to provide more aid to states, despite the president warning that he opposes giving more money to states that have been \u201cmismanaged\u201d by Democrats.<\/p>\n \u201cNo doubt states have been hit pretty hard,\u201d Mr. Graham told reporters at the Capitol. \u201cIf it were set up the right way, I think it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Rubio said on Twitter that Congress will \u201chave to provide additional assistance to state & local governments.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFederal taxpayers shouldn\u2019t have to pay for pre-Covid19 spending decisions that are irresponsible,\u201d Mr. Rubio tweeted. But he said there is \u201ca baseline of spending on essential government services which we can\u2019t have collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is another Republican lawmaker who is outspoken about the need to provide more aid to states, suggesting a formula to allocate funds based partly on how hard the virus has hit a given state.<\/p>\n But Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, said he prefers giving states more flexibility on how they can spend aid that was already approved and said Congress shouldn\u2019t bail out Democratic-controlled states for wasteful habits that preceded the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cIllinois\u2019 unfunded pension liability is $241 billion,\u201d Mr. Cruz said on CNBC. \u201cThat was caused by politicians that were just buying votes, and they were buying votes by making commitments to the public employee unions that they didn\u2019t have the revenue to sustain. I don\u2019t see any reason why Texas should pay higher taxes to bail out states that have been irresponsible, so I think that is going to be a major issue of disagreement in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said cities and states can\u2019t reopen for business if they can\u2019t pay for essential services. He said his city has lost $7.4 billion and will need to lay off municipal workers without a federal bailout.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, what I\u2019m staring down the barrel of and cities and states all across the country, people are either acting on furloughs and layoffs or preparing for furloughs and layoffs of the exact people who have been heroes in this crisis, who we should be celebrating and supporting \u2014 the first responders, the health care workers, the educators,\u201d he said on CNN.<\/p>\n Congress and the president already have approved nearly $3 trillion, including some money for states, in three packages of relief for laid-off workers and businesses closed during the outbreak. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for $1 trillion for states and cities in a fourth round of emergency aid.<\/p>\n The president vowed on Sunday, \u201cWe\u2019re not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Pelosi responded with two words: \u201cNo way.\u201d<\/p>\n The debate over another round of federal aid intensified as the payroll company ADP reported Wednesday that 20.23 million private-sector workers lost their jobs in April. Payroll losses for March were revised to 149,000, from 27,000.<\/p>\n \u201cThe jobs numbers are very, very chilling,\u201d Kevin Hassett, a White House economic adviser, said on Fox Business Network. \u201cThis is the biggest shock that our economy has ever seen, but it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve done in order to get ahead of the curve on the disease. So it\u2019s something that we can reverse hopefully relatively quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of Labor on Friday will release its April jobs report, showing the unemployment rate and how many jobs were lost.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump<\/a> told reporters he\u2019s not concerned about massive unemployment hurting his reelection prospects, saying people understand the shutdowns were needed to slow the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody\u2019s blaming me for that,\u201d the president said. \u201cI built the greatest economy \u2026 and I\u2019m going to rebuild it again. This was an artificially induced unemployment.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the pandemic, which originated late last year in China, has hit the U.S. economy worse than the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went through the worst attack we\u2019ve ever had in our country,\u201d the president said. \u201cIt could have been stopped in China. This is worse than the World Trade Center. This is worse than Pearl Harbor. And it should have never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n He acknowledged risks in reopening the country before a vaccine is developed but said \u201cthe country won\u2019t stand\u201d for closures any longer.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think people will stand for it,\u201d Mr. Trump<\/a> told reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cIt\u2019s not sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether Americans need to accept that reopening will bring more deaths, Mr. Trump<\/a> replied that \u201cit could very well be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to be warriors,\u201d Mr. Trump<\/a> said. \u201cWe can\u2019t keep our country closed down for years \u2026 hopefully that [more deaths] won\u2019t be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n During a webcast discussion hosted Wednesday hosted by Sen. Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania Republican, a panelist said he is concerned that easing restrictions now will lead to a much higher death toll for more than a year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers are uncertain, but my sense is that the infection fatality rate is about half a percent lower than we thought before,\u201d said Paul Romer, a professor of economics at New York University and a 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in economics. \u201cBut if this virus spreads to the population and infects 60%, which is at the lower bound \u2026 of most people\u2019s estimates \u2026 then we\u2019ll have about a million deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the lockdowns in various states were ordered to keep from overwhelming hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if we\u2019re going to have a million deaths, we will probably want to keep restricting things so that we don\u2019t get more than about 2,500 deaths a day,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then if you do the math, that means we\u2019ll be facing this high rate of death for 400 days, more than a year. My guess is that this is going to have a significant depressing effect on economic activity.\u201d<\/p>\n White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the U.S. has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world from the virus, 218 deaths per million people. She compared it with Spain, at 548 per million, and Italy at 485 per million.<\/p>\n \u201cThis country is in a place where, because of the American people, we have escaped that 2.2 million [projection of deaths] because of the extraordinary social distancing effort,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The president also hosted Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, to discuss meat shortages and her state\u2019s efforts in keeping open meat-processing plants, where as many as 58% of workers have become infected. Ms. Reynolds reported to the president that her state has \u201cturned the corner\u201d in the battle and that only one Iowa meatpacking plant is shut, in Waterloo.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at reduced capacity,\u201d she said, adding that a Tyson\u2019s plant in Perry is at 60% of capacity and had begun \u201cextensive testing\u201d last week.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have most of our facilities up and going. And so as we continue to keep them up and processing, we\u2019re going to hopefully prevent a really sorry situation where we were euthanizing some of our protein supply and really impacting the food supply, across the country but throughout the world,\u201d Ms. Reynold said. \u201cThis is critical infrastructure is an essential workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue pledged that the nationwide meat-packing industry would be \u201cfully back up\u201d within 10 days.<\/p>\n Mr. Trump<\/a> signed an executive order last week aimed at keeping meat-processing plants open during the crisis.<\/p>\n Asked about a reported meat shortage at the Wendy\u2019s fast-food chain, Mr. Trump<\/a> responded: \u201cI\u2019m going to call Nelson Peltz,\u201d the company\u2019s non-executive chairman of Wendy\u2019s, adding that he\u2019s confident the problem will go away.<\/p>\n Vice President Mike Pence said the administration has \u201ctwo equal goals\u201d \u2014 the safety and health of the workforce and ensuring \u201cthere\u2019s strength in our food supply and getting people back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n The governor echoed Mr. Pence\u2019s view.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re providing them the confidence of a safe environment, but at the same time we\u2019re making sure that the food supply chain is moving and that the country is being fed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n