The United States considering tax cuts and reversing tariffs to avoid looming recession: Reports

Traders work before the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on August 14, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by AFP)
The White House is considering cutting taxes and reversing tariffs to avoid a looming recession in the United States economy.

US media reports said on Monday that despite President Donald Trump’s insistence on the economy's health top White House officials were considering several moves to stimulate the US economy.
According to a report in the Washington Post, due to growing concerns about the economy senior White House officials had begun discussing ways to boost the economy including pushing Congress for a temporary payroll tax cut as a way to arrest a looming economic slowdown.

The newspaper said the Trump administration had not yet decided whether to push Congress to pass the temporary payroll tax cut, however, the talks showed that Trump’s top economic aides were worried about the possibility of a recession.

One other option floated by the White House to help bolster the American economy included a possible reversal of some of President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, according to a report in the New York Times.

The paper reported economists were increasingly warning that a recession looms especially with stocks churning last week after the bond market flashed a warning signal that has historically presaged a recession.

US manufacturing sector has fallen into a recession on its own amid a global recession that many economists attribute in part to the US-China trade war initiated by Trump, it said.

Cutting payroll taxes and reversing the tariffs would help strengthen consumer spending which has been the driving force of the US economy this year as businesses pulled back on investment, according to the the New York Times.