Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is under scrutiny for comments he made on Wednesday in which he appeared to suggest the $1,200 stimulus payments could last people up to 10 weeks.
"I think the entire package provides economic relief overall for about 10 weeks," Mnuchin told CBS's "Face the Nation." "Hopefully we will kill this virus quicker and we won't need it, but we have liquidity to put into the American economy to support American workers and American business."
His comments likely referred to the entire $2 trillion relief package passed by Congress in March, which also provided more flexible requirements for unemployment benefits, bailouts, and loans to large corporations, as well as loans to small businesses so that they could continue paying their workers. That small-business program ran out of funding on Thursday as lawmakers debated whether further stimulus would be required.
Still, the fury came quick from those who heard the former Goldman Sachs executive's comments as implying the direct payments could last for more than two months, equating to about $17 per day.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, chimed in Thursday morning with an "Arrested Development" reference.
"It's your monthly rent, Michael. What could is cost? $10?" she said, channeling Lucille Bluth, the TV show's wealthy and out-of-touch matriarch who in one famous instance massively overestimates the cost of one banana.
Others criticized the amount as too small, pointing to the higher amounts and frequencies of payments by other developed nations.
Mnuchin, who has an estimated net worth of $400 million, is no stranger to accusations of being out of touch with the reality of American workers. Military documents reported on by Politico in 2018 showed the secretary racked up about $1 million worth of flight hours for trips that usually would have seen someone in his position flying commercial. And in 2017, a photo of Mnuchin and his celebrity wife, Louise Linton, showing off freshly printed $1 bills went viral.